Otana Ni Nuts is definitely a strange manga that tells the story of a young 5th grade girl who only dreams of becoming a woman, and when I mean woman I mean the whole deal like, boobies, looks, and everything, mostly the sexiness though. The young heroine Natsumi, spins around adoringly in front of her mirror posing like the models from ‘America’s Got Talent,’ while saying her ideal line “sexy” with apples on her breasts to make them look like the sexy grown up boobies (mine are kind of small though). The manga explores the hardships in which little kids’ face, such as having little to no respect, and or not being able to receive some special gift. As a result of facing these sorts of hardships, Natsumi steals a bag of peanuts that are meant for adults only and eats them and than bing bam boom, the next morning she wakes up with the body of a beautiful teenage girl (If I say anymore it’ll be a spoiler)! Well anyway, I personally do love the plot of this whole manga even though it does sound strange at first. I do admit that I was a bit skeptical to read this manga due to its overly weird synopsis which this website provided, but you’d be very surprised to know that it could be quite enjoyable to those shojo fans out there. However, this manga is indeed far from what you’d call a masterpiece, just from reading the first few chapters of this manga I could easily tell the flaws of it. But the number one flaw that will always bother me is the fact that this manga is a bit too fast paced to the point where we’re hearing multiple proposals (not telling what kind) in just a few chapters.
Characters
I absolutely felt no emotions towards the characters in this manga whatsoever which is quite strange due to the fact that I’m quite judgmental when it comes to the characters of anime and manga. For some strange reason throughout reading all four volumes of this manga I felt no specific emotion except for enjoyment, but the enjoyment didn’t feel right, it felt sort of empty. Perhaps you could call it a sense of artificial enjoyment if there was such a thing that exists. The manga concentrated on a total of three characters: Natsumi, Asuma, and Yuunosuke. Natsumi is our main heroine, who is probably no different from any other heroine in the shojo industry today. The only features, I believe that are quite uncommon in other shojo heroines if the fact that Natsumi is probably is the only girl to have ever wished for something purely childish as to grow up and be that sexy lady she dreams to be. The main male protagonist is Asuma Yaneyama, who is known to be very close friends with Natsumi. Our next character is Morinomiya Yuunosuke the handsome doctor who is the creator of those life-changing nuts.
Art
The art of this manga is definitely not impressive, fantastic, enchanting, or OMFG THIS IS ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS! In fact, I found the quality of art to be somewhat amateur compared to the many other types of anime/manga art in the entertainment industry of Japan. I felt as if the characters were too skinny and were a bit disproportionate compared to the usual shojo style, but I must say that I did find the art a bit interesting and such. Sometimes it’s okay to see something different for once, makes the whole story a bit of interest. I have come to understand that Otana Ni Nuts were one of Haruka Fukushima’s earlier works which only excites me more to see the other shojo manga she has written.
Overall
There were a few things that I thought of while reading this manga: If I had the chance to grow up 10 years into the future would I? Would the reasons differ from each person? Personally if I had the chance to be in adult for about eight hours than I would seize that chance, besides don’t we all need a little adventure in our lives? I would recommend Otana Ni Nuts to anyone who enjoy shojo and who question the chance of becoming an adult for one day.
