[101 Manga in 2011] White Garden - Princess = Student Council President-ish

Hakuou no Sono

By MIYAGI Tooko

Shirotae: I still don't fit in on my last school.
Shirotae's Uncle: How about if I bring you to the school where I'm a director in?
Shirotae: Whatever. What matters is a school where I can study.
Shirotae's Uncle: It's settled then. From now on, you'll be my school's Princess.
Shirotae: Huh?
Rokujou: I've been waiting so long for you, Princess! I'm so happy I could finally serve you~
Tachibana: You can do whatever you want as the Princess.
Shirotae: Anything I want? Then...
Tachibana: So you must do exactly as I say.
Shirotae: Eh?

RATING: C- (SO-SO!)
FAVORITISM: 2 Hearts ---> DISLIKE

The series seemed political shoujo so I gave it a try~ To my dismay, White Garden just got included in my "Manga That are Pointless to Read" list.

Why pointless? For some reason the "revolution" that the heroine aimed to do had already been decided by her since chapter 1. However, the other characters insist that it's impossible for her to do so. But those hindrances hadn't been a big deal at all when she declared it anyway on the last chapter. In other words, the ending of the series could've already occurred since chapter 1. Unfortunately these forced delays was the only method the mangaka has thought of to make the series longer.

It was just one volume, but it could already end with just a oneshot. It might not have been as bad if it was much shorter.

So much for my expectations on politics too *sigh* It's nice that it showed the significance of those second-in-command, and that there are leaders who could still be manipulated no matter how good or clever they are. It also presented a reality that some followers are disappointed towards their leaders just because their leader had been different from what they imagined him/her to be.

Unfortunately, it didn't go beyond that. There could've been a reason behind those cherry blossoms that aren't blossoming. It could have brought up the rivalry between the east and the west side. There should've been other reasons why people go against the Princess, not just because they don't like her personality. There also could've been other ways on how the Princess will influence her people (other than the time when she made a speech in the last chapter) other than the "she's so attractive that people are drawn to her" reason.

The heroine's generally perfect; her little "flaws" only make her cool or cute. True, she lost once, but most of the time she has been invincible. Majority of the cast are either bland, annoying, stereotypica, or forgettable. The weirdest for me was the last girl who opposes the heroine. She's the "never gonna win against the heroine" type of rival, and her grudge was "out of petty reasons"... and where the hell did the voodoo thing come from? And her magic only doesn't work on the heroine, huh? Told ya the Princess of this story is just that powerful.

The "Princess" idea reminded me of a certain series so I got really curious on how the Princess system in this series works. Unfortunately, it just turned out to be the typical highschool shoujo with rich kids attending a school wherein its system started as a monarchy then ended up as democracy (usual student council fluff ftw *sarcastic*)

The art may be pretty, but not really pretty enough to have scenes that are breathe-taking. They're enough to satisfy people who just like to see goodlooking characters though. I don't really like the series overall at all, but I do like these two, hehe:

But even if the characters in this series look nice, this has been difficult to read. I'm happy that it hadn't become annoyingly mushy (no romance at all!) and there weren't any stupid girls that needed to be rescued 24/7, this was still such a chore to read.

The story had potential, but the characters ruined everything. It managed to avoid some of the annoying shoujo cliches though, so I suppose this won't be a bad read, as long as you keep your expectations as low as possible.