I think I should just plan to read all Ohzora Publishing titles when they pop up on Jmanga, because I generally have found everything that I’ve sampled from the publisher to be at least somewhat entertaining and sometimes great (Walkin’ Butterfly). Lady, Lady is one of those titles I would recommend as being absolutely great, with one big caveat. If you are the type of person who reads manga mainly for the art, this is not a good manga for you. The illustrations in Lady Lady look fairly dated and stiff, sort of like a rushed adaptation of a Harlequin manga that came out in the 1980s. Many of characters when drawn full-length suffer from proportion issues and often the characters only cycle between a selected set of facial expressions. Fortunately the personalities and situations in this manga were so delightful, I was able to ignore the execution issues with the art and enjoy the story. A woman detective named Reiko Kujou gets transferred to the Asakasa Police Department. She pulls up to her new office in a Lamborgini and emerges from the car wearing heels and a short mini-dress. Young policeman Sanada greets her, and when they head into the building he learns that he’s been assigned as her new partner. They race off to investigate a hostage situation. Sanada tries to warn her about the speed limit and Reiko calmly informs him that she’s driving a police vehicle. Her unique method of hostage negotiation is immediately on display as she walks into the room, distracts the hostage taker with her bosom, then quickly brings him to his knees by stomping on his foot with a stiletto heel and elbowing him in the stomach.
Basically, Reiko is totally stoic, and the master of any situation she finds herself in. If Golgo 13 was a woman who was obsessed with fast cars and designer fashion, he would be Reiko Kujou. She is a bit more loquacious than Duke Togo, as she is capable of uttering more sentences than just an occasional “….” Reiko manages to solve high-level crisis situations because her clothing causes her opponents to assume that she’s a ditzy secretary and she sails through danger absolutely unscathed. She quickly collects a trio of male admirers including a yakuza boss, feckless rich boy, and the hapless Sanada. All three come in handy in her work at one point or another, but mostly Reiko just sails through her day registering an expression of mild disgust if she happens to get set up on a horrible blind date or shot at by Chinese mobsters on a yacht. Lady Lady ended up being a funny police procedural with an entertaining heroine, perfect manga for reading if you want to turn your brain off for a little bit. Three volumes of this series are available from Jmanga.com.
Electronic access provided by the publisher.
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