Ran the Peerless Beauty was recommended to me by a friend. As I'm more of a shonen fan, I usually don't go into shojo manga with high expectations. To me, it's more of a way to get my mind away from fights and power systems. Safe to say, this series pleasantly surprised me!
It starts out the way every love story starts. One fateful day they meet! And then instead of 10 chapters of “will they won't they”, they go on dates. Their dates made me remember a line from Kaguya Sama - “They begin relationships by dating, as a trial period”. I thoroughly appreciated this approach, it made them falling in love feel natural.
The whole idea of incorporating flower words into the story was genius. It ties to our male lead, and if you know the female gaze, you know girls will fall for that. I'm sure that if someone as knowledgeable about flowers as Akira reads the series, they'll have an even more awesome time than I did. The flowers also give the series a really gentle atmosphere, and I don't know if it's intentional, but it also represents Akira and Ran's relationship.
Akira and Ran do fight throughout the series. And then in 4 pages, they get it resolved. Shojo manga are guilty of making problems bigger than they are, so such great communication was refreshing to see. Ran runs away because she's upset? He'll just ask her tomorrow and she'll explain. Their relationship is casual, realistic. Even if they love each other to the moon and back, it never comes off as obsessive. Ran can have male friends and Akira can hang out with his female childhood friend. This doesn't change the love they have for one another. (“Unprofessional” note here, they were so cute I had a giant grin on my face the whole time)
I liked how many cliches the author Ammitsu avoided. Akira's mom didn't die for drama. Yes, the childhood best friend Nanami had a crush on Akira and attempted to “steal him”, but she was never an asshole to Ran. And when she got rejected, she just accepted it and moved on. As any normal person would.
Every character in Ran the Peerless beauty felt even a tiny bit real. Still guilty of cliche character archetypes, but it wasn't the only thing they had going for them. Ran's character arc especially will hit close to home for people. Drowning yourself in work/academics is the most common way to avoid the world. Akira opening up about his love for flowers also felt sweet, even if we've seen characters with similar stories a dozen times. I wish we had seen more of the friend group, especially Inoue. I'm a big fan of the “tomboy tsundere”, so I was a bit disappointed she couldn't get more moments.
I talked about the gentle atmosphere, and Ammitsu's art really adds to that. It's almost like the characters are weightless. Akira is drawn particularly well. His expression is always full of adoration for flowers and Ran. Combined with nice paneling/layout, it's a great experience. I'd recommend this series just for the art alone.
Ran the Peerless Beauty filled me with love. It's a series I couldn't get enough of, just like when you enter a flower shop and can't get enough of the flowers. Just like flowers, it was calming and beautiful. I'm certain I'll be coming back again again to it.