Danica Davidson
August 21, 2023 
In Like a Butterfly, Suiren is a high school student who is very pretty and very shy. Because of this, people refer to her as “Flower,” saying she’s like a beautiful flower that grows on the tallest peak of a mountain. The boys stare at her, but they don’t have a relationship with her. One day a boy is being a jerk to her and Taichi comes to her rescue.
Taichi is kind of like the male version of Suiren — he’s very pretty and very shy. But he also knows martial arts, and makes sure that jerk won’t mess with Suiren again. After this Suiren quickly falls for Taichi. A pretty girl who’s older than them publicly asks Taichi out, expecting him to agree. But he turns her down. The other girl, surprised, suggests they can start out as friends. He turns her down again, saying he doesn’t know what to talk about with girls.
Since Suiren doesn’t know how to talk to boys, can they make the perfect couple? After that there is a lot of yearning shown between the characters, but they’re too shy to make anything official.
Like a Butterfly is pretty, gentle, delicate and quiet like its protagonist. It might sound odd to call a manga quiet, since it can’t make any noise, but it’s quiet in the sense that its artwork seems so fragile and it has many panels where there are no words, and in those panels it’s the actions and expressions that carry the story. And while shojo manga often tends to have a pretty look to it, there is something about Like a Butterfly that feels extra pretty.
The mangaka, suu Morishita, is a duo that has published other shojo manga, including the very sweet Sign of Affection, as well as Shortcake Cake. Like a Butterfly includes brief little tidbits of how the manga came to be, which could be of interest to readers. This soft, sweet manga would most likely be best enjoyed by fans of shojo romance manga.
Story & Art: suu Morishita
Publisher: VIZ Media
Translator: Abby Lehrke
____
Danica Davidson is the author of the bestselling Manga Art for Beginners with artist Melanie Westin, plus its sequel, Manga Art for Everyone, and the first-of-its-kind manga chalk book Chalk Art Manga, both illustrated by professional Japanese mangaka Rena Saiya. Check out her other comics and books at www.danicadavidson.com.
