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The Knockout Makers, Vol. 1 introduces three guys who are an urban legend in their city, but they’re really real.  Toshiro Sakuma, Nobuo Sakuma, and Ryouhei Matsuda are the mysterious beauticians, the Knockout Makers, and they can take an average girl and transform her into a totally hot knockout.

Vol. 1 introduces six girls all in need of a knockout makeover.  From a tomboy who wants her judo teammate to notice her to a young girl obsessed with looking like her favorite pop idol, K.O.M. transforms these young women’s appearances and spirits.

THE LOWDOWN:  Actually a pretty good concept, The Knockout Makers is sometimes a little low on execution.  Manga-ka Kyoko Hashimoto has hit upon what’s been something of a cultural zeitgeist – many women’s obsession with looking like the skinny phantoms they see in media such as fashion magazines, films and television, and in advertisements.  There’s a story in here about a high school student who falls to pieces over frizzy hair, and another about a girl whose boyfriend leaves her in frustration because she manically counts calories – and she’s already rail thin.

What I like about The Knockout Makers is that this fab trio (who are neither vain nor “Queer Eye” types) takes great pride in transforming their clients, but they also seem determined to boost self-confidence and pride in their clients.  Even with this material Hashimoto sometimes bogs down in stories that are padded or simply dry up on occasions, which seems merely to be the fault of inexperience rather than lack of talent on Hashimoto’s part.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  The Knockout Makers is a shojo that, like Keiko Suenobu’s Life, needs to be in teen readers’ hands.

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