Hot Gimmick - Reviews

I'm calling it right now: Hot Gimmick is the Twilight of manga. Hear me out on this one. We have a main character who is appealing to almost every guy she comes across, though she considers herself (and the audience is supposed to, as well) wholly plain; and a male lead who's romantic actions are borderline/are abusive, manipulative, and controlling. And yet, people LOVE both series. It's possession/obssession played as love and people can't seem to get enough of it. I, however, can and did.

Story: If you've read any Mayu Shinjo, you basically have the general tone to this manga. A girl (Natsumi) lives in an apt. complex ruled by a woman who considers appearance to be everything. When Natsumi gets caught buying a pregnancy test for her younger sister by the mad lady's genius son (Ryoki), all hell breaks loose. Ryoki demands Natsumi to be his slave in order to keep his mouth shut. From there, the series becomes a study in "How Far Will He Go" with Ryoki always forcing himself on Natsumi and "How Stupid Can She Be" with Natsumi continuously trusting the wrong people and making terrible decisions. The worst part is that all of this is passed off as romance when it should really be seen as sad. Yes there are some detours from the predestined Ryoki/Natsumi end, however both paths either end horribly or disappointingly.

Art: Passable. The outfits of the characters vary so that's good, but I can't get pass the flatness of all the characters' face. They all look mildly sad and misshapened because of it.

Characters: One of the few mangas where there may be only one/two characters with any redeemable traits. Natsumi, our heroine, is a combination of naivete and plain stupidity. She gets tricked by so many people because she is gullible. She falls for a guy who enjoys humiliating her because he doesn't know how else to express his feelings. You just want her to develop some kind of a backbone and stand up for herself, but sadly that never happens. Speaking of Ryoki, he is possibly one of the most deplorable male leads I've ever had to read. As I've mentioned, Mayu Shinjo writes mangas of a similar vein, but even her male characters (possessive as they are) are likable. Ryoki isn't. He sexually assaults Natsumi and attempts rape on her SEVERAL times. Most of which make her end up falling for him. Then there's Azusa who **Spoiler** is pure evil. The only option for Natsumi who is a nice man is her adopted brother, but again, it's HER BROTHER. I don't care if they aren't actually related, working under that impression for over 16 years is only going to make any romance between the two icky. It's sad that he was her best option at a "normal" relationship. As a side note, almost all of the other women portrayed in this book are bitches/bitchy.

Overall: Continuing my comparison between this and Twilight, Hot Gimmick is oddly addicting. It got popular for a reason and it's because it is filled to the brim with drama. Like Twilight however, that still does not make this a good piece of work. 

wow this is a biggie. i bought the omnibus with three boks in one and boy was that a mistake. MAJOR SPOILERS DON'T READ AHEAD IF YOU DON'T WANT IT SPOILED. it's about a horribly stupid girl who, because she loves her slutty little sister, goes out and buys apregnacy test because she's awful young (she's not a slut because she's fourteen and had sex, but because she's uber popular with the boys and wants to date guys at least four  years older than her and dresses slutty) so the kind but uterlly stupid older sister goes out dressing like a college student to buy it. they live in community houseing, and the land lord lady is totally strict, and her son is a horrible person (who i will call glasses) so glasses  bumps into her and threats to tell his mommy that she's preggers even though she's not, and she's never even had a boyfriend once. so he tells her that he won't tell his mom if she becomes his slave. things go on, and it really gets bad and horrible for me. she starts dateing her crush, who's a famous modle, but is only dateing her to get back at glasses because he's a total jerkface. her new boyfriend now drugs her alcohol on their first date, and she's not even out of school yet. it wouldn't even be that bad if glasses wasn't such a utter creeper and the main character would own up to all the crap he's pulling on her. he tries to rape her pretty much, forces kisses onto her lips, man handle her boobs, give her a hicky when she was out cold, and so much utter horrible sick things. in the beguinning it wasn't so bad, but by book three she's just a total dumbass. go to the cops girl, sure your sister will be in trouble, and you won't be living where you are now, but you could sue the son of a very important coperation and have money out your ears. i suppose other people eat this stuff up, but after comeing off of the wonderful anime princcess jellyfish, (a anime i closely adore and agree with) this was a utter monstrosity. 

Story: The beginning story line seems quite promising with a boy catching a girl and holding a secret over her head in exchange for her being his slave( similair to kare kano). However, after the first couple of chapters it all goes down hill. Too many references to forced and awkward sexual tensions ruins the whole story by distracting from the main story line. Basically, your run of the mill harlequin spin on romance. (Barftastic)     Art: NOT BAD. not exactly bride of the water god good but not unbearable. I actually liked the way the girls were drawn out.  Characters: if the story were not so forced on sex they would have been more memorable Overall: one of the worst manga i have ever read. Seriously, total waste of time.

Okay okay, so I don't usually leave reviews, but here we go. 

This manga, is strangely addicting, you literally can't put it down even though its plot is really awful XD. It had its cute moments, but all in all, this was a...weird love story. 

Spoiler!

So the main character is alright, its a weak girl who can't decide between these three love interests. She's too stupid nice, like she'll literally let anyone walk all over her if it means they will be happy or if they do something just unbelieveably mean, she'll still forgive them. I saw some of the people compare this to twilight and I gotta say, I can see that a bit. Honestly though, I can relate to her, as much as I hate to say it, I depise hurting anyones feelings. Although I wouldn't forgive some of the things these characters do to her. 

I'm in the minority and wanted her with Ryoji, simply because he was the most interesting and I love hard exteriors with soft insides (does that sound like something a serial killer would say?). Sure he was mean to her and pushed her around but I gotta say, he was the...well not nicest, but he really loved her. He was so confused by it all and it causes him to act out. Adorable. Well...except some things. There is one thing Ryoji says that I absolutely hate and he blames the main character for whats she wearing as a reason he copped a feel on her chest while she was asleep. Really. Really Ryoji. I wanted to slam his head repeatedly into a wall. But I mean he goes from wanting to have sex with her against her will, to wanting to have consental sex, then wanting to marry her. He has the most character development. 

I absolutely hate Azusa. I think he is the whiniest character out of them all. Seriously, he is out on this revenge thing, and he hates the entire family (which includes the main character) when it was only the father who he blamed. Like seriously, and when he finds out it might not be her Father he's like "Oh so it might not have been your Dad, so I might not have to hate you anymore" LIKE WHAT! I WANTED TO SLIT HIS THROAT. *takes deep breaths* this kid literally sics six men on this girl in an attempted gang rape and never apologizes, but has the AUDICATY...then again the main character was stupid enough to just be like "oh yea I forgive you tehe." 

And theres a Brother whose like I'm not actually your brother and I love you. Ya know, usual cliche Japanese stuff. 

So yea, I'm not saying you shouldn't read it, seriously give it a try to see how weirdly addicting it is. But I am telling you to expect a lot of frustration from the characters antics. 

oh god.. hot gimmick what can i say... well.. its.. somewhat good..maybe

so the thing i really dislike about thi bs manga is that the main girl lets almost everyone  be mea or rude to her or sexually abuse her and she's just like.. oh its okay.. or she has no idea whats going on and then she starts to fall in love with the jerk who purely wants to use her for sex.. and the sad part is when her childhood best friend comes in the picture we think oh yay we got a nice guy who's gonna save her from the jerk but nope he's an asshole too.. still for people who ebjoy seeing the not so smart main character get used and abused because she cant stick up for herself.. well this is the manga for you!