Beauty is the Beast, Vol. 1

Beauty is the Beast #1

by Tomo Matsumoto

When bubbly eleventh-grader Eimi Yamashita finds out that her parents are relocating for work, she decides to strike out on her own and move into a dormitory for girls. Little does Eimi suspect the exciting romantic adventures that await her there!

Eimi's fellow residents are a little bit crazy, but a whole lot of fun. They've got a secret mission planned for Eimi's new resident initiation and it has something to do with sneaking into the boys dormitory! Can Eimi pull it off without getting caught by one of the handsomest and cruelest boys in the dorm?

Genres: Manga, Romance, Shojo, Graphic Novels, Comics, Comics Manga, Young Adult

184 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Japanese: マツモト トモ

Reviews

[Mir · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rather flatly characterized story about late teen/early adult students in a pair of single sex dormitories (the men get a much nicer dorm than the women!). There is a lot of gazing at the opposite sex and buying of snack food, and very little studying.

There's little explanation of why the male MC is frightening to the girls. I'm not sure why the author bothered trying to reference Beauty and the Beast at all. Everyone seems pretty normal. I would recommend this to people who enjoy school stories more than as a fairy tale retelling. Although the friend who gave this to me likes school stories and she wasn't impressed by it, either! Maybe it gets better as it goes.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a sucker for stories where the bad boy is just a misunderstood sweetheart, and the girl is a goofy clueless-wonder who has a knack for seeing everyone for who they truly are. I can't wait for the next volumes to come!

[Jamie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This took me awhile to get into. Still not sure what I think. The art is okay. Not the greatest but some bad parts are intentional, therefore leaving mixed thoughts. At first, the characters made no sense and they just started to toward the end. So the first 2 chapters had my nearly DNFing it. Honestly I thought I would push through this volume but that would be it. This ended at an okay enough level to be willing to continue, since it is a short series.

[Sylwia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the protagonist and how well she understood her own attraction. I like her roommate and their friend, and how out-of-the-box both the roommate and friend were in terms of their characterization (one is very into what people look like and the other is into lacey underwear???) The love interest was interesting and the scenes with him were nice. But I needed a plot, much more detail, smoother transitions, and ongoing conflicts, where there aren't any, so this series is not for me.

[Laura (ローラ) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favourite shoujo series (considering how much I read, says a lot for it). I love Matsumoto's delicate art style combined with a story relatively devoid of angst (at least on the girl's side). Eimi is the perfect protagonist fully-formed; she already knows exactly who she is. And it's this characterization which becomes the catalyst for Wanibuchi's own self-revelation.

It's lightly funny, lightly romantic, and mostly just a slice-of-high-school-living-in-dorms-kind-of-life. It's perfection!

[Sharon Mariampillai · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actual Rating: 3.5

This was an enjoyable manga. I do hope that the rest of the manga does get better because this volume showed a lot of potential to where the manga could go. I did enjoy it, but I thought that there could have been more done to the story. I thought the story was slow at the beginning, but picked up during the last few chapters of the manga. I thought the characters were great. I cannot wait to read volume 2. Overall, a great read.

[haven ⋄ f (hiatus) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Have to say, everything that happened was unexpected and sort of disappointing.

I am not a huge fan of the author's art style. I can stand it. The noses are too pointy and the eyes are dull and there's slight differences between male/female eyes. *sighs sadly* The thing is, with mangas, your art style AND your story both have to be compelling for people to real love it. I like the story, but I'll only read the two books I got. (Probably)

[Estara · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Sho commented on my overview review of the first seven volumes of Dawn of the Arcana that I'm reading more shoujo manga than she is, it fired my desire to reread more of my finished shoujo for some reason.

This series, the second series by the mangaka at the time - her first and longer series was a drama shoujo romance called Kiss that I had read in scanlation (just like this series) - starts out as if it wants to be a girl version of Koko wa Greenwood/Here is Greenwood, the 80's shoujo set at a boy's school.

Eimi enters the girls dorm at her new school and meets two very weird girls, one of whom is her roommate. Misao who looks like the typical quiet Japanese beauty, is utterly fascinated by beautiful bodies - female and male (there's a great chapter of how she gets together with her boyfriend because of his body ^^ in this volume) so she has huge posters for Takefuji dance commercials on the wall.

Then there's her best friend Suzu who is such an androgynous beauty that all the girls at school are in love with her (but who secretly loves girly, lacy, sexy underwear - with a detailed obsession that is lovingly depicted, heee).

The dorm girls haze Eimi with a dare of getting two name plates from the boys dorm, and it's then that she runs into the (author-explicitly-intended) eyecandy Beauty/Beast of the series, Takami Wanibuchi, half Japanese, half Brasilian returnee - who has a tall, imposing physique and a quiet menace. When he doesn't snitch on her but actually helps her get the name plates and return to the girls dorm, she decides he's a total sweetie (and becomes the biggest fan girl ever).

Eimi is weird. It's never really explained, but she often acts like a total instinctive animal. The one repeated feature of her emotional make-up is fearlessness, so she gives people nicknames that no one would dare nickname after she has decided they are to be trusted. She feels comfortable around "Wanichin" so she tends to tag along if he lets her. And he does. She even gets him to confide somewhat in her about his past.

Yup, this is a series that will focus more on the angst of the guy, but on the other hand the girl will never have to compromise herself. She'll be allowed to be herself and that'll be enough to make the guy change.

[Yue · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are several things I do not like that much in this manga, but there are also a couple of things I like a lot. I like Eimi, the main character. She looks more like a little girl instead of a teen, but she is nice, does not cry as most main girls in a shoujo, and her chibis are very funny. She is, basically, very normal and likeable.

Wanibuchi, as the main male character, is also interesting. He is supposed to be dangerous, but he does not intimidate Eimi at all, and they get along pretty well, without having embarrassed moments or any flirting (unless you count the times he is shirtless and Eimi is there open-mouthed).

The little facts the author puts about the dorms are very interesting, especially if you are interested in slices of life that are unknown to you. I have never experienced school dormitories and stuff, and this is Japan, so it is even more interesting.

What I did not like was: her friends. Misa looks more like a robot, with no feelings and emotions. And Suzu is weird, with her lace/underwear fetish. Sometimes she looked like Inui, Wanibuchi's friend. Personalities of characters is not well developed. So far, I think I can understand only Eimi and Wanibuchi, the others... nothing.

The art-style: I have a problem liking their noses. Looking front, looks like they do not have any nose, like it was cut. From sideways, they are too long.

Overall, I liked it, and I will probably continue reading it.

[Amy-Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is just my review on book one:
First impressions: I was sooo excited it was a beauty and the beast typish novel I was on cloud nine!

I liked the main character Eimi and her "beast" my problem lies with the secondary characters.

Misao- just seems flat to me.. And is obsessed with women's bodies? I donno... Just doesn't do anything for me at all!!!

Suzu- looks to much like a boy. I think even her 'panty' obsession could be more liked especially if the guy she liked didnt look like her twin. I honestly got confused at their exchange because they look almost identical!

I also wouldn't of minded if it took Eimi a bit more time to realize her beast is not a beast. And then like normal manga head over heels in book one. Lol i like it to build a bit. So I'm sitting here mad that the author hasnt gotten them together yet! (Makes it soooo much more enjoyable)

Maybe it'll get better with book 2?

[veloci.reader · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story was kind of cute and I liked the art but the characters were not well written. I got no sense of their personalities at all. I probably won’t read the next volume.

[C.E. · Rating 4 out of 5]

~3.5~

[Harsha · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's one of those hidden gems in the Shoujo genre. If you like this, you should check out the mangaka's other works. Totally lovable characters.

[Cassandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

I borrowed all of this from the library cause all volumes were in and I figured I could finish this manga in one shot but I think I’m done. I thought the stories in this volume were really disjointed and they keep saying she is bubbly in the blurb, I saw none of that. He got in a fight but it was done drunk starting shit with multiple people do to me that’s not really bad boy. Also, like why does Mexico gotta have a bad rap in this book?

[Jessica]

what I really enjoy is that the female lead is also not the only focus. it's often not from her perspective and she can come off as a side character, plus she's not gorgeous, or worse, a gorgeous character who is inexplicably said to be plain. she's pretty average! other characters are varying degrees of fleshed out. art is nothing special.

[TheBookDreamer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am definitely curious to see where this tale takes us 🙃

[karinocapipoca · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 (series review) - the characters were never fully developed and the ending was incredibly rushed (maybe the series was cancelled and the author had to quickly wrap things up?).

[Chelsea · Rating 5 out of 5]

I live for wildly quirky characters and mismatched personality love stories. This was such a WEIRD and fun debut to the series: 10/10.

[Zoe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I literally don't know what to say about this one. It feels so all over the place and I had no idea what was going on the whole time but I had fun?

[Julie]

nostalgia re-read

[Yuki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kinda slow and weird but I liked it. The art is good.

[Anna 'Bookbuyer' · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found the change of POV in this volume to be confusing and a bit disappointing. :(

I like Eimi and her friends. I found them to be fun.

Each has their own quirks that makes them fun and unique.

I really hope that Eimi and Wanibuchi get together! :D

[Starzee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nawwwww, Eimi is so cute! She's so adorable and innocent and thoughtful.

I've been wanting to read this manga series for ages and I finally found an online place to read it.
It's completely unrealistic and that's what makes it such a hoot to read. I had a feeling I would really enjoy this and I did! Typical Japanese style comic where the innocent girl takes a liking to the unapproachable bad boy type, who actually turns out to be nice at heart, or at least nice to the girl.

It was so hilariously funny when she attempted to kiss him on the cheek and practically headbutted him haha! He had to show her how it was done. Aaaaah, I can't wait to read more - about halfway through the second book and I absolutely long for Eimi-Wanibuchi moments. TOO CUTE FOR WORDS =D

[Dexter · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first, I wasn't overly impressed, and expected to not like it. The art is good, but not super clean or anything. There were many times when I was confused about who was speaking or what exactly was going on. I get confused about the characters too, because they either all look the same or aren't given a lot of introduction time, making it hard for me to learn who they are. I'm starting to get it, but honestly there's still only three people whose names I know.

Despite all this... I'm such a sucker for shoujo school romance humor stories. Eimi just makes me laugh because she's so... I don't even know. But she and "Wanichin" are just so funny together.

It just makes me really happy, and that's mostly why I read shoujo manga.

[Starbubbles · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was not at all what I expected. Maybe I should have paid closer attention to the actual description of the book instead of making my own assumptions about it based off the title. I was thinking it would be something about fashion, someone beastly, modeling... nope, not really. It was a really cute series though. I'm glad I got it at the library and not by purchasing. I would have been a tad sad then. Anyway- slightly dated artistic style, but I didn't notice it much after the second volume. I loved Eimi (I called her Emmy the whole time, not exactly right, I know.)! It has been a while since I've liked a main character this much!

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eh. I read this series in it entirety and it left me feeling kinda emotionally ambivalent.

Its an ending that may be true to life (there is no true ending and the story continues I guess is the message), but thats not why I read this stuff.

The artwork style is not my favorite. It seems that the artist needs to work on their ability to draw faces. The main characters are a little hard to relate too.

[Kricket · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is absolutely hilarious. Eimi moves to a dorm to finish high school because her parents have transferred elsewhere. Which means...dorm hijinks! Sneaking over to the boy's building, apprehending pervy old pantie thieves, finding out that suzu has a shameful secret fetish...completely bizarre. Of course I loved it.

[Dorcas · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's billed as a romantic school dorm comedy. Which seems kind of bland, however the main character, Eimi, is a bit of an oddball and connects with the bad boy of the school. Later volumes start to drag.

[Samantha wickedshizuku Tolleson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly this series just wasn't my cup of tea. I liked the art style, but the series lacked a more exciting plot. In six months time you probably won't even remember what you liked so much about it, or that you had even read it.

[Avery Engstrom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ohhh my goodness xD I love the two fetishes of Misao and Suzu, so hilarious!! And Eimi is the BEST of them all! Her nicknames... Oh wow, Wanichin and Nuinui xD It's useful because it makes the names easier to remember...