Gatcha Gacha Volume 4

By Yutaka Tachibana. Released in Japan by Hakusensha, serialized in the magazine Melody. Released in North America by Tokyopop.

After the serious drama that enveloped much of the last volume, it’s good to see Gatcha Gacha ease back and have some relaxing chapters with people actually being happy. Well, except Hirao, of course. And, well, Yuri is plagued by self-doubt. And so is Yabe. And Motoko? You’d think she’d be happy watching all of the screwups around her, but it doesn’t seem that way.

Yes, Yuri’s gotten what she wants, and is now dating Yabe. And proceeding to tell THE WORLD! We are reminded again of one of the main reasons why Yuri keeps getting dumped, as she has a tendency to overdo things, and smothers Yabe with affection and bentos. He’s unnerved by all this attention, and tries to get her to stop, but to no avail. And as the volume goes on, and Yuri keeps trying to get Yabe to say that she’s pretty and cute, and that he loves her, we realize that Yuri is still convinced deep down that she’s going to get dumped. 12 ex-boyfriends can do that to a girl.

Balancing this out we have Hirao, who at least manages to be a little more aggressive in this volume, but still gets nowhere. (The author notes in a sidebar how this manga features all strong women and weak guys. She’s right.) It’s interesting seeing Hirao from the perspective of Hanada, the council VP who’s crushing on him. The flashbacks we see show that whenever Hirao’s not dealing with women, he really is the perfect guy. Unfortunately, the end of the chapter, showing him seeing Yuri unconscious in the nurse’s room and trying to steal a kiss, show that women make him a complete idiot.

The wild card in all of this, of course, is Motoko. Even though this volume (for once) doesn’t focus on her, she’s still present throughout, manipulating situations for her own amusement. She’s certainly not confident in Yabe, saying point blank that he’ll make Yuri cry. “100% guaranteed.” There’s also a very intriguing scene where she tells Hirao that he is her “insurance policy”, saying there’s a time limit to all of this, and that either a) Hirao needs to make Yuri fall for him, or b) Yabe needs to genuinely fall for Yuri before that time is up.

Onward to everyone’s favorite shoujo plot, the school festival! Yuri is running around all over creation taking photos. Yabe and Hirao are dressed as old-school samurai, with Yabe even getting a shave and having his hair dyed back to its natural black. And Motoko is dressed up as a guy, pretending to be a seductive waiter in order to get more girls to buy ramen from their class’s booth. Motoko makes a very handsome man, needless to say. Yuri, for one, is intensely attracted to her dressed like this, and reminds herself that it’s just Motoko. (She actually seems terrified when Motoko gets too close – a reminder once again that it’s Yuri’s relationship with Motoko, even if it’s not romantic, that is the main pairing in this love comedy).

Yuri is twitchy in general – one of her ex-boyfriends is trying to get her back, and has decided that the best way to do this is by stalking her desperately and threatening her little brothers. Luckily, to her rescue comes both Motoko, pretending to be Yabe, and Yabe himself, both of whom threaten the guy within an inch of his life. Of course, Yuri doesn’t actually need all that much protecting – she shows up and decks the guy, swearing that if he comes after her family again she’ll kill him. I have to admit, Motoko may be the reason people read Gatcha Gacha, but Yuri’s no slouch either.

The confrontation leads to more Yuri and Yabe love-love, and even Motoko is starting to wonder if he’s actually serious about this. Clearly we need some sort of hideous plot complication. Oh, there it is! Hirao sports someone familiar wandering around the festival. It would appear to be Motoko’s sister Kanako. The trouble, as Motoko helpfully notes, is that Kanako is in fact dead. However, that’s not stopping her showing up in a classroom right as Yabe and Yuri are about to kiss… and Yabe spotting her. To make matters even more confusing, she doesn’t recognize the man she once stabbed. Is this really Kanako, or just a lookalike coincidence?

The last 6 pages of the book focus on Sekine (dressed as a cute girl for the festival) and Motoko (dressed as a hot guy) and Sekine’s unrequited crush. Even the author’s side comments note that Motoko is in denial about her sexuality (most likely as she associates those feelings with Kanako.)

So we’re now halfway through this series, and this volume continues to do what Gatcha Gacha does best – provide us with broad, trashy soap opera of the finest kind. Complete with Motoko’s violent boots to the head. Certainly the cliffhanger of this volume promises more and more complications for Volume 5.

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