Nosatsu Junkie

Nosatsu Junkie

Cover of English Volume 3
悩殺ジャンキー
Genre Comedy, Gender Bender, Romance, School Life
Manga
Written by Ryōko Fukuyama
Published by Hakusensha
English publisher Tokyopop
Demographic Shōjo
Magazine Hana to Yume
Original run 2003 – 2008
Volumes 16
Anime and Manga Portal

Nosatsu Junkie (悩殺ジャンキー?, lit. "Charming Junkie") is a shōjo manga series by manga artist Ryōko Fukuyama that is currently serialized in the magazine, Hana to Yume.

Contents

Summary

Naka Kaburagi has all the qualities a model can have. Well, not really all. After being dumped by her senpai because she can't smile like a flower and has a scary face, Naka is determined to get her revenge and to show her senpai that she can smile like a flower just like his female idol Umi Kajiwara. After failing her 19th audition, Naka accidentally bumps into the great Umi, but wait.....what is this!? Umi is a MALE!!? To keep Naka's mouth shut, Umi gives her the job as his co-model. Always being together and sharing a dark secret, Naka's road to successful modeling has a lot of troubles to come, especially when Naka and Umi started to feel funny whenever they are by each other's side.

Characters

Kaburagi Naka (蕪木ナカ?)

A 14 year old unpopular model whose face looks like a criminal's when she's nervous. After getting rejected by her Senpai because he preferred the popular female model Umi’s smile to her own, Naka joins the same modeling company as Umi in hopes of finding out the secret to Umi’s smile and becoming a popular model to get back at her Senpai.
At first, Naka resents Umi for her charming smile and ability to land modeling jobs seemingly effortlessly, but her resentment soon fades after Naka finds out Umi’s secret. The sweet charming female model Umi is really a possessive, cross-dressing male. After finding out his secret, Umi lands Naka a job modeling for the popular clothing brand “Junk” in exchange for her silence, which she agrees to after seeing it as a step towards getting revenge on her Senpai.
Even though Umi is constantly seen harassing and insulting Naka, throughout the series they become close friends and eventually develop feelings for each other. The two share a kiss after Umi finds out that Naka is going for a job for the brand “Heki”, a job Umi had been aspiring towards his whole career. Though the kiss was mostly due to Umi’s jealousy and hurt, it leads to the two growing much closer in their relationship and even taking on a romantic atmosphere in the later chapters.
Briefly, Tsutsumi Ikue, a high fashion photographer, was a rival for Naka’s love but it was shown in later chapters that he was just using Naka replacement for his ex-girlfriend, Najafuji Mihane. Naka was torn between Tsutsumi and Umi for a short period of time since she was able to take beautiful pictures both with Umi and with Tsutsumi, which lead her to doubt her feelings for Umi, and likewise, he started to doubt her feelings for him. In book 16, she and Umi are shown attending Ikue and Mihane's wedding reception and the two kiss at the end.

Kajiwara Umi (梶原海?)

A 15 year old cross-dressing supermodel that enchants men and women alike with his charming smile. Umi is known for being a beautiful, charming female supermodel when in reality ‘she’ is actually a rude, perverted he who lacks tact and social restraint when being himself. In the beginning of the series Umi’s true gender is only known by the president, referred throughout the series as Ms. President, of Boom! modeling agency, the agency that employs both Umi and Naka, and Naka herself. While he choose to reveal his gender to Ms. President, Naka stumbles across Umi’s true gender by accident which leads him to offer her a modeling job for the popular clothing brand “Junk” in exchange for her silence.
Soon after Naka discovers Umi secret it is revealed he is also the president of her high school, something she had never noticed before since he is in his true gender while at school. Also while at school, Umi doesn’t hold back his true personality which causes him to have a reputation as demon and to be feared by most of the student body. Surprisingly, despite his low attendance Umi has top grades and always makes sure everything for the student council is handled a in a business-like fashion.
Umi is hinted to have feelings for Naka at the beginning of the series, shown through his constant sexual harassment and embarrassment when Naka compliments him. When Tsutsumi Ikue appears and shows a very blatant interest in Naka, Umi’s feelings become clear and he even confesses he is in love with Naka to Ms. President.
Though Umi is shown to be very two-faced and cruel throughout the series, he has a softer side which is generally shown when dealing with Naka or matters concerning Naka. Also as time progresses Umi is shown becoming more and more masculine in looks and therefore threatening his chance of ever becoming the face for “Heki”.

Tsutsumi Ikue (堤 郁依?)

A 17 year old genius photographer who thinks Umi is stiff and dull. He only sees Umi as wearing some kind of mask because he/she never looks natural to him. In volume 4, Ikue reveals to Naka that he likes her, but this is only his way to test Umi and Naka's relationship if they will end up like him and Mihane. He loves strawberry-flavored snacks. He and Mihane ended up together again and three years later, they are getting married.
Though as of lately, Ikue has been covering for Umi when his gender identity was in danger of being discovered. Ikue claims that Umi is his girlfriend, though Umi may seemed grossed out by this, he still accepts Ikue's help.

Minagawa Akira (皆川明?)

The fashion designer for Junk who thinks Naka is interesting. He also has an unrequited love for the president of Boom! Agency, Tsuda-san.

Iruma Yume (夢入間市?)

Umi's neighbor who ran out on her first job. She is also a model. She only knows that Umi goes to a Proctology Clinic. She went to Morocco to recover after she ran out on her job.

Arita Kaede (有田花楓?)

He is the older twin of Ichigo Arita. Kaede and his sister designs clothes and are known in public as the 17 years old designers, Kaede Koumoto and Ichigo Koumoto. Actually the same age as Naka and Umi. He has a crush on Naka.

Arita Ichigo (有田苺?)

She is the younger twin of Kaede Arita. Ichigo and her brother designs clothes and are known in public as the 17 years old designers, Kaede Koumoto and Ichigo Koumoto. She is pretty small and is actually the same age as Naka and Umi. She fell in love with Chihiro Akiyama and confessed to him and that she will make him fall crazily in love with her. She can see through Chihiro easily like when is he laughing even when he isn't even happy and that he wants to be loved and hug tightly. She has bad eyesight and can be seen talking to random objects instead of people. Three years later, her hair grew because Chihiro once said she should grow her hair out and they ended up together.

Nagafuji Azu (永藤あず?)

She is the younger sister of Mihane Nagafuji and the daughter of the agency that handles both her and her sister, as well as, Ikue Tsutsumi. She was jealous of Naka in the first volume because Ikue was paying too much attention to her. She wanted to be acknowledge by Ikue as a model.

Nagafuji Mihane (永藤実羽?)

She is the older sister of Azu Nagafuji and she was the first ever model for Heki. She used to go out with Ikue Tsutsumi, though their relationship was later severed for she chose her career before him. After much turoil from both parties, the two come to a mutual understanding thus mending their relationship. Ikue and Mihane end up together and marry three years later.

Akiyama Chihiro (秋山ちひろ?)

A cheerful and popular model from Men-mon, Chihiro dreams of becoming a filmmaker. Often called "Chi," he is Mihane and Ikue's best friend. He has a long-time crush on Mihane Nagafuji. He befriends Umi in a way and they often talk to each other about their love lives. After Ichigo confessed to him, he became confuse about his feelings for her. During the festival, he saw a guy patting and talking to Ichigo and Umi ask him "Are you jealous?" In which Chihiro replied "Really?" and "But I can't forget her." And Umi said, "Getting jealous is the best proof." They ended up together.

Tsuda Moegi

The president of Boom! Agency. Her company handles both Naka and Umi.

Uzuki Yusa

A male model. At the ending of chapter 59 Naka overhears him on the phone saying "It's time that I can benefit from Umi."

Media

Drama CD

There was a drama CD released as a furoku in Hana to Yume.

The cast is as below.

Tankōbon

Japanese

  1. ISBN 4-592-18805-5 published on August 19, 2004
  2. ISBN 4-592-18026-7 published on December 16, 2004
  3. ISBN 4-592-18027-5 published on April 19, 2005
  4. ISBN 4-592-18028-3 published on September 16, 2005
  5. ISBN 4-592-18029-1 published on January 19, 2006
  6. ISBN 4-592-18274-X published on April 19, 2006
  7. ISBN 4-592-18275-8 published on August 18, 2006
  8. ISBN 4-592-18276-6 published on November 17, 2006
  9. ISBN 4-592-18277-4 published on March 19, 2007
  10. ISBN 978-4-592-18278-8 published on July 25, 2007
  11. ISBN 978-4-592-18279-5 published on October 25, 2007
  12. ISBN 978-4-592-18280-1 published on January 25, 2008
  13. ISBN 978-4-592-18573-4 published on May 25, 2008
  14. ISBN 978-4-592-18574-1 published on August 25, 2008

English

  1. ISBN 9781598166545 published on December 12, 2006
  2. ISBN 9781598166552 published on April 10, 2007
  3. ISBN 9781598166569 published on August 7, 2007
  4. ISBN 9781598166576 published on December 4, 2007
  5. ISBN 9781427802378 published on April 1, 2008
  6. ISBN 9781427802385 published on July 7, 2008
  7. ISBN 9781427802392 published on October 14, 2008

External links