31☆Idream (original) (raw)

I had picked up the two available volumes of this manga and another manga. I had high expectations for the other and medium to high expectations for this one, as I do love my idol shoujo genre but this had a older aged woman in business clothing on one of the covers so I pre-judged it. Boy, was I blown out of the water. I hadn't really been reading manga recently at all, so reading every page was like a fresh and crisp page. It was glorious.

This manga is about a 31-year-old woman, and hence the title which I find pretty witty although slightly peculiar.... "31, I dream," Haha! Get it?

Chikage used to be the class president and a beautiful girl. This woman feels unsatisfied with her life after graduating from high school and having a job in a workplace, she thinks that she has missed her chance to be something greater. After she meets her now successful, good looking high school crush (Haru, who vice-versa once loved her) at a reunion, she spills these confessions of lost opportunities to a previously introverted classmate friend of hers from years back. This friend gives her a way to turn back her body into that of her previous 15-year-old body by a mysterious medicine.

Art: 9, I sincerely love Arina Tanemura's art style for sure. One of my favorites. It's jampacked with glittery, cute backgrounds and it's always consistent that way I know how to easily tell off the bat that it's her work. The big eyes may scare people off, there's also the fact that many of her characters appear similar or a splitting image to her other characters in different mangas.

Character: 8, now the reason I am giving it a 8 is because this seems like there's not enough characters to play around with and it's a bit of a closed dimension as of now. You have three potential love interests, the two younger ones and the older friend who gave her the medicine. Chikage as an MC is easily likable, honest, and refreshing.

Story: 9, unique somewhat. The concept for a older woman turning into a younger girl that is. But if you're a bit experienced in reading or watching shoujo (specifically idol) then you will find that some of the situations that are happening in this manga aren't exactly new and have been done before. If you don't mind that and simply let go and enjoy, that's no problem.

Enjoyment: 9.

Overall: 8, even I find it weird that I'm giving rather high rankings for this barely known and only three chaptered (as far as scanlations go) manga. I don't even know what I'm doing right now.