Absolute Boyfriend

[Ashley]

Thanks to KisaTohru for this great review! I know this may be a popular title in Viz's upcoming Shojo Beat line.

http://christiananime.net/manga_reviews.php?display=205

[Shao Feng-Li]

So it's not worth time or money. Got it. *Kicks Watase.*

[Kisa]

LOL, yes, I wanted to do this review to warn people before they waste their money.... arr Watase.... ><

[Shao Feng-Li]

I know this may be a popular title in Viz's upcoming Shojo Beat line.

I sure hope not.

[Doubleshadow]

I saw the advertisements and thought, "Yup, that's Watase alright." ><

[ChristianKitsune]

*siiiiiiiigh* sounds like it is full of horse and cow manure... *siiiiiiiigh*

It did sound cute too..THANKS for the review Kisa! ^^

It sounds worse than Alice 19th... Eeek.

[Kisa]

Yea Alice 19th is child's play compared to this one....

[Lady Macbeth]

Sorry, my opinion's going to be unpopular.

I entirely enjoy Absolute Boyfriend. Here's my take on it:

Yes, Riiko is a teenage girl stuck with a mechanical boyfriend who can get naked in three seconds and does so on a regular basis - in the first couple chapters of the manga.

Riiko is learning some hard lessons in this story; she's unattended (parents gone for such long durations that they don't notice or even know about a man living in the apartment with her), she's naive, and she trusts everyone - even shady, suspicious-looking salesmen.

She was conned into logging on to an adult site, and then - even though it was clear what the site offered - she thought she'd play around anyway. What's the harm in designing the perfect boyfriend, after all? She clearly was thinking at that point that it'd be easier to buy what she wants than to look or wait for it.

So she winds up with a coffin-sized box containing a naked man. This is another opportunity for her to make a critical decision, and she again chooses to pursue the "easy way out" - she decides to go ahead and activate her doll, despite how realistic he is and what the web site and the instructions promised.

After the awkwardness of him waking up and having to initially hide him wears off, she thinks he's not such a bad thing after all. He listens to her when she tells him to put his clothes back on, and he seems really sweet and nice.

Then she finds out - the easy way out comes with a price.

And, as she's quickly going to learn, that price continues to rise.

To top it off, it also creates complications in her life - including revealing things about her friends that she probably didn't want to know. In her naive way of thinking, she also trusted a lot of the wrong people.

To top it off, she discovers that the person she keeps pushing away is the person she should be trusting the most.

I find the story to have a deep, hard-hitting warning for girls who are going to be soon or are currently in Riiko's situation. EVERY girl wants the "perfect boyfriend" at some point in their life, and the temptation to get one "the easy way" is often powerful. It's not always readily recognizable that "the easy way" is full of consequences.

Girls Riiko's age are also impressionable and want to be liked, want to be "part of that crowd" and want to be important to someone - all motivators for Riiko to slip and fall.

And, for someone who's made such poor decisions to get her into that situation, Riiko is not without redeeming qualities. She not only turns away Night's advances, she also tries to teach him about why she's turning away his advances. She has a certain moral and ethical level that she's willing to keep, even if it means more hardship: she could have just told Night to leave and kept her job at the nightclub, even after she found out the kind of place it was. Instead, she contributed to Night's protesting and allowed herself to be fired without objection.

I agree - the story is not for everyone. Shojo Beat's website rates "Absolute Boyfriend" as T+, meaning "Older Teen" - this usually equates to 16 and up. It is not for those offended by nudity, though it is brief in the manga - usually a page and a half at MOST, and much of that covered by text balloons or environmental props.

It also helps to remember that the original audience for this story was Japanese - Japanese girls deal with these issues a lot earlier in life than American girls are "encouraged" to - there are still areas in Japan where girls are betrothed at 12 to 14 years old, and it's just a given that romantic and sexual relationships become a part of their life by the time they're 15. If a girl makes it that far without a boyfriend, then they feel much like Riiko does - that they are somehow inadequate and they must continue to pursue boys until they get one to date them.

[blue elf]

I just bought the first volume of Absolute Boyfriend yesterday.(It was Watase, so I had to at least try it. My curiosity was killing me. lol) I actually didn't think it was that bad...even if it was slightly pervier than her usual work. I thought it was actually kind of sweet in some parts, and it made me laugh. Just my 2 cents. ^^

[Ashley]

Just my 2 cents. ^^

That's why we have the forum links for these titles.

[Kisa]

True Watase does have a way of making it not as bad as it seems, but you still need to beware of who reads certain titles. Thats why I wrote the review, just to warn about what is bad in it and let the reader decide ^^

[Shao Feng-Li]

I actually went ahead and found some scans. You know, if Knight coulda been actually human, then it really wouldn't be so bad. You have the fact that he's a robot looming over the story the entire time.

[Joshua Christopher]

Woah, this sounds exactly like Berserk.

Except for the art. And characters.

And plot.

And everything about it. Yeah, I think I'll just stick to Berserk.

[MomoAdachi]

I just bought the first volume of Absolute Boyfriend yesterday.(It was Watase, so I had to at least try it. My curiosity was killing me. lol) I actually didn't think it was that bad...even if it was slightly pervier than her usual work. I thought it was actually kind of sweet in some parts, and it made me laugh. Just my 2 cents. ^^

I agree. Absolute Boyfriend is definately a manga for older teens and adults only, but I really think it has a heart underneath all that raunchiness.

[Tenshi no Ai]

I agree. Absolute Boyfriend is definately a manga for older teens and adults only, but I really think it has a heart underneath all that raunchiness.

Sometimes it's hard to think that with the cover they use for the first volume^^ I mean, wow... fanservice right there @_@

[Shao Feng-Li]

THere's not much too it...

[Mizu]

I liked it, yes i would recommend to it older readers (and yes the first one was a bit on the sour side) but it was pretty good.

[Puguni]

I cried.

Maybe I'm just really emotional right now...but I read the whole thing and cried. Not sniffles or anything...full out cried. :C I honestly don't know what to say about mangas that make me cry, but that is what I did. I'm sad now.

[Shao Feng-Li]

Moral of the story? Don't buy robots that look like people for a boy/girl friend.

[Puguni]

Moral of the story? Don't buy robots that look like people for a boy/girl friend.

Because terrible emotional baggage would ensue. *sniff* Except that's what shoujo is all about, lol.

[Shao Feng-Li]

No matter what it takes to get there XD

[minakichan]

I dunno, I read it a while ago, and I mean, Riiko STILL had emotions for Naito, she chose his memory over sticking with Soushi, she might not ever have any love relationships with another guy. It's a story about a girl who gets the perfect boyfriend, the guy that the fangirls all drool over, but when he's gone, she doesn't "learn" jacksquat; it's not really any different from the harem manga where the guy gets the unrealistic and slavish perfect female model of domesticity. I read the manga with the feeling at the end that Watase was NOT trying to push a "humans have faults, we can't get the perfect boyfriend!" thing-- Riiko still treasured the time she had with Naito, loved him, can't love another person, blah blah blah; it was more of a "true love overcomes all circumstances! (including race, age, sex, species, and whether or not you are actually a living creature)!" which is pretty consistent with other Watase works.

At any rate, as I recall, the polls of fans wanted Riiko with Naito more than with Soushi anyway, so egh. Watase does listen to her fans, that cannot be denied.