The Wallflower: Lesson 1: My Fair Bishonen

Reviewed By: Carla Land

ADV Films DVD

Review based on disk one (episodes 1-5)

Rating NR

What it’s (basically) all about: Sunako is a “horror chick” extraordinaire. Her aunt, a ridiculously wealthy woman with romantic values, desperately wants her niece to be less goth and more glamour. Enter Kyohei, Ranmaru, Takenaga, and Yuki: four young men given the monumental task of taking Sunako and turning her into an elegant young lady. Their reward for success? They get to live in Sunako’s aunt’s mansion for as long as they want for free. If they fail, their rent will triple. Hopefully they have enough patience to see it through- Sunako isn’t giving in so easily!

Nitty Gritty: The character development in this anime is really well done. You learn a little bit about each character as each episode progresses and you can see growth slowly happening in Sunako. All of the main characters are in high school, with little to no adult supervision, but the focus of the plot isn’t on school.

The animation style leans more to realistic than comical, which is a bit of a departure from Shinichi Watanabe’s other anime (such as Excel Saga or Nerima Daikon Brothers). There are a lot of comical elements though- bloody noses, incredible feats of strength on Sunako’s part, Kyohei and his fighting style.

The disk starts off with promotions for the Anime Network and (the now defunct) Newtype USA magazine. Other special features include Clean opening and closing animation, the on air opening for episodes 1-13, and DVD credits.  ADV previews included are for Welcome to the NHK, Saiyuki, Tokyo Majin, Kanon, Puni Puni Poemy, and Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi. Previews are okay for teen audiences, but most of them are for higher rated anime (TV-14 and above)

Lots of stylized nudity in the opening credits- this is a “beautiful boy” anime, after all. There’s a healthy amount of innuendo and Sunako gets lots of nose bleeds when confronted with the “creatures of Light” (a.k.a., the four guys her aunt is making her live with.) Language tends to be a little strong- bullsh*t, ass, hell, bitch, and sucks are used in the subtitled version, and damn, bitch, butthead, f***, and sucks are used in the dubbed version. (The F-bomb is only dropped once.)

Though not a violent anime, there are several fight scenes, and some of them use cartoon violence (Kyohei pushes a bully’s face down on a grill, Sunako suddenly starts wielding a giant scimitar and kicking people in the head.)

Survey says: This anime is well done and is by a noted name in the anime world. It would best be shelved in adult collections, though, due to the occasional sexual content and some of the over-the-top fighting scenes.

Personal Ad: I think this anime is hilarious, and I personally loved it.