Adabana

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Japanese: adabana -徒花-

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Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 3

Chapters: 28

Status: Finished

Published: Mar 18, 2020 to Jun 16, 2021

Genres: Drama, Mystery

Theme: Psychological

Demographic: Seinen

Serialization: Grand Jump

Authors: NON (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 7.58¹ (scored by 7,180 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #2543²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #1077

Members: 20,138

Favorites: 357

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7.58

Ranked #2543Popularity #1077Members 20,138

MangaGrand JumpNON (Story & Art)

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Volumes: /3

Chapters: /28

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Synopsis

Mizuki is a quiet and reserved girl who is about to take the entrance exam. She lives with her rigid and possessive mother, concerned that her daughter's grades are not good enough to go to a good university. The only escape route for Mizuki is Mako, her only friend, with whom she shares confidences and can vent. One day, talking about the trip they plan to take after the entrance exams, Mako suggested to Mizuki an easy and quick way to earn money to make her dream come true. However, Mizuki couldn't suspect that her friend's seemingly innocent advice would have dire consequences for both of them...

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Background

Adabana has been published in English by Dark Horse since September 2, 2025.

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Characters

Aikawa, Mizuki

Main

Igarashi, Mako

Main

Hayami

Supporting

Tsuji

Supporting

Ishida, Tatsuo

Supporting

Akatsuki, Yuki

Supporting

Reviews

Feb 27, 2025

liwzun

Recommended

“While I said I was doing it for her.. Maybe I was just using her as a convenient excuse...” - Adabana

SPOILER FREE REVIEW!!

Expectations- 8/10
My expectations were pretty high, since the story seemed to be mysterious and interesting.

Start- 9/10
I got invested since the beginning.

...

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Feb 6, 2025

YanerLeFerox

Mixed Feelings

I didn't like how most of the twists were presented. It's great when you are given a perspective, and then you see another perspective which gives the situation another meaning. However, the earlier chapters in this manga straight-up lie to the reader. Both main characters do and say things that are completely opposite to what we are shown in the latter chapters, when the truth is discovered.

For instance, it's nice if you show a panel of blood splatter, then you show a character's face getting dirty with blood, and then you show them crying. What you CAN'T do is showing how a character kills ... someone, straight-up admits they killed them, and then you show the same scene but said character never does any of this. It feels really cheap and non-sensical, it kind of reminded me of the game "Heavy Rain". One may argue "that's because that's what that character told the police, not the actual events", but in a mystery story this kind of story-telling feels just cheap. The same goes for the "dead narrator" device used to tell the actual events of what happened; it may mislead readers, and instead of naturally unraveling an interesting mystery, it feels like the manga doesn't know how to do it and chooses the easy path, which is straight-up telling the readers the truth in a pretty random, simple way. I guess that's in part because of how short the manga is.

It does a good job depicting how miserable the lives of the main characters are, and how their lives were ruined by awful people who didn't give a crap about any of them, although I think it's over-the-top, a little too cartoonish. The manga tried too hard to be edgy and depressing, and in the end it came off as a little unrealistic. For instance, the story revolves around a character who lost their mother when they were a child, who's extremely poor, who has a disabled father, whose uncle abuses them, who gets bullied in school, who doesn't really have friends besides the MC, who hits on a guy who's like the worst person ever... And the list goes on and on, but I don't want to spoil anything. The situation is just so over the top and unsubtle it feels like the manga is telling us the readers: "feel sad, dude, you need to feel sad".

The resolution of the mystery was lacking, as it left plot holes everywhere. The ending itself (or epilogue) was sad, but the lead-up to it felt really forced; I get the author wanted such an ending in order to convey what she intended, but providing what happens right before, such a turn of events makes little sense. That speaks volumes about the third volume (no pun intended), which is the worst of the three and you can tell it was rushed; it needed to wrap up too much stuff in just a few chapters, which is why the last 1/3 of the story feels so rushed, full of plot holes, plot contrivances, and forced developments. It would have benefitted from having 1 or 2 more volumes.

The characters are pretty plain and sometimes even straight-up stupid: there are times when you just want to punch them in the face so they use their brains a little. The MC is supposed to be really smart, but once you realize what her plan was all along, you realize it was really stupid, how much she relied on luck and how some of her actions just don't make sense. The main and secondary villain are particularly bad, they are just so cartoonishly evil you can't take them seriously, and one of them, despite being characterized as a cold and calculating psycho, seems to become braindead during the last 1/3 so the manga can reach the ending it wants to provide. By the way, every men (except for one) in this story is a complete, irremediably evil asshole: they're painted in an appaling light, which adds to the cartoonish elements that hurt it.

Even so, the manga has its strenghts; particularly the awesome art, the suspense and intrigue, the atmosphere, the tone, and the message it tries to convey. The writing could have been way better.

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Sep 17, 2021

adwmika06

Not Recommended

Spoiler

Adabana is an awful pseudopsychological manga with a bunch of clichés, a banal division into black and white, and a terrible detective. Everything around the main character is bad for no reason. The drama is very cheap, the antoganist causes nothing but laughter. The presentation of the story is too exaggerated and innocent author tried to squeeze a tear out of the reader that caused me nothing but laughter.The ending in general turned out to be some kind of openly castrated. Just a few clouds for a quick description of past events and to close the storylines of all sorts of scum, like a ...

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Poll: Adabana Chapter 4 Discussion pacmanyo - Feb 28, 2021	1 replies	by SpazmHates »» Aug 21, 5:40 AM
Poll: Adabana Chapter 6 Discussion pacmanyo - Mar 5, 2021	1 replies	by Kurocrimbs »» Jun 3, 10:52 PM
English Translation? DioBrando_69420 - Mar 8, 2022	6 replies	by Seiba_Dragon »» Apr 2, 2023 1:54 PM
Where can I finish this Bluagrana33 - Oct 28, 2022	4 replies	by Noobmixups »» Dec 20, 2022 3:07 AM
Poll: Adabana Chapter 10 Discussion XO2HKIM - Jun 21, 2022	0 replies	by XO2HKIM »» Jun 21, 2022 8:52 AM

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