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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Manga Review : Unmasked Noice by Ryouko Fukuyama

Title: Unmasked Noice 

Original Title: Fukumenkei Noise

Author: Ryouko Fukuyama

Artist: Ryouko Fukuyama

Year of Release: 2013

Genres: Comedy, Drama, Gender Bender, Romance, Shoujo

Status: Ongoing

Chapters (Translated in English): 23

Volumes & Chapters: 4 Volumes in total

Mangafox  – Goodreads 

Summary

Nino is a girl who harbours feelings her friend Momo. Just when she can no longer suppress her feelings, she encounters a boy who composes music..., and what is the promise Nino made to a boy she met who composes music? 

My Thoughts

Review covers 23 chapters.

I think this particular manga has been on my to-read list for at least half a year. Somehow, I always found other things to read or just plainly ignored it. And now for some reason, it is the very first one to be reviews on my blog. Fate? I don’t know about that. But as soon as I took up this manga the first 22 chapters went so fast I couldn’t believe myself, and then I was waiting for about 2 weeks for the next chapter to be translated. Now I have to wait for even more…

First let’s talk a bit about the plot. I think the summary doesn’t give us a lot, but at the same time it intrigues enough to start reading. Let’s say we have three main characters: Nino, Momo and Yuzu (Nino is a girl and Momo and Yuzu are guys). Nino and Momo are childhood friends, who are very, very fond of each other. They are always together doing stuff and especially sing different songs. Because of some circumstances Momo’s family has to move away and those two promise each other that their singing will be the sign to bring them together in the future.

Now, you’ll think total childhood friendship cliché. Well, sorry, to disappoint you. Because those two were inseparable, when Nino is left alone, she is suffering a lot. Because of loneliness she wants to scream and in order to stop her soul to scream out loud she starts to wear a mask over her mouth. Everything would have been amazing, or kind of, if she didn’t meet a boy called Yuzu one day when she had he breakdown. And so he asks her to sing his songs when she is having her breakdowns. Long story short, something again happens and Nino is left alone again, but now, she is singing when she wants to scream. Several years pass and now all of our main characters are high school students, but are they the same? Could it be that Nino can be reunited with Momo? Or something absolutely different is awaiting her? That’s for you to find out if you start reading this manga.

Now, a bit about the style of the manga and why I chose this particular one for today. I have read another work by Ryouko Fukuyama, Monochrome Kids, though it is still being translated in English and I am thinking of reading it in German. I can say with utmost certainty that if somebody would have told me a year ago that I will be reading and understanding manga, I would have laughed. To say the truth I’ve tried one about 5 years ago. For me it was just some pictures and words, I was always confused from where to start reading. I just wasn’t having fun. I don’t know what, but somehow around a year ago everything changed. I got a taste of ut and I liked it. But even now sometimes I’m lost when I am reading manga about music or arts. The author has to express his ideas and emotion through black & white world of drawings and words.

When I was reading Unmasked Noise, I felt all the characters to the extent that I thought they were real, that they lived around me. I got why they are so stupid, but the best part was that I was really feeling the music through the pictures and it was amazing. I think it was as if I was listening to the screams and songs while reading. I only had the same experience with Chiba Kozue’s Crayon Days, where through black & white I actually was seeing all 24 colors of palette. I guess, the next time I will write about that one.

When I was reading Unmasked Noise, I was on edge every time. I was intrigued by everyone’s past and was cheering them on their future. The characters are portrayed as real people, they are not the best people in the world, nor are they the worst. They are just people; they are high school students, who have their own dreams, fears, expectations and obligations. They are in love, but they all have to forget that feeling for the time being, first is to show each other that they are there, that their voices can reach their loved one hearts.

I really hope that this review was at least a bit helpful, I tried not to spoil (which was quite hard, because I want to say so much more). I guess I will just write another review when all the chapters are translated and I finish reading them. Christmas is just in a few days. Have great holidays and have fun!

XOXO

Katie

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