Butterflies, Flowers Volumes 1, 2 and 3

Now that her once-wealthy family has fallen upon hard times, Choko takes an office job at a real estate corporation. But she's floored when she discovers that her super-strict (and kind of strange) manager is her former servant.

Butterflies, Flowers takes a lot of familiar plot twists and tropes from shojo manga, and turns up the heat to give this romantic comedy sexy sizzle to go along with its slapstick laughs. The sexual harassment that passes for 'normal' in the hero/heroine's office is a little hard to swallow, but if you can get past that, Butterflies, Flowers offers love and laughs for grown-up shojo fans.

If you're a girl, there's lots to love about shojo manga: there's romance, fantasy, comedy and lots of cute guys to ogle. But if you're past your teen years, high school romances can be kind of boring. The first kiss. The class trip. The school festival. Yeah, yeah, whatever.

So what's out there for readers who have outgrown teen shojo stories? In Japan, there's manga for "ladies" -- romances that go beyond "going steady." (trans: there are sex scenes.) And not just the "oh, he's kissing me" kind; the "oh, he's in me" kind. Are you blushing yet? If you are, stop reading this review now.

Butterflies, Flowers is steamier than your average shojo manga story, but compared to more explicit tales, its love scenes mostly simmer rather than sizzle.

The heroine of Butterflies, Flowers is Choko Kuze, a young woman from a wealthy family that has fallen upon hard times. While they once had a huge estate and a house full of servants, Choko's parents and her brother now run a noodle shop. To help her family, Choko rolls up her sleeves and enters the working world.

But her sheltered upbringing leaves Choko ill-prepared for what she experiences at her first job interview, especially when her manager Masayuki Domoto asks her if she's a virgin. >SCREEEECH!< Right at the very first page, my mind hit the brakes. I know Yoshihara is exaggerating this for laughs, but sexual harassment is such a corporate no-no in the West, it's unthinkable that anyone of Domoto's stature would even THINK of saying such a thing, much less still HAVE a job after saying that.

It gets quirkier from there. When a knife-wielding trespasser puts Choko in danger, Domoto rescues her, and calls her 'milady.' It's then that Choko realizes that her tyrannical boss was once her childhood friend and servant. The two are reunited and love blossoms -- when Domoto isn't berating or embarrassing her.

Over and over again, I had to wrestle with my disbelief at the behavior tolerated at Choko and Masayuki's office. "He can't really announce to the office that Choko's a virgin, can he?" "They can't make office workers dress like maids, can they?" Yes, he can and yes, they do. A lot of manga is pure escapist fun – so why is it so hard for me to laugh along with Yoshihara's humor, especially when it's so much like shojo manga?

Shojo manga fans should recognize a lot of the plot twists in Butterflies, Flowers: the boy on his sick bed who gets nursed back to health. The romantic rival / frenemy. The obligatory cross-dressing character. The romantic out-of-town trip that gets crashed by friends. The only difference is that the jokes are a lot saucier.

Overall, this series is a lot of fun. It's slightly racy, but don't dive into the first volume of Butterflies, Flowers expecting Choko and Masayuki to "get it on" – you'll just have to wait until Volume 2 for this pair to get past 'first base,' and Volume 3 for them to 'do the deed.' Too much foreplay for too little action? Go grab some yaoi manga instead.

Disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.