English: Girl Got Game, Power
Synonyms: Girl Got Game, power
Type: Manga
Volumes: 10
Chapters: 36
Status: Finished
Published: 1999 to 2000
Genres: Romance, Shoujo, Sports
Authors: Seino, Shizuru (Story & Art)
Serialization: Bessatsu Friend
At first view i was debating myself if i should watch it or not. The plot line seemed interesting but the basketball part kinda turned me off. But i started reading it as soon as i was finish with the summary. The story was halarious, it kept me laughing from start to finish. Overall i think anyone would enjoy this story.
Girl Got Game rather “funky” English translation for 活力100% aka Katsuryoku 100% aka Power!! Nevertheless, don’t let the title fool you with the assumption that there’s like magic involved or whatever. Not at all. It’s a story over in the sports and school life realm. Additionally, the story is certainly a gender-bender type. A girl ends up dressing up as a guy. Oh no, don’t you go saying “copy –cat of Hana-Kimi or Ouran High School Host Club..!” :P It’s not entirely like that at all. Rather, the reasoning for why she, being the main and central protagonist, cross-dresses for a very different and bizarre reason. But, there’s quite sufficient amount of backing for why she must do so. And like really, what girl doesn’t want to go live with a “harem” of hot guys? No one, right?
Anyway, the story starts off with the central protagonist beginning her new life as a guy. The main motive equals: basketball! She encounters various characters who help her recognize how to deal with phoniness and fakeness and other “ethics.” Naturally, this story being shoujo, romance develops between her and another protagonist… But, leading events make it difficult to discern whether or not to follow through with love at all. Therefore, drama ensues as she becomes confused and lost of what to do. Regardless, throughout the story, intense comical relief comes storming through. For about half of the story, I was dying laughing. And rounding up to the end of the story, some moments seemed rather pleasantly surprising (at least to me) and yet other moments disappointed me. Overall closure is quite well determined, but, it does still stir my interest and desire to see what happens next. Altogether, the story envelops an interesting plot with plenty of comical moments within a rather dramatic, romance high school story.
To the art aspects… I found nothing too “crude” or “unartistic..” And, well, I can be picky at times… but, really I found very few artistic flaws. A few angular sketches were a bit disproportionate, but mostly quite impressive and fine. Movements and sudden change scenes were quite well drawn and organized. Furthermore, the general layout of character and setting were very appropriate. Never too detailed (or difficult to read) nor simplistic (or plain). Nothing truly stands out about the art style, though… It’s quite typical.
The story is not so entangled with more than five or six characters so some of the foil/clown/side characters are never too well-developed but show relatively true personalities. The mangaka apparently made some exaggerations of the character traits of several minor characters, however, the main characters represent relatively real and true people. At least, I can recognize that people would act and feel similarly as the characters of her story in real life. There is enough connection to real life events and feelings that I was able to sense. Furthermore, the characters develop and transform, which is commonplace in stories, but directs a change and brings forth improved personalities.
All in all, I quite thoroughly enjoyed the manga. Perhaps, I am a bit biased, since I like this whole Reverse-Harem idea… Nevertheless, I found plenty aspects of the manga enjoyable. The comedy was just so amazing. The drama was overdone, slightly, but I could feel that the tensions and emotions were realistic enough. Then, the characters were not THAT loveable, but entertaining and genuine enough to follow their lifestyles in the story. Anyway, I encourage everyone who liked Hana-Kimi to give this manga a shot. This mangaka deserves equal credit for coming up with this amusing idea to let other enjoy.
