The Wallflower (manga, vol. 16) by Tomoko Hayakawa

This volume (like all the others) is basically composed of several fairly standalone stories. In the volume's first story, Sunako becomes determined to make up for a past missed opportunity by going to Harajuku, where she discovers a store that is perfect for her. In the second story, Kyohei is broke, gets hit on the head after he's told that he should become a host in order to make lots of money, and starts pumping out pheromones and hitting on Sunako. In the third story, it's Valentine's Day, one of the most dangerous days of the year for the guys. The guys retreat to a cabin in the middle of nowhere, taking Sunako with them, but the girls still manage to find them. The girls attack, much like crazy zombies, but everything turns out okay and Sunako manages to get some of the guys' Valentine's chocolate, which is all she really wanted. In the fourth and final story, Sunako's aunt wants her to go to a party, but she needs to lose 20 lbs. first (she's gotten fairly overweight). Instead of just getting slim, Sunako becomes obsessed with building muscle and looking like something out of an anatomy diagram - not the image the guys and Sunako's aunt wanted her to present, since Sunako's aunt hopes to match her up with a prince at the party.

The volume has its funny moments (I couldn't help but laugh at the sight of Kyohei hitting on Sunako and her response to him), but still, it feels like more of the same. Sunako's come out of her shell a lot - a comparison between this volume and the first volume makes that clear, since Sunako would never have been able to withstand going to Harajuku at the beginning of this series. However, after 16 volumes you'd think the characters would have changed than they have. At this rate, the series could potentially wrap up in the next volume, or 100 volumes from now. Despite a few funny moments, overall it gets a little boring.

In this volume, one thing in particular bothered me. When Hayakawa sticks with drawing androgynous clothed pretty people, she does well enough, but there are some things she just doesn't have the skill to handle. In this case, it's muscles. It's bothered me in the past, since I found her previous half-naked drawings of the guys to be more horrific than sexy - I'm a fan of lean guys, but these guys aren't lean, they're bony. Their arms and shoulders are painful to look at. In the final story of this volume, Hayakawa's weakness becomes extremely apparent. When Sunako goes to the party, she's apparently supposed to be muscular, but she actually just looks like a bunch of stringy sinew stretched over bones. It's awful.

I continue to read this series because of its occasional funny moments - also, I can't help but be hopeful that Hayakawa will finally have Sunako and Kyohei realize their feelings for each other. However, if I couldn't get it for free from my public library, I wouldn't still be reading it. Nothing ever really changes, and that gets old after 16 volumes. Since I'm now no longer in an area where I can get access to this series for free, I doubt I'll be writing more about it.

As far as extras go, there's a note from the author with a nice picture of her Scottish fold cat, an afterword from the author with another picture of her cat and a short comic starring her and her cat, five pages of translator's notes, and a six-page translated preview of the next volume. Also, each chapter begins with a note from the author.

Read-alikes and Watch-alikes:

• Ouran High School Host Club (manga) by Bisco Hatori; Ouran High School Host Club (anime TV series) - Haruhi, the only scholarship student at an elite school for the rich, is forced to become a host in the Ouran High School Host Club after breaking an expensive vase. Unfortunately, Haruhi is actually a girl - in order to stay in the host club and pay off her debt, Haruhi must make sure that no one outside the host club finds out that she's not a guy. Those who'd like another story starring a bunch of hot guys all the girls at school and elsewhere drool over might like this series. Personally, I prefer the anime over the manga, but they're both good. Like The Wallflower, this is another humorous series in which there's the potential for romance, but the main female character is too oblivious for anything to really happen.
• Gravitation (manga) by Maki Murakami; Gravitation (anime TV series) - Shuichi Shindo is a singer in a band that he hopes will become famous. One day, he loses a page of unfinished song lyrics. The handsome and caustic man who catches it insults the lyrics and sticks in poor Shuichi's mind. Schuichi later discovers that the man was Eiri Yuki, a famous writer, and Shuichi seeks him out. The two eventually become lovers, but Yuki's emotional issues and Shuichi's rapidly developing musical career may tear them apart. Those who want another humorous story with famous and almost-famous guys and crazily obsessed fans might like one of the various versions of this series. The manga came first, and has some moments that I really enjoy, but overall I think that the TV series and OAV (not listed here, since it's best not to start with that) have much better and tighter plotting. This series isn't for everyone, since it features romance between two men - although neither the manga nor the anime are explicit, the anime keeps the physical aspects of the romance slightly more "off screen" than the manga.
• S.A. (manga) by Maki Minami; S.A. (anime TV series) - Hikari Hanazono has always taken second place against Kei Takishima, which only adds fuel to her desire to finally beat him in something. Hikari has considered Kei her rival since childhood and is completely oblivious to his love for her. The two of them are students in the S.A. (Special A), an elite group at their school, and the story occasionally focuses on the S.A. as a whole or on one of the other S.A. students. Those who'd like another story in which there's the potential for romance between an oblivious heroine and one of the other characters might like this romantic comedy. I'll admit, I haven't read hardly any of the manga, but I've seen most of the anime (which has yet to be licensed in the U.S. - I plan to get it if it ever does get released here).
  
• My Heavenly Hockey Club (manga) by Ai Morinaga - Hana Suzuki's favorite things to do are sleeping and eating. She'd never dream of joining a school club on her own, because it would interfere with her precious sleeping time, but circumstances force her to join her school's hockey club. The club is full of rich, attractive guys who hardly ever practice playing hockey, much less participate in hockey games - this club is mostly just an excuse for field trips. Those who'd like another humorous manga starring an unladylike main female character surrounded by a bunch of attractive guys might like this series. As with The Wallflower, there's the potential for romance between Hana and one of the members of the hockey club, but Hana's too oblivious to notice.
  

The Wallflower (manga, vol. 15) by Tomoko Hayakawa

As usual, this volume of The Wallflower is composed of several chapters that could basically be considered short stories. As long as you've at least read the first volume of this title, you'll probably be fine if you jump in anywhere else in this series, including as late as volume 15.

This volume includes chapters 59 to 62. In the first chapter, Sunako is invited to a mixer by some girls from her school, and she freaks out once she discovers what a mixer is. In the next chapter, Yuki's little brother and sister, who are twins, show up out of the blue - Sunako shows an impressive and motherly ability to deal with children. In the third chapter, Noi decides to help out the nice, wealthy girl Ranmaru is dating by helping her find a guy in a host club who's at least as charming and handsome as Ranmaru is. Ranmaru is the type who believes that women should be enjoyed, but that men like him shouldn't feel tied down by them, and the girl he's dating (whose name I cannot remember) deserves better than that. Takenaga, Noi's boyfriend, tries to go after her and ends up being forced to help out at the host club as a host. In the final chapter, Sunako freaks out again when she finds out she's been invited to a reunion that will be filled with all the people she knew before she became the weird and scary girl she is in this series. Why is she freaking out again? Well, if she goes to the reunion, she'll see the guy she used to have a crush on who turned her down by saying, "I hate ugly girls."

Basically, the first chapter is semi-serious, the second is sweet, the third is funny and a bit romantic, and the fourth is serious. I don't really like that the series still doesn't feel like it's going anywhere after 15 volumes - I wasn't kidding when I said you could read the first volume and then jump into the series at any point you felt like and not feel all that lost. Sunako's less introverted than she used to be, but not by much. The guys also haven't changed much - the only real changes are that Takenaga seems to be settling into the role of boyfriend really nicely and Ranmaru may have actually found a girl he can stick with. As far as Hayakawa's artwork goes, she seems to have gotten a little better at drawing Ranmaru and Kyohei so that it's actually possible to tell them apart most times - in earlier volumes, I often mistook one for the other.

With this volume, as with this series in general, I don't really have favorite stories as much as I have favorite moments. In the first story, I love it when the guys turn Sunako briefly into an ordinary-looking girl - her occasional loveliness is all the more wonderful when contrasted with the usual simple super-deformed way she's drawn. In the second story, I love it when Kyohei imagines Sunako as a mother laughing with her two children - it's moments like this that make it even more painful that Hayakawa is taking her sweet time allowing Kyohei and Sunako's potential romance to progress. In the third story, I love Noi (she is, in general, one of my most favorite characters in this series - she's beautiful and actually thinks Sunako is great) and Ranmaru's girlfriend. Ranmaru's girlfriend is so quiet and gentle that she seems to have almost no personality, but she's got some funny moments, like her "wealthy aura." In the final story, it was just sweet seeing Noi and the guys support Sunako.

Hayakawa is a huge fan of Japanese bands/musicians/singers like Miyavi and Dir En Grey, and it shows in her artwork - her main guy characters look like androgynous pretty boys. It took me some time to get used to that (I may think Miyavi looks gorgeous in some of his pictures, but it translates oddly into Hayakawa's artwork), and, like I said, Hayakawa occasionally has problems with drawing her men so that they look too similar. The main thing that won me over with this series was the humor - unfortunately, this particular volume is lacking in the massively funny nosebleed scenes that I loved so much in the earlier volumes. Another nice part of this series is the sweet, touching moments, of which there are a few in this volume.

Because of how little actually changes from one volume to the next, I don't think this is a series I would still be reading if I couldn't get it for free from the library. That doesn't mean it's not fun - it's just not worth $10.95 for the 15th volume of nothing new.

As far as extras goes, there are the usual author free talk boxes at the beginning of each chapter, plus, Japanese honorifics explanations, and a few pages of Del Rey's usual wonderful translator notes.

Read-alikes:

• Moon Child (live action movie) - If you like the androgynous pretty boy look of the male characters in The Wallflower, you might like this movie. The main characters are played by Gackt and Hyde, two well-known singers in Japan. Basically, it's the story of the friendship between Kei, a vampire, and Shou, the orphan boy who was raised by him. Everything takes place in the near future. Shou and Kei drift apart after they fall in love with the same woman, but, years later, they team up again.
  
• Alichino (manga) by Kouyu Shurei - Basically, this serious fantasy series revolves around Alichino, beautiful creatures that appear human and will grant any wish at a huge price, and a beautiful boy named Tsugiri, who has a terrible past. As far as its plot goes, Alichino doesn't have much in common with The Wallflower. However, if readers are looking for more pretty guys and artwork that is somewhat similar to Hayakawa's (only better - this is my opinion, and you're free to disagree), then they might want to try this series. It's lovely, but, unfortunately, not finished yet, with no date given when the fourth (and final?) volume will finally come out.
  
• Ouran High School Host Club (manga) by Bisco Hatori - Haruhi is the only scholarship student in an elite school full of rich and spoiled students. One day, Haruhi discovers the Ouran High School Host Club, breaks a vase, and is forced to work for them as a host in order to pay for the vase. What the president of the host club doesn't realize for a while is that Haruhi is actually a girl - in order to continue being a host club member, Haruhi must hide her gender from everyone in the school. Those who'd like another humorous series with a main female character who doesn't care much about dating and guys, or those who specifically liked the chapter in this book with the host club, might like this series. Haruhi's not phobic about dating, like Sunako is, but she does happen to be completely oblivious. As the series progresses, several guys become interested in her, but she doesn't actually notice anything.
  
• Kare Kano (manga) by Masami Tsuda - Yukino is an incredibly vain high school student who's been hiding behind a mask of perfection for years. She lives for the praise she gets when she acts like a perfect, elegant, humble, and effortlessly intelligent student. One day she meets a boy named Souichiro Arima who appears to be the real deal. He discovers her secret and blackmails her into helping him do his massive amounts of work. As Yukino gets to know him better, she begins to fall in love with him, but Arima has secrets of his own. In a way, both Kare Kano and The Wallflower are about self - Yukino voluntarily makes her public self look perfect, while Sunako is surrounded by guys who've been given the task of remaking her public self so that it's more lady-like and acceptable. In addition, readers who enjoyed the children in this volume of The Wallflower might like the older children that show up throughout this series - Yukino's sisters are pretty rambunctious, and there are several flashbacks to certain characters' childhoods.