“I’m still in a state of shock over learning there are girls in this world who aren’t princesses.”
I went through a period in my life where despite attending anime conventions and cosplaying, I stopped watching anime completely. I loved what I loved and was hesitant to venture out and watch new things, due to the fact that I am a jaded twenty-four-year old anime elitist who grew tired with the new wave of popular anime and how commercialized the fandom had become. Every convention I went to I spotted twenty Inuyasha’s, characters from Bleach and Deathnote in every shape and size and one-too-many Kakashi’s from Naruto.
I was longing for a comedic anime to pop up out of the blue and return me back to my former adolescent passion, but was ambivalent because, well, the last thing I wanted to watch was a comedic samurai/ninja related show with breasts that defy gravity and little man-boys who fawn all over said breasts inbetween fighting boring battles and boring adventures with boring friends. Don’t get me wrong, there are some great series that fit into the “lone warrior ventures forth, finds friends and defeats evil” genre but I wasn’t willing to wade through the shit to find them. Yet over all, I was tired. It felt like those were the only types of anime anybody cared about any more. But then one day one series in particular came into my life completely on accident: The Wallflower (or ヤマトナデシコ七変化♥ for you purists).
The Wallflower is centered around five main characters: Kyouhei, Ranmaru, Takenaga, Yuki and of course, our protagonist and “heroine”, Sunako.
The four boys are, according to the series, the most beautiful, popular, handsome and coveted boys in their hometown known to me as “the town of flighty schoolgirls with no other goals than to have a boyfriend that is one of these four chuckleheads”. These guys do not know each other initially in the beginning of the series, but are all brought together by a wealthy single lady known as “Auntie” to live in and house sit her giant mansion for free while she is off traveling the world and being a badass femme fatale.
There is a catch, though: the four delectable dudes must transform Auntie’s niece, Sunako, into a true blue “lady”. If they do not succeed in softening Sunako, Auntie will end up tripling their initial rent. What is a “lady” do you ask? Well, a lady is someone who is graceful, loves pink, cute things, is popular, beautiful, well groomed and does not have any “strange” habits. The cocky fellows think hey, this will be easy! We are superficially attractive and all the ladies of this town love us, no problem! But boy, are they in for a surprise.
One afternoon as the four new pals are lounging about around the mansion in the lawn, Sunako mysteriously appears from behind the bushes, scaring them half to death. She has long, overgrown black hair with bangs that hang all the way to her nose. She has bad posture, slouches and is wearing the most bizarre outfit imaginable. Our four white knights, still feeling that they are up to the challenge, immediately start hounding her, attempting to charm her and literally sparkle with faux adoration. And how does Sunako respond? Well, she runs away from them, dives into her dark bedroom and slams the door.
What I love the most about this series is Sunako is not your a-typical anime girl. She loves horror, serial murders, crime, blood, skeletons, ghosts, the supernatural, creepy-crawlies and scary novels. She literally lives in the dark and her best friends are a skeleton named Josephine and two anatomical figures named Hiroshi-kun and Akira-kun. Sunako suffers from low-self esteem and perceives herself to be ugly, as well as a “creature of the dark”. She hates the four boys because they are beautiful “creatures of the light”. Sunako is an incredibly strong fighter and despite her shyness, will haul ass if she needs to protect someone she cares about. She regularly gets possessed by ghosts in the series which makes her all the more lovable.
The four boys are characters in and of themselves. Kyouhei is the typical rough-around-the-edges pretty boy that came from a tough background. He is a little bit of an asshole, and in my opinion, can be borderline abusive towards Sunako. He has a temper and will snap at the most minute things. Ranmaru is my favourite character of the series. He is a red-haired, flamboyant, pretty boy womanizer who collects women like I did Pokemon cards in the sixth grade. He is a little bit of a moron and comes off as shallow, but he is absolutely hilarious. He has, hands down, the best one liners in the series (including the quote I used for the title of this article). Takenaga is the most grounded. He is from a wealthy family, is intelligent and the only character who thinks before he acts. He is very serious and doesn’t fool around, unlike the other three. Yuki is the youngest of the four and is regularly mistaken for a girl. The guys tend to dress him up as a lady as bait for whatever scheme they are planning and heterosexual men tend to fall in love with him. Yuki is a bit of a crybaby, and he is scared of literally everything, but is the most genuine and kindhearted one, therefore making him endearing.
Some may categorize The Wallflower as a romance, but I really don’t see it as such. Sure, you have a subtle underlying storyline regarding a couple of romances, but puppy love is not what makes this anime great. The Wallflower is the first anime I “laughed out loud” at in a good six or seven years. It literally had me cackling. It has some of the most bizzare humour and I love how it toys with gender roles.
I relate to Sunako in a way that I’ve never related to any other female anime character. I love all the weird shit that she does, and was ostracized in my youth because of it. I share her obsession of horror and the supernatural, blood, guts and weird serial murderer cases. Anyone who loves anime and loves horror will get a kick out of this because there are a lot of funny references to cult classics like Psycho, Misery, etc.
Even if you have never bothered with a highschool comedy/romance/bishounen anime before, I highly suggest you check this one out. I think a lot of current anime fans have a warped idea of what bishounen is, but I think The Wallflower redeems the genre quite well.
Once you watch it, shoot me an email telling me how you liked it! I love knowing how other folk respond to my favourite series and I also love to give recommendations. Happy watching!
