It's a little bit ridiculous to see how much influence one ornery woman can have on an entire apartment complex, but nevertheless, drama permeates every part of this manga. Anything gossip that is remotely scandalous is spread like wildfire and affects everyone's behavior; past relationships are brought out into the open and current ones crumble in a few chapters. Romance is fragile, complicated, and at times stupid and incomprehensible. Ah, but that's life, isn't it?

What made Hot Gimmick the most appealing to me was its interpretation of love. The characters attend high school and are not quite inexperienced but also have not experienced real relationships. Upon encountering these new situations and people, they discover the truth about love, that all those songs with sappy lyrics really do express romantic feelings at some point or another. "What is this feeling?" "Why is that that I want this person more than anyone else?" "This is so stupid, so idiotic, so asinine, yet my heart wants this."

It was better in the first half of the manga, though. After a while it was annoying to see the same characters still struggling with their feelings, messing up, and hurting everyone around them in their efforts to come to terms with their own thoughts. But I suppose that just points out how love can be a bad thing when it gets out of hand.

However, coming back the plot, the drama within the apartment complex due to previous relations and just plain nosy neighbors was absolutely immature and made me roll my eyes a lot while I read. It sounds like such a middle school thing to do and it's ridiculous for grown adults to take part in shunning a particular family for a rumor they have not confirmed, though even if it were true, it wouldn't be nice to ostracize a family like that.

I do commend the mangaka for creating distinct characters, but character development seemed very slight for a few of them, especially for the main character Hatsumi. For the majority of the manga she was a crybaby who repeatedly denied herself her greatest desire because it was so different from what she wanted before. While it is a good thing that she is generally nice to others, that can easily be taken advantage of, as it is a lot of times in the manga, which I consider one of her greatest faults.

The men in her life are Ryoki (a bully from her childhood who happens to be the landlady's son and is fearsome, commanding, and cold), Azusa (a childhood hero who moved away but came back later as a handsome model), and Shinogu (Hatsumi's extremely kind brother). They're quite an interesting bunch to hang around, let me tell you.

As far as the artwork went, I thought the men were attractive, but the females, not so much. It wasn't because of the crying, but rather the women's appearances I found not to be as attractive as the male's. Their eyes were so big that they made the girls look childlike, and they just weren't as comely as the men.

The manga didn't exactly end with a bang and I was more satisfied with the first half than the second half, I still thought Hot Gimmick was a pleasant read for that romance. There is a little bit of smut in there, but there isn't a whole ton and is actually kind of unnecessary. It may not be appropriate for people of certain ages, though.