Paradise Kiss : l'intégrale

by Ai Yazawa

La très sérieuse lycéenne Yukari n'a qu'une réussir sonentrée à l'université. Son assiduité aux études n'a d'égale que saphobie excessive des gens. Aussi, quand un garçon tente de l'aborder, puis qu'un travesti lui barre la route, elle s'effraie au point qu'elle s'évanouit! Lorsqu'elle se réveille au "Paradise Kiss", une sorte de bar tenant lieu d'atelier de couture, elle apprend que ses "agresseurs" sont des étudiants d'une école de mode qui travaillent à leur création de fin d'année. Isabella,le travesti, Arashi, le garçon, et Miwako, sa copine, s'activent àréaliser une robe dessinée par leur ami Georges. En raison de sa taille et de sa minceur, Yukari est pour eux le mannequin idéal pour présenter ce modèle. Quels sacrifices devra-t-elle faire pour entrer dans ce monde bizarre qui l'attire pourtant?

Genres: Manga, Romance, Comics, Josei, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Shojo

876 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Ai Yazawa (Japanese: 矢沢あい, Yazawa Ai) is a Japanese manga author and illustrator. Her pen name comes from singer Eikichi Yazawa, of whom she is a fan.
Yazawa started her comics career in 1985. She specialises in shojo manga (girls' comics). Most of her works have been serialised in the magazines 'Ribon', 'Cookie' and 'Zipper'.
Yazawa's stories focus on young, often rebellious women and their relationships. The characters are always very stylish, and Yazawa herself is known for her sense of fashion. (She even attended a fashion school for some time after high school.)
Among her most famous manga are Tenshi Nanka Ja Nai (I'm No Angel, 1992–1995), Neighborhood Story (1995-1998), Paradise Kiss (1999-2004), and Nana (2000-2009), the latter awarded a Shogakukan Manga Award in 2003. Some of these works have been adapted into anime and live action movies.

Reviews

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Got all the way to the end only to find out it's a sequel series lol. I'll have to see if I can find the one that came before it.

I really do enjoy Yazawa's work, but it's a little problematic. She writes toxic romances very well, and I think it's made obvious that the romances are toxic, but they're also heavily romanticized. I'm happy for Yukari in the end tho. Not so much for Miwako, because Arashi is trash. Also the treatment of Isabella, a trans woman, and George, a bi man, could've been way better. Arashi and Yukari were homophobic, biphobic and transphobic and it was seen as comedy. The story itself was okay. I found myself getting annoyed with the characters a lot, but I liked the non problematic humor and the art and the story was interesting. I wish we could've seen George again in the end, but maybe it's for the best that we didn't. Finishing this desperately makes me wish for an ending for Yazawa's other series, Nana. The fact that this ending wasn't picture perfect and more "realistic", but still happy was pretty satisfying.

[Brittni Kristine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one is really tough for me to wrap my head around. Nana is my all time favorite manga and anime, so I think that I just lost some of the charm of Paradise Kiss due to not having read it before Nana. The characters seemed like replicas of characters I already loved, but worse versions. And that’s just not a very fair assessment.

But Yazawa’s art and story telling are always top tier, and even if it wasn’t my favorite, I still enjoyed it. Maybe someday we’ll get new work from her, but if not, what she’s done so far will stick with me for the rest of my life.

[ava ୨୧ · Rating 5 out of 5]

favorite manga of all time ai yazawa you will always be famous!

[Roxana Chirilă · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up a cute, girly manga and it turned out to be various shades of fucked up - but I really like it :))

Yukari is a high school student and she's just about burned out. She's worked really hard to get into one of the best schools, but her academic abilities aren't that great, so no matter how hard she works, she can never do as well as her mother wants her to.

One day, she's picked off the street by a few fashion students who are looking for someone to model for them in their school competition. Although reluctant at first, Yukari finds herself drawn by them and their fashion world; and especially by the mysterious rich boy, George, who is their designer.

I thought this would be a fluffy romance, but not really. It's funny, it's meta, it's got all the feels, but it's ultimately more about personal growth and fucked up people and their ill-advised relationships, from motherly figures that are too strict (and resentful) or too lax (and resentful), to romances that aren't what they're supposed to be. I love how Yazawa handles the inability to communicate, as well as the complexities of how one's background creates expectations, misunderstandings and, sometimes, the inability to act in a healthy way.

I also love Yukari's growth as a person, going from someone who barely allows herself to be her own person, to someone strong-willed and hardworking in her way, while still dealing with inner conflict.

I feel some things are never quite resolved, but oh well.

[a · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't even know how to process this manga. I really loved it, but at the same time there were things that were not perfect and some side plot stuff that really doesn't sit right with me. But ultimately I loved this so much and I'm so upset it's over because I want so much more.

[lily · Rating 5 out of 5]

i will never recover from this

[Laura LaCourse · Rating 3 out of 5]

My issue is romanticizing toxic relationships (more than one). As a teen I’m sure I would have been right there in the headspace to justify the male characters and the female response… but not now. And it more than once has unconsensual sex… no thanks. I was also disappointed in the treatment of the trans character - she was lovely - and repeatedly treated in a homophobic way (and made funny?). So much more could have been done with those characters but kudos to trying to include them 20 years ago.

This was my first manga - and I must say I’m blown away with the style. The amount of information that’s included is beautiful. Just problematic characters here for me.

[violeta · Rating 4 out of 5]

-

★☆ 3.5-4/5

paradise kiss content warnings: alcohol, internalized homophobia, transphobia, rape, sexual innuendos and graphic sexual content

ummmm UMMMMM this one is hard to rate. on the one hand, i kinda dislike most of the cast and have found so many issues worth addressing that made me uncomfortable (like one character using another's deadname :]). on the other, i'm obsessed with the themes yazawa explores on here + the way she always manages to depict youth in a way that makes me become attached to whatever she creates. the fashion, the aesthetic, the storytelling, the relationships; i have to put an special emphasis on the latter because the way they bloom is fascinating. and not precisely in a good way (which has a purpose, i know).

definitely a weird mix of good and bad, hence why i'm so torn with the rating. i can't really say anything more because i'm still digesting everything but miwako and isabella have my heartheart.

btw, i got this omnibus edition as a present from my parents because it was something i wanted but not something i would have actively bought on my own!

[Shae · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to admit, I loved the mess that was Paradise Kiss!
We have a group of teens, chasing their dreams in fashion, and going on a journey of self discovery. The art is absolutely stunning and breathtaking for sure.
Let's talk about George for a minute, as he was one of the biggest enigmas in the entire series. George's motivations throughout the series were never very clear. He was chasing a dream, and Yukari helped him achieve part of it. George was very driven and creative, but also very flighty and all over the place. Then again, George was 18, and most 18 year olds aren't the most stable people in life. George always threw me for a loop. His desperate need to feel loved was very well depicted.
Yukari was a FANTASTIC protagonist to follow. She was just going through the motions until she was recruited by the Paradise Kiss crew. By that happening in her life, and spending time with George and the others, she figured out what she wanted out of life. Granted, her mother didn't agree for a good portion of the series. The one person that Yukari could speak to about both sides of the story was a friend from school that she had a crush on from the beginning of the series.
The romantic relationship that Yukari and George have is a toxic mess, but an understandable kind of relationship for teens to be having. They both needed different things out of the relationship than they could give another, but they just didn't know how to go about it.
Let's talk about my best girl, Miwako. She had a tough go having to choose between her 2 best friends, who happened to be guys, when it came to her romantic partner. I'm not going to spoil the how or why of her choice, but essentially the choice was made for her. Again, this is teenagers making stupid decisions because of their own insecurities. Miwako reminds me a lot of myself at that age, where I just want everyone to be happy and safe, even at the sacrifice of my own happiness potentially.
All in all, I would highly recommend checking out this series. Yes, it has some problems, but it isn't afraid to call itself out. I'm excited to start other works my this mangaka.

[Wiktoria Badora · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really should've stopped reading in the beginning but I thought the story would take a turn and it never did 😭
I hated every character especially the male ones, there's so many instances of literal abuse portrayed as young love being hard and I just can't get past that, also everyone just acts SO ridiculous it made no sense and I went through 800 pages of that 💀

[cami]

Ai yazawa please just write one healthy couple please ..

[Rod Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

I first read this series fifteen years ago, not knowing it was the sequel to Ai Yazawa's Neighborhood Story series. Having just read that series, I gave this one another go. I certainly had a greater appreciation for the backstory and supporting cast, but their roles are so eclipsed by the love triangle between three characters that didn't appear in that series that it perhaps doesn't add all that much.

Still, Paradise Kiss is a solid teen romantic dramedy with a fun dab of metafiction. A chance encounter has a serious academic type getting drawn into a quirky friendship group, the world of fashion design and modeling, and a romantic triangle.

As always with Yazawa, the art and characters' clothing designs are the big draw.

[Eileen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I need more manga written by women especially when the target audience is older women!!!

[Sköll. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ou sinon on jette tout les hommes à la poubelle et les femmes du cast viennent me date moi 🙄☝️

[Apollo Mul · Rating 3 out of 5]

PLEASE CHECK THE TRIGGER WARNINGS BEFORE READING THIS BOOK. Some here that I can remember, TW: abuse (physical/emotional); sex; rape/sexual assault (mostly mentioned, but there are flashback snippets); biphobia (in the way it is both treated/portrayed); emotional manipulation; nudity; transphobia (in regards to Isabella); “dead naming” (in regards to Isabella). I want to say that’s it, but it’s 9:35 am and I finished it at 1 in the morning.

I actually finished this book the night before, but I wanted to stew in my thoughts before writing this review. Paradise Kiss is one of those older, beloved shoujo that is definitely a product of its time, but it also feels rather modern.

Yukari goes through what is essentially a midlife crisis at 17-18 years old. She has no direction in life, she wants to please her strict and emotionally/physically abusive mother, and she falls in love with the worst sort of guy she could possibly date. He too is controlling, emotionally abusive, and while he has spots of warmth, is cold, rude, and narcissistic. He fully expects Yukari to bend to his will and shape her how he wants her to be, and Yukari acknowledges this; she just doesn’t care. While he wants to control her, he also tells her he prefers independent women, not clingy ones, but his behavior suggests otherwise. This too is acknowledged by Yukari; again, she doesn’t care.

There is a lot of… hm… rough shit to get through to get to the shining bits of this manga. It makes the reader sort of know this relationship for Yukari isn’t good, but by the same token, she wouldn’t have had any of the opportunities presented to her without this relationship. By the end, she still cares A LOT about this dude who hurt her consistently and gave her just enough signs of affection to keep her there. They try to make George a complex and sympathetic character, but that character can fall into a ditch for all I care. He receives no consequences for the way he has hurt other characters because guess what? He’s a spoiled rich kid. Shocking, I know.

Don’t even get me started on the treatment of Isabella as a trans character, George as a bisexual character (who is portrayed as greedy/sleeps around, has multiple partners without being polyamorous), and the treatment of Miwako with Arashi and Hiro. I also just really hate the way Yukari’s mom got off the hook because suddenly, Yukari was successful! She could flaunt Yukari off to others! Yay! The abuse is over! (It’s not.) It was a clusterfuck of Bad. That’s all I’m gonna say in regards to this shitshow.

I want to believe that this ending Yukari has is good. I want to believe she is happy and healthy and thriving, but goddamn, that last fucking page infuriated me. Fuck George. That dude deserves ZERO redemption or the opportunities he has been GIVEN. Yet this ending tells you he is thriving. He is SUCCESSFUL. That because someone is talented, it doesn’t matter if they’re a shitty person. “They have a bright future ahead of them because they’re so talented! So what if they abused the people around them?” What. The. Fuck.

That isn’t the say we can’t have redemption arcs for people who hurt/abused those around them. I honestly would have preferred that. A genuine apology on George’s part to Yukari would have been stellar and a final meeting where they reconcile things would have been great. The same applies to Arashi to Miwako (that situation is truly a fucking MESS), but there is no apology or forgiveness given, not even on Yukari’s part. George doesn’t suffer a single fucking consequence this entire story, and Yukari suffers them all. It is infuriating because the heroine herself can’t even reconcile her own bullshit. We go on this 800-some page story with her and we got That as an ending. I told my friend, “I’d be so mad if I was actually keeping up with the serialization of this when this was initially coming out.”

All in all, the story had the usual drama for a shoujo and Yukari as a character is infuriating for the right reasons: she’s a direction-less teenager trying to find her place in the world, and she stumbles and bumbles through life and her relationships with others. My problems lie with the treatment of Yukari, her relationship with George (him as a whole), and the treatment of women (cis and trans) in a narrative meant to empower them. In the end, our main women characters suffer at the hands of others around them with no true autonomy on their part (it made me so MAD when Hiro says Miwako “chose” Arashi despite him raping her). Many of those that make them suffer are, tragically, men. While the men are not perfect and have their baggage, the only one that we actually explore to a more full extent is George. God, do I hate the fuck out of that guy.

Lastly, this isn’t really related to the story, but I honestly really hated the fourth wall breaking happening in almost every or every other chapter. The first time, it was funny. The sixth time? We can stop now. The joke’s not funny anymore. Oh, we’re doing this another four times? Okay.

So can I recommend Paradise Kiss? It’s hard to say. It’s a classic in the shoujo manga world, and I think it is important to have narratives where our MCs really fuck up and deal with the tough parts of their lives. By the same token though, we have to acknowledge that this relationship was bad for Yukari, something the story conveniently does not acknowledge to the extent it should. She didn’t deserve to go through a shitty relationship just to figure herself out. I think this part especially pisses me off because someone I care for deeply had to go through a shitty relationship to realize she had to love herself above all else. She was coerced, abused, and taken advantage of, similarly like Yukari. This hit too close to home, and I can’t reconcile knowing George essentially got away with it. That fuckface got away with it too. “But Apollo, these things happen for a reason!” Die. No, they do not. No one deserves to be coerced, abused, and taken advantage of just to figure themselves out, fictional or otherwise. These narratives only perpetuate that belief and I hate it.

I don’t necessarily hate Paradise Kiss. It’s not the worst offender, but we also can’t ignore that it is a flawed piece of media aimed at impressionable teenagers. We can have flawed characters and certain, troubling elements in the stories we read, listen, or write, but they have to be addressed that this is not good, this is not healthy, do not engage with something like this in real life, especially when your target audience is young people. I know that people see Yukari and George and demand they be the endgame relationship, despite everything, and that is the hardest part to reconcile with.

[kit · Rating 4 out of 5]

so good!!!

[marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.75 ⭐️ this manga affected me so viscerally that after i finished it, i woke up in the middle of the night crying 🙂 the way ai yazawa will always manage to tug on my emotions 💔 (p.s. the art style and fashion in this go KRAZYYY i love it sm <33 yukari made me get bangs lmao)

[aj rosean · Rating 2 out of 5]

Never read a romance before where I thought: thank GOD they broke up at the end.

[Crystal · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a reread in the new omnibus volume. It was just as wonderful the second time round. It’s rare to find a graphic novel series which has such a satisfying ending. Even more to find a romance story where the point of it isn’t necessarily the romance.

An end goal beyond happily ever after. Found family. Building self worth. Embracing self-expression. Living in the moment. Being open to change.

It’s a lovely story. One of my favorites.

[William DiGena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. Maybe one of the most realistic romance stories to be put to the page. And the absolute banger quotes you can pull from this is unheard of.

[dani · Rating 5 out of 5]

this ended the way i wanted BUTS ITS STILL SO BITTERSWEET at least its not as horrifying as nana!

[Jesus Flores · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paradise Kiss
Yo había visto el anime hace mucho tiempo y me había gustado, así que en algún momento compre esta edición del manga, pero por su tamaño la lectura se fue posponiendo, finalmente le llego su turno.

Me ha gustado, si bien durante el manga hubo varios puntos donde odiaba a algunos personajes o situaciones, ya en lo general me gustó mucho, y también muchas cosas ya ni me acuerdo si pasaron en el anime o no.
Lo que sí, comparto la queja de Isabella, casi no sale.

Me gusto el final
4 stars

[kadijay ♡ · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 ★

this is the first manga and i really enjoyed reading it. i think this manga is the prime example of how i DONT want my relationship to be if i get into a relationship as a teenager

[Lele · Rating 2 out of 5]

2,5⭐️

Très beau au niveau esthétique mais y a trop de trucs problématiques : transphobie, biphobie, romanticisation de relations toxiques et de sexe non consenti jusque parce que les personnages sont « jeunes » ??

[David Tuttle · Rating 5 out of 5]

picked this up after reading the first few volumes of Nana and i love Yazawa’s style and story beats so much. Looking forward to reading her other work

[emma °❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･ · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5 stars.

[Brendan Foster · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Klauuss · Rating 5 out of 5]

soy liquido

[hyacinthuss · Rating 5 out of 5]

ai yazawa is a genius and this is my favourite manga i have ever read everything about it was amazing !!!

[khaz. · Rating 3 out of 5]

d'un côté, il y a beaucoup de choses qui ne va pas avec ce manga, ne serait-ce que dans les discours teinté sur la bisexualité et la transidentité - sans parler des relations toxiques et abusives - et en meme temps, pour un manga des années 2000 c'est déjà pas mal de faire ce genre de représentation.

Yukari est un personnage qui évolue étonnamment au cours du manga et si la majorité du temps sa raison d'être et d'avancer tourne autour de Georges, elle parvient finalement à trouver sa passion et à se détacher de l'influence de ce dernier - qui est giga toxique on va pas se mentir. Isabelle et Miwako sont les personnages que j'ai préféré, elles sont les plus touchantes et agréables.

(Je préfère tout de meme encore et toujours Nana de cette autrice - d'ailleurs difficile de ne pas remarquer les similitudes physiques entre certains perso de ParaKiss et de Nana)