Title: Paradise Kiss
Volume(s): 4
Creator(s): Ai Yazawa
Format: Unflipped; Right-to-Left
Publisher: Tokyopop
MSRP: $9.95
Genre(s): Romance
Rated: Older Teen (16+)
As of this moment there is one manga that has been getting a lot of fan publicity recently. That manga is a series called “Paradise Kiss,” a manga that takes place in the world of fashion and glamor. Everyone is calling this the most underrated series in the last five years, and most people think it’s a “must read” for anyone who loves romance series. I however strongly disagree with these people, for after reading this series I am at a loss for why such a poor series is getting so much publicity. The series is about a girl named Yukari, who is a super smart girl at school, gets good grades, and her life is just perfect. However like every single girl life in a girls manga, that can’t last too long. One day she is stopped in the middle of the street by a street punk named Arashi. For some reason he is absolutely excited to see her, and he drags her screaming to a secret room in an apartment.
Now Yukari has every right to scream at this point; here is an extremely creepy looking guy with piercings all over his body, dragging her across town, and no one seems to notice this! Not only that, but he makes no attempt to tell her where he’s even taking her. When they get to their destination, Yukari is immediately swamped by more people, a girl name Miwako (Who looks like she walked right out of some Mattel doll set made for girls) comes up to Yukari thinking she’s perfect for them, then Yukari is hugged by a transsexual guy named Isabella! At this point Yukari has had enough of this and demands to know what is going on (Although at this point I would have already slapped a couple of people). Turns out these people are fashion designers. And not only that, they are fashion designers who are designing a dress that they hope will win in some sort of fashion competition, and apparently Yukari looks so beautiful they want her to help them by wearing the dress at the competition (Okay, at least this series starts out unique).
Well Yukari basically tells them off because she has no interest in fashion (Plus she would rather not be around these freaks of nature). She almost leaves when she is stopped by the dress designer George, and he somehow convinces Yukari to help them with their project. Not only that, but he even express’s interest in dating Yukari. Yukari thinks George is kind of sexy, but she is put off by the fact that George is a bi-sexual (Seriously folks, this has enough “unique” people in this series that is doesn't need anymore. Heck, there are enough "unique" people in this series that they could have easily called this series “Special Friends” by now ). Well at this point Yukari has now agreed to wear the dress, but now that she's involved with the project everyone suddenly insists that she should only show up every now and then so that her studies won’t be interrupted! What makes this unbelievable situation even more unbelievable (Why go through all that trouble to convince someone to help you if you're just going to tell them to continue on as if nothing was happening) is that the second they tell her that they don’t want to interrupt her studies Yukari suddenly does a whiplash on us and is interested in the project all of a sudden. What the heck?!
If that wasn’t bad enough, Yukari also decides that she’ll even quit school to finish the project!? Now this wouldn’t be a bad twist by any stretch of the imagination if this was handled well, but it was not, and I just can't stand it when something this big happens without any reason given. Not only that, but Yukari also falls in love with George for no freaking reason too! I mean this guy is one of the most insensitive unlikable characters in this book. He constantly makes her feel bad about herself, he doesn’t take her seriously, he has sarcasim in everything he says, and there was one point when the two were having sex when George’s phone rings, AND HE ACTUALLY PICKS IT UP!!!!! At this point Yukari should have told him to screw himself the next time, but no, for some reason she forgives him and gives us a lame “deep down inside he’s a really sweet guy” crap that pretty much every other girl manga star gives us!
Seriously, would it be too much to ask for that a women in girls manga at least choose a NICE guy to get together with, instead of getting together with a creep in every series JUST to prove that he’s really a nice guy deep down inside?! I personally don’t think that that’s asking for too much. To make this series even stranger is that Miwako and Arashi are also a nice loving couple, having sex every couple of nights too. Lets look at that again; the punk rocker and the doll girl are getting it on in bed every couple of nights?! How did the author come up with THAT little story twist?! And that’s not the end of it either. When Yukari tells her mom that she’s going to be quitting school to hook up with these losers, her mom slaps her and forbids her to ever see those kids ever again. Because of this Yukari ends up running away, but when it boils down to who’s right in this argument, I honestly found myself siding with the mom.
After all the idea mom has for Yukari’s future is to finish school, get good grades, graduate, find a career, and settle down one day. Yukari’s plan is to drop out of school, enter this competition, and get it on with George every now and then. Never before have I read a series that tries so hard to make you sympathize for a character that quite frankly has done nothing to deserve the sympathizing. It doesn’t help the fact that once Yukari drops out of school she doesn’t really end up actually doing that much work anyway (Which is exactly what everyone told her she would be doing at the beginning of this series come to think of it). Seriously folks, I’d like to know WHERE the good story is exactly! None of these characters are likable, their personalities don’t play off each other well at all, and Yukari and George's relationship seems forced (Along with the rest of the relationships for that matter)! This series is, at the end of the day, a terrible, terrible, TERRIBLE mess!
There is no reason for us to believe that these clowns will win the fashion show (Their too busy knocking each other up to do that), no reason to care for anyone, and no reason to believe any of these relationships will EVER work out! I don’t want to give away the ending of the story, but I will tell you this: When you reach the ending to this series you will most likely be completely unsurprised by how it ends. The relationships all go exactly where you expect them to have gone, the characters lives are the same way too, and in the end mom was right all along. What a load of crap! Its been a long time since I’ve hated an ending so much, and “hate” is too light a word to describe my feelings towards this horrid manipulative series. The art is good though. Oh yes, regardless what you may have heard about the story I can safely say that the art is as good as everyone says it is.
The world is unique, this series has a style all to its own, and this art is most likely going to be stuck in my mind forever...but really, who cares?! The art may be good, but...so what? Why should we care about the pretty pictures when the pretty pictures doesn’t have a good story backing it up? Despite the good artwork, “Paradise Kiss” is a mess that should be left alone. It’s garbage, and thus it should be treated as such. In my opinion this is a classic example of shoujo done COMPLETELY wrong! So why is this series getting good reviews from people other then me? I have no idea, but I suggest you ask them, because I certainly can’t tell you why.
- -Review By Kevin T. Rodriguez- -