Kodoku no Kochou wa Donna Yume wo Miru no ka?

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Alternative Titles

Synonyms: What Does the Poisonous Butterfly Dream of?

Japanese: 蠱毒の胡蝶はどんな夢を見るのか?

Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 3

Chapters: 15

Status: Finished

Published: Mar 27, 2024 to Dec 26, 2025

Genres: Fantasy, Girls Love

Demographic: Seinen

Serialization: Dengeki Maoh

Authors: Mimishiki (Art), Karasu, Piero (Story)

Statistics

Score: 6.77¹ (scored by 171 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #13262²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #23454

Members: 623

Favorites: 3

6.77

Ranked #13262Popularity #23454Members 623

MangaDengeki MaohMimishiki (Art), Karasu, Piero (Story)

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Volumes: /3

Chapters: /15

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Synopsis

This world has been invaded by bugs.

With the appearance of the "Armored Bugs," mutating insect monsters that can overcome all modern weapons, humanity has been robbed of much of its living space. The only ones who can stand against such adversaries are the "Noble Butterflies," girls who harbor "Insects" that have gone through evolutions differing from the armored bugs.

One of the candidates to become a Noble Butterfly, Odamaki Ayumi, still suffers from the fact that she is unable to become one. Her best friend, who was supposed to be with her and was her object of admiration, has left her and no longer seeks her company.

Those days of despair came to an end when she was on the verge of death in a battle with armored bugs.
"Don't think that I... will die without doing anything!"

With the end near, the girl's body transformed into a butterfly one. And the flapping of her wings will bring about a revolution in the world...!

(Source: Shousetsuka ni Narou, translated)

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Reviews

Jan 16, 2026

whymeo

Recommended

This is a simple coming-of-age story that makes very good use of its central metaphor. "What Does the Poisonous Butterfly Dream of?" is a post-apocalyptic story where humanity has almost been wiped out by mutant insects, surviving only due to the parasites that humanity have placed within some girls' wombs that grant them supernatural powers when the girl “awaken” and become “noble butterflies”. The bugs implanted inside these girls-turned-soldiers, who are known as candidates, read to me as a metaphor for puberty and growing up, echoing concerns of how one retains their sense of self while finding their place in the world as an adult. ... The central metaphor being tied into what drives the action of the story is nothing new in anime and manga, everyone knows that the cockpit of an EVA is a metaphor for the womb in "Neon Genesis Evangelion", but what makes "What Does the Poisonous Butterfly Dream of?" stand out is how concise and focused its narrative is.

From the very beginning in chapter one, the parasite inside of the candidates and the transformation it will cause them to undergo being used as a metaphor for reaching adulthood is front and center. The story opens with a flashback between the protagonist Odamaki Ayumi and her friend Reika, during a conversation where Reika compares the parasitic flatworm Leucochloridium paradoxum that grows within the eye stalks of snails, to the bugs implanted inside candidates. The fear of what their transformation into noble butterflies will do to their personhood is present in the story from the first page of the manga. It quickly grounds these fictional concerns later on in chapter one with something more real, by showing that to be a candidate in the underground facility where candidates are raised, known as “The Farm”, is to be a child. It is no mistake that the author chooses to highlight the authoritarian nature of The Farm by having an instructor chastise the entire facility because of the discovery of a vibrator on the premises; to be a child is to have one's entire life largely controlled, including something as personal as one's own sexuality. A slightly crass way of getting the point across, and the manga does feature some unnecessary sexualization of its characters from time to time, but in this case it works for what the manga is trying to say in my opinion.

As the story goes on it continues to follow Ayumi, and her quest to catch up with her friend Reika who transformed into a noble butterfly a year ago. Eventually, when left to die in battle, Ayumi is finally able to awaken. Afterwards, Ayumi fights against the seeming inevitability that the bug that was implanted inside her waking up will mean losing part of her personality as the parasite exerts its control over her. When she moves to The Garden, where all awakened former-candidates live, she is confronted with the fact that all of the noble butterflies take for granted and accept that the bug inside them will slowly eat away at who they once were. The leader of what remains of human society, The Queen Shiragiku Towa, has given herself over to the insect that grants her powers more than anyone else in the story -- and Ayumi is placed into conflict with her due to her refusal to let go of her humanity despite her ascension.

What is here is short, and to the point. I think a lot of people who read this manga are disappointed by the fact that it does not have much in the way of narrative twists and turns, and the climax of the story is solely about a conflict revolving around the interpersonal relationship between two characters instead of something with grander stakes. However, I think if you walk away from this manga feeling the story is unfinished you missed the forest for the trees. The plot of "What Does the Poisonous Butterfly Dream of?" is not a vehicle for cool fight scenes, and the action in the story is constrained to what can serve the narrative the story is interested in telling. The story did not need a grand final battle for the future of humanity, which is where a lesser writer might have taken the plot. Instead, the climax of the story ties into the themes that are present from chapter one of the manga: the idea that becoming a proper adult often requires stripping away parts of yourself until the person that is left can function in a rather cruel and unforgiving world. And hey, what fights the manga does have are extremely cool anyway, so can you really complain? In my opinion, more stories could stand to be as laser-focused as this one.

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Feb 28, 2025

upbeat_deadbeat

Recommended

Preliminary (9/15 eps)

"What form do the insects placed inside our wombs take?... and how will they change us in the end?"

This is a very unique, dark fantasy story with some yuri romance in the mix. The visceral imagery of girls being controlled and transformed through bugs in their wombs lends itself to a highly dramatic and emotionally engaging story with interesting world-building and action.

The main character, Odamaki Ayumi, is desperate to become a Noble Butterfly so she can reunite with her best friend/love, Reika. However, after her transformation and ascendance to the butterfly upperclass, much to Ayumi's horror, Reika has changed into someone who completely despises ...

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Dec 31, 2025

Kezeroth

Mixed Feelings

I want to first make it VERY CLEAR that NO, this manga was not axed or cancelled in any way. If you are reading this review after finishing this manga, I want to let you know that this was a manga adaptation of a very short Web Novel (22 relatively short chapters in total). The ending of this manga is the actual ending of the Web Novel. For those who are looking forward to reading this manga or interacting with this story for the first time, I assure you that you will think that you have discovered a gold mine only to be left with ... severe disappointment.

Kodoku no Kochou wa Donna Yume wo Miro no ka? is a manga with an insanely interesting and unique concept for the background of its world. I personally felt very attracted to the concept as one of my manga roots is Arachnid, a story that also centralizes around insects or the idea of insects. Sadly, there are no real high notes when it comes to the story or its characters at all. Heck, not even the background or the setting gets any chances to really shine at all. Why? It’s because the story ends so abruptly that almost nothing has developed. The entire story occurs over the course of like a couple of days or so, and then it just ends. The potential was definitely there, but no effort was put into actually trying to expand any aspect of the story.

Story: 3
The story revolves around that last line in the manga’s synopsis: “With the end near, the girl’s body transformed into a butterfly one. And the flapping of her wings will bring about a revolution in the world…!” In short, Ayumi is able to achieve her “dream” of becoming a Noble Butterfly, but her existence is a new or special one as it intends to upend the current state of this world that is more or less governed or protected by the existence of the current Noble Butterflies. This connects with Ayumi’s troubled relationship with Reika, who was her best friend once upon a time, who essentially abandoned her after becoming a Noble Butterfly. These two things make up a pretty solid backbone for a story this unique concept the author has drummed up as the background or lore for this world. The only issue is the actual execution of this story. You are given very large hints that yes, Ayumi becoming a unique and new Noble Butterfly (as to not spoil the story) will cause a major revolution or change in how many things will work in their current little living society and possibly even the world itself. That’s it. We are given just that and because the story ends so abruptly, it is just not expanded on at all. Even the development of Ayumi and Reika’s relationship, which is integral to the story itself, is very haphazardly written. To not spoil anything, I will just say that their relationship could’ve been resolved in a better way than what was actually presented to us. There was really no attempt at pacing their relationship’s development in a way that made sense or that would make its resolution feel satisfying. To put it simply, the story has a good backbone, but the execution of it was terrible.

Characters: 3
I am going to focus on 3 characters here: Ayumi, Reika, and Towa. Ayumi is the main character, of course, but most of what makes her so interesting is what becomes of her after she becomes a Noble Butterfly. It seems like after becoming a Noble Butterfly (of any type), a girl would undergo a somewhat drastic personality change, and when it comes to Ayumi’s personality change, it is pretty cool as she basically goes from an optimistic and loving personality to being much more blunt and aggressive, being confused by who she has become as she is no longer considered human. Or that is at least what was given, but the story does not really follow through with this. Yes, this is Ayumi’s new personality, but at the same time, the story kind of does a bad job at keeping this constant after her transformation. Yes, she is allowed to feel weakness at times, but her bluntness and aggressiveness that appeared after her transformation, we never see that to a similar degree almost ever again. Maybe like once, but never again. Let’s consider Reika as an antagonist. After becoming a Noble Butterfly, she undergoes a personality change like Ayumi does, but she goes from being a loving and (kind of) caring individual to a very prideful and either aggressive or spiteful character. I think her character is portrayed very well in how she basically did a 180 after her transformation. The only issue is that because of how the story was written, yes, she is very aggressive towards Ayumi, but it would’ve been better to let this conflicting relationship between them drag out for longer. We don’t get to see them butting heads with each other enough to make the resolution of their troubled relationship feel satisfying. Towa is the Noble Butterfly Queen for the Pieris rapae, which is the faction or group that both Ayumi and Reika belong to. I consider her to be leaning towards the role of chaos agent based on the story that we do have. She does antagonize Ayumi and Reika by toying with Ayumi’s emotions and shunning Reika with her also having a bad relationship with the other Queens. She’s a fine character. I just wish that there was more story to better expand on her character.

Art: 8
I really like Mimishiki’s art even though they have only worked on the art for a few mangas at this point in time. I first experienced their art when I read TS Eiseihei-san no Senjou Nikki, and I do think that they were really able to display the full capabilities of their talent with this manga, with it being a Fantasy manga. I enjoy looking at the expressions of every character as they are so distinct yet so intricate and beautifully done. However, I kind of share the same sentiment with the art as I do with the characters and the story itself: if the manga just continued the story, we’d probably see many more great scenes, whether it’d be new characters, new battles, or even new monsters/enemies, but we are sadly just left with what we have currently. But I really do want to praise the art. If I were to take away the highlights of this manga, I would definitely be the concept and the art.

Overall: 4.7
I am just disappointed with the entirety of this story. When only the first volume of this manga was released, I immediately went looking for the Web Novel because I was genuinely interested in both the concept and the story. At that point, I learned that the Web Novel was already finished and after reading through it, I was not happy at all because the author just failed to capitalize off the incredible concept they came up with. But I held my hopes that the manga would continue on from where the Web Novel left off. That doesn’t happen very frequently, but it is always a possibility, especially when an author gets motivation from hearing that one of their novels is getting serialized into a manga. But as we see now, this manga just follows the Web Novel to a tee. I don’t want to repeat myself again, but I just want to emphasize that this is a manga with a great concept and a great baseline for its story and characters. However, not much effort was put into realizing the potential of this story, so we are left with really nothing. Do I recommend reading this manga? Maybe. The concept, again, is great, but the actual execution is abysmal. You will probably be disappointed once you finish reading it.