Hot Gimmick, Volume 8

I love all of the Hot Gimmick books. I can't wait till they come out on dvds

After slapping Hatsumi in front of the entire complex, including her brother, Shinogu, everyone makes a fuss. Mariko, the Tachibana's maid, tends to Hatsumi while Mrs. Tachibana makes excuses for Ryoki. Hatsumi decides it was her fault though and apologizes profusely to Ryoki while Mrs. Tachibana begins to undermine their relationship, by inviting the daughter of a friend to share in Ryoki's study sessions. This begins to work as Hatsumi's issues of inadequacy resurface. Meanwhile, it becomes clear that Shinogu has strong feelings for her, even to Hatsumi, when she and Asahi begin to work with him at a coffee shop. Well, we can actually thank Asahi (Subaru`s older sister), who has been in love with Shinogu for ages, for leaking this information to Hatsumi. Ryoki tries to make Hatsumi forget about the other men in her life, but it is difficult to do when Shinogu passes out at work due to sheer exhaustion, what possesses that boy to work as hard as he does? And why is he so desperate to sever his ties with the Narita family? This series is still going strong, and it's making me a huge fan of the creator. I must pick up more work by him/her (?). In the meantime I am eagerly awaiting volume ten, but you should catch up and read the previous work, it's delicious I tell you.

I'm glad to hear that Hatsumi is gaining more self-esteem. The character development, the drama! This series gets you reading every page. I never thought I'd read a shoujo manga, but this got me wrong. Hatsumi is such a good down-to-earth person, Azusa, a scheming prettyboy, Ryoki a genius in school, but knows nothing about treating a woman right, much less getting some. And Shinogu, I'm rooting for him. This is teenage life, and damn, I feel sorry for how trapped Hatsumi is on every corner of life.

Ryoki just gets better and better with every volume. This time, we see him stand up for Hatsumi when his mother tries to push a relationship with a very rich, but snobby girl, on him. Also, Hatsumi seems to be learning how to stand up for herself more and more. I was glad to see this development in her character, and I hope that she will continue to become more assertive. Last, there's a very sweet extra about the gang when they were kids. It's about what really happened when Hatsumi first moved to the complex. There's going to be a continuation on this, I think, and I'm looking forward to it. Volume 8 was very satisfying. If you're a fan of the series, then you should definitely read it.

I think Volume 8 is the most suspenseful part yet. In this volume, Hatsumi really expresses herself when Mrs. Tachibana invites a rich, pretty, and very smart girl to study with Ryoki. There's a lot of tension over the adoption papers she found at Shinogu's apartment and he is becoming more and more distant from her. This volume is a MUST-READ for Hot Gimmick fans and it also shows how Hatsumi's stairs incident happened.