When Asuka’s brother lands his dream job as a detective, he and his sister relocate from Okinawa to Yokohama. Asuka begins attending a private high school where the principal secretly finances “the chivalrous burglars rocking the world, Bogle.” Bogle consists of a pair of good-looking boys (and their faculty advisor) who specialize in retrieving precious items for their clients. The school administrators know all about Asuka’s scandalous past as a cat burglar, and draft her to join the clandestine group.
For the next two volumes, the members of Bogle accept and fulfill commissions, often interacting with their clients in civilian guise as well so that we can all see how happy the person was to get back their prized music box. The cases, like the characters, are all exceedingly boring. Supposedly, Bogle confounds police with their “brilliant strategies,” but those seem to consist of breaking into a building equipped with silly code names, matching outfits, and an arsenal of awkward poses. Seriously, in one panel Asuka seems poised to topple over and one of her male compatriots looks like he has to pee.
One glance is enough to know that the artist, Yuko Ichiju, is influenced by CLAMP. All of the female characters have an approximation of the “CLAMP eye” prevalent in earlier works like Cardcaptor Sakura, the boys have the disproportionately broad shoulders, and Asuka’s new friend has Hokuto Sumeragi’s hair. Ichiju also seems inordinately fond of knitted brows; someone’s sporting them on practically every page.
I do have to wonder how this one got licensed. It’s hard to imagining anyone clamoring for Bogle.
Review copy provided by the publisher. Review originally published at Manga Recon.
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