An interesting tale for sure. The central plot goes in the directions you would expect. What I didn't expect as much was the way that the money and pressure changed each of the girls, partly due to the baggage that they each brought to the plan. The characters aren't especially charming. Honestly, I found them a bit grating but I think that was intentional. They aren't meant to be pure, perfect teens. They are flawed and problematic. and that's valuable. The book itself is a bit text heavy that makes for a dense read.

I think there's definitely a place for this graphic novel--a slice of life book about teenagers trying to find themselves and their identities in a small town. But as other reviewers have said, the ending comes so abruptly and is such a downer, mixed in with glimpses of other characters doing things that don't seem relevant to the plot at all, and I'm just left with a sense of confusion and feeling let down.

A group of friends accidentally buy the wrong kind of bootleg anime and end up making a business with it. The premise of this book is amazing, and I love the representation and the overall art style. It sort of mimicked a manga, and I think that really helped with the subject matter as well. All of the characters were fully fleshed out, and the core friend group is just overall lovely. Their dynamic worked well overall.

There were a couple of things that didn't quite fully sell it for me, though. At first, I loved the character profiles and the extra background information, but it's not something that I thought needed to be continued throughout the book. At points, it also felt really wordy for a graphic novel, Give me more of the art speaking in the story, please!

Finally, the ending felt a bit rushed. For the most part, the rest of the book was pretty evenly paced, but the ending felt a little abrupt. Though that might be a matter of personal opinion.

All in all, if you enjoy graphic novels a little on the wordy side and love the idea of a group of girls selling bootleg anime, you'll love this.

This did some cool things, the premise is hilarious, and I can see why it would get a starred review, but there's just something missing.

The end is really depressing, and like doesn't really fit the vibe of the book.

The book feels a little try-hard with an excessive amount of vulgarity and explicit content that just didn't need to be there and feel true to the characters.

Also not set in New York's Forest Hills unfortunately.

California! 2005! A group of teenage girls discover that they can make money by selling a bootleg DVD of a risque anime. But will this lead to profit, or ruin?

As someone who was a teen watching bootleg anime in 2005, I was really looking forward to this one. However, the story itself was actually quite sad, though realistic. I was hoping for something more upbeat and optimistic, but instead got something that was much closer to reality than I'd like to admit. Definitely recommend to anyone who was a teen into anime back in 2005, or to anyone looking for a serious look into what might happen to a teen group who gets a little too close, and what happens to them afterwards.