Hot Gimmick
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Hot Gimmick | |
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| ホットギミック (Hot Gimmick) |
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| Genre | shōjo, Romance, Drama, Comedy |
| Manga | |
| Authored by | Miki Aihara |
| Publisher |  Shogakukan  VIZ Media
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| Serialized in |  Betsucomi |
| Original run | 12/00 – 7/05 |
| No. of volumes | 12 |
Hot Gimmick (ホットギミック) is a 12-volume shōjo manga by Miki Aihara that was serialized in the Japanese manga anthology Betsucomi from December 2000 to July 2005. The English release is currently published by VIZ Media. In addition to the manga, there are also two drama CDs and an alternate ending novel entitled Hot Gimmick S.
The story revolves around Hatsumi Narita, a passive 16-year old girl who lives in a company housing complex that is ruled by the tyrannical Mrs. Tachibana, the wife of the company's vice president. How a family behaves in the housing complex can affect an employee's status in the company. When her promiscuous younger sister Akane thinks she might be pregnant, poor Hatsumi gets talked into buying her a pregnancy test. Unfortunately, things don't go exactly as planned and Hatsumi is blackmailed by Ryoki Tachibana, the bratty, geeky teenage son of the powerful Tachibana family who bullied her as a kid, into being his slave.
The first volume of this series is mostly an introduction for all the characters and plotlines, and any possible readers of this series are warned that things do not stay as they seem for long. The main male characters (Ryoki, Azusa and Shinogu) all quickly swap places as the story continues on through the series. For this reason, Hot Gimmick is targeted much more at a mature audience, as it addresses several adult themes that are not entirely appropriate for younger readers. Hot Gimmick delves into a deeper side found in every society, while still maintaining its shōjo roots.
Contents |
[edit] Characters
[edit] The Narita Family
- Hatsumi Narita (Kanji: 成田 初), 16
- The main character of the series. She is really close to her older brother, Shinogu. At the beginning of the series she was a second-year student at Takazono High School, a private school. While Akane's fear of being pregnant leads Hatsumi into purchasing a pregnancy test for her, Ryoki accidentally sees her with it, and in exchange for that information's secrecy, Hatsumi becomes Ryoki's personal slave.
- Akane Narita (Kanji: 成田 茜), 14
- Hatsumi's younger sister, who is somewhat of a floozy. She dates many boys, but eventually develops a crush on Ryoki's best friend, Subaru. At the beginning of the series, she is a third-year student at a local public junior high school.
- Shinogu Narita (Kanji: 成田 凌), 19
- Hatsumi's older (adopted) brother, who is in love with her romantically, not in a family manner. He is incredibly kind and helpful. At the beginning of the series, he is a freshman law student at Hitotsubashi University. He isn't home much due to club activities and various part-time jobs. He is pretty much the reason the drama in the series exists. Shinogu was taken in by the Naritas when he was a little kid. But his parents had left big debts behind when they died. Shihoko and Toru Narita are constantly fighting about where they are to get the money to repay their debts from. Thus comes the plot Mr. Tachibana comes up with, that he will pay Toru if he pretends like he is the one having the affair, so if anyone looks into the matter, his name comes up. Thus Miho and Mr. Tachibana have their affair, she dies, and Azusa forms his plan. Hatsumi falls for it, Ryoki saves her, their relationship evolves, putting her family in social jeopardy. The debt they paid off, Shinogu tried to pay them back by moving out and taking multiple part-time jobs instead of following his heart in both the matter of school and Hatsumi.
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- Hikaru Narita, 4
- Hatsumi's younger brother. At the beginning of the series, he is in kindergarten.
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- Shihoko Narita
- The mother. She is very afraid of Mrs. Tachibana, and does whatever she can to please her.
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- Toru Narita
- The father. The scapegoat for Mr. Tachibana. Went to college with both Azusa' and Ryoki's father.
[edit] The Tachibana Family
- Ryoki Tachibana (Kanji: 橘 亮輝), 17
- Hatsumi's biggest fear since she was a child, due to him pushing her down the stairs. He turns Hatsumi into his personal slave, but also wants her as his girlfriend. Although he seems to be a complete jerk to her, there are times when he lets his guard down and cares about her. At the beginning of the series, he is a second-year student at the prestigious private school, Kaisei Academy.
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- Natsue Tachibana
- Ryoki's mother and the undisputed "queen" of the company housing complex. Natsue and Shuichiro have an arranged marriage done by their parents.
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- Shuichiro Tachibana
- Ryoki's father, he mostly stays at a hotel near the company so he hardly ever returns to the complex. He has no love for Ryoki or Natsue, because since before he married Natsue, he'd been in love with Miho, Azusa's mother. The reason for his never showing up to meet her when he said he would is unknown as of book 11, which is a paradox, since he claims he asked her to leave her life, but she always chose Azusa and her husband.
[edit] The Odagiri Family
- Azusa Odagiri (Kanji: 小田切 梓), 16
- An old friend of Hatsumi (who has somewhat of a crush on him). They were very good friends when they were younger, he always protected her from Ryoki. He is a popular model doing magazine work and TV commercials. He dates Hatsumi for a short period, which ends when he reveals that it's for revenge on Hatsumi's father for supposedly having an affair with his now-deceased mother. He also reveals that the only reason he is modeling is to earn money to hire a private investigator to find out who his mother's lover is, so he can exact his revenge, who turns out to be Hatsumi's dad. He later engages in another investigation with Shinogu because Shinogu doubts it was Hatsumi's father. They eventually find out he was just being payed to be a scapegoat so Ryoki's dad, the real lover, could come out clean.
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- Minoru Odagiri
- Azusa's father, works mostly overseas so he hardly lives with his son. Divorces Azusa's mother, supposedly because he finds out about her affair. He is about to remarry, but worries about Azusa's opinion of it.
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- Miho Odagiri
- Azusa's mother, She leaves with Azusa when Minoru divorces her. When she does, she waits for the rest of her life for her lover to come and meet her, as he promised he would. Died three years ago prior to the beginning of the series. She had an affair with another man, which was shunned by everyone in her family and led to bad treatment to both her and Azusa.
[edit] The Yagi Family
- Subaru Yagi (Kanji: 八木 すばる), 16
- Ryoki's dorky best friend, who is also a friend of Hatsumi. His hobbies are video games and anime (especially Gundam) and also, collecting models and action figures. He develops feelings for Akane, even though she often scares him, coming on too strong with her forward ways. He is finally able to show that he loves her by finding "Rare Bears" for her. At the beginning of the series he is a second-year student at Takazono High School (Class A).
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- Asahi Yagi, 19
- Subaru's older sister. She graduated from beauty school and is currently working as an intern at a hair salon. She has a secret crush on Shinogu, but fails to tell him because he is "too unattainable." She overhears Shinogu telling Azusa how much he's in love with Hatsumi, and later is the one who blabs to Hatsumi about it.
[edit] Others
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- Mariko Takatu, 23
- The maid for the Tachibana Family. She is in love with Mr. Tachibana. She's one of the few who truly cares about Ryoki, helping Hatsumi see that she is misreading his loneliness, jealousy, and his love for her as him being a cold, aloof tyrant.
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- Rina Katsuragi
- Owner of a modeling agency and Azusa's manager. She has claimed her relationship with Azusa is one of "give and take", which started when she took him in as a runaway.
- Shuji Kazama (Kanji: 風間), 19
- Shinogu's friend from work, and roommate. He has a crush on Akane and is constantly flirting with her, fully aware that she is going out with Subaru.
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- Ruri Saionji
- A girl who attends Teitoko Girls Academy and is on the same level--intellectually--as Ryoki. Mrs. Tachibana is bent on hooking her son up with Ruri after learning of Ryoki and Hatsumi's relationship. She is Ryoki's perfect match: she gets the same grades, has the same logic, shows affection the same way as he does. They would be perfect for each other were it not that he's in love with Hatsumi. He ends up inviting Ruri to sleep with him, to which she agrees. When they're taking off their clothes and fooling around, he can't stop thinking about Hatsumi, so he asks her to leave, saying he's changed his mind.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Hot Gimmick page from Viz Media
