Kodoku no Kochou wa Donna Yume wo Miru no ka?

I want to first make it VERY CLEAR that NO, this manga was not axed or cancelled in any way. If you are reading this review after finishing this manga, I want to let you know that this was a manga adaptation of a very short Web Novel (22 relatively short chapters in total). The ending of this manga is the actual ending of the Web Novel. For those who are looking forward to reading this manga or interacting with this story for the first time, I assure you that you will think that you have discovered a gold mine only to be left withsevere disappointment. Kodoku no Kochou wa Donna Yume wo Miro no ka? is a manga with an insanely interesting and unique concept for the background of its world. I personally felt very attracted to the concept as one of my manga roots is Arachnid, a story that also centralizes around insects or the idea of insects. Sadly, there are no real high notes when it comes to the story or its characters at all. Heck, not even the background or the setting gets any chances to really shine at all. Why? It’s because the story ends so abruptly that almost nothing has developed. The entire story occurs over the course of like a couple of days or so, and then it just ends. The potential was definitely there, but no effort was put into actually trying to expand any aspect of the story. Story: 3 The story revolves around that last line in the manga’s synopsis: “With the end near, the girl’s body transformed into a butterfly one. And the flapping of her wings will bring about a revolution in the world…!” In short, Ayumi is able to achieve her “dream” of becoming a Noble Butterfly, but her existence is a new or special one as it intends to upend the current state of this world that is more or less governed or protected by the existence of the current Noble Butterflies. This connects with Ayumi’s troubled relationship with Reika, who was her best friend once upon a time, who essentially abandoned her after becoming a Noble Butterfly. These two things make up a pretty solid backbone for a story this unique concept the author has drummed up as the background or lore for this world. The only issue is the actual execution of this story. You are given very large hints that yes, Ayumi becoming a unique and new Noble Butterfly (as to not spoil the story) will cause a major revolution or change in how many things will work in their current little living society and possibly even the world itself. That’s it. We are given just that and because the story ends so abruptly, it is just not expanded on at all. Even the development of Ayumi and Reika’s relationship, which is integral to the story itself, is very haphazardly written. To not spoil anything, I will just say that their relationship could’ve been resolved in a better way than what was actually presented to us. There was really no attempt at pacing their relationship’s development in a way that made sense or that would make its resolution feel satisfying. To put it simply, the story has a good backbone, but the execution of it was terrible. Characters: 3 I am going to focus on 3 characters here: Ayumi, Reika, and Towa. Ayumi is the main character, of course, but most of what makes her so interesting is what becomes of her after she becomes a Noble Butterfly. It seems like after becoming a Noble Butterfly (of any type), a girl would undergo a somewhat drastic personality change, and when it comes to Ayumi’s personality change, it is pretty cool as she basically goes from an optimistic and loving personality to being much more blunt and aggressive, being confused by who she has become as she is no longer considered human. Or that is at least what was given, but the story does not really follow through with this. Yes, this is Ayumi’s new personality, but at the same time, the story kind of does a bad job at keeping this constant after her transformation. Yes, she is allowed to feel weakness at times, but her bluntness and aggressiveness that appeared after her transformation, we never see that to a similar degree almost ever again. Maybe like once, but never again. Let’s consider Reika as an antagonist. After becoming a Noble Butterfly, she undergoes a personality change like Ayumi does, but she goes from being a loving and (kind of) caring individual to a very prideful and either aggressive or spiteful character. I think her character is portrayed very well in how she basically did a 180 after her transformation. The only issue is that because of how the story was written, yes, she is very aggressive towards Ayumi, but it would’ve been better to let this conflicting relationship between them drag out for longer. We don’t get to see them butting heads with each other enough to make the resolution of their troubled relationship feel satisfying. Towa is the Noble Butterfly Queen for the Pieris rapae, which is the faction or group that both Ayumi and Reika belong to. I consider her to be leaning towards the role of chaos agent based on the story that we do have. She does antagonize Ayumi and Reika by toying with Ayumi’s emotions and shunning Reika with her also having a bad relationship with the other Queens. She’s a fine character. I just wish that there was more story to better expand on her character. Art: 8 I really like Mimishiki’s art even though they have only worked on the art for a few mangas at this point in time. I first experienced their art when I read TS Eiseihei-san no Senjou Nikki, and I do think that they were really able to display the full capabilities of their talent with this manga, with it being a Fantasy manga. I enjoy looking at the expressions of every character as they are so distinct yet so intricate and beautifully done. However, I kind of share the same sentiment with the art as I do with the characters and the story itself: if the manga just continued the story, we’d probably see many more great scenes, whether it’d be new characters, new battles, or even new monsters/enemies, but we are sadly just left with what we have currently. But I really do want to praise the art. If I were to take away the highlights of this manga, I would definitely be the concept and the art. Overall: 4.7 I am just disappointed with the entirety of this story. When only the first volume of this manga was released, I immediately went looking for the Web Novel because I was genuinely interested in both the concept and the story. At that point, I learned that the Web Novel was already finished and after reading through it, I was not happy at all because the author just failed to capitalize off the incredible concept they came up with. But I held my hopes that the manga would continue on from where the Web Novel left off. That doesn’t happen very frequently, but it is always a possibility, especially when an author gets motivation from hearing that one of their novels is getting serialized into a manga. But as we see now, this manga just follows the Web Novel to a tee. I don’t want to repeat myself again, but I just want to emphasize that this is a manga with a great concept and a great baseline for its story and characters. However, not much effort was put into realizing the potential of this story, so we are left with really nothing. Do I recommend reading this manga? Maybe. The concept, again, is great, but the actual execution is abysmal. You will probably be disappointed once you finish reading it.