Gorgeous Irene
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“
This is the story of the unbeatable assassin. The girl so pure and gentle... Yet ultimately dangerous. She becomes whoever she disguises as, and leaves nothing but the blood of her targets in her wake. That is Irene.
”
Gorgeous Irene (ゴージャス★アイリン, Gōjasu Airin) is a two-chapter Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hirohiko Araki. It was first published by Shueisha in the Autumn Special of Weekly Shonen Jump on October 1, 1985,[1] later followed by a second chapter in Issue #1 of Super Jump on December 29, 1986.[2] It narrates the adventures of Irene Rapona, a young girl who makes a second life as an assassin characterized by her makeup-based techniques.
It has been compiled with other early Araki works such as his debut: Poker Under Arms, and B.T. "The Wicked Boy", the pilot chapter of Cool Shock B.T.
Summary
Lauper's Palace
Irene Rapona is a teenage girl with a youthful face and gentle personality. Despite being really gullible and innocent, she is secretly a professional assassin who is able to transform into any type of woman using special makeup. Due to her personality, she is bullied by her classmates.
A young man is taken to Irene by her butler. He hires Irene for assassinating Lauper, a female gang leader in the fictional Swing Town (スウィング・タウン, Suwingu Taun). Lauper replaced the former leader and killed the young man's father. Murders and the crime rate increased, and even children and the elderly were not spared. Lauper starts selling drugs in schools and only keeps female slaves with her in her gang.
Ten days later, the man is caught by Lauper as she discovers that he hired an assassin. Irene reveals herself disguised as an old woman who was hired in the gang. She uses her Battle Makeup to transform her appearance as well as enhance her killer instincts. The gang fires their guns at her but Irene had replaced all their bullets with blanks while she was previously working with them. She tricks them by having the actual bullets hidden in her glove, making it appear as if she caught the bullets. Irene then fires her fake nails at each gang member and kills all of them, aside from Lauper.
Lauper attempts to attack Irene with a giant chainsaw, but Irene dodges all of it and learns Lauper's movements with her special Death Dance. Irene's Heart Magic allows her to take control of Lauper's body after Lauper smells the scent of her perfume. She manipulates Lauper into cutting herself in half with her chainsaw by using her Execution Makeup. Irene expresses sorrow that the young man spoke about her to Lauper. She lets him live because she had promised to and then leaves.
The Girl in the Slums
Irene's butler is killed by an unknown assassin. He has a squirrel go find Irene to tell her that an assassin is after her before he dies. The gang puts out a bulletin alert for Irene, warning that Irene is extremely dangerous and has hypnotic powers. In the past, Irene's father was a killer born in the underworld. He was loyal to his boss, but eventually he and his boss were killed by another organization. Irene had inherited his killer instincts and deadly skills.
Meanwhile, a young man named Michael relaxes in the slums of Harlem in New York City. He sees Irene walking by and is shocked as to what a young girl is doing there on her own. The butler's squirrel finds Irene and tells her the news. However, Michael suddenly grabs Irene's purse and knocks her down, demanding her money. He realizes she only has makeup in there and nothing else. Angered at Irene lacking fear, Michael takes out a knife. Irene simply grabs the knife with two fingers and then hugs Michael. Some thugs appear asking Michael to share Irene with them but Michael beats them up.
They go to a bar and meet a man who offers to make Irene rich as a film star. Irene agrees but Michael elbows the man in the face, warning Irene not to trust everyone she meets. They leave and reach the subway, where a man sells Irene an old racing stub. At first Michael refuses to take care of Irene anymore but when he hears that she has no home and her father and butler are both dead, Michael takes her to his house.
The next day, Michael and Irene rob a store for money. The assassin who killed Irene's butler meets with the man who offered to make Irene a star. She shows him a picture and the man says he saw her recently, although she looked different like she was wearing a disguise. Suddenly, the female assassin arrives at Michael's house and breaks through their window. With her mysterious phantom tattoo ability which lets her grow an arm from her back, the woman stabs Irene. However, Irene had planted mines in the floors of Michael's home since she expected assassins to target her. One of the mines explode, causing the woman to lose a foot. The assassin then summons vicious fire ants from her tattoo which latch onto Irene's face. She states that the species would eat through Irene's skin and burrow into her brain. The assassin herself is unharmed by her ants because she wears a special repellent.
Irene transforms using her Battle Makeup and reveals her killer instinct. The makeup uses the muscles in Irene's face to force the insects out of her skin. Irene then dances and draws on her opponent's lips using her lipstick, preventing the woman from being able to close her mouth. Since the woman doesn't have repellent in her mouth, the fire ants begin crawling into her mouth and eat her from within. Irene apologizes to Michael for lying to him and gives him a kiss before leaving.
Michael later discovers the old racing stub that Irene bought was actually a big winner and moves to Los Angeles to start his music career. He eventually releases a debut single about a mysterious girl, selling over 600,000 copies. Irene had vanished and no one had ever seen her again. On the seventh day of the month, it is reported that a mafia boss named Tony Bormont had strangely committed suicide in his Chicago estate by stabbing himself in the throat. He had given the order to have many of his rival gangs across the U.S. assassinated. Police attempt to continue the investigation as his motivations for suicide were unknown.
Characters
Characters from Gorgeous Irene
Chapters
Release Date
ISBN
February 10, 1987 Chapter Titles
- Gorgeous Irene -Lauper's Palace- (ゴージャス★アイリン -大女の館-, Gōjasu Airin -Dai Onna no Yakata-)
- Gorgeous Irene -The Girl in the Slums- (ゴージャス★アイリン -スラム街に来た少女-, Gōjasu Airin -Suramu Gai ni Kita Shōjo-)
- B.T. "The Wicked Boy" (魔少年ビーティー, Mashōnen Bītī)
- Say Hi to Virginia (バージニアによろしく, Bājinia ni Yoroshiku)
- Poker Under Arms (武装ポーカー, Busō Pōkā)
- Outlaw Man (アウトロー・マン, Autorō Man)
Author's Note
Author's Note“
Gorgeous Irene
I considered making it into a serialized manga, but at the time, I was a little reluctant to draw a full-length shonen manga with a woman who fights as the main character. Thus, I had to wait for more than 12 years before creating Jolyne Cujoh in Stone Ocean, the sixth part of my own work, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.
I considered making it into a serialized manga, but at the time, I was a little reluctant to draw a full-length shonen manga with a woman who fights as the main character. Thus, I had to wait for more than 12 years before creating Jolyne Cujoh in Stone Ocean, the sixth part of my own work, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.
”
“
『ゴージャス＊アイリン』
連載しようか？ という企画もあったけど、当時、闘う女性を主人公に長編の少年マンガを描くのはちょっと抵抗があって、自作『ジョジョの奇妙な冒険』の６部『ストーンオーシャン』の「空条徐倫」まで12年以上待つことになる。
連載しようか？ という企画もあったけど、当時、闘う女性を主人公に長編の少年マンガを描くのはちょっと抵抗があって、自作『ジョジョの奇妙な冒険』の６部『ストーンオーシャン』の「空条徐倫」まで12年以上待つことになる。
”
Publication
The series was originally published as a two-part story, chapters 1 and 2 being released in the Autumn Special of Weekly Shonen Jump on October 1, 1985 and in Super Jump #1, 1986 (December 29, 1986) respectively. It was later compiled in tankōbon format along with various other Araki works made before JoJo's Bizarre Adventure in 1987. This volume, The Gorgeous Irene, was later republished in aizōban (collector's) and bunkoban editions. In Italy, said compilation was published by Star Comics as a part of the Il bizzarro universo di Hirohiko Araki (Hirohiko Araki's Bizarre Universe) collection in 2019.
Gallery
Weekly Shonen Jump Autumn Special, 1985 (Chapter 1)
Weekly Shonen Jump Autumn Special, 1985 (TOC)
Chapter 1 (magazine cover)
Super Jump #1, 1986 (Chapter 2)
Super Jump #1, 1986 (TOC)
Tankōbon cover
Chapter 1 (tankōbon cover)
Collector's edition cover
Collector's edition digital version cover
Collector's Edition (Without Dust Cover)
Chapter 1 (collector's edition cover)
Shueisha Jump Remix version cover
Bunkoban cover
Italian cover
"I'm Cruel", Collector's Edition illustration
"Make Up Your Mind", Collector's Edition special illustration
Chapter 1 cover clean artwork
Weekly Shonen Jump Autumn Special, 1985 clean artwork
Collector's Edition edition emblem
Emblem Lineart
The opening sketch of Gorgeous Irene Chapter 1 (tankōbon)
The tailpiece of Gorgeous Irene Chapter 1 (tankōbon)
The tailpiece of Gorgeous Irene Chapter 2
Michael, appearing much like Jonathan
A man in a bar who looks similar to Stroheim
The Gorgeous Irene poster seen in Eyes of Heaven
Trivia
- Araki came up with Gorgeous Irene's plot while pursuing physical power. He named her "Irene" because he thought it sounded cute and started to draw her to see if he could actually draw girls. In the end, he admits that he thinks he couldn't draw girls.[6]
- Several of the characters in the manga have similar appearances and were probable influences of those from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
- Lauper's gang members have headgear similar to the Pillar Men.
- Michael has a strong resemblance to Jonathan Joestar.
- The man in the bar's hairstyle is similar to Stroheim's.
- The concept of using makeup for extreme appearance changing would later be revisited with Cinderella.
- Despite the popularity of Gorgeous Irene, Araki decided not to have it serialized as a weekly manga. In that time period, he felt something was off and thought a female protagonist wouldn't go well in his works. Years later, he revisits the idea with Jolyne Cujoh as the first female protagonist of JoJo.[7]
Cameos
- In Chapter 1 of Phantom Blood, Dio Brando is seen reading a book bearing the title "Gorgeous Irene" as a self-reference.
- In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Episode 10: JoJo of New York, the cafe where Joseph Joestar fights Straizo is called "Irene's Cafe". JoJo's Pitter-Patter Pop! includes the cafe in its New York furniture.
- Gorgeous Irene is mentioned on a TV channel when Joseph Joestar uses Hermit Purple on a television in Stardust Crusaders Episode 8: Devil.
- Rohan Kishibe's bookshelf in I Want You, the ending theme of Diamond is Unbreakable, has Gorgeous Irene alongside Baoh the Visitor and other works of Araki.
- Eyes of Heaven contains a reference to Gorgeous Irene, as the title of an opera advertised in the Naples Station stage.
Irene's Cafe in Episode 10 and 11
"Gorgeous Irene" mentioned in the Stardust Crusaders anime
Rohan's bookshelf having Gorgeous Irene in I Want You
Opera Poster in Eyes of Heaven
Irene's Cafe in Pitter-Patter Pop
