Hot Gimmick #1 by Miki Aihara

I rarely regret buying a manga. If I do, I usually bought it cheap enough that I don't really care, and this occurance isn't so common that I can be indiscriminate. So I considered quite a bit before buying Hot Gimmick, by Miki Aihara, but it was a decision made in a shop, knowing little about it. I didn't know it was going to be a bad decision.

Now, technically, I got Hot Gimmick for free: it was my third in a 3 for 2 deal. I'd had a hard time choosing it, because anything I bought was going to be a first in a series, and there was nothing jumping out at me. I found the cover art for Hot Gimmick appealing (I do tend to judge a book by its cover) although looking inside it didn't do as much for me. I didn't like the eyes. Now, at this point I hadn't read any reviews of the series, and in fact knew nothing about it. I did have the idea it was popular, and trying to find information on it would have confirmed this. I wonder if I'd at least read the blurbs of the following volumes, I might have avoided it. But in the end the blurb for the first volume did convince me - I think it was the idea of a girl having to buy a pregnancy test for her little sister that made it seem quirky enough for my to purchase.

Now, the girl involved is 16 year old Hatsumi, who is not nearly so popular with the boys as her little sister, Akane, and has lived her whole life in a company housing complex. Whilst returning triumphantly home with Akane's pregnancy test, she bumps into the boy whose mother lords it over everyone in the housing complex: Ryoki. Hatsumi can't stand Ryoki, having been bullied by him as a child, and she's horrified when he tells her that, unless she becomes his slave, he'll tell his mother about Akane's escapades. So, despite her disgust, she agrees, and has several near misses keeping her honour intact. In one of these she is saved by the sudden return of an old friend who has long been defending her from Ryoki, and whom she has a little bit of a crush on. It doesn't help that, in the period he's been away, he's grown up and is now working as a model - and he actually seems interested in her! So Hatsumi is trying to get closer to him while at the same time dealing with Ryoki's demands upon her.

Now, Ryoki isn't at all lenient on her - he doesn't give a damn about her feelings. He doesn't secretly want to win her over - not at this juncture at least - because he sees her as a non-person. I found this quite disturbing for a comic that otherwise seemed quite light. At any rate, having finished it I wished I'd just stuck with an artist I knew and bought Imadoki! instead. Something nice. Hot Gimmick is not nice, and I actually wished I hadn't bought it, that I'd never read it. I couldn't justify owning it to myself.

Now, here is the thing that got me: Ryoki was trying to rape Hatsumi. Sure, maybe he didn't think of it like that, but that's what it was. And that just turned me off the entire thing. It didn't help that Hatsumi was a complete wuss, but still, she was being blackmailed. I could still feel sorry for her. But I had no sympathy for Ryoki, even though by the end of the volume I have the feeling that I might actually be supposed to. But there was nothing attractive in his character for me (I didn't even find him to look that attractive). And whilst I can perhaps understand his actions as a character, I don't really want to read about it.

Now, if this had been a slightly different story, I could have still enjoyed it, and this mostly comes down to Hatsumi. She finds out Ryoki just wants her to 'practice' sex so he can do it with his tutor. It's the tutor walking in on Ryoki's attempted rape that saves Hatsumi. Later the tutor confronts Hatsumi, pissed off that Ryoki had apparently had sex with Hatsumi instead of her. Now, instead of jumping up and saying, 'ha, no, he's still a virgin!', Hatsumi ends up defending him, saying he just isn't interested in shallow girls like the tutor. Now, is that supposed to show a fiesty side? I've met characters before, submissive, yet quick to jump to someone's defence. But Ryoki isn't someone worth defending. In this scene, Hatsumi seems to forget just how badly he's treated her. Her defense of him is actually quite disturbing - what reason can she possibly have for not wanting him hurt as much as possible? Because she's 'nice'? Nice shouldn't mean pushover.

I like edgy comics, but I also like sympathetic characters. The worldview Miki Aihara's presenting is one I want no part of. And much as I wanted to like Hot Gimmick, I don't think I'll be able to read it without being sickened. That's not the experience I was hoping for. If I didn't have the feeling I was actually supposed to be rooting for these characters, that this wasn't actually supposed to be a romance, perhaps I could still experience that twisted fascination people seem to have with Hot Gimmick. But the conflict between the facade and the messed-up-ness of the characters is too much, and despite its popularity, Hot Gimmick is a story I cannot enjoy.