Caterpillar Girl and Bad Texter Boy (let’s call it CGBTB, shall we?) is a single volume (or standalone) manga. It was first published in Japanese in 2017, but has only recently (this June, to be exact) been published in English. As such, CGBTB seems to not yet be widely known and cannot be found on MAL’s manga database. Since that’s the case, I’ll briefly summarise its premise to you here! Suzume’s a cute, smart, popular highschool girl, the kind of girl who seems to have it all, whereas her childhood friend, Akane, is brusque, socially awkward, and prefers his own company. Nevertheless, Suzume has loved Akane for a long, long time. So when she finally confesses her feelings to him and is rejected (“You’re too perfect”) she’s devastated! So much so that she feels her only option is to have herself transformed into a monstrous caterpillar creature to try and win Akane’s heart… Naturally!
CGBTB took me by surprise. Its premise is so outlandish that you’d be forgiven for thinking that it’s probably some kind of weird (even by Japan’s standards) romcom. But, whilst there were cute and funny moments (who knew that caterpillars could be so moe?), CGBTB was predominantly a moving story full of lessons about love.
Watashi Wa Bucho!! 