Kamikaze Girls

This is still a work in progress. I'll be adding stuff as I go along.

The Book

What you have here at the start is a Momoko, young, beautiful girl who loves to were Lolita-fashion clothes. It's her whole interest in life and when she finds the store Baby, the Stars Shine Bright she becomes utterly blown away by their Lolita fashions.

All of this despite her mother leaving and her father being a loser would-be yakuza character who has various schemes to make money including counterfeit clothing and other things. His success rate is somewhat less than stellar should we say.

The third person is Ichiko, a young girl who is pretty much the polar opposite of Momoko. She rides with a girl gang, repairs cars and her level of general knowledge leaves rather a bit to be desired.

Yet the two become friends, each supporting the other, each growing personally because of their experiences with each other.

There's a lot of humor, especially in the pachinko parlor, some sadness and a little bit of violence which all fits together very well. The book is really a nice read and the movie is a must to see.

Manga Review

The manga and the hardback version of Kamikaze Girls are quite different from each other. In the movie it takes a while before Momoko meets Ichigo but in the manga the two meet on page 4. Almost all the stuff about her father and his get-rich-quick schemes is left out.

The parts about Ichigo wanting to find Emma and the visits to Baby the Stars Shine Bright are both in the story. In one spot, though, there's a sudden very brief visit to the pachinko parlor.

The parts about Momoko doing embroidery work for the store is in this version and it also ends with the biker fight.

However, there are extra, stories in the manga. Ichigo's Case takes placed after Kamikaze Girls events where she sees a billboard of herself in a Lolita outfit. Also, Ichigo gets invited to a wedding of a guy she had feelings for.

Koyubi, the Pinky-Ring Princess is the third story and is about a young girl having feelings for a adult man. The last story is Nakayubi Hime or the Middle Finger princess.

The last two are sort of interesting. There's also a few pages from the actual hardback book.

The graphics are typical manga style. I'm not sure if I like drawings of Ichigo, though.

Main Index