She also has a (somewhat hilarious) violent streak, and she grapples with money problems, jealousy, betrayal, and the stresses of high school. She’s sixteen, she makes mistakes, she’s awkward, and she struggles with her budding feelings for Night as well as her confusion over her interactions with childhood friend, Soshi. Riiko is an understandable heroine and a believable teenage girl.

Absolute Boyfriend is a series that relies on familiar tropes, but presents those elements in a fresh, and sometimes unexpected, way. But can Riiko develop a real relationship with a man who isn’t? Absolute Boyfriend ran from 2003-2005 and was completed at 6 volumes.Īfter re-reading the first 3 volumes, the points that appealed to me on my first read-through continued to resonate. The problem is… he’s a cybernetic doll, and he’s determined to prove to Riiko that he can be her “ideal boyfriend,” which causes mayhem in Riiko’s life. After a string of rejections and a chance meeting with a mysterious salesman, Riiko ends up in over her head when a boyfriend is delivered right to her door.

But will Absolute Boyfriend stand the test of my growing cynicism and jaded view of the world?Ībsolute Boyfriend follows Riiko Izawa, a 16-year-old girl who yearns for a boyfriend. I also splurged on another of Yuu Watase’s works, Alice 19th, which I will be revisiting later for this blog series. However, I do remember loving this manga, because I also binged both the Japanese and Taiwanese drama adaptations (Japanese first – the Taiwanese one wasn’t out yet). Bear in mind, I was an awkward teenage girl at that time. I didn’t want to buy it in stores because I didn’t want the cashier at Borders to judge me, so I ended up buying the entire series online. I’m not going to lie, I was initially leery of this series because of the “scandalous” cover of the first volume, which features a mostly naked man.

*Warning, this post contains minor spoilers!*

Absolute boyfriend vol 1