Ultimate Venus remindsthat sometimesthe Cinderellafairy talestill can work.

Ultimate Venus vol 1 (Published by Go! Comi).



From the back cover: "Poor Yuzu is an orphan who's too clumsy to hold a job. She's reduced to living in a playground -- until a handsome stranger named Hassaku informs her that she's heir to a fortune, and whisks her into a world of wealth, power, and more hot suitors than she can shake a scepter at! But there's a catch: Hassaku must turn this klutz into a lady of refinement, or Yuzu will lose everything!"

Let's see how many cliches we can catch just by reading the back cover copy: Orphaned but determined teenage girl? Check. Fish out of water? Check. Hotguys galore just waiting to romancethe heirto a ridiculous fortune? Check. Stoic but secretly kind bodyguard? Check.

This title is a little bit like the Wild Ones, exceptinstead of a Yakuza background, the heroine here discovers she is actuallythegrandaughter ofa rich and powerful woman, whose company she will one day inherit. And when I say"a little like" I actually mean the set-up ispretty muchidentical. While the heroinein Wild Ones has a gruff, but kindly, grandather figure to watch over her(it seems some kind ofaccident of fate hejust happens to be a gangster), in Ultimate Venus, Yuzu has a tough, domineering, and extremely cougar-ish grandmother.

And that ina nutshell is probably why Ultimate Venus succeeds where Wild Ones fails pretty miserably. I think David Welsh has complimented mangaka Takako Shigematsu for her willingness to allow certain elements of "meanness" into her narratives (in reference to her cross-dressing show-biz title Tenshi Ja Nai!! also published byGo! Comi) and what anothermangaka might make sweet or syrupy, Shigematsuinjects the perfect amount of tartness into her narratives & characters' motivations to make us cheerfullyswallow the most ridiculous Cinderella-shojo plot imaginable.

In volume one of Ultimate Venus, Yuzu issaved from a fate of death from exposure as she's living in the elements (as all orphans are homeless and too dense to seek shelter, right?) and plunked down intothe intimidating and rich household of her grandmother. If she's going to survive she's gotta getaround lifein rich people's world -- which meansnavigating new socialcodes and the tendency of almost everyone around her to kidnap her. Usually for kicks. And while she starts to develop feelings for her bodyguard, Hassaku (another individual Yuzu's grandmother has saved from some terrible fate), she isn't entirely sure he and her grandmother aren't....um...very, very close (ew!). The first volume follows Yuzu as she struggles to determine who she can trust and who she can't ...and sometimes even who she can allow herself to care for at all.

Shigematsu's gift is taking the cliche and make it fun, but also shiny and new.The art is standard shojo for the most part -- big eyes, overly pretty boys, patterned backgrounds, close-ups of characters in various states of emotional excitement. However, Yuzu's grandmother -- anattractive older woman with a heckuvalot of sex appeal & power -- oftentakes the story in really strange and fun directions. (She's completely merciless with her granddaughter emotionally and yet she remains absurdly fun and amusing. She, in a word, rocks.)

This story tookevery worn Cinderella-cliche I could have imagined andmade it shine-- right now Yuzu hastwo potential princes,neither of whom I'd trust with my purse, much less my heart. The fun of volume 2isgoing to watch how she develops as aCinderella and if she is able to work up the nerve to steer her own destiny instead of allowing others to steer it for her.As for now, I'm definitely hopping onto Shigematsu's ride to see how this all plays out in volume two.

Review Copy provided by Go! Comi

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