Gacha Gacha Vol. #01A

By Eduardo M. Chavez     August 09, 2005
Release Date: August 30, 2005



Creative Talent
Writer/Artist:Tamakoshi Hiroyuki
Translated by:David Ury
Adapted by:

What They Say
Kouhei can’t get his friend Kurara out of his mind. Even though he has known her since elementary school, all of a sudden, ever since she came back from summer vacation, he has been thinking about her... a lot.

But Kurara has started acting very odd. Sometimes she seems wholesome, pure, and innocent, and at other times she is extremely forward and unabashed. When Kouhei learns that Kurara has multiple personalities, he decides to help her keep her secret from their classmates. But Kouhei finds himself struggling between trying to help Kurara and his secret desire to win her heart... which is a challenge, since she has many!

The Review
Packaging:
As I am reviewing a very rough galley copy, I really cannot review the presentation properly.

I will share that at this point they appear to have the original headers – chapters and volume. There is a staff page at the end, a short bio on the mangaka, translation notes and a translated preview of volume 2.

Artwork:
Shonen manga readers might recognize Tamakoshi’s character designs. He is the artist for all three Boy Be… series (the second series is currently being released by TOKYOPOP). And if you have seen his other works Tamakoshi’s art revolves around one thing – the female body. Tamakoshi’s designs are fantastic. Great proportion, her characters have a good sense of form where their bodylines accentuate curves at just the right places. Length and depth looks good from almost every perspective, which is something that tends to happen a bit especially when character designs are pretty fancy close up. Faces are done with good concept of capturing expressions. This is critical when dealing with Kurara’s unique problem. Tamakoshi also has a good sense of style. So, unlike many shonen titles where characters tend to wear the same outfits chapter after chapter, specifically out of school, there is some variety here.

Just want to give some people a heads up, that there are some risqué situations, but there is no real nudity in this volume. There are some panty shots and there is a page featuring Kurara’s naked behind but that is about as far as it goes.

Background art is decent. The designs can be pretty nice, especially when Tamakoshi takes into consideration the ability for one of the characters to do the unexpected in unexpected places. The layout is not too shabby, either. Tamakoshi loves to use close-ups, which carried over from Boys Be... as well. During these close-ups, he often focuses on the expressions on character's faces or the point of view from a specific person - often in times of shock or excitement.

SFX/Text:
As is Del Rey's policy, SFX are subbed. Their subs tend to be of a small font usually placed below the original SFX. Because of the font size, original art is not compromised, but with the lack of SFX in this series (kind of weird for an action title) one might not notice them at times. Still, I appreciate the effort and the more I see this done the more I find myself liking it (font size and placement can make a big difference).

As my galley is an uncorrected proof I will not grade the translation, but as of this point what is here sounds good and everything should be satisfactory by the time these hit the shelves in September.

Contents: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Its almost summer vacation and things are heating all over the place. Kouhei is doing his best to beat the heat by consuming vast quantities of beef - ribs and beef bowl mainly - and by planning for trips to the beach once school lets out. However, Kouhei could not prepare for some heat related situations.

Summer means much more than cicada catching, crawdad trapping, garage kit building and beef bowl. Summer means hot times in the sunshine, when there is plenty opportunities for more mature types of opportunities to raise one's body temperature. Summer is often a time for swimming in pools or at the beach. That often means barbeques, hot sand, small bathing suits and lots of skin. Summer could also mean festivals, where people get together in their light yukata, hang out in the warm summer night have a cool drink before watching fireworks with those close to them. Summer could also mean lounging in skimpy outfits drinking tall cool beverages while checking out the view. Summer is a time when spring romances develop into something hotter - for better or for worse. Make sure you pack much more than sunscreen for protection.

Kouhei's life is definitely getting hotter. Summer alone with guys was fun; barbeque and beaches can be pretty hot on their own right. However, his life didn't really start heating up until summer vacation ended and his non-existent love life became a steamy love triangle with one young woman.

How does that work? Well, Kouhei's love interest, Hanazono Kurara, has two personalities, of course. There is Kurara, the strong-spirited brash person Kouhei is in love with and Arisa the ero-ero tease that wants to get it on with Kouhei (and almost everyone else) both reside in the same hottie body. The two personalities are at odds with each other and poor Kouhei is caught in between.

Where did Arisa come from? Why is she so interested in Kouhei and will he ever be able to let Kurara know he likes her. Told you this summer was hot, didn't I!

Comments
If you are like me, you possibly have read a few love triangle manga. One boy two girls, one girl two boys, or one boy and two other boys it happens all the time in manga and there are as many ways to go about the concept as there are stars in the sky. However, I have yet to have read one that takes the love triangle and turns it into a love split-end or the “LOVE-Y”.

GachaGacha takes the relationship between a boy and a girl and then turns it into the relationship between the boy and the girls separate personalities! Hence the “LOVE Y”. A straight line from one body to another but within one body there are two hearts! Each one has a different (maybe) feeling towards the boy and differing opinions on how to handle the other. If falling in love with someone wasn’t hard enough, this is ridiculous.

But man does Tamakoshi know just how to set this up. He starts all of this around summer vacation. So we get to see the two friends before summer and they seem to be normal. Something inside of Kouhei builds up and he realizes his feelings towards Kurara. Under most circumstances we would see the two date during vacation, building a relationship alone before school starts. Nevertheless, Tamakoshi uses vacation to create a rift between the two. Summer is not over so the sexy scenes are still deployed to display the two unique personalities within Kurara – Arisa and Kurara. But what brought this on? That is the mystery and it happened to Kurara during summer vacation. Yet, the layoff from vacation is equally giving Kouhei an opportunity to be with Kurara, so he can get to know her better in a few ways. The process is a little unorthodox, however I think it was well planned. However, one can equally say the concept of having two love interests in one character is not standard for a shonen romance either.

Outside of that major concept, Kouhei is a pretty spineless young man. I was almost fooled at the start of the manga, but as he began to understand his situation with Kurara more, I saw him grow more self-conscious. It really is a shame since he has an opportunity with Arisa to develop into someone Kurara would like, but he just does not have the confidence yet. I will say that it is a little early to judge just where this is going, but so far, I am having fun with this story. The original concept is intriguing and something I have not seen done too often (Othello also from Del Rey does something similar), but the characters themselves are still lacking depth and the whole love triangle thing is really overdone.