Butterflies, Flowers 6

Yuki Yoshihara – Viz – 2011 – 8 volumes

After enjoying the absurd silliness of volume 5, the drama in this volume came as something of a shock. I like this series a lot for its light touch and sense of humor, and Masayuki’s hilariously terrifying presence, and it’s almost as if drama has no place in the happy relationship between Choko and Masayuki. So when romantic rivals for both characters appear in this volume, things get very ugly.

The volume starts out innocently enough, with a cute one-shot about Choko moving back in with her family, but not wanting to move out of Masayuki’s apartment. There’s all sorts of funny sweetness in this story, though it’s only of moderate quality in the context of the series. It’s great, don’t get me wrong, but Butterflies, Flowers has done better. The second story is another relatively cute one about a work-related hot springs retreat. This… goes about how you think it will, but at the end a few characters sew a few plot-related seeds. Gossip shows that the board of directors is looking to overthrow the president of the company, and also that Masayuki was involved in a relationship with another woman before Choko began working at the company. Choko gets jealous, but it ends in a relatively pleasing way, with both characters laughing it off. I love it when the manga relationship can weather drama like that unscathed. Rarely are the characters tied together that strongly.

My pleasure was short-lived, however, as the next few chapters introduced a new character, brought in to sort out the board of directors business. He has designs on Choko, and although Choko tries her best to dissuade his advances, he is rather persistent, and Masayuki remains relatively silent on the matter. This character also brings Masayuki’s old girlfriend back to the company, and Masayuki begins spending a lot of time with her rather than Choko, again, with no reason why.

The book ends on a very ugly note. What would be par for the course in any other romance manga was extremely upsetting here, since the romance and laughs are usually perfect and reading a volume always makes my day awesome. I wasn’t expecting to be so disillusioned by the new path the story took here, and Choko and Masayuki are so out-of-character I feel like I’m suddenly reading a different book. With two volumes left, I hope it’s not an ongoing plot thread to the end of the series, because Masayuki being serious and quiet is a waste of a wonderful character.

Oddly enough, this made me want to read the next volume even worse than usual, because I have to know whether things are truly going south or not. What can I say, drama works even in the happiest of series, I guess.