Mugiko & Yoshiki
Okay, I'm not sure whether that is really the title since I just translated the hiragana that's in teenytiny font next to the kanji. I dunno how to cut "Godankatsuyou" so somebody do it for me, will ya? I suck at this.
I picked this series up pretty randomly when I'd just started getting into my manga obsession. Actually my mom picked it because the Chinese title for it was "Wo jia xiao mei" (literally "The youngest sister in my family") and she thought it sounded cute. I read it and really enjoyed it (fun series ;)) but when I tried to buy it I couldn't find it anywhere since (I think) it's a pretty old series? Well, I went shopping with my friend when I went to visit her in Hong Kong, and we went to this manga store that had a whole bunch of manga they were selling for cheaper by sets. And I found it, as well as Mizuiro Jidai :D Bought them both right then and lugged them around the whole day in my backpack. ^_^ So yeah anyway....
Mugiko is a middle school student who was adopted when she was a little baby; it seems her parents found her in the street...? Anyway, the family is sorta poor and their house kinda sucks. So she's always having these crazy dreams that somehow she'll save up enough money to buy her parents a nice house...either that or one morning, some people will drive up to her house in a Mercedes-Benz saying "Mugiko-san! We've searched for you so long..." and take her to her wealthy wealthy real parents.
One morning while Mugiko is brushing her teeth, a Mercedes-Benz drives up to their housing complex. Men in suits come out, saying "Mugiko-san! We've searched for you so long..."
Needless to say, Mugiko thinks she's dreaming.
They take her in the Mercedes to this huuuuuuuuuge mansion, where she meets her supposed grandfather. Turns out she's the only granddaughter of this rich old man who has tons of connections...
She meets her grandfather, who's this kindly old man (but has quite a few tricks up his sleeve) and her cousins, so to speak....there are four of them, all guys; the oldest is Yoshiki, who is 18, followed by Ayato, who is also 18, and then the two younger ones I have no idea what their names are...I DO know the youngest is 14 (a year younger than Mugiko).
Mugiko gets tired of the luxurious life really fast; it's nice to have a huge house and clothes and stuff, but she misses her parents and the school she used to go to. She gets weird treatment from everyone and is followed around by a million bodyguards just because she is now wealthy.
Also, from the start, Yoshiki seems to be intent on making Mugiko hate him. He calls her "Ugly girl" the first time he meets her and just..continually insults her...Mugiko doesn't get it, but really starts to hate him when his little brother (her youngest cousin) tries to seduce her, and then (when she socks him for his advances) offers her five million yen or so to sleep with him or something. See, the thing is, Mugiko needs five mil to get out of everything; her grandfather says he will let her go back to her adopted parents if she can get five million yen to him. So she starts doing stuff like...cooking lunch for him and then handing him a bill for a million yen or whatever... And so Yoshiki knows about this and he tells his brother, and his brother tries to bribe Mugiko.
Mugiko gets really mad at Yoshiki, because his brother says that Yoshiki put him up to bribing her to sleep with him. But Mugiko later finds out that it really wasn't his doing (like he never told his brother to do such a dumb thing) and also that the reason he keeps being so nasty to her is that he wants her to hate him. See, their grandfather wants Yoshiki and Mugiko to get married, and for Yoshiki to take over the family business and inherit all the stuff since he is the most responsible one out of the cousins. Yoshiki REEEEEALLY does not want to inherit that junk and all the responsibilities that come with it...he has his own plans for his future...so he tries to make Mugiko hate him so nothing will ever come of it.
Well, what happens is, Ayato (he's like a huge flirt, got a few hundred girlfriends...) bribes Mugiko with five million yen to get engaged to Yoshiki. I think Ayato just wants to see Yoshiki writhe. Not that he's a bad guy or anything, he just thinks it would be fun. >=) Well, Mugiko really can't resist the money so she accepts. Only she finds herself falling in love with Yoshiki, so she breaks the engagement off and promises her grandfather she will stay anyway...
Yoshiki, then, falls for Mugiko, but then they have to hide it from the grandfather or he'll make them get engaged and Yoshiki will have to inherit all.........meanwhile, the two younger cousins develop major crushes on Mugiko and are always hanging around trying to get her to like them. It's pretty funny....they do all sorts of retarded things.
The grandfather is a pretty smart, tricky old guy, and he tries all sorts of stuff to make Mugiko and Yoshiki admit they're in love and to get engaged so Yoshiki will settle down and inherit. This goes on for just about the whole series, as he sends them on one wild-goose chase after another to try and get out of the inheritance. He's got people following them around everywhere, etc etc...so when they run away he sends helicopters after them...sends them on scavenger hunts....etc
Other interesting characters that enter along the way include Mari, who turns up unexpectedly as the "real" granddaughter of Mugiko's grandfather. They kick Mugiko out at one point, saying she's a fraud, but she doesn't want Mari to be left alone with Yoshiki (since it seems as though Mari has a crush on him) so she hires herself to her ex-grandfather as a maid. Mari acts like a big pain in the @$$ and Mugiko has to clean up all her messes AND watch her try and get close to Yoshiki...until finally Mugiko trips Mari one day and realizes that Mari doesn't have the trademark moles of the "real" granddaughter...like on her leg or something...and that Mari is a fake!
Well, things get deeper as the grandfather tries to match up Mari and Yoshiki, and Mugiko and Ayato...until finally everything is resolved when Mugiko finally finds out that Mari is actually one of grandfather's friends' daughters. She agreed to pretend to be his granddaughter in an effort to get Yoshiki and Mugiko to admit they like each other and get engaged...and also for her own personal reasons...which turn out to be that she's had a major major crush on Ayato since they were kids. (Seems she used to be kind of an ugly duckling, and everybody made fun of her except Ayato, though he really didn't take her seriously...something like that.)
SO, things just keep going in this endless fashion until the very end of the series, which really isn't that long.(four tanks) Then everything is resolved in this nice way and everybody is happy! woohoo! Very funny and entertaining series. =) especially the old grandpa. He is always pretending to be so pitiful and defenseless, but behind everyone's backs he is cackling.
go back to anime/manga!
Get your own Free Home Page