Customer Reviews

Beauty Pop, Vol. 1 (v. 1)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Kiri Koshiba is a first year high school student. Her family owns a beauty salon, but she has no interest in it. However, whenever there's a miserable soul in need of a make-over, Kiri's there with her identity masking (No, Lois, that's not Clark Kent!) baseball cap, ready to perform a little beautifying magic.

Ok, this sounds like a really stupid story. In fact, if I had read the back of the book first, I probably wouldn't have bought it. However, due to all of the buzz on line about the title, I picked it up during the TRSI Viz studio sale, and I'm not a bit sorry!

Kiri's rivals, the Scissors Project, is a group of three male students, who are totally hung up on themselves. Narumi's only goal is to be the top beautician in Japan. He has been competing in amateur contests since he was seven, and won all of them but one. When girls start appearing at school with makeovers that rival his skills, he starts to get anxious. Who is this mysterious beautician? After Kayo Yamamoto, a girl he refused to make-over because her hair was too short, shows up at school with a new hair style featuring extensions, he challenges his would-be rival to a hair battle! Will Kiri, who couldn't care one bit about the recognition, take him up on this challenge?

So, it still sounds pretty stupid, doesn't it? Get over it! Go buy the book! This was a fun read, and it was completely different from anything else that I have read. Kiyoko Arai, who is also the author of Dr Rin, hit pay dirt with this one. I love Kiri's apathetic attitude; she has enough confidence in herself to not care what other people think of her. She says what's on her mind, to the point of being rude, but has a soft spot for people in distress. Her identity altering hat is rather silly, but so is the entire manga!

The art is clean and fun, with special emphasis placed on hair styles. The characters are diverse and funny, with conceited Narumi so focused on himself that he can't even tell that Kiri is X-san. Kiri's dad is a great side character, as he gently nudges her to use her skills to make people happy.

The hair contest left off with a dreaded cliff-hanger, and the next volume doesn't come out until December! Argh!

www.mangamaniaccafe.com

I attended Comic Con and they handed out sample comics that were to debut this year-Beauty Pop being one of them.

Kiri is not your average typical girly, ditzy or cutesy shoujo heroine which I really appreciate. It's quite refreshing to see a new look on a heroine who has her own attitude and personality that isn't recycled.

In this volume, she gives a makeover to her childhood friend Kanako to show a trio of talented and stuck up wannabe hair stylists known as the Scissors Project what it really means to be the best. Then Kiri aids a girl who longs to regrow her hair in the short time before her crush leaves forever. The final story leaves us with Kiri helping an overweight, frizzy haired girl become beautiful for her long-time crush while competing against the leader of the Scissors Project. Which of course we won't know until Volume 2 comes out December 5. ^_<

Kiri is not your average manga heroine, she's slightly lazy, apathetic, but a genius in beauty makeovers. Her hands are definitely magic; her nemesis Narumi (Naru-Naru) is hot-headed, proud, and prissy. They make a hilarious pair and their rivalry will be fun to follow. I'm also intrigued by Kiri's past. This promises to be one interesting manga series.

Beauty Pop is a shoujo manga that focuses more on the subject matter than on romance. The early volumes are very similar to some other makeover manga, in that they don't have quite as much plot and each chapter centers around a different makeover. The later volumes involve more romance and more leveling up in the stylists' skills.

My favorite thing about this manga is that, despite being a reverse harem shoujo series , the heroine is not constantly concerned about having a boyfriend or focused on romance. Actually, the best word to describe Kiri might be apathetic. Her hairstyle is practical not pretty, as are her clothes. She's sarcastic and disinterested. In fact, when the romance comes into the series, it's the boys who suffer from desperation not the female character, which is rather nice to see.

The first time I read this, I remember being hugely disappointed by the way the romance turned out, as I had been rooting for an entirely different guy to win. This time through, prepared for the ending, I was more okay with it.

Although not one of my favorite series, Beauty Pop definitely has good features and is worth a read for a shoujo fan. Recommended to fans of The Knockout Makers, Ouran High School Host Club or My Heavenly Hockey Club.

I like the series , its cute and funny. It makes a good read when you haven't got anything to do. I would recommand this manga to anyone who is looking for a manga that is calm and realistic. It is also very clean, which I was happy about, I didn't have to worry about an unnesscary "fan services" or F-bombs.

Be on the look out for the word "NAPPY".

It could make a few readers "frizz". :)

Okay I might be stupid but I really hoped there was a little more to this story than hair cutting. I mean there is and I don't know what I was expected but anyway I was expecting something else along with the who's the best hair stylist. This was really good but not up to my standards. I don't think this book should be rated Teen there is nothing wrong with it. I believe thos book is appropiate for all ages. Good for young girls.

Beauty Pop is a manga about how being attractive is the only thing that matters, I hope that there isn't anyone who takes this series seriously.

Kiri is a first year student, who is lazy, insensitive and indifferent to others and their problems but, if properly motivated, put a pair of scissors in her hands and she can do magic. The magic that they speak of in the book is the ability to make people attractive by cutting their hair and putting on some make-up. Her rival is Narumi, who is heir to his father's hair salon empire. Narumi, along with two of his close friends have a club called the Scissors Project where they take women, cut their hair and make them beautiful, as a result, the women then go out and get the guy of their dreams and live happily ever after.

The problem is, there are a few girls that the Scissors Project will not accept, maybe their hair is too short, maybe they don't see the potential or maybe they are all just superficial jerks, I don't know. This is were Kiri comes in, despite the fact that she acts as though she doesn't care about anyone or anything, she apparently can not stop her self from helping a person in need. So she will sneak up behind them with a huge baseball cap on and ask if they want her to do magic for them. The hat seems to have a Clark Kent/Superman effect on people so that no one seems to realize who she is. This boggles my mind because sometimes the characters act like they know she is X, and sometimes they seem to be pondering X's identity, it's all very confusing.

Truthfully, if you have read The Ouran High School Host Club (If you haven't: don't waste your time on this, get that instead), you will find that Narumi is very much like Tamaki (Cute but full of trivial emotions), and Minami and Ochiai are just like Hunny (So cute it's almost a crime) and Kyoya(The smart, calculating, `shadow' leader), respectively. This tells me that it is not the characters that are shallow, it is plot that ruins them.

The book ends with a cliff hanger so huge that you just HAVE to get the next volume just to see what happens, even if, like me you think this series has no real merit. I don't feel that this is a bad series, just a silly one. If you are looking for a serious manga with life lessons, and deep, fleshed out characters, please do not go anywhere near this series, if you are just looking for a good time, or if beauty really does mean everything to you, Kiyoko Arai has created the perfect reading material. It was said before me and I agree, I was hoping that there was something more to this story than just hair cutting.

The Verdict:

If beauty is only skin deep, how can a manga about beauty be anything more? Beauty Pop is a shallow but somehow entertaining manga, with cute characters and an empty storyline. D-