Gimmick 6
November 26, 2009
Youzaburou Kanari / Kuroko Yabuguchi – Viz – 2009 – 9 volumes
I have the last few volumes of this, and I sort of brushed it off until I found out that it’s actually about special effects artists and stuntman. That immediately ranked it above any other series I was planning to start. Unfortunately, this volume starts badly, with one of those scenes where the main character is accused of groping and then beaten up by everyone when he actually wasn’t doing anything, but thankfully it recovered quickly and things improved from there.
This volume starts a chapter or two into a story about a pop idol who was being harassed by someone in her crew. She turned to Kohei, the makeup artist, and the rest of the story is the two of them bonding while they try to evade the bad guy, who is after the pendant that proves she’s the daughter of the New York City mayor. It wasn’t all that hot, and there was only one or two instances where the makup and special effects even came up. I was really worried that the series was less about the makeup and more about these badly-done hero-type stories.
It wasn’t. The rest of the volume was really, really good. The second story was about Kohei’s friend Kannazuki. Kannazuki’s a stuntman, and the story takes a look at what his job entails, just how important it is, and also at how some of the movie effects are done. There was a story about his mom and a rivalry with the lead actor in the movie they were working on. It’s simple stuff, but winds up being interesting when supplemented with all the fun movie stuff.
The next story was about Kohei teaching a loner boy how to make a mask for his school play in order to impress the other kids in an effort to make friends. There wasn’t much of the plot, but there was an incredible amount of detail about how a rubber mask was made. Again, very interesting.
The last story, one that seems to carry over into the next volume, was about someone impersonating Kohei and ruining his reputation on sets Kohei hasn’t even visited. The imposter and Kohei have a duel, and we learn about how makeup can go bad, workarounds for problems that come up, and also how CGI affects people in the traditional effects industry. Again, interesting stuff, and pretty funny to boot.
I can’t say much for the plot or characters aside from the fact they serve as a wonderful vehicle for all the other stuff about movies, makeup, and special effects that are being learned here. The first story proves they don’t work very well without the themes of the series, which is fine. It’s a great read so far with just the info. It’s like Oishinbo, in a way, except for movies instead of food. And Oishinbo is way more serious about what it does.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
