Comics / Manga

Pretty Face: Volume 1


By Leroy Douresseaux
August 3, 2007 - 21:39

prettyface01.jpg
Thanks to barnesandnoble.com for the image.
In the ribald comedy, Pretty Face, a macho, teen jerk awakens from a coma to discover that he looks like a girl.

Masashi Rando was a karate star at his high school, but when his school bus crashes, Rando barely survives and is in a coma for a year.  Rando awakens to find that Dr. Manabe, a slightly insane plastic surgeon, has reconstructed his face into that of a girl’s, although the rest of his body remains the same.  Dr. Manabe claims that Rando’s face was horribly disfigured, and because he didn’t know what Rando looked like, the doctor did the next best thing.  He made Rando’s face look like the girl on the picture Rando was carrying in his pocket – the beautiful Rina Kurimi.  The only difference is Rando has light-colored hair, and Rina is a brunette.  And Rando has a crush on Rina.

Thinking he was dead, Rando’s parents disappeared, so he leaves the doctor’s care with no home.  When Rina spots Rando, now with a girl’s face that looks like her own, she assumes that Rando is her long-lost twin sister, Yuna.  Rina and her family take Rando-Yuna into their home, welcoming the return of the prodigal sibling.  Rando just wants to finally get close to the girl he loves, but can he be a good “big sister,” or will the fact that he’s still a teenage boy from the waist down mean trouble.

THE LOWDOWN:  Pretty Face is every bit as eccentric as Yakitate!! Japan, but while the latter focuses on the weird world of competitive bread baking, the former is a wacky high school comedy that can be described vulgar, bawdy and coarse.  This concept is the kind of thing Hollywood normally comes up with – think White Chicks.  Still, this is a screwball romantic comedy, and it does both mawkish teen romance and gender-bending comedy with equal style and aplomb.

The art by manga-ka (creator) Yasuhiro Kano has a style similar to Darwyn Cooke’s (DC: The New Frontier).  Kano draws women in a way that recalls pin-up drawings from the 1950’s and early 1960’s (think Jack Cole and Bill Ward), and these beautiful drawings of pretty girls aren’t raunchy as one would expect from such a concept.  Kano also uses innuendo and clever wordplay to create racy situations.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  Pretty Face is fun, rude comedy, and Kano’s inventiveness at devising uncomfortable positions in which to place Rando/Yuna makes this a must for fans of sexy romps.

B+

Shop Pretty Face at the Viz Amazon aStore.

 


Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12

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