Kiyoko Arai

The Scissor Project is a group of boys idolized by the school for performing amazing makeovers that turn around girls' lives. But they only tend to choose pretty girls as their subjects, always turning down those too plain or unappealing. Kiri is a laid back girl with a bobbed haircut and baggy clothes, but unbeknownst to most, she's an amazing hairstylist. And despite her puzzling insistence she does not wish to peruse this as a career, she has a tendency to reach out to the girls shoved show more off by the Scissor Project and help them become beautiful. A behavior that begins to attract some very irritated attention...

Beauty Pop had two things that sort of leaned things in it's favor for me personally. For one, it's got a somewhat out of the ordinary heroine for shoujo. Kiri has an easy, matter-of-fact nonchalance and confidence, and is disinterested in the way the world sees her. Her attitude is refreshing, and it initially made me like her. Secondly, Kiri doesn't really care about winning the affections of some boy. Thus, the manga focuses more on the hairdressing plots and competitions, with one getting the feeling that romance will be something that blooms gradually during the series (the way I prefer it).

On the other hand, these things only give the series potential for me to like it (rather than having the immediate 'bleeeech!' reaction I get from many shoujo), and it doesn't really follow through and give me anything to actually *make* me like it or want to read more.

Kiri's personality initially made me like her for being refreshing, yet her disinclination toward speaking or showing much emotion makes her character hard to develop or see more deeply into. After initially meeting Kiri, I formed an opinion of her that I assumed would become further shaped and nuanced as I read on. But nothing I read for the rest of the volume changed or further characterized her beyond the initial snapshot.

Instead, we actually see more deeply into the hearts and minds of the people whose hair Kiri styles. But these people are of considerably more stock personality than Kiri, and I've never been a big fan of many manga's tendency to take the focus off main characters and constantly bring in new people to deal with for a single chapter and then toss out. To add further disappointment, the boys in the Scissor Project all feel like they've been seen a hundred times before (particularly bringing to mind a less entertaining Ouran Host Club), and the future love interest has got to be one of the most thoroughly generic Conceited Guy archetypes I've ever seen.

In the end, Beauty Pop gets a smidge over average for its original concept and main character, with the romance not being too center-stage also giving it a little extra appeal for me. But though Kiri at least has an interesting personality, little is seen in the way of depth for any of the characters in the series. This may change as the characters become more intimately involved, but I do not find the failure to develop things just a little further in the first volume terribly suggestive of the author's or the series' greatness. show less

This manga was ALSO very adorable, once I started I couldn't stop! I have Clash of Kings due at the library TOMORROW and I'm not even halfway through it, yet i spent the last 4 hours reading Beauty Pop instead. It was a great cast of characters, I loved how laid back and food centered Kiri was, it was quite hilarious. It also pissed off Narumi many a time too which was also pretty funny. I love hoe Naru-Naru realized his success was because of his rich father and how he strived to separate show more himself from his fathers company and make his own way in the beauty world. Everyone had their interesting story to tell and fears to get over. There was a bit of a fight over Ki-chan between two of the guys but it surprisingly wasn't very interesting and in my opinion ended too quickly. I also don't like how they don't show the marriage or how they became successful or anything. They're in high school and they don't even actually tell each other their feelings and then BAM it's 10 years later and they're married with 2 kids. But it was still really god :D show less

Highly implausible coincidences abound. But then this is a shoujo manga and the story is fun. So it's all good.

Beauty Pop finally comes to a close in this tenth volume of the series. Unfortunately, the series ends in a deus-ex-machina fashion. Everything just happens without much rhyme or reason, all for the purpose of advancing everyone's happy ending. As nice it is to see things go of with a smile, if the events basically happen in a vacuum, then all you're left is with a hollow sensation and the feeling that things could have ended more strongly.

Still, the series as a whole is still enjoyable, show more with entertaining characters. You wouldn't be disappointed for the most part reading it. show less