Ranked #5390

Hen (Manga)

Hen is a mature yuri romance series that is based on a girl (Chizuru Yoshida) enjoying the fact of getting what she wants from men, but strangely enough finds her first love from a girl (Azumi Yamada) that is transferred to her high school.

When the story begins, it is easy to find out that Chizuru Yoshida is mainly a bad girl who doesn't seem to care for others except for herself. However when Azumi Yamada appears in the story, things start to change for Chizuru as a person due to the fact she is falling in love towards another for the first time. Whether her actions tend to be viewed as good or bad to readers, Chizuru was certainly one main reason on what made this an interesting and somewhat funny story to read.

Due to the fact that Chizuru can be somewhat a complex character, she is the one individual I found unique to the story. Because Chizuru is so complex, you don't really really know what actions she may attempt in order to get Azumi Yamada to fall in love with her. The other characters tend to be typical in the story so readers don't need to expect anything different from them.

As for the artwork, I would consider it one of the weakest areas of the manga. At times from the beginning, the artwork seems a little plainish and unappealing so readers may need some time in getting used to it. However, the artwork does gradually get better as the manga progresses.

All in all, Hen is consider a decent to pretty good series for "yuri" fans to consider. However, don't expect anything much from this manga with the exception of Chizuru Yoshida's character.

*Be warned, there is some sexual content in this manga.

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This is such a difficult series to review because there are so many things that make it unappealing, and yet I still like it. On the one hand, I know its trashy reading, and on the other, it's just too damn fun to completely ignore the value of sheer enjoyment. I like to think it's a parody or something. But this is the author of Gantz we're talking about. It's not especially deep.


STORY:

I have read up to the beginnings of volume five, and damn does this story just take it's sweet time getting anywhere. Though the whole point of the story is the Big Gay Love between two girls, as is made pretty obvious by the cover/synopsis, the main girl spends the first 150 pages of the 221 page first volume TOTALLY MACKING ON LIKE 4 DIFFERENT DUDES. For real. She finally meets the girl she likes, and then, as a method to stay close to her, continues boning one of the aforementioned dudes. This is seriously the least gay gay story I have ever read. There is actually lesbian shenanigans later on, but they are few and far between, not to mention incredibly shallow.

This is so obviously the "Idiot Male" perspective on girls liking other girls, and if you have a sense of humor somewhat like mine, that can be funny, but otherwise... yeah. It's pretty bad.

ART:

Hideous. Atrocious. They have skinny pipe legs and the main girl has boobs that hurt to look at, exploding in aggrandized waterballonish granduer off of her 3 inch wide torso. Their mouths resemble belly buttons at times. It's like if Barbie's had the ugliest faces possible. It's consistent, I'll give it that, but it's... Well. to be the nicest I can be -- it takes some getting used to.

CHARACTER:

The main girl is the most bizarre in my eyes -- she's so unrealistic that she realistic. Or rather, the way she reacts unrealistically is believable because she's such an unrealistic character to start with. Sort of like how after a while you just start accepting the (lack of) physics in a mecha show, you accept the fact that Chizuru has simply not felt emotion before, and thus her ridiculously exaggerated reaction to a normal crush somehow makes sense. Other characters, however, are much more logical and realistic. The male characters are the most believable, and Azumi at least manages to be slightly more than the typical fantasy of the innocent girl (though I should emphasize "slightly").

ENJOYMENT:

I personally find myself enjoying this a lot. It unfolds like a sort of slice of life story about the ridiculousness of Chizuru making everyone around her confused/turned on/scared/all three. If nothing else it's interesting just to see the stereotypes on gay women that are exposed, as well as the obvious interference of a gay female being written by a dude -- in fact, sexual/gender stereotypes are prevalent here. If it's read as parodying those, it's frickin awesome. Bu if you read it unironically, than it's even more amazing when moments of truth break out of a deluge of misinformation and cliches.

OVERALL:

In good conscience, I cannot by any means call this "good". I gave it a 7 only because I somehow manage to enjoy it, despite it's obvious faults. If you don't mind reading something mindless but fun in a trashy sort of way, I'd say give HEN a try. Just don't expect too much from it.


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