Beauty Pop

Beauty Pop (Byūtī Poppu) is a Japanese comic book, or manga, that was created by manga artist, or mangaka, Kiyoko Arai. Arai writes more or less exclusively for Ciao and ChuChu, two popular manga magazines. Beauty Pop was released in Ciao in 2003 and is currently still being released. The series is actually about a group of young boys who call themselves the Scissors Project. They are on a mission to become the best hairstylists and make-over crew to ever live in Japan. It also focuses on a girl who has an equal amount of talent, but does not like the Scissors Project boys.

Characters

• Kiri Koshiba – Kiri is the main character who is easily able to transform people into a nicer, more beautiful version of themselves. Her family actually owns and operates a hair salon, which is where she has learned her trade from. She does not apply the beauty treatments to herself, though, and has a bob haircut which annoys some of the other members of the group. She is very laid back and shows her kind side when she gives makeovers to girls who are having relationship problems.

• Shogo Narumi – Shogo’s parents own the prestigious Salon de Narumi. Narumi, however, is not close to his father, and wants to become the best make-over artist in Japan just to spite him. He wins almost every haircutting competition that he enters. He tends to act as if he hates Kiri, when he really has a soft spot for her. This is hard to believe, because Narumi actually has a fear of girls due to his overbearing mother and sister.

• Kei Minami – Kei is the nail artist of the Scissors Project. He loves to eat constantly, especially anything with a large amount of sugar in it, and is often the one to announce the group’s makeovers at the events that they hold.

• Kazuhiko Ochiai – Ochiai is the schemer of the group and is extremely intelligent. He is considered to be the beauty consultant and ends up falling in love with Kiri, which infuriates Narumi.

The Series

The series begins when a girl named Kanako decides, shyly, to give a present to the boys in the Scissors Project. They believe that she is only trying to bribe them to give her a makeover, and tell her that she is too ugly to be made over. This infuriates Kiri and she gives Kanako the makeover of a lifetime, transforming her from a normal student into a beautiful teen. She does this, though, anonymously, and the Scissors Project is flummoxed when they discover that it is Kiri who is giving the makeovers in school.

Narumi ends up challenging her to a makeover competition, and Kiri eventually accepts. The terms of the challenge are that the winner must cut the losers hair in any style they so chose. Kiri ends up beating Narumi, but decides to retain her pride in her work by cutting his hair so that it looks nice. Narumi eventually tells Kiri that he likes the hair cut, and willingly asks her if she will cut it again for him when it grows out.