She thinks they don’t understand her because they don’t know, but really, they don’t care - they’re teens, jumping to conclusions based on appearance and casually ignoring or taunting others because they can. When she tries to explain the truth to them, it just confirms their opinion that she tries too hard. Her classmates think she’s weird, and it’s based on her appearance, but really, it’s as much due to her behavior. (Compare The Wallflower, where the artist is able to move from creepy-cute to disturbing with a similar design.) Even when she’s supposed to be drawn in a menacing fashion, it doesn’t really come off that way. Her look is classic, not particularly scary, at least to my eyes.
If her looks are that much of a bother, why didn’t it ever occur to her to, I dunno, get a haircut? The makeover is a long-standing magic weapon of girls’ manga and magazines.
She’s fixated on Kazehaya (who’s drawn generically and hasn’t much distinct personality) just because he treats her normally. It makes me cringe to watch her praising the boy so profusely and being so self-effacing. I spent most of the first chapter wanting to inject some sense and self-assurance into her. They seem to applaud Sawako’s hard work and cheerful determination to keep trying, but I found her shading towards pathetic. I’m not sure why Kimi ni Todoke volume 1 by Karuho Shiina is getting so much praise. I find it heart-breaking, instead, that she’s so starved for friendship that she obsesses over those crumbs. I don’t know if I’m supposed to find it funny when she goes overboard and stalker-ish praising how immensely nice he is just because he talks to her like a person. His attention means others in the class start talking to her, too. He uses her real name, Sawako, instead of Sadako, the girl from the horror movie. She idolizes Kazehaya, the popular boy, because he’s nice to everyone and he has lots of friends. If she can’t be liked, at least she can make herself useful. (Me, I thought she looked like a typical Japanese manga schoolgirl.) She copes by doing every good deed she can and volunteering for tasks at school, so that people will like her for being helpful.
Sawako’s classmates are scared of her because she looks like a character from a horror movie, with her long black hair, heavy bangs, and pale skin.
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