Imperfect Girl( literal translation: Insufficient Girl) is a manga created from a mixed collaboration between Mitsuru Hattori and NisiOisin. Hattori drew the art of the series while NisiOisin created the storyboards. Not much is know about NisiOisin. I just know that this person has created a few works over the years that have made it into manga magazines in Japan. Imperfect girl spans about three volumes. A novel version was released before the manga in Japan.
An author that remains nameless retells his story of an event that shaped him into being the author that he is today.
Imperfect Girl might as well that great manga that you never knew that you needed in your life until you open up it's pages. The manga can be really easy to miss at your local bookstore as you stroll through the selections no matter what country your in. I have to consider this instance of my deciding to buy volume one of Imperfect girl brought on by a whim. I wasn't going to buy it because I'm not into Manga about children…. Well, There have been special occasions(I'm loving Sweetness & Lightning right now) so Imperfect Girl has just been added to the "special occasions" list. Imperfect girl takes a form of all the qualities that other mystery/thriller manga are completely forgetting to put in their stories: pure suspense. No more end of the word, zombie or Titan attacking human kinds of fiasco. Only simple bottomline suspense. What's even better about the suspense is that it's very simple. NisiOisin doesn't try to go leaps and bounds attempting to impress the reader with fancy tricks/cliffhangers to prolong the series. The story is what it is. Most of the manga is told from the view point of the young guy who is an inspiring author. Readers of Imperfect Girl are basically placed inside the main character's head from pretty early on in the series. When the conflict suddenly open hand slaps him full in the face, we as the readers are left a lot of the time with his thoughts. That my friend, can be one of the scariest things about the plot. You are scared of what the future holds for our character each hour that goes by. Then there's the girl who is the conflict of the story in herself. She has different sides to her character which also makes her a walking mystery too. Imperfect Girl is a quick page turner between all the questions that are created by the story itself. You will breeze through the three volumes unlike me, who had to wait for a new volume every two months.
The art style took me back to the drawing style of early 2000s. Manga like Annie Freaks pops into my mind when I see the artwork in the panels. It's foundation isn't as carefully drawn like Annie Freaks was but there's things that I noticed about the art and I liked what I saw. Panels are created in dark ink that outline the action in each section. Art is drawn in a way to stress the horror that takes place for both characters. Some of this action includes marking up a psychological scene with straight lines going across the characters. Dark shading in of character's faces as well as settings can be seen also as maximum effect to spark emotion. The symbolism of the fish reminded me of Flowers of Evil. You don't get too many manga nowadays that use animals or plants as a symbol of a character's inner turmoil. Not to mention the color art for the back covers of the North America versions of each volume are VERY well done.
Pick up a copy of Imperfect Girl if you're a fan of dark mystery manga. The story won't disappoint you. I was very satisfied with the ending and I would welcome a continuation to the series, or maybe a spin off.
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