THE WALLFLOWER

Sunako is an awkward teenager who's about to get the "Queer Eye for the Straight Manga Heroine" treatment from four young men who will win three years of free rent at Sunako's auntie's boarding house if they can manage to get Sunako to look decent. They've got quite a struggle ahead of them, however; when Sunako appears, she's wearing stained, baggy clothing and her face is entirely hidden by bangs. She retreats to her room to watch slasher films, and when forced to interact with the boys she cooks for—she lives in her auntie's boarding house—she's half-blinded by those "creatures of light." Couple this odd worldview with Sunako's nosebleeds whenever the boys say something nice to her, and they've got a real makeover challenge on their hands. After a series of events in which Sunako is rescued from social torture by one of the boys, Kyohei (whom she almost kills with scissors afterwards, for reasons never quite explained), and she in turn rescues him from being kidnapped by evil club owners, we reach Sunako's final transformation. This unusual manga should engage readers, thanks to its reversal of the usual characterizations, disturbing heroine and not-quite-happy ending. (Oct.)