A Collection of Volumes 1 - 3! Unlike most shojo, Hot Gimmick isn't all sweet boys and rose petals. It's much more real and complex and sometimes even chilling! The artwork is top-notch, the drama is high-tension, and I couldn't help but keep on rooting for the hapless heroine, Hatsumi, as she deals with real-life problems: family ties, blackmail, awkward first kisses, and a very disapproving landlady. What's not to love? -- VIZ Media
In company-owned rabbit-hutch apartments live tenants who can't afford to live anywhere else, and the apartment complex in which high-school girl Hatsumi Narita lives is ruled over by the rumor mongering, self-righteous Mrs. Tachibana. Get on Tachibana's bad side, and life becomes hell. When Hatsumi has to buy a pregnancy test because her popular sister Akane is late, Mrs. Tachibana's son, Ryoki, who used to bully Hatsumi as a kid, promises not to tell the world about Hatsumi's secret--only if she becomes his slave. Suddenly Azusa, Hatsumi's protector in their youth, reappears to save her again! He's moving back into the neighborhood! Despite the budding romance between Hatsumi and Azusa, Ryoki has control over her through the secret that could ruin the lives of everyone in Hatsumi's family, and he hasn't forgotten who his slave is!
Sixteen year old Hatsumi Narita can't believe that life can get any worse--her family's landlady is a gossiping nightmare, and the landlady's son is a bully. To top it off, an act of kindness backfires and makes Hatsumi the bully's slave!
Neighbors in Love! In company-owned rabbit-hutch apartments live tenants who can't afford to live anywhere else, and the apartment complex in which high-school girl Hatsumi Narita lives is ruled over by the rumor mongering, self-righteous Mrs. Tachibana. Get on Tachibana's bad side, and life becomes hell. When Hatsumi has to buy a pregnancy test because her popular sister Akane is late, Mrs. Tachibana's son, Ryoki, who used to bully Hatsumi as a kid, promises not to tell the world about Hatsumi's secret only if she becomes his slave. Suddenly Azusa, Hatsumi's protector in their youth, reappears to save her again! He's moving back into the neighborhood! Despite the budding romance between Hatsumi and Azusa, Ryoki has control over her through the secret that could ruin the lives of everyone in Hatsumi's family, and he hasn't forgotten who his slave is! It's official--Hatsumi and Ryoki are no longer a couple...kinda. To avoid seeing her bossy (and totally former) b-friend, Hatsumi agrees to hang out at hunky (and totally adopted) big bro Shinogu's place. Hatsumi's dad stops by to fill the kids in on the Machiavellian scheme he and Ryoki's father were embroiled in, but this only reinforces Shinogu's resolve to sever his familial ties to the Narita household--and to convince Hatsumi to see him as a man, not a big brother. Later, Azusa gets more than an earful from an extremely unapologetic Mr. Tachibana, and Ryoki all but hooks up with another lovely lady...kinda. All this and more in Miki Aihara's Hot Gimmick, one of the most talked-about shôjo manga in both America and Japan!
Neighbors in Love! In company-owned rabbit-hutch apartments live tenants who can't afford to live anywhere else, and the apartment complex in which high-school girl Hatsumi Narita lives is ruled over by the rumor mongering, self-righteous Mrs. Tachibana. Get on Tachibana's bad side, and life becomes hell. When Hatsumi has to buy a pregnancy test because her popular sister Akane is late, Mrs. Tachibana's son, Ryoki, who used to bully Hatsumi as a kid, promises not to tell the world about Hatsumi's secret only if she becomes his slave. Suddenly Azusa, Hatsumi's protector in their youth, reappears to save her again! He's moving back into the neighborhood! Despite the budding romance between Hatsumi and Azusa, Ryoki has control over her through the secret that could ruin the lives of everyone in Hatsumi's family, and he hasn't forgotten who his slave is! Our heroine Hatsumi is on Cloud 9 when male model and childhood buddy Azusa asks her to be his girlfriend! But all is not as well as it seems: Hatsumi still has to get out from under the creepy clutches of her "master" Ryoki, who insists on continuing to blackmail her. And on the night of her first date with Azusa, her dad intervenes and grounds her! But that may not be the worst of it for poor Hatsumi, 'cause something's brewing with Azusa, and her knight in shining armor may not be what he seems...All this in drama-packed second volume of Hot Gimmick, one of the most talked-about new manga titles coming out of Japan!
Nina Sakura isn't exactly your typical teenage girl. She's actually a transfer student from a witch school in another dimension. Now living in Japan, Nina is hoping to improve her GPA, make some new friends and spin a few love spells for her unsuspecting new classmates. Shy Ayu Tateishi has just made a new friend at school. But this new friend, much to her surprise, is no ordinary classmate. Nina Sakura may look like a normal middle school girl, but she's got a big secret. She's a witch. Or, rather, she's studying to be a witch. And, apparently, she's not doing her homework. Her spells are devastating in their ineffectiveness and often result in the most embarrassing situations for poor Ayu. But things wouldn't be so bad if Nina's sorcery didn't make Ayu look silly in front of the one boy she secretly adores. All she wants is a simple love potion. What she gets, however, is a new best friend who almost flunked out of witch school!
