Pretty Face - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

is a Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese manga

Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

series written and illustrated by Japanese

Japanese people

The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...

author

Mangaka

is the Japanese word for a comic artist or cartoonist. Outside of Japan, manga usually refers to a Japanese comic book and mangaka refers to the author of the manga, who is usually Japanese...

Yasuhiro Kano

is a Japanese manga artist known for Pretty Face, M×0 and Kagami no Kuni no Harisugawa.-Works:*Midnight Magic*Black City *Tokyo Ants *Pretty Face *M×0 *MP0*She Monkey*Snow in the Dark...

. The story revolves around a high school boy who suffers an accident and having his face reconstructed in the form of his crush, attempts to impersonate a girl who his crush mistakes for her twin sister. A common theme in the series is the loving relationships the characters share for each other, whether they be between siblings, friends, or lovers

Intimate relationship

An intimate relationship is a particularly close interpersonal relationship that involves physical or emotional intimacy. Physical intimacy is characterized by romantic or passionate love and attachment, or sexual activity. The term is also sometimes used euphemistically for a sexual...

as well as Karma

Karma

Karma in Indian religions is the concept of "action" or "deed", understood as that which causes the entire cycle of cause and effect originating in ancient India and treated in Hindu, Jain, Buddhist and Sikh philosophies....

. It was first serialized in Jump Comic's Weekly Shōnen Jump
Weekly Shonen Jump
is a weekly shōnen manga anthology published in Japan by Shueisha under the Jump line of magazines. The first issue was released with a cover date of July 2, 1968, and it is still circulating. One of the longest-running manga magazines in Japan, it has a circulation of 2.8 million copies...

by Shueisha

Shueisha

is a major publisher in Japan. The company was founded in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The following year, Shueisha became a separate, independent company. Magazines published by Shueisha include Weekly Shōnen Jump, Weekly Young Jump,...

between May 2002 and June 2003, finally coming to an end at chapter fifty-two. For North America Viz Media

VIZ Media

VIZ Media, LLC, headquartered in San Francisco, is an anime, manga, and Japanese entertainment company. It was founded in 1986 as VIZ LLC. In 2005, VIZ LLC and ShoPro Entertainment merged to form the current VIZ Media LLC, which is jointly owned by Japanese publishers Shogakukan and Shueisha, and...

acquired the rights to release an English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

translation of the series.

Plot

Pretty Face begins with the main protagonist Masashi Rando, a high school student and karate

Karate

is a martial art developed in the Ryukyu Islands in what is now Okinawa, Japan. It was developed from indigenous fighting methods called and Chinese kenpō. Karate is a striking art using punching, kicking, knee and elbow strikes, and open-handed techniques such as knife-hands. Grappling, locks,...

expert who harbors an unrealized love for a fellow student, Rina Kurimi. One day, while returning home from a karate tournament in Hokkaidō

Hokkaido

, formerly known as Ezo, Yezo, Yeso, or Yesso, is Japan's second largest island; it is also the largest and northernmost of Japan's 47 prefectural-level subdivisions. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaido from Honshu, although the two islands are connected by the underwater railway Seikan Tunnel...

, he is involved in a tragic school bus

School bus

A school bus is a type of bus designed and manufactured for student transport: carrying children and teenagers to and from school and school events...

accident and is burned beyond recognition. One year later, Masashi awakes from a coma

Coma

In medicine, a coma is a state of unconsciousness, lasting more than 6 hours in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light or sound, lacks a normal sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. A person in a state of coma is described as...

to find that he has been in the care of a talented (yet slightly deranged) surgeon named Jun Manabe. Masashi finds out his disfigured face had been reconstructed in the image of the girl he has a crush on. Not knowing what Masashi originally looked like, Dr. Manabe had used a photo in Masashi's pocket as the model for his reconstructive surgery.

Afterward, Masashi finds out that during his year long coma, he was mistakenly pronounced deceased, his parents moved away, and even his house was demolished. Once he has realized his old life is now gone, he breaks down on the sidewalk in front of the empty lot that was his former household. On his way back to Manabe's clinic, he runs into Rina by chance, and is mistaken for her missing twin sister, Yuna. After Rina takes him back to her house and presents him as Yuna, he lies about having amnesia

Amnesia

Amnesia is a condition in which one's memory is lost. The causes of amnesia have traditionally been divided into categories. Memory appears to be stored in several parts of the limbic system of the brain, and any condition that interferes with the function of this system can cause amnesia...

in order not to arouse any sudden suspicions. Masashi wants Jun to change his face back to the way it was but has no picture of himself to help. He does get a picture of himself eventually but later, after seeing how much pain Rina experienced during the time her sister was gone, Masashi decides to impersonate Yuna for the time being until he can find the real Yuna and bring her back to the Kurimi family.

During this time, the story line chronicles various adventures that Masashi experiences through his new lifestyle with the Kurimi family while he searches for Yuna. Much of these stories include events in which Masashi's identity as a man comes close to exposure, however usually ending in him retaining his secret. Such adventures include being stuck in a hot spring bath with four girls, a health inspection, and various other activities. Most of these humorous adventures involve Rina's close friends, Yukie Sano, Keiko Tsukamato, and Midori Akai. As Masashi impersonates Yuna, he meets a number of reappearing characters such as Yuna's cousin Miwa Masuko, who for a period of time becomes suspicious of Masashi (impersonating Yuna) and threatens his new lifestyle for a while. However, realizing that the new Yuna shares the same compassion towards Rina as the previous one, she dismisses her suspicions and assumes that it is the same Yuna.

Another character that appears during Masashi's new lifestyle is Nozomi Ueda, a first year who shows interest in Masashi (impersonating Yuna). Nozomi is a strong girl who is very talented in kendo

Kendo

, meaning "Way of The Sword", is a modern Japanese martial art of sword-fighting based on traditional Japanese swordsmanship, or kenjutsu.Kendo is a physically and mentally challenging activity that combines strong martial arts values with sport-like physical elements.-Practitioners:Practitioners...

, and becomes attracted to Yuna (Masashi) because of his strength. Although never said directly, Nozomi is a lesbian who states numerous times that she does not like boys. Eventually, Masashi comes across Natsuo Kobayashi, a girl who met Masashi before and fell in love with him before his assumed death. As time passes, Natsuo finds out Yuna is actually Masashi. However, because of her love towards him, she keeps his identity a secret and helps Masashi out in numerous situations, hoping to win his love.

Throughout the story, Masashi's overall goal is to find the real Yuna and convince her to come back home so he can return to his real identity. His quest leads him to Otaru

Otaru, Hokkaido

is a city and port in Shiribeshi, Hokkaido, Japan, northwest of Sapporo. The city faces the Ishikari Bay, and has long served as the main port of the bay. With its many historical buildings, Otaru is a popular tourist destination...

where he believed that the real Yuna would be since he found out that she had worked at a hair salon there. As he discovers to his dismay, she no longer resides there since the salon had been shut down. This trip to Otaru gives Masashi more of an idea of what Yuna is like, though does not help him find out where she is now.

Near the end of the manga, Yuna returns to her home. Meeting up with Masashi (still with Yuna's face), she discovers that he had impersonated her, and she initially becomes disgusted and horrified. However, after reading Masashi's diaries, she realizes how much he has cared for Rina and keeps his secret. Seeing Masashi's love for Rina, she entrusts him to continue impersonating her as she finishes her studies as a beautician. As the series ends, Masashi continues his life as Yuna Kurimi until the real Yuna finishes her studies.

Main characters

The main character, he is a karate

Karate

expert who is very arrogant because not many can defeat him. After a school bus accident, his face is reconstructed to that of Rina Kurimi, a fellow student who he also feels an attraction towards. After waking from his year-long coma, he is mistaken by Rina for her missing twin sister, Yuna. In the end, despite much inner turmoil on what to do, Masashi decides to pose as Yuna until he is able to find the real Yuna.

At first, he has a lot of trouble acting like a typical female high school student and his personality as Masashi comes out often with disastrous results. Even after being in a coma for a year, he is still incredibly strong which usually raises a lot of questions because of his small size. Often, as a running gag, he gets nosebleeds when he gets stimulated. However, as time goes on, he comes to discover a lot of things about being a female. Due to his vibrant personality and Rina's cute face, he gets many male suitors in the school (and one female), something that does not exactly make him happy. Furthermore, one of his main fears is that he'll become accustomed to being Yuna for good. When it comes to matters involving Rina however, he is often very selfless and only thinks about her happiness.

She is the girl Masashi likes and ironically, she liked him back before the accident, just she never told him. She has a quiet personality and feels responsible for what happened to her real twin sister Yuna after she ran away from home. Rina is a very emotional person and depends a lot on Masashi (as Yuna) for support and guidance.

She is a very intelligent person and the smartest in her class, though she seems to struggle when it comes to cooking. After Masashi came back as Yuna, Rina has become very scared that her sister will end up leaving her again and hangs out with her more often than not because of it.

Rina's real twin sister and the person Masashi impersonates. She ended up running away from home in order to fulfill her dream of becoming a beautician. After she left, she traveled to Otaru and started working in the Kaze hair salon owned by the Yoshida family. Additionally, she started living with them for the time being too. During her time working at the salon, Yuna was described to be a very hard-worker. She is also very intelligent, much like Rina, though is smarter than her younger sister. After the salon went out of business, she said she would go to a professional beautician school in Sapporo, but later tells Masashi that she has been attending a beautician school in Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

The very talented doctor who reconstructed Masashi's face using a picture of Rina as a reference that he found on his charred body after the school bus accident. He is excessively perverted and constantly suggests that Masashi should get a complete sex reassignment surgery

Sex reassignment surgery male-to-female

Sex reassignment surgery from male to female involves reshaping the male genitals into a form with the appearance of and, as far as possible, the function of female genitalia. Prior to any surgeries, trans women usually undergo hormone replacement therapy and facial hair removal...

to become more feminine, much to the disgust and wrath of Masashi (which often has him end up on the receiving end of a very violent and graphic beating). He helps Masashi throughout the story even after the surgery and even seems to serve as his mentor.

Supporting characters

She's the most mature of Rina's friends. Additionally, she is the only one who has a boyfriend named Reiji Nakama who is older than her and already attending a university

University

A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...

. Much like Masashi, she can get mad very easily and gets out of control because of it; Masashi is very scared of her when she's like this. She does have a soft side however, she is rather creative and is one of the best at her studies.

She's one of Rina's best friends and she questions the existence of the male human. However, she loves animals and in fact has a vast collection of stuffed animals and a couple of pets to show for it. Despite her boyish haircut, she tends to have a very feminine

Femininity

Femininity is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles generally associated with girls and women. Though socially constructed, femininity is made up of both socially defined and biologically created factors...

personality—doing things that normal girls her age would consider fun. However, she is a bit of a tomboy, since she likes playing sports more than other girls.

She seems to be the most outgoing of Rina's friends and never passes up the opportunity to flirt with guys. She tries very much to get a boyfriend up to being obsessed about it and is somewhat jealous of others on the fact that she does not have one. She once commented that she is "kind of afraid of animals."

, &

Three members of the karate club that were subordinates of Masashi. When Masashi came back to school as Yuna and destroyed the members of the karate club, they ended up choosing 'her' as their unofficial leader - Masashi has no intention of returning to the club while impersonating Yuna. They often cause trouble for Masashi, leading him to refer to the trio as "The Three Stooges".

She is Rina's cousin who comes to be the substitute teacher for Japanese

Japanese language

is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...

at Rina's school. She apparently is very close with the real Yuna, which causes problems for Masashi. She seems to have a thing about getting to the bottom of things when it comes to a mystery which led to her trying to investigate Masashi when she first came back. Eventually, she is able to become a regular teacher at Seika high school, where Masashi and the others go to school.

A first year student who approached Masashi (as Yuna) wanting her to be her 'big sister'. It is later found out however that she has a massive crush on her and does everything to be near her. She sees Yuna as a good role model

Role model

The term role model generally means any "person who serves as an example, whose behaviour is emulated by others".The term first appeared in Robert K. Merton's socialization research of medical students...

for herself and she has admired her for that. She seems to have a poor opinion about boys, once having commented that they are, "dirty and ugly creatures." Nozomi's father runs a kendo

Kendo

dojo

Dojo

A is a Japanese term which literally means "place of the way". Initially, dōjōs were adjunct to temples. The term can refer to a formal training place for any of the Japanese do arts but typically it is considered the formal gathering place for students of any Japanese martial arts style to...

that Nozomi also trains at and as so she is ranked as a 2-dan. In addition, she comes from a very rich family although that is from her mother's side. Much like Masashi who appears to be a normal high school girl, Nozomi is a good fighter and can be very intimidating because of this. She also seems to be very popular among the first year male students because of her cute looks.

She is the grandchild of the monk from the temple the karate club goes to train at once a year. She was partly trained by Masashi when he was visiting the temple, though now she's gotten more skilled. However, when she fights she has the tendency to show her panties a lot. Apparently, she fell in love with Masashi during their training together. Eventually she transfers to Masashi's school even though at first she believes him to be dead like everyone else. After secretly listening in on a conversation between Masashi and Manabe, she learns the truth about the whole situation and becomes a threat for giving away the secret. However, after seeing Masashi's surprising selflessness, she decides to help him find Yuna and wholeheartedly expresses her joy at seeing Masashi alive. Natsuo is the only other person who knows of Masashi's secret and does tease him a bit with it to get him to notice her. As such, this leads to a love triangle as Masashi is somewhat torn between Rina and Natsuo who both are in love with him.

Other characters

The student body president at Rina's school and also the most popular guy, especially among the female population. He has been described as smart, good at sports, and very well at his work as the student president. However, he is rather conceited about his status. Eventually, he takes a liking to Yuna (not knowing it is Masashi, and much to Masashi's horror).

Jinnai

He is a technician who develops products to be used for models

Model (person)

A model , sometimes called a mannequin, is a person who is employed to display, advertise and promote commercial products or to serve as a subject of works of art....

. Jinnai is the only employee of his company Jinnai Modeling Research and Development Co. Dr. Manabe knows him and Jinnai makes products that Manabe uses for Masashi's situation.

Jin Yoshida

A young man living in Otaru who knows the real Yuna. His family used to own a hair salon called meaning Wind and at the time, Yuna lived with them as she worked as one of the assistants in the salon. Incidentally, Jin ended up falling in love with Yuna while she stayed with them for a few months. Before he met Yuna, he had co-founded a gang called The Crimsons with a guy named Haga. Eventually, he got into some trouble with the police after stabbing someone in a fight and the salon went out of business because of it. Later, Jin left the Crimsons to become a beautician, but Haga saw this as a form of betrayal and thus they are now enemies.

Manga

Volume	\| Japanese		\| English
Volume	ISBN	Release Date	ISBN	Release Date
1	ISBN 4-0887-3361-6	October 4, 2002	ISBN 1-42151-368-4	August 7, 2007
2	ISBN 4-0887-3350-0	December 4, 2002	ISBN 1-42151-369-2	October 2, 2007
3	ISBN 4-0887-3384-5	February 4, 2003	ISBN 1-42151-370-6	December 4, 2007
4	ISBN 4-0887-3423-1	May 1, 2003	ISBN 1-42151-547-4	January 29, 2008
5	ISBN 4-0887-3497-2	August 8, 2003	ISBN 1-42151-644-6	April 1, 2008
6	ISBN 4-0887-3526-9	November 4, 2003	ISBN 1-42151-645-4	June 3, 2008

The Pretty Face manga was first serialized in the manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump
Weekly Shonen Jump
is a weekly shōnen manga anthology published in Japan by Shueisha under the Jump line of magazines. The first issue was released with a cover date of July 2, 1968, and it is still circulating. One of the longest-running manga magazines in Japan, it has a circulation of 2.8 million copies...

. The first bound volume

Tankobon

, with a literal meaning close to "independently appearing book", is the Japanese term for a book that is complete in itself and is not part of a series , though the manga industry uses it for volumes which may be in a series...

was released on October 4, 2002 and ended in Japan in November 2003. The manga series has a rather abrupt ending, finishing with fifty-two chapters and one extra chapter. It was intended to run longer, but was canceled due to the low ratings it had in Weekly Shōnen Jump. The last chapter featured additional information and alternate endings, as well as some original storyboard art. In North America, the manga was released by Viz Media

VIZ Media

between August 7, 2007 and June 3, 2008.

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