Little Butterfly
Encyclopedia
is a Japanese manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

 written and illustrated by Hinako Takanaga
Hinako Takanaga
is a female Japanese yaoi manga artist from Nagoya. She has also provided illustrations for several yaoi light novels by other authors, including The Guilty by Katsura Izumi. Most of her works have been translated into English and German...

. It is published in Japan by Kaiousha, and is licensed in North America by Digital Manga Publishing
Digital Manga Publishing
Digital Manga is a company that licenses and releases, in English, Japanese anime, manga, and related merchandise. The company has several subdivisions: Digital Manga Publishing, which publishes Japanese manga, novels and instructional and illustration books in North America with multiple imprints,...

, in Taiwan by Taiwan Tohan, in Germany by Tokyopop Germany
Tokyopop
Tokyopop, styled TOKYOPOP, and formerly known as Mixx, is a distributor, licensor, and publisher of anime, manga, manhwa, and Western manga-style works. The existing German publishing division produces German translations of licensed Japanese properties and original English-language manga, as well...

  and in France by Taifu Comics.

Plot

When the cheerful junior high student Kojima decides to make friends with the loner Nakahara, he discovers that Nakahara has a lonely home life, as his father is distant, and his mother is mentally unhinged. Kojima finds that his feelings for Nakahara are romantic, and Nakahara confesses his own feelings towards Kojima. Nakahara applies for a scholarship at a distant high school to escape his home life, and Kojima, despite having much worse marks than Nakahara, decides to apply for the same school, so that they can continue to be together. Nakahara helps Kojima study, but Nakahara's sexual advances on Kojima are rebuffed. Nakahara has a crisis at home and stays at Kojima's house for a while, and their relationship becomes more physical.

Publication

Little Butterfly is written and illustrated by Hinako Takanaga
Hinako Takanaga
is a female Japanese yaoi manga artist from Nagoya. She has also provided illustrations for several yaoi light novels by other authors, including The Guilty by Katsura Izumi. Most of her works have been translated into English and German...

. Kaiousha released the manga's three bound volumes
Tankobon
, with a literal meaning close to "independently appearing book", is the Japanese term for a book that is complete in itself and is not part of a series , though the manga industry uses it for volumes which may be in a series...

between January 10, 2004 and February 10, 2004. It is licensed in North America by Digital Manga Publishing
Digital Manga Publishing
Digital Manga is a company that licenses and releases, in English, Japanese anime, manga, and related merchandise. The company has several subdivisions: Digital Manga Publishing, which publishes Japanese manga, novels and instructional and illustration books in North America with multiple imprints,...

, which released the manga's three volumes between May 17, 2006 and January 25, 2007. Digital Manga Publishing is republishing Little Butterfly in an omnibus
Anthology
An anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler. It may be a collection of poems, short stories, plays, songs, or excerpts...

 edition to be released in February 2010. It is licensed in Taiwan by Taiwan Tohan, which released the manga's three volumes between August 8, 2005 and December 23, 2005.
It is licensed in Germany as Kleiner Schmetterling by Tokyopop Germany
Tokyopop
Tokyopop, styled TOKYOPOP, and formerly known as Mixx, is a distributor, licensor, and publisher of anime, manga, manhwa, and Western manga-style works. The existing German publishing division produces German translations of licensed Japanese properties and original English-language manga, as well...

, which released the three volumes between August 2005 and January 2006.

Reception

Mania Entertainment's Julie Rosato comments on the manga's "so sweet that it actually hurts" relationship between the protagonists. A review of the second volume of the manga by Rosato comments on the lack of relationships like the ones between the protagonists in the yaoi
Yaoi
In careful Japanese enunciation, all three vowels are pronounced separately, for a three-mora word, . The English equivalent is . also known as Boys' Love, is a Japanese popular term for female-oriented fictional media that focus on homoerotic or homoromantic male relationships, usually created by...

genre. She also comments on the "odd blurring effect on a handful of pages". Of the third volume of the manga, Rosato comments on the protagonists "open dialogue never took a back seat to the romantic "action" - quite often a pitfall in this genre". Active Anime described the art as "graceful and beautiful", and the story as being "mature and sophisticated".

Further reading

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