Gimmick! (manga)

Gimmick! (ギミック!) is a Japanese manga written by Yōzaburō Kanari and illustrated by Kuroko Yabuguchi. It was serialized in Shueisha's manga magazine Weekly Young Jump from 2005 to 2007, with its chapters collected in nine  volumes. The series was licensed in North America by Viz Media.

Plot
Kohei Nagase is a prodigy special effects artist. He and his friend Shingo Kannazuki, a gifted stuntman, form a special effects company called 'Studio Gimmick'. They do freelance work for various Japanese studios. Often Kohei's makeup skills and Shingo's fighting strength are called in to fight crime. For example, in their first story, the pair help rescue a struggling actress from her manipulative, abusive manager. Another incident involves Kohei creating fake scars so as to confuse and distract evil people.

Publication
Written by Yōzaburō Kanari and illustrated by Kuroko Yabuguchi, Gimmick! was first published in 2004 as a two-part one-shot story in Shueisha's manga magazine Weekly Young Jump on December 2 and 9. It started a regular serialization in the same magazine on May 12, 2005, and finished on March 8, 2007. Shueisha collected its chapters in nine volumes, released from September 16, 2005, to May 18, 2007.

In North America, the manga was licensed for English release by Viz Media. The nine volumes were published from June 10, 2008, to October 13, 2009.

Volumes
Each chapter is called a "scene".

Reception
Phil Guie of Pop Culture Shock commended the illustrator for capturing the protagonist's "childlike enthusiasm for old monster movies perfectly with lots of full-page panels" and commented that "the creative team also seems to understand that a hero is only as good as his nemesis". Sam Kusek from Pop Culture Shock commended the manga for making "a very nice reference to The Sound of Music".

Manga Life's Barb Lien-Cooper criticized the manga for using movie special effects that "don't translate onto paper". About.com's Deb Aoki commended the manga for featuring "a high-spirited, smart and likeable hero with an unusual profession" but she also criticized the manga for minimal character development and "one-dimensional villains".

Comics Worth Reading's Johanna Draper Carlson commented that "the transformation process is a chance for dramatic art. It's treated intensely, as though it were life-saving surgery, but with the elements and techniques explained to the reader, providing a mini-course in movie makeup". A later review by Carlson commented that "many of Kohei's effects serve no purpose in the bigger story beyond entertaining the reader". Active Anime's Davey C. Jones commented that the manga "keeps the action hoppin' and the mysteries boppin'!"

Coolstreak Comics' Leroy Douresseaux commented that the "action can get pretty intense at times, but never more than anything one would find in a PG-13-rated movie". Douresseaux compared Gimmick! to Case Closed and MacGyver. A later review by Douresseaux commented on "the stories [which] are full of tidbits on special makeup effects and animatronics, the kind of technical details that give stories realism and also intrigue readers".

Jason Thompson's appendix to Manga: The Complete Guide commended the manga for its "basic shonen story structure with the mysterious mentor and the 'ambitious, hardworking person who is ridiculously good at some skill/job/ability'". He also commented on the manga's "cinematic leanings are so distinctly Hollywood-focused, which is questionable in one sense (it'd be nice to know more about the history of Japanese special effects), but on the other sense, makes it easy for a Western reader to follow".

Manga Life's Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane appreciated the "real-world references" in the manga "primarily to director Sam Raimi's work".