The Spring Manga Round-up: Florists and Gardeners
That’s right! Gardens! Flowers! There sure is a lot of romance manga about this kind of thing- but surprisingly, there is a well represented range of genres, from an experimental anthology to haremtrash. I’ll give brief impressions of series that are still running, reasons for skipping things I didn’t read, and full reviews for titles I’ve finished- this should be my standard going forward.
Overall, I think this was a good start for MAL’s stack system, and while there were a few iffy titles in the lot, I was able to branch out and discover some new manga I enjoyed.
*Kawaii Hito
This is just a neat, average romance about a gardener with a creepy face and a girl he meets unexpectedly while delivering flowers. The art is nothing special, and at times the constant creepy face jokes wear thin, but it's written with a lot of sentimentality, and I found it sweet enough to finish.
There isn't too much of a story, per se, as it's mainly SoL about their blooming romance. There is some focus on a side pairing, but thankfully this one doesn't meander too much into love triangles or asinine "will they, won't they" stuff, my most hated pet peeves.
With a decent chapter count and an entertaining cast, this one is worth taking an afternoon to read through.
Les Mille Fleurs
I haven't read any other works by Akimoto Nami, so I was pleasantly surprised at the level of sophistication present in such a short work. It's definitely worth a read if you enjoy shoujo manga or even just sentimental romance stories.
The story is very dense and detailed for the chapter count, and the author has a real ability to keep interest piqued in the plot. Unlike many try-hard love triangles where the outcome is set from the start, this one keeps you reconsidering who to root for. There are a great many satisfying twists and turns- written in a way where you can kind of guess where it's going but also just fresh enough that the twists feel rewarding and invigorating.
Where this work really shines is the art. Every single page is richly detailed with an overwrought, almost Baroque finesse that modern shoujo manga sorely lacks. I found myself comparing it to the work of industry giants like Naoko Takeuchi. The panelling is very organic and emotional, with page compositions that draw you into the story. When I think of shoujo, this is the art that comes to mind: sweet, rich, and dramatic.
The characters are all very well-developed, with realistic flaws and personalities for their respective age groups while never losing their appeal. The lead in particular hits that balance of portraying accurately how girls at the age think while never losing sympathy for her through her struggles.
Overall, I enjoyed Les Mille Fleurs- if you haven't read a shoujo romance before, this is a good place to start.
Hana Michi Otome
With amateur-ish art and incomprehensible worldbuilding, this short work is barely worth the time it takes to read it. It's very much a product of its time and doesn't stand out in any way.
There really isn't much to the story; it's SoL with barely developed characters. Half of it is spent on introducing the girls and then half is just the characters messing around, but since the manga is so short there's no room for anyone to stand out. The penultimate chapter is just a swimsuit contest used as an excuse to draw tons of cute girls, like they were side characters the author wanted to introduce and didn't have time for, and every single one of them is described with a generic harem trope.
The main characters' power, which is hyped up in the first chapter, is barely relevant and nebulously defined. Hazuki and Aozakura can talk to flowers... but this ability is only useful to Hazuki once and is only mentioned three or four times. They can both also summon flowers out of nowhere for some reason and there is no attempt whatsoever to develop this. There's another character who can see baking fairies when she makes sweets and this is never relevant and only in text for like four pages. Also there's an entire chapter about a ghost where nothing happens except her explaining her backstory to Aozakura and then fading away. The entire thing stinks of chuunibyou, but not even in a fun way.
I'm not familiar with the artist, but if I had to guess I would say this is probably either their first or second work, because the quality of the art is poor. It's very generic for its time period and the panelling work at times feels like an amateur experimenting with an unfamiliar medium. The worst offense of all is the way they draw breasts. Now, I'm not in the habit of looking at high school girls' chests- reading a work like this in the first place is a little out of my wheelhouse, but the fanservice isn't gregarious enough to be uncomfortable, so I powered through it. But oh my God, the way the girls are drawn is so distracting. They're like stickbugs with water balloons stapled to their chests and broken backs. As an artist, I couldn't help but be actively offended by it. If you're going to try to draw sexy or cute women or whatever, make sure they actually look like women. It's ridiculous. It's like the artist has never seen a real tit in their entire life.
I got very little enjoyment out of this manga. It definitely wasn't for me. It's probably best just observed as a stepping stone in this artist's career. Here's hoping the quality of their work has improved over the past decade.
Niwa ni wa Ninin
Unctuous. Voluminous, even.
An experimental, yet refined anthology of unconnected stories with the idea of a "garden" as a central theme. The art is beautiful, and the paneling is stellar. The author ruminates on many things- loneliness, love, and sacrifice- in small and tender vignettes.
Short but sweet, this 1-volume manga is highly recommended.
Natsuyuki Rendezvous
On the surface it's a somewhat eccentric looking josei romance, and then it very quickly turns into a weird diatribe about the difficulties of letting go of both love and grief. I mentioned earlier that I have a bit of a pet peeve with love triangles, and unfortunately this work is sort of predicated on a love triangle- between a flower shop owner, her husband's ghost, and an upstart employee. It has some charm, but in the end I found it somewhat frustrating and a bit unfulfilling.
The art is good at times and occasionally there are some stellar pages, but other times it veers a bit too hard into the sentimentality and teeters on the edge of feeling overwrought.
Overall, a very mixed bag. Go into it if you like messy drama in your josei (but like, who doesn't).
Hana wo Meshimase
This is the only one of the concerning age-gap romance stories I read, as it's the shortest one and I thought I could tolerate it. Wrong! The writing is clunky and the art is just sort of average and it feels pathetic. The author seemed to realize midway through that the flower shop guy is supposed to have morals and hurriedly pulls an ending where he waits for his high school girlfriend to graduate before "officially" romancing her, as though that discounts that their entire relationship is a long list of grooming red flags. Weird shit. Yuck. Left a bad taste in my mouth.
Kokoro ni Hana wo!
So the funny thing about this one is that I thought to myself, I kind of recognize that author's name from somewhere? And it's the BaraOu no Souretsu mangaka. Can you imagine what kind of villain arc that lady had to have had to go from drawing a prettyboy fluff piece about orphan boys saving their parents' flower shop to a half-crazed hallucinatory genderfuck shakespearean daddy issues incest-fueled gorefest? Absolutely frightening.
That said, the story in this one is kind of flat in the sense it mostly just exists to highlight the high school prettyboy orphans and their classically 2000s anime improbable backstories/talents. Her art is still very amateurish as well here; it's very deeply mired in contemporary funk and doesn't look as individually cultured as her later work.
Fascinating look into how one could possibly formulate a BaraOu no Souretsu domestic fluff AU.
Itoshi no Karin
Another tooth-rottingly fluffy romance, this time about a gardener at a theme park falling in love with one of the character actors. There's a bit of age iffiness in this one too (I think a three year age gap with the girl still in high school? This can be sus depending on what side of Twitter you're on. I think it just barely skates by).
The art is very cute and charming; the mangaka is evidently talented. I feel there were occasionally issues with paneling, but I welcome any change from conventional methods.
The story is kind of ehhh and I would say a bit wobbly; it rests very hard on the likeability of the lead girl, Karin. And y'know, she is cute, she is likable. So there's that! But it's very much "don't you wish this cute girl was YOUR girlfriend?" sometimes and I'm 1) not into high school girls and 2) dating a man. So maybe someone else could get more out of it than I ultimately did.
Kase-san Series
I was already reading Kase-san when this stack came out, so I'll just say what we all already know; this series is fantastic, and a staple of modern yuri. If you like girls who like girls, if you're a girl who likes girls, even, this series is borderline fundamental reading. The art is gorgeous and the romance is well written. It's ongoing, so jump on the train.
Takane no Ran-san
What if Komi-san was 100% focused on romance and for GIRLS? Takane no Ran-san, with its delicate art and beautiful lead girl, strives to answer that question.
It's a serviceable, if somewhat meandering romance. There were times that I found the leads uncharismatic (they're not flawed enough for my crazy ass) but never to the point of actual boredom.
The art is very pretty, and the panelling/layout is very contemporary shoujo. I feel like this artist could use a bit more practice, but there was more than one page I found visually stunning.
I can recommend it in the same sense I could recommend Kawaii Hito, or Itoshi no Karin- it's an average length series that you can toss back over the course of a few lazy afternoons.
Komorebi no Moto de…
Well, here's the thing. The episodic storytelling is charming, the art is immaculate, the worldbuilding is rich. But the story itself revolves around a grown woman being stuck in a little girl's body (this isn't a big spoiler, it's revealed in chapter 1 or 2). No matter what elements you surround something like that with, it's always going to be uncomfortable. Especially when both boys and grown men are fawning over her constantly. I can't get over my personal distaste for that, and so I can't recommend it in good faith.
As I mentioned earlier, the high point of the work is the extremely high quality of the art- Tsukasa Hojo's eye for detail is wonderful and there's not a single off-looking panel in the entire work.
The characters are well-written and the stories tied to them are memorable; they all shine as people. The sole exception to this is the lolicon teacher who's literally just there as a joke (what sort of school principal would let a teacher stay on after discovering he took voyeur photos of the middle school girls' locker room??? That's not funny, that's an actual crime). The casual way all this is treated and the moral loops the author tries to jump through to justify all the romantic and frankly obsessive attention the female lead is subject to borders on revolting. There's thankfully virtually no fanservice except the lead's grown adult body having nondetailed, stylized nudity when she's astral projecting into trees.
Now that I've said all that, if you're still set on reading this, I can't stop you, but I can warn you that the ending is disappointing.
West Heaven Garden
I mean, it's pretty alright.
It's hard to develop an opinion on a work like this that deals very heavily with Korean cultural concepts when I myself have very little prior knowledge of those concepts. If you like that sort of thing, great! This is for you. There's very little prominent manhwa that I know of that deals with similar settings.
Overall, it's a kind of generic romance story, with a barely serious love triangle to the side. The author kind of seems like they want to have a dialogue about the nature of love and what causes it to form, but it's not very developed.
The art starts off good, but the second volume looks noticeably worse, and continues to slip as it goes along- the monkey, Bibi, changes in design completely and is nearly unrecognizable. Besides the three leads and the woman they work under, every other character is completely bland and unrecognizable.
The characters are a high point, comparatively, even if they're tropey. The lead girl is an irresponsible and clueless yet charming girl who works in the palace gardens. Her love interest is a careless-but-secretly-serious older man. Mr. Third Wheel is a hotshot playboy prince who's annoyed that lead girl doesn't fawn over him like everyone else. What else is there to say? This kind of story has been written a million times.
I won't say reading it was a waste of time, but I do feel very indifferent towards it. I'd say it's worth reading only if you're interested in the cultural setting.
Katakoto no Niwa
This is a very cute, very cancelled romance series about a transfer student girl who speaks no Japanese helping out at her high school's gardening club.
It's a shame it didn't have a little more time, really, because the art is pretty and the character writing isn't all that bad. It's a bit frustrating that it's got that open ending feeling from the cancellation, but that aside, I'd easily recommend it to romance fans.
Koisuru Barairo Tenchou
I love that niche genre of widowers with a conveniently adorable child going full gay, so I am biased here. It's cute fluff, a little cliché, a little spicy. The art veers into Bad sometimes (that unique 2009 funk permeates all the way through it) but still maintains some charm.
A short, nice BL title that doesn't overstay its welcome.
Mitsubachi to Lemon Balm
Oh wait I started this one and forgot to finish it. Well, I've read most of it, and I've liked what I've read so far. That florist boy really lights my fire.
The story is traditional yaoi clichés, tossed together with some very pretty art. I would consider it much above average in comparison with some of its contemporaries (I have read so much terrible yaoi I'm almost numb to it at this point, so the good stuff really sticks out).
I'll update this when I remember to finish it probably? But for now it's a pretty strong rec for the yaoi fiends.
*
One Shots
Kimi ni Hana wo
Another mediocre idiot story about a girl who's masculine-looking having a ~secret feminine side~ that she's dying to express. Why do people keep writing that shit? Why do people feel the need to make tomboy characters that secretly want to be girly? Stupid shit.
Hana wa Shinitagaru
The art in this is gorgeous, detail-drenched, and paneled well. Unfortunately, I feel like it doesn't tread much new ground story-wise- nor does it do what it's doing as well as its contemporaries. It's still probably the best of the oneshots here.
Toretate Crazy!
Mediocre. Sort of maybe sweet. I would consider it mid at best. The art needs some work and despite the short length, the writing is all over the place.
*
Titles I Didn’t Read
Kowamote Koukousei to Jimiko-san
Passed over this one because it's age-gap- a 26 yr old woman romancing a 14 year old boy who just ~looks grown~. Shit like that creeps me out. It actively feels slimy.
Taniku-chan
Couldn't find this one to read (hey, I'd buy print if I had to, but paying a subscription fee? I'm still a little yucky about that).
Hana to Kuchizuke
Passed over this one because it's age-gap.
*
And as an ending note- when I was going back to fetch images for this article from MAL, I realized that three manhwa/webtoon titles had been added to the interest stack after it was published. I did not deliberately omit these; I didn't even know they had been added until this article was done. I don't want anyone getting the wrong idea about this kind of thing, seeing as I was lukewarm on the only manhwa that was in the initial list. I'll be more on top of list updates for the summer round-up. So anyway. Ciao! Return.