Girl Got Game, Volume 1 FROM THE PUBLISHER
Kyo Aizawa is very excited about getting to attend Seisyu Academy, which is famous for its adorable girls' uniforms. Her spirits are crushed, however, when she opens the package containing her school uniform to find a boy's uniform. Her father explains to her that, as Seisyu Academy is also famous for its boys' basketball program, he enrolled her as a boy so she can fulfill his own dream of becoming an NBA basketball star. To make matters worse, she has to stay in the boys' dorms, and her roommate is the same boy she came to hate at tryouts.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
Published in Japan in 2000 as Power!!, this is a textbook example of gender-bending shajo manga: a high school romance with cross-dressing, homoerotic tenderness and many scenes of embarrassment and (near-) discovery. The plot turns, naturally, on a young woman with a secret: Kyo Aizawa, an ace basketball player who, at her father's insistence, passes as a boy and joins a renowned high school team. To complicate matters, Kyo falls for the team's star player, a haunted young man named Chiharu Eniwa, who turns out to be her on-court rival-and roommate. Then, in a further irony, Kyo sets out to resolve Chiharu's shattered love life, despite her own desires. Confusion ensues: Kyo and Chiharu's relationship is full of surprises, reversals and anxious glances. The thrill is heightened for readers, who know the highly charged homoerotic relationship between the two is, at least potentially, a closeted heterosexual romance-though, as is often the case in shajo manga, sexual ambiguity gets free play (indeed, Kyo attracts female groupies of her own). Yet Seino's first full-length effort is far from the best of this genre: the plot is transparent, and the supporting characters are flattened by her attention to the leads. Moreover, Kyo's conflict with her father is perfunctory, and the story's sexual tensions lack the suggestive power of, say, Fuyumi Soryo (Mars) or Moto Hagio (They Were Eleven). The formulaic story remains readable despite these flaws: Seino's art is generally open and clear, emphasizing facial expressions over scenic particulars. (Mar.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
School Library Journal
Adult/High School-Kyo is excited about attending Seisyu High School. The girls' uniforms are so cute that they're in all the magazines. But when the package arrives, she gets a shock: it's a boy's uniform. Seisyu is also famous for its men's basketball team, and Kyo's father wants her to live out his dream to play in the NBA. She just wants to be a normal girl, but she wants to make her dad happy, too, so she finds herself masquerading as a guy, living in the dorms with her teammates, and trying to figure out how to manage the shared bathroom situation. The novel is a winning combination of sports action, gender comedy, and school drama. Kyo has a contentious relationship with her roommate, Chiharu, who mocks her for being too short to play basketball and then gets flustered because he finds his "male" teammate attractive. Seino's characters are appealing, and her art is skillful and fluid. This is a fast, fun read-just the thing for downtime between school and practice.-Susan Salpini, Fairfax County Public Schools, VA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
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