Hot Gimmick

Viz Book Description: "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 - or so it seems."

Coffee and Ink calls this the manga of deep feminist shame, an apt label if ever there was one. Early in the series, Comics Worth Reading read it as a cautionary tale that takes a sympathetic look at what happens to girls caught in the patriarchy machine, where being the perfect girl means being unprotected from those who would use you. Unfortunately that was giving the author too much credit. Everyone who reads it is appalled by the gender politics, yet the writing is so good that you're sucked in like a coke addict. You really want Hatsumi to mature enough to be able to assert herself. The problem is that the male abusers are portrayed far too sympathetically, and Hatsumi's method of dealing with abuse (blame it on herself, and apologize for "causing" it), is never questioned. If the story concluded with Hatsumi learning better how to protect herself and reject those who would seek to control her (including members of her own family who pressure her to give in to social constraints in order to protect themselves), the journey will have been worth it. On the other hand, if she does end up with one of the two scum male leads, teenage girls will be left with a disturbing lesson: abusive men can and should be cured of their dangerous behavior with the love of an understanding, long-suffering woman who sublimates her own desires for theirs.

Update: I've read up to volume 9 of this series and had intended to finish it off for completion's sake, but my interest in finding out what happens pretty much died when I heard the series ends with no one ending up happily (apart from her sister Akane and her boyfriend). I haven't spoiled myself, but I'm pretty sure I know what happens. What's wrong with this series is that the author doesn't know it's wrong. She doesn't addresses the troubling themes she plays with: she just milks them for melodrama. Where was her (probably middle-aged male) editor in all this? None of the ugly issues that are brought up are ever dealt with and there is no critique of the deeply misogynistic gender roles that cause so much suffering for the main characters. Hot Gimmick could have been a powerful journey of self-discovery. Instead it is an insidious reinforcing of patriarchal propaganda.

Novel: Hot Gimmick S

Could there be a decent ending for the Manga of Deep Feminist Shame? I'm not wasting my money to find out...

"Think you know everything about Hot Gimmick? Well, think again! Hot Gimmick S, an original novelization inspired by the super--popular shojo series Hot Gimmick, boasts an ending that is completely different than how the manga series concludes. Hatsumi Narita, a somewhat indecisive coed, must navigate the choppy waters of company housing life and try to keep her love life on track too. She starts dating her extremely bossy neighbor Ryoki, but how will her dreamy older brother Shinogu feel about this? It's the ending that manga fans are dying to read and are bound to be talking about for a long time to come! Plus, a bonus, heart-pounding manga episode that's all about Hatsumi and Shinogu!" [Viz]