Beauty Pop
Full Series Review - by Rihga

Author: Arai Kiyoko
Length: 10 volumes
Licensed by: Viz: Shojo Beat manga

I know. I rolled by eyes at the title, too. I even felt a little nauseous when I read the description: three cute guys run a school club (the Scissors Project, or SP for the lazy) that specializes in beautifying young ladies. This sounded like a pink, bubble-covered train wreck.

So imagine my surprise when I started reading it and found out that I actually liked it. Not just liked it – was laughing out loud at it. Simply put, it's Ouran High School Host Club, but with a group of future beauticians. The club features three shojo manga stereotypes – the hot-tempered hair stylist (Narumi), the smart, glasses-wearing makeup artist (Ochiai), and the childlike nail designer (Kei) – who get a cold dose of reality from Kiri, our dry, sarcastic, and seemingly-apathetic female lead. She also turns out to be a master hair stylist who helps out the girls that the SP deems “too ugly,” giving them snazzy hairdos and a nice boost of self-confidence to go with it.

The plot takes off from there, leading to rivalries, truces, and beauty contests that feel like life-or-death action sequences. I swear I was sitting on the edge of my seat during some of those competitions, wondering how Kiri and the gang were going to pull this one off. And don't worry, ladies: there's some romance tossed in as well, though it's downplayed due to Kiri's practical personality (not to mention the compete ineptitude of the boys who wuv her. Thank God somebody finally wrote 16-year-olds right).

BP is a story about both inner and outer beauty, but the artist never gets too preachy with the moral or too fluffy with her characters (except maybe for the epilogue, but that's typical, isn't it?). Every member of the cast has at least one quirk about them, and those humors – and the interactions between them – keep the story light, fresh and funny from start to finish. It also doesn't hurt that Kiri is one of the most lovable shojo leads I've ever read about. By the end, I was cheering for her and the SP – and wondering when the hell I'd started caring about the proper way to cut bangs in the first place.

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Favorite Character: Koyama Kiri, a female lead with all the subtlety of a bulldozer.
Warning - Big Creeper: Ochiai. He starts the story as a d-bag and ends the story as a semi-stalker who teaches us all the dangers of the camera phone. The worst part about it is that I still kind of liked him. Damn you Kiyoko Arai and your lovable characters!
Life Outside the Main Plot: The side stories with Shampoo the cat are beyond adorable.
Rihga Laughed Out Loud When: I can't talk about it in detail without giving away some major plot points, but there's a moment in the last chapter of the last volume that turns a typical shojo fluff-fest into pure hilarity. I'd never been so happy to see a romantic moment ruined.

Final Grade: B. Worth buying, particularly if you're an Ouran fan. (And at just 10 volumes long, it's an easy title to collect, too.)

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