"B-Shock"
by NAKANO Junko
ISBN# 4-08-875779-3
Young Jump Comics, 1999

I think this was the shounen series that inspired me to start up a little shounen corner. When I read this, I thought that people who like the shoujo series I feature on this site would also like this manga as well, even though it is shounen. (Hey, shoujo is awesome, but there is good shounen manga too!) I am not the first one to summarize this series- I have seen it mentioned on other sites before. However, I couldn't resist doing a write-up of it also. It's just too adorable to resist! The art work is really great (such cute characters who alternate from serious to funny expressions!) and the situation they are in is priceless!

21-year old Arata NIITA is an average college student. He is kind of poor, lives by himself in a tiny apartment, and is a bit of a slob, in typical guy fashion. He eats ramen every day, and, uh, does typical guy stuff like fantasizing about women. ^_^; Meanwhile, Hatsune NOGI (20 years old) is also a college student. She goes to the same university as Arata, actually. However her background is very different. Hatsune is very rich and cultured. Her clothes are immaculate, her hair is perfect, and she is very smart. In short, she and Arata are from two completely different worlds. Ahh, so you know that she and Arata are destined to meet! However their meeting is less than romantic- they are kidnapped! Nothing like being kidnapped by a mad scientist to bring a couple together! Arata and Hatsune are each drugged and kidnapped, and when they wake up, they are together in a secret laboratory, being held by a little robot! What is going on!? It seems Arata and Hatsune have become the latest guinea pigs in a mad scientists's experiment! The scientist has placed bracelets on Arata and Hatsune's wrists and tells them that they MUST stay within a meter of each other, or the bracelets will blow up! He is very serious. When the couple gets too far away from each other, the bracelets start to beep, warning them to get close together again. How can Arata and Hatsune possibly live with this? They are strangers to each other, but now they must stay closer to each other than most couples are. This scenario presents many humorous situations. The obviously have to live together, sleep together, go to school together, work together.... bathe together? Oh boy ^_^

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