“What is Love?” Thoughts on Parfait Tic!

Parfait Tic! (パフェちっく!)

(Manga 2000-2007)

By: Nagamu Nanaji

I finally read Parfait Tic!  in its entirety a couple of weeks ago. It took me a while to actually read it thoroughly. Every time I would read it, I would stop midway because the main female lead, Fuuko Kameyama, annoyed me. Yet, I decided to push through the reading, and in the end, the main girl didn’t annoy me anymore.

Fuuko Kameyama is an upbeat, naive girl, who likes to hangout with the kids around her neighborhood in her spare time and experiment with weird hairstyles. One day, two heirs of the wealthy Shinpo company—Ichi Shinpo and Daiya Shinpo— move into her apartment complex. The three of them eventually become close friends. Parfait Tic! becomes a complex love triangle when both of the guys start pursuing Fuuko, and she isn’t sure who she likes. 

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These characters have completely different values and definitions on love, which influences their feelings for each other.

Fuuko’s first unrequited love is Daiya Shinpo. He is kind and thoughtful in contrast to the cold and rude Ichi, and he would take notice of her. Fuuko’s definition of love is centered on the idea that a guy likes you if he pays extra, close attention to you. In addition, the guy would care for you when you feel sad or disappointed. Her ideals aren’t wrong, but her values causes her to feel confused when both Daiya and Ichi show special treatment to her. As a result, she isn’t sure if it is friendship or love.

Ichi Shinpo mistakes love with dependability and friendly reliance. Ichi’s first love is this young female employee at his family’s company, Iori Kei. Iori has a workaholic boyfriend; thus, she uses and spends time with Ichi as a way to make herself feel better. Iori considers Ichi as a little brother, but he mistakes this for love. Hence, Ichi’s view of love could be seen as sibling love or to the extent, incest (a bit of an extreme, but could be seen as that way).

Daiya Shinpo likes to flirt with girls, but he isn’t interested in a serious relationship. When Fuuko confesses her feelings for him, Daiya rejects her. His reason for rejection is because he has no idea what love is, and thinks that he cannot properly cherish her. It is after this act that he realizes his strong feelings for her. Later on, Daiya suffers from a painful love because he has to stand-by and see the girl he likes, Fuuko falling for Ichi.

With these values and views on love, it is obvious to us, as readers, why these teenagers have complicated love lives. Now let’s go back to the question, “What is love?” Or in other words, “How do we define love between significant others?” When do you know it is “real love”? I think the natural answer to that is when two people sincerely confess their mutual feelings of love, which “they” do in the end of this series.

Parfait Tic! is a pretty entertaining manga to read, but it took me a while to get over Fuuko’s crazy hairstyles. I know it is to suppose to add to her childish and innocent character, but the way those hairstyles are drawn made her seem like a clown than a girl. However, she transforms into a mature woman once the hairstyles started to tone down later on in the series.

4/5