Absolute Boyfriend Manga Volume 1
Absolute Boyfriend is a manga that my girlfriend recommended. She read one of the installments in Shojo Beat and went out to buy the first volume. Since she reads the ones I recommend to her, sometimes, I figured I’d give Absolute Boyfriend a chance. She was right about Ouran High School Host Club after all.
My first impression wasn’t very encouraging. If I was the type of person to judge a book by it’s cover, there would be no way I’d bother with this one.
Story
Riiko Izawa is a girl who is unlucky in love. When she confesses to the guy she likes he completely blows her off. Nothing seems to be going her way. That’s when she finds a lost cell phone. When she returns it to the weird guy who lost it he offers her a discount on anything his company sells. Since the only thing she really wants is a boyfriend she turns him down. He gives her a CD-ROM that will let her access his company website.
Turns out his company sells boyfriends. Not escorts or real people, but androids programmed to be the perfect boyfriend. Since there’s a free 3 day trial she decides to try one out.
That’s when the fun starts.
Art
The art is pretty good. The character designs are ok, at least they’re not done in the extremely sharp style that seems to bug me so much. The backgrounds are believable, when they’re included. Some of the architecture is really good.
The high point of the art is the comedy. Great expressions that convey the emotion. Lucky for the reader that Riiko is put into situations where she freaks out quite often.
My Opinion
At first I thought this was an even more girly version of Chobits. You know, since the guy is some sort of android boyfriend. Then I realized that Chobits is the girly version. This is actually less girly for one simple reason.
This volume sets up what is apparently the main plot device. Riiko forgets to send Night, her love toy, back before the free trial period is up. So the mysterious Kronos Heaven company cuts her a deal. Keep Night and let him collect data about what girls want so they can make perfect boyfriends, and in return they won’t make her pay the 1 million bucks she owes.
Can you see how that’s less girly than Chobits?
Once they get the data they need, they won’t need to make robot boyfriends. They can make a freakin’ killing selling that info to guys instead. They can write off 1 million or even 100 million for that kind of info. It’s a drop in the bucket compared to what they can make for answering the oldest question in the universe… “What the heck do women want?”!!
Is it worth it?
This one comes down to gender. I think girls will like it, but guys won’t. Absolute Boyfriend has some pretty good comedy and tries to answer the question all guys ask, but it’s just not compatible with the Y chromosome.
- Girls = Yes.
- Guys = No.
Manga, Reviews, Absolute Boyfriend, Yuu Watase, Chobits, Ouran High School Host Club, Shojo Beat
December 10th, 2007 at 2:52 am
[...] put Absolute Boyfriend in Kids-A-Million, the kid’s section, to start with. I reviewed the first volume of Absolute Boyfriend. I can tell you that it is in no way suitable for children. The rating on the back of this manga [...]