Otona ni Nuts
Instant Teen - Just Add Nuts

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Story
Otana Ni Nuts is definitely a strange manga that tells the story of a young 5th grade girl who only dreams of becoming a woman, and when I mean woman I mean the whole deal like, boobies, looks, and everything, mostly the sexiness though. The young heroine Natsumi, spins around adoringly in front of her mirror posing like the models from ‘America’s Got Talent,’ while saying her ideal line “sexy” with apples on her breasts to make them look like the sexy grown up boobies (mine are kind of small though). The manga explores the hardships in which little kids’ face, such as having ... little to no respect, and or not being able to receive some special gift. As a result of facing these sorts of hardships, Natsumi steals a bag of peanuts that are meant for adults only and eats them and than bing bam boom, the next morning she wakes up with the body of a beautiful teenage girl (If I say anymore it’ll be a spoiler)! Well anyway, I personally do love the plot of this whole manga even though it does sound strange at first. I do admit that I was a bit skeptical to read this manga due to its overly weird synopsis which this website provided, but you’d be very surprised to know that it could be quite enjoyable to those shojo fans out there. However, this manga is indeed far from what you’d call a masterpiece, just from reading the first few chapters of this manga I could easily tell the flaws of it. But the number one flaw that will always bother me is the fact that this manga is a bit too fast paced to the point where we’re hearing multiple proposals (not telling what kind) in just a few chapters.

Characters
I absolutely felt no emotions towards the characters in this manga whatsoever which is quite strange due to the fact that I’m quite judgmental when it comes to the characters of anime and manga. For some strange reason throughout reading all four volumes of this manga I felt no specific emotion except for enjoyment, but the enjoyment didn’t feel right, it felt sort of empty. Perhaps you could call it a sense of artificial enjoyment if there was such a thing that exists. The manga concentrated on a total of three characters: Natsumi, Asuma, and Yuunosuke. Natsumi is our main heroine, who is probably no different from any other heroine in the shojo industry today. The only features, I believe that are quite uncommon in other shojo heroines if the fact that Natsumi is probably is the only girl to have ever wished for something purely childish as to grow up and be that sexy lady she dreams to be. The main male protagonist is Asuma Yaneyama, who is known to be very close friends with Natsumi. Our next character is Morinomiya Yuunosuke the handsome doctor who is the creator of those life-changing nuts.

Art
The art of this manga is definitely not impressive, fantastic, enchanting, or OMFG THIS IS ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS! In fact, I found the quality of art to be somewhat amateur compared to the many other types of anime/manga art in the entertainment industry of Japan. I felt as if the characters were too skinny and were a bit disproportionate compared to the usual shojo style, but I must say that I did find the art a bit interesting and such. Sometimes it’s okay to see something different for once, makes the whole story a bit of interest. I have come to understand that Otana Ni Nuts were one of Haruka Fukushima’s earlier works which only excites me more to see the other shojo manga she has written.

Overall
There were a few things that I thought of while reading this manga: If I had the chance to grow up 10 years into the future would I? Would the reasons differ from each person? Personally if I had the chance to be in adult for about eight hours than I would seize that chance, besides don’t we all need a little adventure in our lives? I would recommend Otana Ni Nuts to anyone who enjoy shojo and who question the chance of becoming an adult for one day.

Otona Ni Nuts story was about a girl wanting to become an adult because of a barber. The story was good enough. The art was great. But the character of the girl was kind of... Well, irritating. We do have a reason why at times we dream of becoming an adult but if those nuts are true why go so far?? She always cause trouble. If I was her childhood friend I might not take it. The only character I liked was the childhood friend. Because of his love he would ALWAYS stand by her side. Although I did enjoy it. Overall, It's fair enough.

I ... recommend this for those who like the patient type boy and kinda dumb girl who doesn't realize the feelings of others

Otona Ni Nuts. A hell of a ride reading that. I remember first coming across it around a decade ago in my neighbourhood bookstore that had a huge wall of Tokyopop manga and I was debating between getting the first volume of it or finishing up Natsumi Ando's Zodiac P.I. (and ultimately I chose the latter option.) So fast-forward to quarantine 2020 and me being bored out of my mind and trying to remember the Tokyopop titles I found in that bookstore so I could read them online. Instant Teen: Just Add Nuts (Tokyopop's title) was one of 'em. So I read it. And quite ... frankly, I regret it.

Otona Ni Nuts is, in itself, a cute, funny story idea; you've got a dumb kid who, like so many other dumb kids, wants nothing more than to grow up with haste. She's got her childhood friend who holds complicated feelings towards her and her stance, and wants her to just enjoy being a kid alongside him while they still can. But, since she's both dumb and a kid, she just can't seem to realize how much of a blessing childhood really is and ends up eating these odd genetically engineered nuts to turn her into a "sexy adult" at the most random of times and for the most absurd of reasons, from trying to seduce an older college man on a cruise ship to competing with a older masculine lady on who can be the sexiest. It's downright bonkers but that's part of it's charm.

That being said, however, the execution of the story itself in the manga was poor. It was super, SUPER rushed and all the gags and gimmicks were more fetish-y than anything. There were way too many confusing moments that came out of the blue and left me going "huh?" much too frequently for a manga of it's type and length. Also, the amount of illogical nonsense in this manga is UNBELIEVABLE (how is Natsumi's mother not questioning where the heck her daughter is skipping off to for such large periods of time? How's she letting her hang out with some wacko scientist all the damn time? If she's at public events or doing modelling while using her real name, wouldn't her parents see her? My brain hurts from all the "duhhhh")

A big chunk of the confusion came from the unfortunately sloppy art. I took a look at some of Fukushima's more recent works and it looks like that's just how her art is, but honestly the art in Otona Ni Nuts is just...not good. Even though I adore the early 00's shoujo art style generally, this simply wasn't up to par with me at all. I couldn't understand half of what was going because I literally couldn't SEE what was going on. Art that is: crowded + sloppy = recipe for a manga disaster. If I can't follow through with a story because of its art, that automatically ruins the story for me, no matter how good the story is. And I can say for sure now that I won't be checking out any of Fukushima's other work because of this.

The characters were fine. Bland, unfunny, and not much else to them other than that they're all airheaded, rude, and shameless (especially Natsumi, flashing her rack for all to see without much thought or reprimand.) The adult characters bothered me the most, like the scientist and his tomboy lover. Why a fully grown adult would constantly go head-to-head with a literal child in a competition of sexiness is completely beyond me. But hey, manga right?

I'm a bit confused on how this was serialized as a manga for younger girls, since a lot of the moments were akin to the ecchi fanservice you get in shounen manga and anime. But I guess maybe that was supposed to be the deal-maker here? Showing that young girls can enjoy gross humour in a coming-of-age (if you could even call this "coming-of-age") story too? If that's the case, then I'm pretty sure there are better manga out there that fit the bill. This manga also never garnered any kind of notable attention contrary to most Nakayoshi-serialized manga, but I think anyone else who read it can tell why.

In conclusion, Otona Ni Nuts is a hilariously dumb attempt at a potentially good story concept, and it's one manga I'm putting on my invisible "Store-away-in-the-dark-abyss-of-your-mind-and-never-think-about-again" list.