Gacha Gacha: The Next Revolution Vol. 6

Rating Mature Genre manga Author Hiroyuki Tamakoshi Publisher Del Rey

After reading Gacha Gacha: The Next Revolution Vol. 6 I came to the conclusion that it’s the ‘American Pie’ of the manga world. It’s definitely not something for the kids to read, and tests the limits slightly as the plot goes on, with a major focus on sexual innuendo.

The story begins with a group of high school aged friends taking a summer trip on a tropical island. One of the main characters, Akira, is a hormonally charged teen with a major crush on Yurika Sakuraba, a pretty fellow classmate who also works with her equally attractive sister Anju at a family café. The island getaway is going well for everyone and Akira manages to get some alone time with Yurika. However, Akira has one problem. Whenever he sneezes, he transforms into a female counterpart known to others as Akira-chan. This causes dilemmas on and off throughout the book, especially since no one knows that Akira and Akira-chan are the same person.

As summer progresses into fall, the story branches off into the same situation at the Sakuraba’s café from the viewpoint of three different people – Yurika, Anju, and Akira. He centers the café to visit Yurika and show her his new digital camera. His actual reason for visiting however, is to get pictures of a hot girl that he can use as a subject for his pictures since he considers himself an ‘artist’.

Gacha Gacha: The Next Revolution Vol. 6 overall is a good story. Yes, it’s a typical tale of ‘boy meets girl, falls in love with girl, but is too shy to tell her how he feels’. However, there’s really nothing appealing about Akira. His one and only care in the world is to get himself a girl, (preferably Yurika) but his attempts to win her are not endearing or sweet; they’re just annoying and pervy. He takes pictures of his female friends doing the most mundane activities such as eating or exercising and looks at it as the sexiest thing he’s ever seen. He will even go as far as making himself sneeze so he can transform into his female form and stare at himself. I often got the impression that the only reason Akira hangs out with the Sakuraba sisters is not because of their genuine niceness, but because he thinks they’re hot and it boosts his ego to be seen with them.

The emphasis on ridiculously large breasts and bouncing rears got to be a little much after awhile. I may come off sounding like a prude here, but honestly I can handle a breast-shot or even some nudity every now and then. But when more than half of the book is plastered with them, it makes me feel like they’re just thrown in because they can be.

Gacha Gacha: The Next Revolution Vol. 6 has a good underlying story, but it’s smothered by an obnoxious main character and constant shots of unrealistically-sized female parts. If you’re willing to give it a chance despite this, then I would recommend it. However if my aforementioned negative comments make you want to stay away, then it’s most likely not the manga for you.