Le Gardenie
Le Gardenie is a Malaysian high school drama/romance manga created by Gempakstarz's artist Benny Wong Thong Hou of Fatal Chaos fame. The manga was created in year 2006 and finished in 2008 in Utopia magazine's 139 issue. On June 22 2006, Le Gardenie received third place in Japan's first International Manga Award. The series is a coming-of-age tale about a group of teenagers in a secondary school which is located in a Venice-like town set in another world with fruit-based names such as Lemon, Orange, Apple and Kiwi (pictured).
The artist for this series was formerly by Ben but has been since replaced by artist Juice (Normah Noh) under the alias GempakStarz, as Ben is now working under a new company as a creative director. The company he works for release a new series of comic cum entertainment magazine titled Powder.
- Alas, Poor Villain: Lemon loses her memory after falling down the stairs.
- Alpha Bitch: Lemon.
- Betty and Veronica: Apple is Betty and Lemon is Veronica. Kiwi, however...
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Lemon.
- Blondes Are Evil: Lemon again.
- Bokukko: Kiwi, to the point she is the only female student to wear a boy's uniform.
- Cerebus Syndrome: The humor in the comics slowly dies out as the story progresses.
- Die for Our Ship: Aaron, Apple's ex.
- Fan-Preferred Couple: Orange and Apple. Here are the fans' theory about mixing their fruity namesakes together:
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Orange + Lemon: too sour |
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- Ironic Birthday: Inverted, during Lemon's birthday party, which doubles as a plot to sabotage Kiwi the second time, everything goes haywire. Apple ends up as the scapegoat, Lemon slaps Orange for lying to her, Lemon's estranged cousin comes for a visit and a giant sign crashes down and knocks out both Orange and Lemon.
- New Transfer Student: Apple
- Nice Girl: Apple again; A pleasant girl and good student.
- Rich Bitch: Lemon
- Scenery Porn
- Theme Naming: The leads are named after fruits.
- Tsundere: Kiwi, later Lemon.
- Unlucky Childhood Friend: Kiwi.
- The Woobie: Come to think of it, everyone.