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Title: Girl Got Game
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| CONSUMER ADVICE |
When it comes to objectional content parents have little to fear. Bad language is pretty rare, there are no jokes that people will find any real problem with, and the subject matter isn't too disturbing. For most part people of all ages should be able to enjoy this without much of a problem. People who love good romantic comedies are sure to love this title for the sweet love story. Fans of comedy will most likely love the energetic mood of the story and all the high jinks that are included. Action fans may want to pick up another series, as this series has none. |
If there is one genre that I don’t particularly care for all that much it's the gender-bending comedies. It's not that I don’t LIKE gender-bending comedies, its just that there are only so many different ways you can make them original and interesting. “Girl Got Game” is a series that attempts to bring the slap stick comedy of gender-bending movies and the romance of popular shoujo titles together, and for the most part it succeeds in doing just that. The story revolves around Kyo Aizawa, an energetic freshman who just can’t wait for school to start. She’s looking forward to having a handsome boyfriend, hanging out with all the girls, and wearing the school’s ultra cute uniform that she’s read so much about in fashion magazines (I think this is one of the few times where I’m actually CONVINCED that the female lead is really just a normal girl)! Then finally she gets her uniform in the mail, and she is shocked and horrified to discover that it’s a boys uniform.
Furious about what she just got in the mail, she storms into the room her dad is in and demands to know what the meaning of this is. Her dad drops a bomb on her when he tells her that instead of signing her up as a girl for school, he signed her up as a boy! Not only that, he signed her up be on the school boys basketball team too! See Kyo’s dad had always wanted to be a professional basketball player, but his dream never came true. However he feels that Kyo can accomplish his dream for him (And I thought MY friends dad was too forceful to get his son to take over the family business), and tells her that she might want to get a haircut so that she won’t get in trouble. Well Kyo is furious with her dad of course, but what can she do? The paperwork is set up, her mom doesn’t appear to be around to stop her husband from doing this to her daughter (Maybe she’s divorced or diseased, I’m not quite sure yet), so Kyo gets a haircut and goes to school the next day as a boy (And sadly, she actually DOES look very boyish). However her disappointment disappears when she see’s a boy named Chiharu Eniwa playing basketball in the courts.
It’s love at first site for her...until she meets him face-to-face and he calls her shorty, then she hates his guts and he becomes her rival (-_-;). However if you think this is going to stay the same between the two you obviously haven’t read enough shoujo in your life. It doesn’t take long for the two to start having feelings for each other (Which scares Chiharu since he thinks that “Shorty” here is a man), and there are some problems that Kyo always has because of her little kept secret. After all she’s sharing the same room with her rival/love interest, she can’t take group showers and baths with the guys, and when she starts having her period and stuff, keeping her little secret will prove to be a much harder task then it originally seemed to be. It should be noted that “Girl Got Game” is not a very original series. It contains little to no surprises, you know pretty much what’s going to happen at the end before we reach the end, and some of the jokes are a little predictable. Heck, lots of the jokes even seem to mimick "Tootsie" (That wonderfull Dustin Hoffman movie that has sadly faded from people's memories over the years). However like “Guardian Angel Getten,” this is still a fun series to read.
The characters are fun and developed extremely well, the situations (Predictable as they are) still manage to gain a few laughs, and the heart of the story is very emotional at times! This is not a great shoujo series, but it is a very good shoujo series! Like most comics geared for girls, “Girl Got Game” shows more interest in the characters and their relationships with each other then it does with the basketball game, high jinks, and other things. If I had one big beef with this series it would be the name of the series. In Japan this series went under the name of “POWER!!” For some reason though Tokyopop decided to rename the series, and the new title is far less attracting and far more stupid then the original title. Granted “POWER!!” isn’t that great of a name in itself, but at least it didn’t scare off potential customers with the lameness in the name. Double that with the fact that this series has the most unattractive looking covers to come from Tokyopop in a long time, and many people may look at the cover and think this is a terrible series, and in turn many people will skip this series not knowing how good it really is.
I think it would have been smart if Tokyopop had at least had a good cover planned. However in the end the title change and ugly covers don’t ruin what is a very enjoyable read. Shoujo fans are bound to love this series, and from what I hear this series only gets better from here on out.
- -Review By Kevin T. Rodriguez- -