Her mother is a popular actress, and her father is an award-winning composer. But daughter Yura Onozuka is just an ordinary schoolgirl who keeps out of the spotlight. All this changes, however, after she learns that her parents are getting divorced and catches her mother getting hot and heavy with the guy she thought was her only friend. She allows high-powered talent agent Keiichi Mizorogi to convince her to try to become a star herself. Now it’s time for revenge!
 
Yura is not long in the biz, having landed her first gig as a Noodle Girl before she meets twin brothers and rival musicians Q-ta and Haruka. The former seems easygoing and eager to please, and when he finds out Yura’s father is a famous composer, he proposes to her on the spot in order to become the man’s son-in-law. Haruka, on the other hand, has nothing but contempt for her in the beginning. Nevertheless, both seem affected strongly by her presence.
 
There is something vaguely distasteful about the creator’s choice of title for this manga—it sounds like something that ought rightfully to be labeled adults-only. Fortunately, Honey Hunt’s heroine is quite likable and has a bit more backbone than Hatsumi Narita, the heroine of Miki Aihara's previous series, Hot Gimmick (also published by Viz). The creator shows marked improvement here with respect to character development, and you don’t have to feel like you are betraying your feminist ideals while reading it. And although many readers familiar with shoujo manga will note substantial similarities to Yoshiki Nakamura’s Skip Beat!, that series is much more about show business than it is about burgeoning love between man and woman, whereas this one clearly puts teens and their torrid relationships first.
 
Indeed, Aihara is the undisputed master at creating characters of monstrously reprehensible proportions—world’s worst parents are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg of Aihara-style Titanic-sinkers—and you will find yourself feeling most sympathetic to Yura’s plight. The narrative ploy that drives her into showbiz, the desire to get back at her mother by becoming a better actress, is little more than domestic psychodrama rationale, yet you cannot help but root for the otherwise ordinary, good-hearted Yura. Happily, the story does not tease, and she has an improbably big break within the first 200 pages. While you may not be convinced by her sudden success, you will be pleased to see the manga’s plot progressing apace.
 
As always Aihara’s artwork is a reliable source of reader pleasure. She has a clean yet reasonably detailed style of line work that is both easy on the eyes yet not so minimalist that you feel like the artist is trying to cheat you out of a fully imagined sequential art world. Her character designs are always especially appealing. She draws a good range of facial expressions, and female fans tend to go especially gaga over her male characters, even when their only redeeming personal features are their pretty faces. Recommended to teen readers and fans of shoujo manga.

written by Miki Aihara