auroradreamaker ([info]auroradreamaker) wrote in [info]hot_gimmick,
@ 2007-02-17 21:25:00
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Finished reading Hot Gimmick S yesterday.
Spoiler-free until I get comments if people ask wanting to know about something about the book. If it's spoiler-ish and I tried hard not to....then let me know. But if you really don't want to know a single darn thing until you open the book and read it yourself I suggest waiting to read this post.

My overall impression is that it was really quite good, It's defaintly a "light novel" I finished it in an hour and a half. It wasn't expecting very much after reading some very unsatisfying reviews of Hot Gimmick S from Japanese reviewers. If you wanted Shinogu to be with Hatsumi and like cute fluffyness I will say that Hot Gimmick S is filled with that. There is admitedly hardly ANY Ryoki except within the first few chapter which are basically recap of the whole manga, making it easy even for New readers to Hot Gimmick be able to start out reading this book first.

Miki Aihara's afterward said that she hoped that people would consider Hot Gimmick S an alternative ending after volume 11. And that if you wanted Shinogu to end up with Hatsumi you could consider it the real ending. Of course, if you liked the ending of RyokixHatsumi you can consider that the real ending too.

There is a small joke, which i'm sure us Hot gimmick fans will enjoy about "someone" mentioning that if Hatsumi was ever with Ryoki for good that Shinogu would give it and become a monk that I think you'll all find amusing :P

And theres stuff there for you Subaru and Akane....KAZAMA *GASP* yay...and ah yes, Asahi (although you might feel a little bad for her) too.

Finally, you get all that exciting back-story of how Shinogu came to the Narita family. And admitedly you get to see Hatsumi's mom in her high-school girl days which is very interesting. Totally fleshed out her character.

Any questions and I'll be glad to answer

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[info]catdecember
2007-02-18 09:05 am UTC (link)
waaaah! when did u find it? i wasnt sure on the release date

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[info]auroradreamaker
2007-02-18 06:44 pm UTC (link)
I purchased it from www.justmanga.com about a week or so ago because it showed them as having it in stock. ^_^;;

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[info]missykitty0115
2007-02-18 03:22 pm UTC (link)
I completely forgot it was even coming out. o_o; Now I must go find it!

But it sounds like it's good. I want ShinoguxHatsumi fluff. Want the fluff! Whoot for alternate endings!

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[info]dana_dee
2007-02-19 02:54 am UTC (link)
Well, congrats on getting the book early! It was definately a good idea purchasing it on that website. I think I'll do that next time instead. But I am really excited to get the book. Hopefully Borders won't recieve the books late. I can't wait any longer! >:o Hahaha!

Thanks for writing this, by the way. ^^ I'm also a ShinoguxHatsumi fan so I cant wait to read it!

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[info]spongeboob
2007-02-20 04:28 am UTC (link)
I read it and didn't like it. :/
The story itself was flat and oversimplified. Hot Gimmick was an an intense emotional rollercoaster, and the "S" felt like a 5 minute bumper car ride. It could have been done with more punch to it.

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[info]love_potion9
2007-02-22 12:35 am UTC (link)
I completely agree. I thought it was terrible. The writing style was choppy, scattered and amateur, and I wasn't aware that it
1. wasn't even BY Aihara Miki or
2. wasn't even an actual manga.
I might as well have just read crappy fanfiction online, because that's exactly what this reminded me of.
I bought it off amazon last week, I will be returning it shortly.

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[info]auroradreamaker
2007-02-22 01:18 am UTC (link)
The writer thats writes them also did the Fushigi Yuugi novels as well as the Ayashi no Ceres ones. I think it was pretty obvious it WASN'T by Miki Aihara...first of being shes a mangaka...not a novelist..second off...it said right on the cover o_o

It's too bad you didn't enjoy it. At least Shinogu got a better ending in this one which I was happy at. I understand it may not be everyones cup of tea though. xD

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[info]love_potion9
2007-02-22 01:27 am UTC (link)
Yeah, I bought it off amazon.com the day it became available, I didn't see the cover beforehand. I wish I'd known, I definitely would have stopped and tried to look through it in a store first.

Are you talking about the FY Genkou Kaiban(spelling?) novels? Because those sucked too, figures she'd be behind that shit as well.

Ehhh. Like you said, it wasn't for everyone. I'm just going to have it cemented in my mind that Hot Gimmick was over at Volume 12, and leave it at that.

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[info]spongeboob
2007-02-22 07:19 am UTC (link)
The ending was different, but I wouldn't call it "better". There was so much more to Shingu. The way he carried himself, the way he spoke, and the way he was devoted to Hatsumi. The writer could take advantage of the emotional setup Aihara created painstakingly over 12 novels.

"S" feels like a one night stand. :/
Fast, cheap, and very unsatisfying.
Then you find out it gave you the clap.

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[info]dana_dee
2007-02-23 10:25 pm UTC (link)
I completely agree with you. It could have been alot better.

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[info]spongeboob
2007-02-22 07:15 am UTC (link)
I ran looking for it like a nervous school girl when I saw it sitting pretty at the shelf on B&N, I left with a bad taste in my mouth.
I'm sorry that you bought it. :/ I almost never do that unless I download or scope it out from a bookstore. I was looking foreward to reading it, no matter how bad it was. I didn't expect for it to be that bad especially since I [bleeping] adore all of the characters.

I almost wanto write my own "S" version.
Hahaha, I wonder how many people would actually read it.

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[info]love_potion9
2007-02-22 07:22 am UTC (link)
THIS IS JUST ONE MORE REASON TO BE PISSED THAT MY BOOKSTORE CLOSED

Up until last month I worked at Waldenbooks, which was bad ass because I didn't have to buy manga, I could check it out for free BUT if I did buy it I got 33% off. I would have known not to buy it if I still had my bookstore. :-(

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[info]spongeboob
2007-02-22 07:25 am UTC (link)
Boo! :(
I sucks ass to loose every bookworm's fantasy job.

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[info]pink_rapid
2007-06-25 03:22 am UTC (link)
I agree with you. I bought it anyway, because A) I had credit so why the hell not? and B) the cover was pretty. Even the "extra art" felt like a rip-off.

XD I plan to write my own "S" version too. Well, actually, I'm just rewriting the current one. In book form, rather than cheap-comic-book-narration form.

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[info]jacachu
2007-02-22 09:26 pm UTC (link)
It did feel like a cheap lame fanfiction story.

However, Miki Aihara wants people to consider it as an alternative ending, and that is good enough for me. Any ending which has Hatsumi and Shinogu that the author approves of is good enough, instead of sitting there depressed by how the series ended.

What made me enjoy it was the art work. At least that was done by Miki Aihara. While reading, I felt each and every character *acted* like they were supposed to during the series, but I guess the writing style made each character feel... completely different, if that makes sense. Asahi acted nice and encouraging to Hatsumi, but she just didn't seem like.. Asahi.

Shinogu acted devoted and caring, but it just didn't seem like.. Shinogu.

And Hatsumi seemed completely out of character.

However, I was looking back on it, and thinking that if the words were placed on the pages with artwork like in the manga, it would flow exactly like that, but the pictures would give it that intensity feel. That's how most mangas are. Simple words written on pages can become intense and depressing with art, obviously, and that is what this lacked. It should have been a manga.

Why I say this is because reading it, I really didn't like it all that much and I felt like I just bought something from someone from fanfiction.net, but then I saw the artwork and I completely dove back into it happily. It wasn't much, but it was something, and that was good enough for me.

I'm actually tempted to write my own S version, using the same ideas from the original, but using my own writing style I guess.
(Just for my own amusement. XD )

Overall, I didn't like it as much as I wanted to, but I wasn't expecting much either from the reviews, so I'm happy that at least an alternative ending-whatever came out, and I'm happy that there were HatsumixShinogu pictures in the first place. =]

Also, it was refreshing to read something that had very very little Ryoki in it.

And for people bashing on the author of Hot Gimmick S - You guys, sit down and think about this for awhile. The author obviously made things very simple, like a few chapters at the end of volume 12. I don't think she felt building up all that emotional intensity was needed because it was already in volumes 1-12. It was a light alternative ending, and giving how Hatsumi felt during the end of the series, it made sense how a lot of it was written for her to slowly come to a realization that she wanted to be with Shinogu. It was simple for a reason; It was meant to be viewed as a few words on pages, with art. If you picture the artwork along with it instead of just reading it like a novel, the experience completely changes. It's a lot more enjoyable because for the most part that's how it would be written if it were only supposed to be 2 or 3 chapters at the very end of the book.

So, of course I would have loved some deep intense Shinogu POV, and not just Hatsumi POV, but we never really got anything wordly intense in the series to begin with, just the actions that the artwork brought along with it. It's the artwork and storyline that made the manga poetic and intense, not just what the characters are saying.

So I can understand why the author of HG S hid in her closet for like, 3 days after it was published. I think she just wrote in the style she felt she was supposed to write in - clean, simple and down to the point. It just ended up scattered and choppy I think because most of us (including me) aren't used to reading manga through a.. novel.

Sorry if that makes absolutely no sense.

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(Anonymous)
2007-02-22 09:31 pm UTC (link)
bah. I didn't mean the "pictures" would give it intensity feel, I meant the "artwork" would give it intensity feel. XP pictureswtfskdhjskdhksd.

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[info]kelbel93093
2007-03-03 03:06 am UTC (link)
I feel that Miki Aihara-sensei should have actually written it in manga form. It would be longer, but it would also be much easier to feel the drama. Or she could have at least written the novelization herself, too... I felt as though the actual author was just someone who could put it in words. There was no real feeling while I was reading it. And Hot Gimmick was /such/ a good series. I felt that it could've been presented in a better way.

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