The cure for the common Shojo

One of my favorite reads right now is the wallflower a quirky sort-of romance. The main influence is the nightmare before Christmas, and it reallllly shows. The premise takes the usual harem plot and twists it on it's head. The main character is Sunako Nakahara, a high school aged girl new to the city. Her "harem" is the four hottest guys in school and she's forced to live with them in her aunts mansion. The twist? She hates beautiful people and would rather stay in her dark room watching horror movies and wearing ugly old cloths. The boys have to "make her into a lady" or get kicked out of the house/ pay huge amounts of rent.

Now before you start in about forcing girls to change because of warped ideals of beauty and all that let me tell you something. Sunako is easily the coolest girl character you'll ever read about. She's a proficient chef, amazing martial artist and speaks English fluently from watching movies. Watching her fight the boys tooth and nail is utterly hilarious and watching her literally beat up people who try to harm them is often really cool. The boys are interesting too, each one is distinctive while still playing one of the "tropes". None of them enjoy their status as perfect beautiful boys. The leader especially had to leave his home and parents to avoid mobs of crazed girls. It's a little over the top, but that's what makes it so fun.

So here's why you might want to be cautious. Firstly the boys end up semi naked pretty often, mostly due to girls tearing off their shirts and so forth. Same girls have a habit of talking dirty, although swearing is usually represented by symbols. As for actual sex? It takes several volumes to even get a kiss out of people and although it isn't finished I would be surprised if it ever gets any further. Secondly is the large amount of blood. The Sunako looses so much blood on a regular basis I'm surprised she doesn't need a permanent transfusion. While her bleeding is usually in the form of nose bleeds the boys often get into violent scrapes either with girls or with people wanting to exploit their "prettiness".

Despite that I just can't recommend this title enough, especially for teens. Watching these five strange, awkward people eventually become like a family is sweet, and the characters are fun. It might even cross the gender roles and be readable by both boys and girls (if they can get past the cover first). The artist also talks about the Japanese music scene a lot, so if any of this sounds interesting then give it a read. Trust me, you'll feel prettier after :)