Comics / Manga

Pretty Face: Volume 5

By Leroy Douresseaux
April 2, 2008 - 15:21

Thanks to barnesandnoble.com for the image.

After he was disfigured in a school bus crash, high school karate star and macho, teen jerk Masashi Rando awakens from a year-long coma to find out that he now looks like a girl.  Dr. Manabe, a slightly insane plastic surgeon, has reconstructed Rando’s face into that Rina Kurimi, the girl Rando loves, but Rando’s body remains male.  Rando finds himself adopted into Rina’s family after they mistake him for Yuna, Rina’s long-missing twin sister.

In Pretty Face, Vol. 5 Rando has do deal with the cliffhanger from Vol. 4 – his fake breasts fell off.  Now, Rando/Yuna has to rely on his old karate pupil, Natsuo Kobayashi to keep his secret.  But she loves Rando, and will do anything to keep him away from Rina – perhaps, even reveal that Rando isn’t really Yuna Kurimi.  Meanwhile, Rando is forced to go on a date with Dr. Manabe to save him from a crazy female patient who is demanding that Manabe marry her.

THE LOWDOWN:  It’s a shame that Vol. 5 is the second-to-last issue of the series because manga-ka Yasuhiro Kano and his staff have hit their stride.  Even the art is better – sort of like Adam Warren implemented by Tex Avery.  Pretty Face obviously had potential early on, but what seemed like a high concept situational comedy with some raunch is now a riotous screwball comedy.  There is still a lot of raunch, but every bit of it works in the context of this randy, all-innuendo comedy of misunderstandings and mistaken identities.  Over the top doesn’t often seem this appropriate.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  As a “Shonen Jump Advanced” title, Pretty Face is aimed at older teens, but its primarily female cast may turn off many male readers.  If they knew that this is like something out of Penthouse Comix and meant for guys, they’d run, not walk, to a bookstore.

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Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12