Review of Kamikaze Girls

Welcome to what many Lolita use as a set of rules to live by.

Basically the story is about a young Lolita named Momoko who lives the Lolita lifestyle. She has no friends and likes it that way. Enter tough female biker Ichiko who needs a tour guide to a place that Momoko is familiar with. They go on a big trip to find it, turns out it's an embroidery school and Ichiko was hoping that the master would do some embroidery on a jacket to honor one of her senior gang members who is retiring. Surprisingly enough being a Lolita, Momoko is as awesome at embroidery as Ichiko is at being a cliche bad girl. Through a series of events Momoko then gets to live out every Lolita's dream and help at Baby the Stars Shine Bright and kick some arse. Turns out Ichiko wasn't quite the cold hard bitch she wanted everyone to think and Momoko actually likes having friends. Surprise everyone lives happily ever after, the end.

Ok so when it comes down to it, the story when reduced to manga form (it was originally a novel an has also been made into a feature film) comes off as a fairly simple feel good story about acceptance and sticking up for what you believe in. It's major difference is that is uses a Lolita as one of it's main characters. That said I have a feeling that you could probably replace the word "Lolita" with any other subculture/group and it would have pretty much the same effect.

There has been quite a lot of controversy amongst Lolita groups about the values that Novala has given Momoko (and about Novala in general). In the manga, Momoko is shown to be the sort of Lolita who wears the clothes every day, refuses to ride a moped because it might mess her hair, takes an hour to eat breakfast and generally acts like a spoiled princess most of the time. Many Lolitas who don't agree with the idea of clothes running your life style have spoken publicly about the ridiculousness and impracticality of such a life. There was also controversy on the subject of Novala himself last year being arrested for drug offenses yet still writing several books about how a young Lolita must act perfectly at all times etc.

Personally I found the artwork to be lacking something with many of the pages seeming awkward and the characters sometimes assuming bone cracking positions. The clothing, though very technically drawn from actual BtSSB garments was somehow still misrepresented of the fashion with the skirts seeming balloonish in proportion rather than the traditional bell shape. I defy anyone with a Baby petticoat to get the same amount of poof as Momoko had in some of the frames!

On another note, included with the main story was a sequel to Kamikaze Girls written by the artist and two of her previous manga entitled 'The Pinky Ring Princess' and 'The Middle Finger Princess'. The second Kamikaze Girls story while vaguely entertaining has very little to do with Momoko, instead focusing on Ichiko and a love interest. Again it's mostly just a feel good story with a happy ending. The two other artist written stories are... well interesting. They centre around Ririka, a high school student, who very much wants to grown up and erm become a woman. She picks out a much older man who happens to be at her mother's jewelry shop and goes after him basically acting like a spoiled brat the whole time. It's a very odd set of pages and alludes to the Japanese culture of older men with MUCH younger women. It's very Lolita in the Nobokov sense of the word and a bit of an uncomfortable read.

All in all no matter what I say, Kamikaze girls is probably going to be in the collection of every Lolita who has access to it purely because Novala wrote it. Personally I found it to be quite boring. That said, at the back of the book there are a few pages of the original novel that have been translated into English as well which are well written and interesting. I haven't read the novel yet but perhaps this is just another story of cross genre promoting that didn't work out too well.

Oh well, if it's got Novala's joint, er seal of aprooval it must be good XD