The Beauty in Ugly - Jason Mraz

Ugly Duckling's Love Revolution

Author: Yuuki Fujinari
Volumes: 4
Publisher: Yen Press

Brief Summary:
Hitomi's brother takes care of her and he does a pretty good job, because he loves her so much. Still, his love causes him to overlook her unhealthy habits. This enables her to put on a lot of weight. The weight doesn't stop her from making friends, even really hot ones, but she's worried about her health. Will Hitomi's diet succeed? Will one of the hot guys in the apartment complex her brother runs fall in love with her?

Review:
This was one weird manga, and believe me I know. What's weird is that it's a shoujo manga with no romance. It's hinted at, but never goes anywhere. Hitomi loses the weight and, Bam!, that's the end of the story. Shoujo is all about romance, so it's very strange for it not to be included. Stranger yet, this is a reverse harem manga, and she still doesn't get to have one of the like eight bishounen surrounding her.

What was cool, if not incredibly realistic, was how popular Hitomi was, regardless of her appearance. All of the hottest guys in school were friends with her and wanted to spend time with her. One of them even seemed to have a crush on her. Everyone in the manga was pretty nice, even the ones that were gruff on the surface. It would be nice if people really were this encouraging and focused on internal beauty.

Of course, I do think it undoes some of that message that Hitomi was depicted as a chibi character a lot, like on the cover of volume one. Also, she didn't get to have the typical large pretty eyes of a manga character. Fat people get little dots for eyes. Umm, what is that about? People's eyes stay the same size no matter their weight, but, sure enough, when she got skinny, she got pretty girl eyes. Uncool.

If this manga does anything at all, it endorses working out and staying healthy, perhaps suggesting that you will get yourself a bunch of sexy friends if you do so. I will not be revisiting this one, but it was interesting enough, so long as you know what to expect from it.

"She's so big hearted,
But not so remarkable
Just an ordinary humble girl"