THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS. I will try to be as vague as possible, but if you correctly guess who or what I am talking about, that's on you.
Hot Gimmick is just okay. It’s not a great manga by any means, but it’s not terribly awful either. The artwork isn't bad; in fact, it's pretty decent, albeit uninspired. The story is fairly standard soap opera material, and I mean that in the most positive way possible. It's ostensibly about Hatsumi, our brave heroine, but throughout the series, her will is often overshadowed 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 depth to this character. She has internal conflicts and drama. It's everyone else I don't like.
All the men in this story make me extremely uncomfortable. Reading this, I can't help but feel like the mangaka might have experienced sexual assault at a young age or knows someone who did. All 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 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. All he cares about is his own gratification, spending 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 anyone else for that matter. What makes me even more frustrated with his character is that despite how easy he is to read, Hatsumi can’t understand anything about him or his worldview either! Is being an asshole really such a foreign 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—if you're stupid. I don’t want to give anything specific away—even though I’m 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 jerk, and this “ends justify the means” nonsense won’t 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 want to 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 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.
This manga was absolutely dreadful. I despised watching the main character endure sexual abuse from various men. Yet, she remained with the worst of them all, a guy who treated her terribly. He bossed her around, called her stupid, and tried to force himself on her even when she resisted. This sends a terrible message to young girls. Reading this made me feel dirty, as if I were witnessing her being sexually abused without being able to do anything about it. I couldn't comprehend her decision at the end. Who would choose the man who treats you like dirt out of three options? I wanted to abandon this manga many times but persisted only in the hope that she would eventually leave the awful guy. I am utterly embarrassed to have read this manga. It was a complete waste of my time. Usually, after finishing a manga series, I feel proud and satisfied. This one left me feeling disgusted. I do not recommend this manga. :C
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THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS. I will try to be as vague as possible, but if you correctly guess who or what I am talking about, that's on you.
Hot Gimmick is just okay. It’s not a great manga by any means, but it’s not terribly awful either. The artwork isn't bad; in fact, it's pretty decent, albeit uninspired. The story is fairly standard soap opera material, and I mean that in the most positive way possible. It's ostensibly about Hatsumi, our brave heroine, but throughout the series, her will is often overshadowed 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 depth to this character. She has internal conflicts and drama. It's everyone else I don't like.
All the men in this story make me extremely uncomfortable. Reading this, I can't help but feel like the mangaka might have experienced sexual assault at a young age or knows someone who did. All 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 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. All he cares about is his own gratification, spending 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 anyone else for that matter. What makes me even more frustrated with his character is that despite how easy he is to read, Hatsumi can’t understand anything about him or his worldview either! Is being an asshole really such a foreign 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—if you're stupid. I don’t want to give anything specific away—even though I’m 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 jerk, and this “ends justify the means” nonsense won’t 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 want to 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 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.
This manga was absolutely dreadful. I despised watching the main character endure sexual abuse from various men. Yet, she remained with the worst of them all, a guy who treated her terribly. He bossed her around, called her stupid, and tried to force himself on her even when she resisted. This sends a terrible message to young girls. Reading this made me feel dirty, as if I were witnessing her being sexually abused without being able to do anything about it. I couldn't comprehend her decision at the end. Who would choose the man who treats you like dirt out of three options? I wanted to abandon this manga many times but persisted only in the hope that she would eventually leave the awful guy. I am utterly embarrassed to have read this manga. It was a complete waste of my time. Usually, after finishing a manga series, I feel proud and satisfied. This one left me feeling disgusted. I do not recommend this manga. :C
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