Hot Gimmick

Hot Gimmick (ホットギミック , Hotto Gimikku) is a 12-volume shōjo manga by Miki Aihara. The English release is currently published by Viz Media.

The story revolves around Hatsumi Narita, a passive sixteen-year-old girl who lives in a company housing complex that is ruled by the tyrannical Mrs. Tachibana, the wife of the company's vice president. How a family behaves in the housing complex can affect an employee's status in the company. When her promiscuous younger sister Akane thinks she might be pregnant, Hatsumi gets talked into buying her a pregnancy test. Unfortunately, things don't go exactly as planned and Hatsumi is blackmailed by Ryoki Tachibana, the arrogant teenage son of the powerful Tachibana family who bullied her as a kid, into being his slave. This situation troubles Hatsumi even more when Azusa, her childhood love, comes back and expresses romantic interest in her...

Tropes used in Hot Gimmick include:

• Adorkable: Hatsumi and Subaru.
• Alpha Bitch: Mrs. Tachibana is the neighborhood libby, and Ruri is the rich libby that Ryoki's mother keeps trying to set him up with.
• A Man Is Not a Virgin: Played completely straight with Ryoki, who is extremely ashamed that he still is.
  • Azusa later mocks Ryoki for it and decides that Ryoki should have "first dibs" on Hatsumi during the gang rape scene.
• Apologizes a Lot: Hatsumi. She even apologizes to Azusa when he's about to have her gang-raped.
• Attempted Rape: Azusa tries to get Hatsumi raped by some of his friends as revenge, but is foiled by Ryoki (naturally, Hatsumi starts developing feelings for Ryoki after that).
  • Ryoki himself also tries to rape and/or assault Hatsumi several times, but is always thwarted by a third person walking in on them.
• Bespectacled Bastard Boyfriend: Ryoki. Glasses? Check. Good-looking? Check. Totally nasty to Hatsumi, interspersed with trying to drag her off to bed against her will? Check and check. She falls for him like a ton of rocks regardless? Check. The kichiku megane is go.
• Beta Couple: Akane and Subaru provide some bits of normal romance in between all the melodrama.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Azusa
• Blond Guys Are Evil: Ryoki, if you substitute "jerkass" for "evil."
• Butt Monkey: Hatsumi. If something bad can happen to her, it will.
• The Cheerleader: Although not technically a cheerleader, Akane, at least in the beginning, is pretty, stupid, slutty, and bitchy.
• Cleaning Up Romantic Loose Ends: Having Shinogu decide to go off and become a monk after Hatsumi decides to stay with Ryoki. A different outcome is presented in the Hot Gimmick S novel.
• Crash Into Hello: How Hatsumi met Ryoki at the start of the series. It's also what caused her to drop the pregnancy test kit, leading to a bunch of drama.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Ryoki towards Hatsumi, though given the genre it's intended as Fetish Fuel.
• Dude, She's Like, in a Coma: On one occasion, Hatsumi passes out drunk next to Ryoki. He takes this as an invitation to start groping and stripping her.
• Extreme Doormat: Hatsumi definitely qualifies. She is so spineless she nearly defines this trope.
• Forceful Kiss: Ryoki to Hatsumi, frequently.
• Forgotten Childhood Friend: Sort of. Hatsumi doesn't really forget Ryoki as she just only remembers him trying to kill her (or so it seemed to her--in truth, it was all an accident). Ryoki, on the other hand, remembers some of the happier moments they had before she befriended Azusa, which was what caused his jealousy and angry outburst.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Hatsumi lives this trope.
• Hot Guys Are Bastards: Ryoki. Or is it that Bastard Guys Are Hot?
• I Can Change My Beloved: Hatsumi believes that she can get Ryoki to be nicer to her if she agrees to marry him. So she does.
• If I Can't Have You: At one point Hatsumi tells Ryoki that she can't be with him anymore when he orders her to make the impossible decision of choosing between him or her family. When she leaves him, he's shown thinking to himself "That stupid woman... If she can't be mine she should just die."
• It's All About Me: Ryoki, Ryoki, Ryoki. As an example, when Hatsumi is crying because she nearly got gang-raped by her boyfriend, whom she now realizes never loved her, Ryoki's response is “You’re supposed to be my slave, so quit saying other guys’ names.”
• "It's Not Rape If You Enjoyed It": Ryoki seems to believe this, although it was sexual assault rather than rape.

Ryoki: But last night when I was touching you, by the look on your face it didn’t seem that bad.
Hatsumi: Th-That’s not true! I wasn’t enjoying it!
Ryoki: You were, I could tell by your voice and stuff.

• Jerkass: Ryoki, all the way.
• Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: Hatsumi and Akane. Akane wears pretty clothes, cares for her appearance, we see her using make-up and she acts very girly. Meanwhile Hatsumi is patologically shy, doormaty and restrained. Akane also seems more interested in dating than Hatsumi, or than in her future career. She's just assertive in her relationships, while Hatsumi acts like an Extreme Doormat.
• Lonely Rich Kid: Ryoki.
• Love Martyr: Hatsumi to Ryoki, and Shinogu to Hatsumi.
• Manipulative Bastard: Azusa and Ryoki are both pretty good at manipulating Hatsumi.
• Not Blood Siblings
• Otaku: Subaru is known for being a typical nerdy otaku, collecting anime figurines.
• Panty Shot: Akane creates one to get the attention of Ryoki (and Subaru).
• Princess Curls: Ruri, complete with the attitude.
• Rape Is Love: Ryoki seems to feel this way. As does the manga itself.
• Really Gets Around: Akane.
• Rescue Romance: Hatsumi's feelings for Ryoki really start developing when he rescues her from getting raped by Azusa's henchmen.
• Reunion Revenge: Azusa does this to Hatsumi, attempting to have her raped, although it was not due to her actions but her father's. Except that it actually wasn't her father but Ryoki's father.
• Rich Bitch: Mrs. Tachibana and Ruri.
• Sacred First Kiss: Hatsumi's first kiss is with Ryoki, although she tries to convince herself that it doesn't count, and that her first kiss is with Azusa.
• Sex Slave: He never gets quite that far, but this is basically what Ryoki had in mind when he blackmailed Hatsumi into being his slave.
• Shrinking Violet: Hatsumi.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Hatsumi and Akane.
• Single-Target Sexuality: Can we all just assume that both Shinogu and Ryoki are Hatsumisexuals?
• The Pen Is Mightier: Ryoki saves Hatsumi from being gang-raped by Azusa's gang this way.
• The Sociopath: Azusa. Some have said that Ryoki qualifies as one, but he seems to be more of a Borderline, or perhaps Narcissistic Personality. Hatsumi, meanwhile, seems to have some traits of Dependent Personality Disorder. Actually, most of the characters are probably diagnosable with some sort of mental illness or personality disorder.
• This Loser Is You: Hatsumi, oooh, boy...
• Too Dumb to Live: Hatsumi. Notice a trend yet?
  • Akane kind of fits this too a little bit. She has sex with multiple partners in a short span of time without using protection, and doesn't do very well in school. Also, she compares Romeo and Juliet with Ryoki and Hatsumi, leaving the reader to wonder if she knows how that story ends.
• Troubled but Cute: Ryoki.
• Troubled Fetal Position: Hatsumi, when she returns home after the averted gang-rape.
• Unlucky Childhood Friend: Azusa, although he ruined that relationship himself. Also, Shinogu sort of fits, considering that he and Hatsumi are not related by blood But then again, he gets the last laugh in the novels and becomes the Victorious Childhood Friend.
• Victorious Childhood Friend: In the Hot Gimmick S novel, Hatsumi actually ends up with her adopted brother Shinogu.
• Yandere: Between Ryoki and Azusa, Hatsumi is like some kind of Yandere-magnet.
  • Psychotic Love Triangle: And how!