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Reviewed by Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane The second volume of Honey Hunt is as pleasant a surprise as the first. (Having already covered the way my residual feelings from Hot Gimmick color my perspective on Aihara's work in my review of volume 1, I won't rehash that here.) Instead, I'll start by talking about the heroine, Yura, who is shy and usually unassertive--not the best combination when trying to break into showbiz, but she manages to overcome those tendencies when there's no other choice. At the beginning of this volume, she has no other choice: her outfit for the commercial that's about to start shooting has been sabotaged (not that most of the people on staff seem to actually realize that there's no other way a piece of clothing carefully hung up in a closet is going to suddenly develop a huge stain), and the general attitude on set is that there's nothing for it but to delay shooting Yura's scene, which will screw up her co-star's work schedule. Yura has a sudden burst of inspiration that works out, and the scene goes ahead in a way that impresses both the director and--begrudgingly--her co-star, Haruka. (More on him in a minute.) Yura has an astounding amount of naiveté about the business, but she also has a fair bit of natural talent and intuition as an actress. It makes her vulnerable to sabotage and to undermining her own best chances, but it also means that her manager, Nishiwaki, and the director of the commercial she's been cast in have some faith in her. Then we come to the two male leads: Yura's co-star, Haruka, and his twin, Q-ta, who's a musician. Back in vol. 1 Q-ta expressed interest in Yura, but was upfront about his motivations, which involved wanting to get close to Yura's father, another musician. It's starting to seem like his interest is genuine, though (the story's been leading readers in that direction all along, but Yura herself is now having moments of wondering if it's possible). Meanwhile, Haruka is openly antagonistic towards Yura--at least by normal standards. (I need another Hot Gimmick comparison here after all: my perception of Haruka's treatment of her is influenced by the fact that, in comparison to the way the characters in Hot Gimmick behaved, Haruka is practically riding in on a white horse and giving Yura flowers.) For manga twins who don't have a good relationship, the brothers seem pretty low-key in their antagonism (which, to be fair, mostly seems to be Haruka having a problem with Q-ta). I like that they obviously have issues, but so far they don't seem to be extreme or unrealistic. All of that has very little to do with the plot. The story in volume 2 is perfectly passable, but Aihara's characters tend to be the focal point of her series. For the most part, this volume revolves around Yura figuring out how much her desire to break into acting has to do with a real enjoyment of the craft and how much has to do with proving something to her mother; she's also bound and determined not to use her parents' celebrity to her advantage or be accused of coasting on their fame, but it's probably no surprise that that doesn't work out so well. Again, she's very naive about the business, and that's obvious to everyone around her. I'm not caught up in Honey Hunt, but as I said, so far I've been pleasantly surprised by it. If I get the same feeling from the next volume, I may even start having fewer reservations about it. Review copy provided by VIZ Media. Comment on this review of Honey Hunt v2 on the Manga Life Forums. |
6 October 2009
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