Title: Hot Gimmick, Omnibus 1 (Hot Gimmick#1-3)
Author: Miki Aihara
Published: March, 2009 by VIZ Media
Pages: 552
Rating:  
Purchase: The Book Depository

In company-owned rabbit-hutch apartments live tenants who can’t afford to live anywhere else, and the apartment complex in which high-school girl Hatsumi Narita lives is ruled over by the rumor mongering, self-righteous Mrs. Tachibana. Get on Tachibana’s bad side, and life becomes hell. When Hatsumi has to buy a pregnancy test because her popular sister Akane is late, Mrs. Tachibana’s son, Ryoki, who used to bully Hatsumi as a kid, promises not to tell the world about Hatsumi’s secret, only if she becomes his slave.

Suddenly Azusa, Hatsumi’s protector in their youth, reappears to save her again. He’s moving back into the neighborhood. Despite the budding romance between Hatsumi and Azusa, Ryoki has control over her through the secret that could ruin the lives of everyone in Hatsumi’s family, and he hasn’t forgotten who his slave is.

Final Thoughts:
While I do have a bit of a passion for anime, I haven’t read much manga. I plan on rectifying that though. After scurrying through over five hundred pages in the past day, I can definitely say that I’m addicted to Hot Gimmick. I don’t feel so bad about forking over $27 for this massive—at least in manga book sizes—3-in-1 omnibus edition. Full of angst, and by that, I mean, drenched in it, this was one book where you wanted to rip the douchey guy’s hair out and feed it to him. I really don’t know what was so great about this story—maybe the shock value. The characters were so over the top, completely unbelievable, but somehow, in a weird way, connectable…