Hot Gimmick

Infobox animanga/Header
name = Hot Gimmick


caption = The first volume of Hot Gimmick, featuring Hatsumi.
ja_name = ホットギミック
ja_name_trans = Hotto Gimikku
genre = Romance, Drama, ComedyInfobox animanga/Manga
title =
author = Miki Aihara
publisher = flagicon|Japan Shogakukan
publisher_other = flagicon|Canada flagicon|USA VIZ Media flagicon|France Generation Comics flagicon|Germany Planet Manga (cancelled)
flagicon|Italy Planet Manga
demographic = Shōjo
magazine = flagicon|Japan Betsucomi
first = December 2000
last = August 2005
volumes = 12
chapter_list = List of Hot Gimmick chapters

nihongo|"Hot Gimmick"|ホットギミック|Hotto Gimikku 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; most pointedly, a number of attempted rapes and the normalization of an abusive relationship. Hot Gimmick delves into a deeper side found in every society, while still maintaining its shōjo roots.

Character histories

The Narita Family

;nihongo|Hatsumi Narita|成田初|"Narita Hatsumi", 16:The main character of the series; she is really close to her older brother, Shinogu. At the beginning of the series she is a second-year student at Takazono High School, a private school. When her younger sister 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 keeping this secret, Hatsumi becomes Ryoki's personal slave. She'll believe anything you'll say to her. She has a hard time getting over Azusa moving on after he dumps her in the beginning, but later falls in love with Ryoki (who reciprocates her feelings).;nihongo|Akane Narita|成田茜|"Narita Akane", 14:Hatsumi's younger sister; 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(it is mistakenly stated in earlier publications that Akane is a second-year) at a local public junior high school. She easily gets jealous and in the beginning causes her sister problems. At the end she is nice and even gives her sister advice on Ryoki.;nihongo|Shinogu Narita|成田凌|"Narita Shinogu", 19:Hatsumi's older (adopted) brother, who is in love with her romantically . 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. Shinogu was taken in by the Naritas when he was a small child.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.;nihongo|Hikaru Narita|成田輝|"Narita Hikaru", 4:Hatsumi's younger brother. At the beginning of the series, he is in kindergarten.;nihongo|Shihoko Narita|成田志保子|"Narita Shihoko":The mother. She is very afraid of Mrs. Tachibana, and does whatever she can to please her. But later in the series she overcomes her fear of Mrs.Tachibana;nihongo|Tohru Narita|成田徹|"Narita Tōru":The father. He takes the blame for Miho Odagiri's death by confirming Azusa's conclusion that he was her lover, but it is later revealed that he was paid in some way by his office superior, Mr. Tachibana, to be Tachibana's scapegoat. He spends much time working away from home. Went to college with both Azusa's and Ryoki's fathers.

The Tachibana Family

;nihongo|Ryoki Tachibana|橘亮輝|"Tachibana Ryōki", 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 and ends up falling in love. At the beginning of the series, he is a second-year student at the prestigious private school, Kaisei Academy. It is revealed that when Hatsumi and Ryoki were kids in the company housing complex, that Hatsumi was Ryoki's sole friend, while Hatsumi was also friends with Azusa. Nevertheless, Ryoki did not treat Hatsumi well, even as children, going as far as pushing Hatsumi down a flight of stairs, emotionally scarring her. This was revealed later to be an unintentional accident. ;nihongo|Natsue Tachibana|橘奈津江|"Tachibana Natsue":Ryoki's mother and the undisputed "queen" of the company housing complex. Natsue and Shuichiro are in an arranged marriage due to the wishes of their parents.;nihongo|Shuichiro Tachibana|橘柊一郎|"Tachibana Shūichirō":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.

The Odagiri Family

;nihongo|Azusa Odagiri|小田切梓|Odagiri Azusa, 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 paid to be a scapegoat so Ryoki's dad, the real lover, could come out clean. Azusa pretended to love Hatsumi to get revenge on her Dad. In the end, Azusa told Kazama that he was going to find a way to hurt Hatsumi and Ryoki's relationship by getting Hatsumi and Shinogu together to get back at Ryoki's father.,he seems to have feelings for Hatsumi. ;nihongo|Minoru Odagiri|小田切実|"Odagiri Minoru":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.;nihongo|Miho Odagiri|小田切美宝|"Odagiri Miho":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 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.

The Yagi Family

;nihongo|Subaru Yagi|八木すばる|Yagi Subaru, 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). At the beginning of the series it is implied that Subaru has a crush on Hatsumi, but later on he comes to reciprocate her sister Akane's feelings.;nihongo|Asahi Yagi|八木あさひ|"Yagi Asahi", 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.

Others

;nihongo|Mariko Takato|高遠万里子|Takatō Mariko", 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.;nihongo|Rina Katsuragi|葛城リナ|"Katsuragi Rina":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.;nihongo|Shuji Kazama|風間柊司|Kazama Shūji, 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.;nihongo|Ruri Saionji|西園寺瑠璃|"Saionji Ruri":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 is in love with Hatsumi. He ends up inviting Ruri to sleep with him, to which she agrees. When they are taking off their clothes and fooling around, he cannot stop thinking about Hatsumi, so he orders her to leave, saying he has changed his mind.

Novel

Some time after the completion of the "Hot Gimmick" manga, a novel with an alternate ending titled "Hot Gimmick S" was created. It was written by Megumi Nishizaki and contains original images by Miki Aihara.The story focuses on the relationship between Hatsumi and Shinogu, with Hatsumi narrating. Characters from the manga also make brief appearances as well and play very little roles in the story.

At the very end of the novel, a few pages from the manga when Shinogu and Hatsumi were young are also included.

External links

* [http://www.viz.com/products/products.php?series_id=80 Hot Gimmick page] from Viz Media
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