Hot Gimmick

I've never written a review before. I can't say I've read all the manga or seen all the anime, but I've read my fair share of manga. However, I've never written a review before. Well, Hot Gimmick made me feel an emotion extreme enough to write a review. And I've never done that before.

It's horrible. I hate it. There are no "bad guys" but all the characters are horrible people. *SPOILER* The main character is in an abusive relationship. I've seen couples, I've been a part of a couple, and I loath girls who date guys that treat them like shit. Yes, I hate those guys, too, but they only act that way 'cause there are no consequences for their actions. I'm not saying that all girls should date fat geeks with glasses 'cause they'd 'treat them better', but that's reality and this is a manga. There are no ugly people in this world. Absolutely everybody but the guy the main character is dating and his mom treat her with the utmost care. Well, her childhood friend tried to have her raped. The author still tries to redeem his character, though. Remember what I said about there not being any "bad guys"? He goddamn tried to rape her just to piss somebody else off. But he's not a bad guy. Her boyfriend, who blackmailed her, physically abuses her, verbally abuses her, is not ashamed at all of the fact that he cares about himself and only himself, isn't a "bad guy" 'cause he 'only wants to do it with [her]'. Like not screwing the girl his mom picked out for him redeems him. There are, of course, characters who seem to genuinely care about the main character, but she stays with the guy who hits her? Who actually thinks her only purpose in life is to be his personal slave? *SPOILER* there's no nudity in this manga, so if you're looking for some freaky S&M doujinshi this isn't it. It's the story about a horrible person, surrounded by horrible people in an average world and the author tries to make bullies and corrupt rich people look like knights in shining armor. If s guy like Ryoki Yachibanan existed in real life, he's get the shit kicked out of him trying to rape the neighbor girl, I don't care who him mom is. And you'd think that she, and I know this is gonna come out of left field, might not want to continue dating dating someone who constantly beats her up. It's not a dystopian society, so there's no call for it.

It's just a really, really bad manga. I kept reading it, thinking the payoff would be so sweet when she finally dumps the asshole and starts seeing someone else, anyone else, but no, the guy forces her back into an abusive relationship, and she just cries and goes with him because "I can't help I love him". She doesn't, by the way. Being the main characters, we see her perspective often, and he terrifies her. I can't stress enough how bad of a person he is, and yet, she's worse, because she let's him be a bad guy.

THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS. I will try to be as oblique as possible, but if you correctly guess who or what I am talking about, that's your own damn fault.

Hot Gimmick is all right. It's not a particularly good manga by any stretch of the imagination, but it's not an offensively horrible one either. The art isn't bad, it's actually pretty good, albeit uninspired. The story is rather standard Soap Opera fare, and I mean that in the most positive way possible. It is ostensibly about Hatsumi, our intrepid heroine, but throughout the series we see her will subverted by the male lead(s). However, my issue isn't that she isn't a strong or willful character, because I can still say, "Well, at least she isn't flat." And she really isn't. There is some small amount of depth to this character. She has internal conflicts and drama. It's everyone else I don't like.

All of the men in this make me feel incredibly uncomfortable. Like, reading this, I can't help but feel like the mangaka was sexually assaulted at a relatively young age, or perhaps knows someone who was. All of the guys in this are either so transparently evil you can practically see them twirling their moustaches, totally ineffectual, willfully ignorant of what Hatsumi really wants in favor of whatever the hell it is THEY want, obsessed with sex, on the autism spectrum, or some combination of these things.

For instance, let's take Ryoki, Hatsumi's "slave master." Aihara-sensei spends the entire series trying to convince us that he does have feelings for her. But I just don't buy it one bit. All he cares about his own gratification, he spends so much time actively trying to make her suffer. And when he isn't doing so intentionally, it's because he really doesn't understand anything about how Hatsumi thinks and feels, or any other human being for that matter. But what makes me even more frustrated with his character is that despite the fact that he's so easy to read, Hatsumi can't understand anything about him or his worldview either! Is assholishness really so foreign a concept that the average Japanese high school girl can't wrap her head around it?

Then there's Azusa. He's an okay character, I guess. You might actually enjoy reading about him. Y'know, if you're stupid. I don't want to give anything specific away--even though I'm very clearly recommending you not read this manga--but there's a part very early on in the series where he does something pretty awful, and the entire rest of the series we're led to believe he's an okay guy. No, he's not. He's a jerkass, and this "ends justify the means" bullshit isn't gonna fly here. "Oh, he had a really tortured past, he can't help but be bad." You know who else had a really tortured past? Adolf Hitler. There, I said it. Godwin's law can go to hell.

So, is Hot Gimmick good? No. Is it bad? ...No? I wanna say it's a horrible train wreck nobody should ever read, but the plotline, standard and predictable as it is, was fairly entertaining throughout most of it. There were some plot elements that seemed like they were shoehorned in ("WOW WHAT A TWIST! I CERTAINLY DIDN'T SEE THAT COMING" "Of course not, because it wasn't set up in any way shape or form and really just came out of nowhere"). So, while I can't say that I hated it, I also can't say that I'd recommend this to anyone. Maybe if you're thirteen years old. I mean, that's how old I was when I originally read it, and I really seemed to enjoy it back then. But as is true of a lot of things I liked back then, it cannot withstand the harsh light of day being shined upon it.

I don't usually write reviews, but I thought I would for this. The story is not particularly original centering on a blackmail master-slave relationship that turns into something more. Very cliche in the shojo manga industry. Unrealistically stereotypical characters abounded

The thing that really bothered me was the main character being molested on several occasions, and almost gang-raped by her boyfriend's clique (on his orders) and not contacting any authorities or anything (and staying friends with these people). It was very disturbing that the main character was such a dolt- not a very good self-image for young girls who read this. She also definately chose the wrong guy to fall in love with-her main crush was a total jerk and treated her with nothing but disrespect and forced her to choose between him and everything else she loved on several occasions (while on other occasions verbally, physically or borderline sexually abusing her). She went along with his increasingly absurd demands even though his only goal seemed to be to sleep with her (on a couple occasions some semblance of humanity on his part showed through but these were usually a guise to get to his ultimate goal). The side story romance between the main character's sister and her childhood guy-friend was more interesting and realistic than the main story. Also, I disapproved of her ultimate guy-choice at the end. In conclusion, this is a poorly written review for a poorly written manga.

To be honest, I absolutely hate this manga.

It was stale--it was stupid--it didn't make sense at all

If you're a shallow person who likes reading about stupid girl who gets molested, then read this.

[spoiler alert]
I absolutely despise this manga. What the heck was the mangaka thinking? Oh my gosh, face palm every single time. The main character was supposed to be, 'admirable' since she goes around forgiving THE PEOPLE WHO ALMOST GANG RAPED HER. What the heck? that makes no sense at all! It's so frustrating. The main character all through out sounded the same to me. It seemed so unrealistic---gah. I just freaking hate this manga. What kind of girl let's herself get molested, and then she falls in love with the guy who molested her. dude,wtfudge.

Oh gosh I hate this manga so much I can't even academically criticize it.

feel free to read it if you want to be annoyed for the rest of your life.

Story:
the story was so cliche-y and it was defineitly disappointing
at first i thought it was quite interesting, but then when it reached the end i was like all "WTF"
SPOILER
but who cares anyway
so the girl chooses ryo-whatever and gets married blah blah blah
and the other guy becomes a monk
i mean, seriously WHATS UP WITH THAT?!?

Art:
it was fine i guess, its like your ordinary shoujo art

Character:
the main girl here is TOTALLY retarded
i mean like seriously
she still chose that ryo-whatever guy,
while he was like literally torturing her
c'mon i mean, who the hell wants to be with hat kiind of person

Enjoyment:
i gave it a 1 since this i probably the worst manga i have EVER read. :|

Overall:
3, since i kinda liked the art and how dreamy the brother looks like >:P

I like the whole rich guy falls for not-so-rich girl story but in this case the rich guy has moments of total asshole-ness that makes no sense and the girl is just an absolute doormat who is a shame to all womankind so you empathize with neither. I don't suggest reading this manga if you don't like guys who are abusive and girls who are unassertive and nonsensically accommodating (after being 'betrayed' she just continues being friends with them without a clear resolution first).

I get why people would understand Hatsumi falling for Ryouki at some point because he was there for her etc, but to me the negative aspects of how he treats her is just disgusting (Domyoji from Hana Yori Dango was spoiled too but Ryouki is no where near as redeemable -- but this may have to do with the fact that the storytelling of HYD is much better and unfolded through many more volumes). Hatsumi is just the typical shy female protagonist who forgives everything, stands up for barely anything, and has conviction in nothing (I really hope this changes in the end, but no strengthening of her personality has occurred in SEVEN whole volumes).

I'm finishing vol 7 right now and I want to just give up reading this manga but I only got a little over 4 more volumes. I think I'll stick it out because the drawing is pretty consistent and nice and there are really sweet tender moments in between all the absurdity and cliches.



To those who are thinking of reading this because of the one-girl-many-guys thing, read Hana Yori Dango, Vampire Knight, or Parfait Tic instead.

I am writing this completely from memory because it has been years. When I read this as a high school girl, I did not think it was bad. The art attracted me immediately but the story was not as interesting to me as it was to my girl friends. The main love interest was just "showing her tough love" and presenting how much he could care for her by putting her through "difficult" situations. No.

I write this now because most of the other reviewers ragged on the protagonist for her passive attitude or somehow blamed the protagonist for having a watered down personality. However, we all know a girl like that in real life. There are many girls (and people in general) who are passive to their situation because they never realized they were a victim until it was too late. What should not be okay is a boy, no matter their age, willingly assaulting and abusing another person. It is not up to the victim to speak up and that is definitely one thing this series fails to acknowledge. I remember the "competing" love interest was also not that great. He was boring and, while he might have cared more than the protagonist's boyfriend, I remember him being emotionally abusive and forcing her into terrible situations as well.

I recommend this to no one and I implore you to find a friend who loves you and enjoy a good anime instead because nobody deserves to be in a relationship as bad as this one. Do not give them your money!

Normally, I don't write any reviews. But this manga just needs another review, and I do not mean that in a positive way.

Story: 3
Well, like you read above, this is a story about a girl that is forced to be a (sex)slave by a rich guy, because otherwise he exposes the secret of her sister being a slutty girl. That would mean a scorned repuation for this family, living in the same apartment block. Apparently the clean reputation of het family is more important to her than her own well-being and that is the exact thing that made me drop this manga. She is such a sickening self-less martyr that she almost deserves to be sexually harassed by this guy. This guy is a sickening too by the way, really a super-jerk. But appearantly his behaviour should be alright, since he actually is in love with her.

Characters: 3
I have read more mangas with a weak female lead and a mean male antagonist, but I did enjoy those (even though I never loved them), but this manga really made me feel bad, it was just disturbing how she lets everything happen to her. Yeah, because she is sooo nice, that she just has to be nice to everybody. *vomit* She's not even realistic. The mean guy is just a jerk, but a jerk in love. Which appearently justifies him being a jerk, but not for me, I just hate him all the same. He is the stereotype ore-sama and he stays an ore-sama.The other characters are not really developing in any way and just stay the same all the time, but at least they are nice. Except from her sister that just uses the female lead (forgot her name) to do things for her .

Art:7
However, the art looked good. The occasional shoujo expressions during puns were present and the drawing was good, to not say pretty good.

Enjoyment: 3
Well, like you read above, I did not enjoy this manga the least bit. Or maybe I should say, I enjoyed the art and that's all.

I do not recommend this manga, it makes you feel sick and it is disturbing, and that without any actual rape. Well done, mangaka. I'd say: A 4 to reward your efforts!