Manga Review : Charming Junkie by Ryouko Fukuyama

Title: Charming Junkie 

Original Title: 

Author: Ryouko Fukuyama

Artist: Ryouko Fukuyama

Year of Release: 2004

Genres: Comedy, Gender Bender, Romance, School Life, Shoujo

Status: Completed

Chapters (Translated in English): 90

Volumes & Chapters: 16

Volume 1 Chapters 1-5         Volume 7 Chapters 34-39          Volume 13 Chapters 68-72
Volume 2 Chapters 7-11       Volume 8 Chapters 40-45          Volume 14 Chapters 73-78
Volume 3 Chapters 12-17     Volume 9 Chapters 46-50          Volume 15 Chapters 79-84
Volume 4 Chapters18-23      Volume 10 Chapters 51-56        Volume 16 Chapters 85-90
Volume 5 Chapters 24-28     Volume 11 Chapters 57-62
Volume 6 Chapters 29-33     Volume 12 Chapters 63-67

Mangafox – Goodreads

Summary

Naka Kaburagi has all the qualities a model can have, well, not really all. After being rejected by her senpai cause she can't smile like a flower and has a scary face, Naka is determined to get her revenge and to show her senpai that she can smile like a flower just like his female idol Umi Kajiwara. After failing her 19th audition, Naka accidentally bumps into this great Umi but wait..... What is this!? Umi is A MALE!!? To keep Naka's mouth shut, Umi gives her the job as his co-model. Always being together and sharing a dark secret, Naka's road to successful modeling has a lot of troubles to come... Especially when Naka and Umi started to feel funny whenever they are by each other's side....

( - reads right to left - )

My Thoughts

Review covers 90 chapters 

Hello everyone! Welcome back to Katie’s Corner. Today I have a really nice manga to share with you. It is a second time I’m featuring Fukuyama Ryouko’s works in my blog. The first one was Unmasked Noise. If you haven’t read it, visit here to read my review and find the links. This time, the manga is already completed, I am not sure if it was licensed in English but you can find it either on Mangafox or Mangatown completely translated and scanned.

Well, I can’t say that I was feeling the same strengths from this manga as I felt from Unmasked Noise, but then again, this was the author’s first work. However, the drawing style is still the same, which is amazing and fits the characters 100%. The story is focusing a lot on the character development and their feelings. There are many moments where you just shout at the character as to why they don’t get each other. Especially Umi and Naka (the main characters). Their relationship is progressing fast and at the same time very slow. I was getting frustrated with both of them for not saying their feelings out loud. It was as if they were in a one sided mutual love. Doesn’t make sense? Well, neither did it to me.

Naka is a really amazing character. Her development as a person as well as a model is really interesting to read about. Her scary faces cracked me up and I just couldn’t get over her depression periods when she would sit in the corner of the room with the dark aura around her. Umi was the character that quite often frustrated me, bit I still loved him a lot. Let’s say a bit about Umi. He is a male, who works as a female model. No, no, he is not a cross dresser, and he likes Naka a lot, that’s to say about his orientation. You will understand why he does what he does, when you read the manga. But I just can’t bitch about it. I was frustrated with him, because he was jealous of a certain male model, but come on dude, you chose to be a female model, don’t go around getting jealous about that guy.

There are many great characters, which have their own dreams and aspirations. There is the thread of heartbreak, however it doesn’t really apply to Naka and Umi, I don’t get it, but they managed to survive. I hope you will find some time to read Charming Junkie. It has a lot of funny moments and they will crack you up a lot. But they are also life matters as well, which will make you think about what to do. Enjoy it to its fullest and don’t forget to share your thoughts below. Stay tuned for more reviews as well as promos here, on Katie’s Corner! Happy reading!

XOXO

Katie

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