365 Days of Manga, Day 266: Rose Hip Rose

ROSE HIP ROSE • Tohru Fujisawa • Tokyopop • 18+
Shohei is a bored kid who’s flirting with crime, taking photos of girls’ panties on the subway…until a hot girl with glasses, Kasumi Asakura, catches him and stops him cold. He got off lucky; Kasumi is “Rose Hip,” a sexy 17-year-old undercover crimefighter! Pretty soon Kasumi ends up going to Shohei’s school and even moves into his apartment building, when she’s not fighting bank robbers and knife-wielding maniacs. Meanwhile, Shohei growls “I’m gonna make that slut pay for embarrassing me,” not a great way to build up reader sympathy. Tohru Fujisawa (GTO) is a polished artist, drawing cute girls, shiny guns and backgrounds so photorealistic you feel like you’re really roaming around Tokyo. But in place of GTO’s comedy, Rose Hip Rose is a humorless, by-the-numbers crime action manga, which seems to star a Terminator-esque female supercop only so men can threaten her with various forms of torture and molestation. It’s competently executed, but clichéd, and the mood is very, very sour. (Review by Jason Thompson – originally printed in Otaku USA magazine.)
* 1/2 (one and a half stars)
Today’s winner is Michelle H. of California… congratulations, Michelle! Once you get your manga, blog about us and send us a photo and we’ll send you five more manga!

This photo was sent in by Amber, one of the recent winners of 365 Days of Manga. Amber, thanks for being a good sport and sending in your photo! It’s cool to get to see and share all the pictures of different manga fans around the U.S. And now I’ll go and send you some more manga ASAP!