'Hot Gimmick' #1 Review

Here's me attempting to branch out and find good shoujo. I was surprised how much I enjoyed reading volume one of Crimson Hero so I picked up a few volumes of this series. So right off the bat we can assume this series is going to be pretty drama-tastic, hence the name HOT GIMMICK. I liked Crimson Hero because it had a nice sports manga feel to it along with the shoujo, but this series just looked like pure gossip/drama/etc. But I'll give it a shot!


Plot Summary

Our main character Hatsumi is JUST YER AVERAGE TEENAGE GAL. This series has pretty generic shoujo typecast characters. We've got the bad boy Ryoki who might have a softer side to him. Then there's super nice handsome guy Azusa. There's also nerdy otaku Subaru that no one gives a shit about. Poor guy. Hatsumi's sister Akane is only fourteen (two years younger than our protagonist) but she's been getting around town lately and asks Hatsumi to go buy a pregnancy test for her. Bad boy douchebag Ryoki happens to find out that Akane might be pregnant and now has Hatsumi in a bind. If he tells his mother about this, then Hatsumi's family will be shamed by all the other families that live in their company housing area. So Hatsumi reluctantly agrees to be Ryoki's 'slave' if he doesn't spill the beans. Already, this girl has serious self esteem issues. Ryoki basically wants to use Hatsumi as his sex toy etc etc cause this is how all guys are. But we find out that super fabulous model Azusa, who was Hatsumi's childhood chum, has moved back into their complex. He shows that he's going to protect Hatsumi because he's just so darn perfect.

(Check out the above image. SHE'S PRENANT!)


So as far as I can tell this series basically focuses on a love triangle between awkward girl, mr. perfect and douchebag (bordering on psychotic behavior) dude. Like I said, there's an otaku guy that might also jump in the game for winning Hatsumi's heart but he hasn't had much of a role as far as I've read. The most frustrating aspect for me was just that Hatsumi is...kinda dumb. I'm hoping she gets better as it goes on. Nothing really surprising from this series, pretty typical shoujo content going on. I bought the first three volumes really cheap so I'll keep reading and see where it goes. I don't have much to say about the art either, pretty average shoujo style. I do like the cover designs though. I think this series definitely reflects how Japanese behavior is different from American. All the drama in Hot Gimmick starts from Hatsumi not wanting her family to be shamed in any way and I really don't think most Western girls would care much about something like that. Different cultures. Anyway, I might review volume 2 and 3 if it gets any better (or worse)!

Hot Gimmick #1 - 5.2/10

'Crimson Hero' #1 Review

This manga was a very pleasant surprise! This is pretty much what I was looking for when I picked up Red River the other day; a good shoujo! I love sports manga and this is a good example why. The first thing I noticed about this series is the art is pretty great! I can't stand when shoujo manga ka create a series that looks exactly like every other shoujo. Crimson Hero's art is a lot better than most shoujo series out there, especially the faces and clothes. There's still a heavy use of screen tone, like all shoujo, but not so much that it bothered me while reading it.

Plot Summary

The lead character Nobara Sumiyoshi is a tomboy with serious love for volleyball. Her family owns an old fashion japanese resteraunt (ryotei) and Nobara's mother wants her to become the next hostess. She attends a new high school purely on the fact that it has a popular volleyball team but soon learns that it's the boy's team that's popular and the girl's team has been shut down this year. After being sick of all the crap her mom is giving her, she decides to move out and goes to her aunt's (who is also the school nurse) for help. Her cold but caring aunt sets Nobara up at a boy's volleyball team dorm working as their dorm mother. Now we've got a good shoujo setting: girl surrounded by lots of hot guys.

We've got the asshole hot guy and the quiet hot guy in the main cast so I'm sure there'll be a love triangle happening between them. There wasn't a lot of sports action going on in volume one but I can tell there's going to be a lot coming up. Volume one is all pure set up for the series and I think volume two onward will start to have the plot actually moving forward. There are obviously still a lot of main characters that havn't even come into play yet. This series reminds me of Hikaru no Go in a lot of ways and I'm actually excited to read more! I'm glad I found a shoujo sports manga, I honestly didn't know those existed. I think this is a great series for guys who love sports manga and are intested in shoujo and girls who love shoujo and are interested in sports. IT'S A FUSION. I'm surprised to read that this series is still running and is twenty volumes strong. I'll definitely pick up volume two and read it if I can find it!

Crimson Hero #1 - 8.3/10

'Red River' #1 Review

Since I've gotten back into this, I've only been reviewing American comics so let's get back into some manga! Like I've mentioned before, I usually get most of what I review on here from the library. I've been seeing this series Red River there for a very long time and they have over twenty-five volumes there! So I figured I'll review the first volume, if it's good then I'll read more and if it sucks then I probably won't. Well...it was alright. I'm pretty neutral about it. Before I go into Red River, I'd like to bring up something that's on the first page of this volume. It's VIZ's super hip layout, they've got a definition of Shoujo, Pulp Fiction style. It says SHOUJO n. 1. Manga appealing to both female and male readers.
...what the hell? I was amazed by this. Are they saying that shonen (or any other type of comic for that matter) isn't appealing to males and females? Like they're being so edgy and radical by having their type of comic appeal to both sexes? For the record, I know a LOT more gals who like Naruto and Bleach than I do guys. Have I ever met a guy who liked any shoujo? No. I'm not saying it's impossible for a guy to like shoujo, there are some out there that I really like! (Absolute Boyfriend, Alice 19th, CLAMP shoujo) I was just really surprised by this whole GUESS WHAT OUR MANGA ACTUALLY APPEALS TO EVERYONE thing they had to say.
Now that I've got that out there, I'd like to say that Red River is most definitely for female readers. I can't see many dudes spending money on this manga.

Also, check out that cover. Our heroin looks like she's about to be stabbed or worse by multiple people. That's pleasant, right? And the with a title like RED RIVER, my mind is automatically thinking blood since we've got knives on the cover. THIS IS SHOUJO?

Plot Summary

So the manga opens with Yuri Suzuki getting her first kiss. Then the guy immediately ditches after kissing her like a jackass. Later than night, Yuri notices water seems to be acting different around her. Cups of water are sloshing and bubbling when she's near them. At school the next day, two arms shoot out of a fishtank and grab her but then disappear. When she takes a bath at night, the arms reappear and drag her under the water. She nearly drowns before her family busts in from all the noise. She decides to stay away from water  (so i'm guessing she didn't shower for a while) and later when she's walking with her beloved Satoshi, the water hands strike again!! They emerge from a puddle and drag her all the way in by the feet. She's under the water for a while and manages to break free and reaches the surface. She finds herself in an old bathhouse looking area full of strangely dressed folk. She's been transported BACK IN TIME to what is now TURKEY! She meets up with a super hot, angsty guy while on the run (he's destined to be the main hot guy of this manga) and he saves her from being captured. She runs away from him and gets captured anyway and we meet the antagonist of the tale, this crazy ass magician woman who is also the queen. We find out the super hot guy is one of the princes (there are six and I'm sure they're all super hot). So they're about to sacrifice her because the crazy queen bitch wants her dead when suddenly the hot prince KAIL says that she isn't a virgin and he was unaware she was supposed to be a virgin sacrifice. Yuri goes along with his lie and he takes her to his bachelor pad. Prince Kail tries to have her for real but she freaks and yells SATOSHI! So Kail leaves her alone and we all know she's gonna get with him eventually anyway. She gets a servant guy named Tito (which I thought was hilarious) and he's a cool kid. But the queen hypnotizes him and has Tito try to kill Yuri. The volume ends with her still on the run from the queen with Kail.

I didn't have much of an opinion on volume one. It wasn't terrible but it wasn't great. The art style almost reminds of Osamu Tezuka's (Astro Boy) whimsical kind of style. Unfortunately there was one panel in here that was pretty awful looking, it actually scared me. It's just a shot of Yuri's profile view but the placement of her GIANT eye is so low on her head, it's practically below her nose. Pretty terrifying.
I might read volume two if I'm up for it.

Red River #1 - 5.3/10