Flipping Through the Chapters: Mishounen Produce

Synopsis

This is the story of two childhood friends from the countryside, one is an otaku with a love for shoujo and the other is a simple boy who likes to see his friend smile. But on the day of their debut into high school and Kako sees the others making fun of Kousei, she decides to “produce” him and recreate him into a handsome boy in the image of her favourite character. But his transformation may be too successful as Kousei’s popularity grows larger each day. Does this mean that she may no longer be needed…?

The General Perspective

This is an interesting little read if you’re looking for a simple shoujo troy with well developed characters. It is cliche in many parts like with any other shoujo but it has much potential and good detail-oriented art. The plot is also simple but a it progressed it ended up somewhat skewed in a way.

As for the characters, they have a good development to them yes, but like many other shoujos, the flaw of the characters lie in the fact that they could have been more dynamic but didn’t. For those who are simply interested in a simple fun story like this, they may leave because of the romance but stay for the story.

The Shoujo Fan Perspective

If you long time shoujo fan, the frustrations that come with reading stories with shy girls with low confidence levels are to be expected. While it’s easy to see that the two have feelings for the other, the male lead being more obvious of course, it doesn’t change the fact that these types of stories stretch out the girl’s own realization of her feelings way too long. The saving grace of this series is that when the feelings are revealed, we see their aftermath and how it effects their story.

Then there are the misunderstanding moments that is just about found in all shoujo mangas and the possessive nature of male, again more points of frustration. But once again the series has the sense to have them resolve the issue properly and have the characters actually realize that they are at fault as well. These points, along with the plot layout is what makes the story stand on its own as an original work. Thus for a shoujo fan, this is a pretty acceptable work with a satisfying end.

RATING: 3 STARS