Hibi Chouchou
Like a Butterfly

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This manga is truly adorable if you're a patient person who can handle slow burns. The main characters are likable and will grasp all of your attention span, and even though there aren't many truly romantic moments between them, their character development throughout their relationship is so heartwarming and their little interactions will make your heart flutter. My main criticism really has to do with the side characters as I think they were honestly really irrelevant to the story besides Aya, and how it seems as if the female lead puts in more effort than the male lead sometimes, but other than that, if you ... have the patience, I highly recommend this manga if you're looking for a cute romance with true relationship development.

7.5/10
+Strong setup and likeable cast of characters
+Pretty artwork adds to romantic and whimsical tone
-Lacks compelling character transformation
-Story is poorly paced after midpoint; slow pace and lack of conflict drags it down

The journey of adolescence into adulthood mirrors that of a butterfly. Fragile and beautiful, they symbolize transformation, growth, and new beginnings, for better or worse. Author Suu Morishita (A Sign of Affection, Short Cake Cake) creates a dreamy tale of a popular girl coming out of her shell by learning to express herself. Morishita’s saccharine artwork adds to that sense of whimsy and its strong setup features a unique spin on tropes readers have ... come to expect.

Unfortunately the story’s structure fizzles out at the midpoint and doesn’t follow through on its promise of premise. MC Suiren does not grow and change in any meaningful way and there is no major conflict that drives her relationships forward. For some, its cute romance and fun supporting cast serves as a huge distraction from its lack of commitment to its themes, but those expecting a strong coming of age story may be disappointed.

Ughhhh. Why is it always like this?

The ML is so damn cute and looks insanely good in glasses and he's just so charming and adorable when he blushes. The romance is sweet and believable, too. Unfortunately, everything else about this manga sucks.

First, the MC. She has NO PERSONALITY outside of ML... which is fine, but everyone whines about how this guy isn't dropping a hobby he's been devoted to since he was a little kid just for her and how she's hurting etc. etc. but they never tell her to stop being so codependent. She doesn't care about her friends until the very end of ... the story, which makes her look even worse.

And ML isn't free from criticism either; even beyond his karate obsession, there was so much bare minimum he could do to to make MC-chan happy, such as actually retorting to an intrusive side character who keeps asking all sorts of questions that are none of his business (it takes ML-kun 50 billion chapters to actually TELL HIM THAT despite not being established as an actual shy person like the premise claims he is). Oh yeah and he allegedly is unable to talk to girls for NO REASON. Why is he like this? The story never explains. Is it misogyny from being socialized to treat girls like they're a different species? After all, he often devolves into tangents about how MC-chan doesn't understand guys etc. etc... what's wrong with this guy? So poorly characterized I was genuinely confused the entire time as to his every action. I don't know what the author's angle with him was.

The side characters have wack relationships with each other. As mentioned before MC doesn't think much about her friends until the very end, but there's also a side character who seems to like MC just because his besto friendo likes her...? Weirdo... the story keeps going on and on about how spechul they are to each other, meanwhile MC's world revolves only around ML-kun. So tired of this homoeroticism (not in a literal sense but in a sense where male relationships are once again the most deepest or whatever while female characters are sidelined, and this is in a shoujo manga lmaooo). The rest of the side characters hook up with the most random characters ever, as if the author added them in last minute.

Art is amazing, chibi sprites are charming and memorable, character designs are consistent all around. Too bad good art is the only thing going for manga like this.