Chou no Michiyuki
Flight of the Butterflies

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I loved this manga. Because, at least, it's original.
It's beautiful in its own way. The art is so well made... in my opinion. And I can believe this story has happened in the past, it is realistic.
When you read, you kinda feel the emotions of the characters. I mean, you can feel the pain, the joy, the relief. I highly recommend it.
It´s a story that everybody should at least know that exists.
I repeat: this is beautiful. Please, give it a try.
The art is awesome. I hope that the artist will get more recognized in the future.

This manga is very aptly named.

It isn't something that I would call a masterpiece; it isn't something that you'll think of, time and time again, or something that will weigh heavily on you. But when you're reading it, it feels as though you're a voyeur to a small, deeply intimate scene.

The plot is simple, and occasionally predictable, but not in a bad way. All of the characters, even the glamorous oiran, have the carefully written temperaments of real, genuine people.

It is in every way a modest story of love and sadness. One that makes you want to see more, to understand and ... experience more, but then ends; beautiful and fleeting, like a butterfly you can only glimpse before it flutters past.

A high-quality one-volume manga with art renderings and panels like cinema, with deep characters, and an interesting setting during the late-Edo period.

I'm surprised that, for just a short manga, the art is really good and unique. It has a distinct style that differentiates itself from other, more orthodox, manga. It almost has a sort of 'cartoon' feel to it yet it is very much a manga. The way shadows are rendered on top of objects is also very well-drawn, it gives off so much emotion to each panel. It's almost as if I'm watching an old movie. I'm no expert, but I feel like the ... author has decent knowledge of cinematography.

The characters are well-written and everyone in this manga seems 'grey'. By that I mean, despite the setting being inside a brothel, you would expect prejudices about the customers, the managers, and the prostitutes. But everyone just feels so human and so grounded and yet the grim nature of the brothel business is well documented.

This brings me to how accurately the author portrayed this very specific time period of Yukaku (Japanese brothel/entertainment district) culture in the late-Edo period. Many readers might not be aware of what the Yukaku culture was like in that era and the manga barely gives any exposition to its setting but so many things in this manga accurately describe the details and intricacies of the everyday women in the Yukaku. It's dark, and hell I'd say the reality would probably be even darker than the manga. But things such as STDs, contracts, debt, girl apprentices (kamuro), romance, and so on are so well portrayed in this manga.

9/10 it's a short story, it's historical, it's tragic, it's really good.