Reviews for Papillon

"You are you, and I am I" I said I wouldn't give it a higher rating until after I finished it and well here it goes.. This manga will make you want to, smile one second and want to throw it out the window the next (at the beginning anyway). But that is the unstable emotions that these characters evoke. The story centers around two girls, sisters, twins. Ageha and Hana. Like everything in the universe, it needs balance, so we have sweet bookworm Ageha and mischievous (for lack of a better word) and popular Hana. The way the manga starts you'll find yourself picking sides and choosing.Anyone would. Ageha is the regular manga girl. She transforms from her geeky self into a pretty butterfly (which makes her name fitting). Her sister is always used to being in the spot light and dislikes her for that. Not to mention that the interesting and unpredictable past tells the story as to why Hana dislikes Ageha.

The summary above is very detailed so I won't give you another one. Well...maybe a shorter version.

Ageha has been in love with Koike since childhood and finally gets the courage

to confess to him (it's never that simple). She was happy that it went her way and when the date finally arrives she couldn't be any happier, even after her style oriented sister helped her pick out the clothes. When the date arrives she realizes (all to late) that her sister was just subtly sabotaging her date and stealing Koike.

Heartbroken and jaded she seeks refuge in the school counselor who without knowing she's already met. Hayato is a flirt and is known for it, but treats Ageha differently. What starts out as a counselor giving advice, turns into something more. But can Hayato and Ageha survive the scheming who's name is Hana?

The art was very pretty/beautiful. You can tell just by the cover the attention that Miwa gives to her art. She rarely disappoints. You never confuse the twins be it because they have different hair style or because of the evil glint in Hana's eyes,I swear that ass has one.

I'll tell you this now, even after learning about Hana, I dislike her. She's evil, manipulative and mean. But I think evil covered those other things. Out of all the characters I think she covered the most basic human emotions in the shortest time. I always give it to those characters because if you dislike or hate them, that means they were portrayed really well or not good at all. Hana grew on me though. Towards the end I sometimes liked her better than Ageha, I just didn't trust her so our relationship wouldn't have worked out anyway :(

This manga was good. It gets more interesting as it goes, and complicated.

I always find it amusing when things could end way before they actually do but the mangaka wants to give us more details. More space for us to like characters that are otherwise hanging by a thread. Or in some cases just to tie everything in a neat bow and not leave any loose ends.

You have to give it up for Papillon:

A manga which will make you question ever wanting to have/be a twin (me anyway).

AMAZING! The beginning is kinda weird. And I definitely don't like that a 24 year old goes out with a high school student. But their relationship never goes into "dark territories" so to speak. If you don't like the start either, stick with the story for a bit. The character development is really good, and the last few chapters are perfect. This is definitely not one of those manga's that start of really good and have a bad ending - leaving you with things to be desired. It leaves you feeling satisfied, happy (and if you are cheesy enough, tingly all over :) ).

I really loved this Manga! You can really see how Ageha changes throughout the manga and you'll also develop a liking towards her. The love story was so very cute! And it was really fun to read! It had some tears, some joys and some hatred towards characters and I'm sure you can really enjoy it! The storyline was quite good, it is a big 'messy' at times but overall, I thought it was good. The art was amazing, and the characters had such amazing personalities. I really enjoyed it as well. Although, a big problem is.. There is literally noenglish translation after 21, so it is very difficult to find some and read on!!

this review will contain spoilers, so read at your own risk- ALSO THE CHARACTER IS NOT A TOMBOY SO IF IT'S WHAT YOU'RE LOOKING FOR, DON'T BOTHER READING THE MANGA FURTHER. I started reading this manga based on the number of positive reviews and recommendations on certain forums for shoujo manga involving a tomboy protagonist. As I continued to read, i sympathized and related with the main character for the unwarranted sister rivalry and i was hooked in. The story starts with the main character (Ageha) having a crush on her childhood friend Ryuusei and fantasizing about being in a relationship with him, however dueto her low self-esteem and low sense of self-worth, she doesn't confess to him nor make any move but simply stares from afar... that is until she meets this mysterious man at a festival who advises her to go after what she wants and convinces her to act ( it was weird that she listened but it was good advice).

Ryuusei, finding out that Ageha's grandmother is in hospital, asks her to accompany him so he may visit Ageha's grandma. She puts in the effort to dress up and make herself decent and is surprisingly helped by her twin sister Hana. At this point, you do wonder why Hana is so eager to help but you do not doubt her motives. Ryuusei and Ageha seem to have solid chemistry and the story tries to hint that perhaps Ageha's wish may come true after all, that is, until Hana shows up dressed almost exactly as Ageha but looking prettier. She tags along to their little hangout and flirts with Ryuusei the entire time and even pretends to be someone she isnt to seem more agreeable. She then goes ahead and steals Ryuusei from Ageha even though she knew of Ageha's feelings for Ryuusei and starts dating him.

Ageha's friend finding out of Ageha's crush on Ryuusei, betrays her and tells as many students as possible. They all laugh at her and mock her and since they know that Ryuusei now dates her hotter sister Hana, they emphasize that she has no chance. Ryuusei do stand up for her but confesses that there is nothing he can do as he is now with Hana.

Ageha is devastated and tries to commit suicide, only to be stopped by the same mysterious man who encouraged her at the festival. Again, his advice was pretty damn good and she takes it on board. she improves herself and goes ahead and stands up for herself amidst the mockery. After witnessing her bravery, she gains support and makes friends. These friends completely support her desire of being with Ryuusei and they create situations where the two will have to interact. Eventually, she makes a move and asks Ryuusei to go with her to visit her grandmother in hospital and he agrees. On the appointed day, Ageha with the help of her friends, gets her hair done and puts some makeup on and heads out to meet Ryuusei. However, she was not aware that Hana knew what was happening. Hana calls Ryuusei and forces him to come to her acting as if something bad had happened to her. Ryuusei runs to Hana's location only to find out that Hana is absolutely fine, all she wants is to hang out. He tries to explain, he made a promise to Ageha, but Hana acts all cute and insecure making Ryuusei kiss her. Ageha witnesses this and runs away.

Ageha bumps into the mysterious man again who is actually her school counsellor. he tries to cheer her up and gets her talking about her family relationship and there you understand the depth of her despair and sadness. she always felt unwanted by her family and as if she was never good enough in comparison to her sister (so far so good). She hangs out with her sensei for most of the night and did not realise that her parents would actually be worried about her. For some reason, the sensei attempts to take her into a karaoke/love hotel and is stopped by Ageha's mother. Ageha thought her mother didnt care at all and was just pretending so she stupidly decides to run without looking into incoming traffic. her mom saves her by jumping in front of her and taking the brunt of the impact. Ageha is now terrified that her mother will die and urged on by her teacher, she confesses all her pent up anger and sadness to her unconscious mother in hospital. Ageha's mother wasn't actually unconscious and heard everything and the two work things out. Their relationship improve significantly and she suddenly realises she is no longer sad nor envious of the fact that her sister has stolen Ryuusei from her.

Her main focus becomes 'sensei' who seem to have given her a new start at life. And pretty much, this is where the story goes a little downhill. In terms of character development, she sheds her previous look and becomes easier on the eye. she also spends time with her family and seems to have cheered up. However, here starts the petty jealousies regarding the school counsellor Kyuu. He seems to be quite popular with the ladies and is himself quite flirty. Don't get me wrong, he is a very likeable and funny character but he probably doesn't act decently enough to be a school counsellor. The main character goes from suddenly understanding her need to grow and change herself to become childlike, a cry baby and jealous.

She goes through a few experiences which you'd think would help her be more grounded and mature but it's almost like these have the reverse effect.

The way Kyuu behaves is misleading and would lead any young girls to think that he has feelings for her, and would encourage girls to nurture hope. At least, in this case, he reciprocated and accepted her. Hana is not happy to learn of Ageha's new love and tries to sabotage Ageha's new relationship with Kyuu by going on a date with Kyuu and acting like an absolute b&^%h.

There were many signs that this was not Ageha, so i was a little annoyed at the fact that he could not even recognise this was not the girl he liked. he almost breaks up with Ageha until things finally do come to light. but once their relationship starts, it's just filled with Ageha's constant insecurities, non-stop complaints, tears, jealousies and did i mention tears? my god, all she does is cry all the time. Anyway, to this guy's credit, he is pretty freaking patient. You'd think though that after one incident, she'd learn something but no, this goes on and on and on.

By the way Ryuusei does disappear from the story after a while and it suddenly becomes all about Kyuu. The story delves deeper into Kyuu's past and his past love. Did i mention this also annoys and scares Ageha as well. Man, this girl has no trust whatsoever. But, when she gets a part-time job and starts working with a former crush who had confessed to her and realises that he wasnt joking at the time but was serious, she feels happy and has heart palpitations and even tells Kyuu about it without thinking that he may get hurt. also this very same guy happens to be her sister's ex. So Ageha who is supposed to be developing and growing in character is actually getting dumber and more annoying. I dont care if she is still in Highschool, you want an older man, grow the f@#k up!

Dont get me wrong, there are many good aspects to Ageha and as a female, i can understand her need to know that she will not be betrayed nor abandoned, but her behaviour would lead any man...in fact, anybody, to madness. However, Kyuu and her do go through quite a few experiences that would test many relationships and in the end they successfully work it out. Ageha's relationship with her vicious, vindictive and poisonous twin does change but it was something that occurred more out of nowhere rather than from being a gradual change of heart. it leads you to think that perhaps Hana was abducted by aliens, brainwashed and then brought back.

So although, there are many things about this manga that i didnt like, there were many enjoyable things and many lessons to be learnt. so all in all, i rate this a 6/10

What a disaster, a downright sloppy mess with an awful plot and annoying characters. Papillon is a drama filled teen romance manga about competing twins that tries to dig into some touchy subjects like insecurity, childhood abandonment, post-partum depression, and traumatic loss. Ageha is a quiet and shy country girl that feels that she is undesirable next to her beautiful and popular city girl twin sister, Hana. The first few volumes of the manga deal with the twins butting heads over boys. Hana feels left out if she doesn’t receive the same love and affection that her sister does. She reminded me of a toned-down versionof Sae from Peach Girl but Hana at least has a backstory to explain the reasons for her garbage actions.

The plotlines are paper-thin and barely have any real development. All of the love interests don’t feel genuine and begin and end quickly. The major romantic interest in counselor Kyuu was troubling. Kyuu is 24 years old and is presented as a legitimate boyfriend for the main character, a high school freshman. He is nine years her senior and is in a position of influence over her as the school counselor. He starts by giving her advice, referring to her as a chrysalis, a pupa that will someday bloom into a beautiful butterfly. He states from the very beginning that he will care for her and help her change. This is troubling, there is no happy message about loving yourself. I can understand the sentiment that if you want something, you put in the work to obtain it and change habits, but that isn’t really what is portrayed.

They’re a terrible pair, with Kyuu expecting a mature woman that would understand that he’s a busy graduate student and works, he can’t attend to her every whim and gets tired and stressed quickly. He is also flirtatious and doesn’t turn away the advances of other women, and doesn’t respect her demands however childish. This leaves the main character feeling insecure and constantly jealous and questioning herself, many readers get annoyed but honestly, this is an understandable way for a teenager to react.

I also took serious issue with the portrayal of counseling in this manga. Obviously, Kyuu was the worst offender, breaking just about every code of ethics about counselor and patient relationships. It is openly stated that he uses love to help students to feel more confident and change themselves and it was honestly upsetting to read. His mentor shows up to also give advice, and when Ageha is stressed over things such as him flirting, it is explained away to her that she can just choose not to be upset about betrayals and choose to be happy instead, and she repeats this to herself several times with every conflict throughout the series.

The entire romance stinks of an older man grooming a teenage girl who is clearly too young to understand adult relationships. This manga wasn’t for me and I was really disappointed with the direction that it took. It starts off okay in the beginning but just becomes so toxic that it became boring.

Story The story is about understanding each other's and their own struggles, but it's also about growing up to your best potential. Even with that said, I think a lot of ways things were resolved were really unsatisfying. The author brought in some huge issues and struggles, and kind of gave a wishy washy solution, which I think not only shows how old the series is but also how shallow it also is. Though it did have pretty strong beginning and conclusion. Art The art had a bit of the same face syndrome, which I'm not only saying about the twins, but for most characters. This is especiallybad since a portion of the story is about insecurities with they way one looks, therefore this basic style hurt the story a lot. If the story wasn't so focused on how the characters looked then this wouldn't be an issue.

Characters

I was often very frustrated with some characters. Which isn't surprising from this author, who is prone to make characters do unnecessary or uncharacteristically mean things just for that extra drama. Oddly enough I wasn't mad at the main heroine, in fact most times I thought she was completely reasonable with her reactions, yet she was told that she was bizarre or condemned for her actions. The male lead had me frustrated a lot since he often repeated the same mistakes, and wouldn't understand why the female lead was worried.

Enjoyment

I did enjoy it, hence why I read it through. Some issues were dealt well with, and sometimes characters would work together and do what the others were too afraid of. It was really fun to see them use each other strengths together. Also I really liked some motifs in the manga, which definitely helped in the end.

Overall

Read it if you like drama, and are fun with some subpar romance. The main character is also really good, at least to me, she was fun to watch, but the other characters kind of fall flat.

First I’d just like to say the synopsis given of this manga does absolutely no justice. It’s literally a summary of chapter one which doesn’t even cover the basic plot. I’ve only read up to chapter 37. I’ll continue to read it as more chapters are released and I will update my review when I’m finished. The story circulates around Ageha and Hana, twin sisters who have just started high school. Hana is the popular girl. She does her best to stand out and be better than everyone else, especially her sister. Ageha on the other hand, does her best to go unnoticed. She feels inferiorin comparison to her sister and wish’s for nothing more than to switch places. The sisters are a bit of a paradox, they want what the other one has and they want to be their own person. I don’t want to spoil anything so I'll just go over the basic's...the majority of the story is about Ageha’s relationship and Hana coming to terms with her sister’s happiness. Ageha’s relationship is touchy. I don’t find it unrealistic or impossible but more taboo?... Basically there’s a big age gap and because of their positions they shouldn’t really be dating. I didn't get to hung up on this, the characters benefit from each other so well you kind of just accept it.

I totally love the character development all around. Ageha changes from shy, quiet, and invisible to strong, decisive, and beautiful. You’ll like and dislike her character at times but you see her maturing and what progress she is making towards her character. Hana’s development I actually liked the best. The majority of the time you’ll hate her character and she’s a little over the top…As time goes on she learns she doesn’t always need to compete with Ageha, they can both have their happiness. Kyuu’s character also goes through some things too. It has him dealing with loss and regret that he repressed for years from a previous relationship. This is where I stopped but I liked where it was going. There is interaction from family/friends as well that encourages and shapes the main characters.

I recommend reading this one, I found it really entertaining. Just reading the synopsis I would have passed it up. I put it on my list only because the sisters reminded me of another manga I enjoyed reading. I’m glad I gave it a chance.

Story: 9 [great]

Art: 8 [very good]

Character: 9 [great]

Enjoyment: 10 [great]

Overall: 9 [great]

I usually feel the student/teacher type of manga is overdone and usually boring. However, the depth of the main character's stories were impressive compared to the many other manga I've read. They are flawed and damaged character's, which is rare to find in a manga (especially shoujo). The artwork is well done compared to some of the manga out there. There isn't anything spectacular, but the artwork is smooth and not distracting other than the very attractive rival male characters (Teacher and Mamura). While I did cheer for my OTP I knew it would never be, but it was still enjoyable to cheer forthem. I won't go into detail due to possible spoilers.

Overall, it was enjoyable and a nice kind of different from most student/teacher manga.

I’m gonna preface this review with the fact that I’m not making light of how old shoujo has a way of romanticizing things that modern audiences feel uncomfortable with. But I didn’t want to discuss the ethics of a student/teacher relationships since it would eclipse everything else that comes with this story. As a young teen I was a big fan of Miwa Ueda’s works. Her art is entrancing, and the melodrama written into her stories is so gripping that you’ll feel completely invested. Peach Girl was one of my childhood favorites for that reason. I still think the entertainment value of it can’t beunderstated.

But Papillion Hana to Chou isn’t Peach Girl, and surprisingly I found that I enjoyed it just as much if not more than its predecessor. Papillion has a very simple but engaging premise: a pair of twin sisters are raised apart from one another, and develop different personalities, insecurities, and lives for themselves. The story really centers on Ageha who is the older and often overlooked twin.

Right from the beginning Ageha is set up to be developed throughout the story. She’s quiet, anxious, and insecure. She thinks the worst of herself and can’t bring herself to go after the things she cares about or wants. She always compares herself to her twin, Hana, because Hana is bright and popular with everyone.

My favorite thing about Papillon is how the butterfly symbolism is carried throughout the story. We see it in a necklace that is gifted to Ageha, prints and patterns that Ageha wears, and even in Ageha’s development. She’s lovingly referred to as “chrysalis” by her main love interest, and she fulfills her arc by growing into herself as a person. She comes to accept that her life is different because she grew up in the country, but she also faces the things from her past that plague her and forges her own happiness.

I love that Hana and Ageha’s family actually matter in the story. Since their trauma and insecurities come from their childhood, it was nice to see those things resolved. Their parents have a good presence throughout the story, and it was cathartic to watch the girls grow closer to them.

I also like that we see Ageha and Hana grow closer together. They don’t automatically become best friends, but after everything they experience together, their bond deepens. It’s nice to see that they grow beyond considering each other competition. Honestly the female/female relationships in Papillon are handled pretty well. I like that Ageha was able to have female friends who weren’t bullies, or toxic. There wasn’t a misogynistic frame overlaying the female characters’ relationships. In a lot of early shoujo the female mc is “not like other girls” and gets bullied and the story punishes other female characters for not being the mc. But the supporting cast in Papillon felt natural and wholesome, and I liked that.

I think of Papillon as Peach Girl’s more mature, older sibling. Cut from the same cloth but there’s something wiser about it. Of course there’s a fair bit of drama, and people kissing by accident or under false pretenses. But it deals with some darker themes, and handles them surprisingly well.

I appreciated that mental health, counseling, and growth are emphasized throughout the story.

But now it’s time to discuss the few issues I have with the story. Because I know what I just said, but this work definitely feels like it suffers from a lot of the oversights that early 2000’s shoujo often had. Hana very obviously has some serious mental health issues, and while they’re addressed by her going to see a counselor (who is her sister’s romantic interest), she falls in love with him. And her connection to him stops being about her issues, and starts to be about competition. I understand works like this thrive on drama, but I wish a lot of Hana’s connections with other characters were allowed to feel more genuine. Instead they feel forced.

Also my biggest criticism by far is what even happened to Ryuusei? He was basically a plot device. He's really important at the beginning of the story, but as soon as he admits to having feelings for Ageha, the plot outgrows him and has no use for him. So we never see or hear from him again. That’s super surprising to me considering the fact that the story started with him, and he’s Ageha’s childhood friend. It felt strange that he just disappeared and I missed his presence. I appreciated the younger male characters for their messiness and honesty.

Overall I really enjoyed my read through of this. I don’t know how I never read it when I was younger, but it sucks you in and delivers on its simple but engaging premise. And I haven’t even said anything about how gorgeous the art is. The covers in particular are full of retro girly charm and I adore them.

If you’re looking for a bittersweet, dramatic, and fun read I would honestly recommend this. The only warnings I’ll give are that there is a significant relationship between a 16 year old and a 24 year old, and there’s a lot of that old shoujo sexualized humor. So that may turn some people off from this work.

Art: 8/10

Story: 7/10

Characters: 7/10

Themes/ideas: 8/10

Overall rating: 7