Rose Hip Rose

Rose Hip Rose (ローズ ヒップ ローズ) is a seinen manga created by Tohru Fujisawa serialized in Kodansha's Young Magazine Uppers from 2002 until the discontinuation of the magazine in October 2004. The story continue with the new name Magnum Rose Hip on the page of Shōnen Magazine. A prequel to the series, Rose Hip Zero, was published in 2005–2006. Rose Hip Rose is scheduled to be released in English by Tokyopop on March 12, 2008, possibly after Rose Hip Zero has been published.

The series primarily deals with Kasumi Asakura, a.k.a. Rose Hip. An amnesiac teenage high school girl, she blends in with the local high school population while fighting off criminals and terrorists with her amazing skills in both martial arts and firearms.

Plot
The manga tells the story of a high school kid named Shouhei Aiba, who mysteriously bumped into a nerdy high school female named Kasumi Asakura. At first, Shouhei thinks that Kasumi was being strange for her acrobatic skills and her ability to tell different people from the crowd.

Later on, Shouhei discovers that Kasumi is actually an anti-terrorist specialist named Rose Hip. Rose Hip, lately, was ordered to engage a right-wing terrorist group lead by a man whose codename is Goat. The two soon get wind of his plot to overthrow the elected Japanese government by taking hostages at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building and destroy it with explosives.

Main
Kasumi Asakura
 * A 17-year old high school student with a severe case of amnesia, she was trained after a young age after going through surgery as an assassin. She is known as No Murder Angel for using rubber bullets in her firearms.

Shouhei Aiba
 * A local high school student, he gets tangled up with recent attacks on civilians in Tokyo by armed men and the later plot to bomb the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building.

Natsuki Toutera
 * Kasumi's old ASALLT friend when the two were being indoctrinated as child soldiers. She had transferred to Shouhei's high school to meet up with Kasumi and teams up with her to fight against Goat and his posse in the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building crisis.

Secondary
Bob
 * He is Kasumi's ASALLT handler. Bob has links with the police force and uses the link to have Kasumi assist them in any way he can.

Maruyama
 * Kasumi's comrade in ASALLT. He was earlier involved in an operation to arrest Goat during a sting operation.

Goat
 * Nothing is known about him. He is a right-wing criminal and terrorist, believed to be taking orders from a teenaged person named Kirito. Goat specializes in using involuntary hypnosis to either assassinate certain people or use them to make himself heard. He is also an explosives and close quarters combat expert as well.


 * He died in an explosion that took him and Kasumi out after being tied up near some explosives that he took to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building.

Kirito
 * Nothing is also known about him. Aside from being Goat's handler, he has a rose tattoo on his left hand. Kirito also sports white hair. Like Goat, he is an expert in involuntary hypnosis.


 * Kasumi remembers meeting Kirito before, although she did not had the chance to speak with him. This indicates that she and Kirito had undergone the same assassin training that the two teenagers had undergone.

Reviews
Although Rose Hip Rose did not gain a significant audience outside of Japan and most of Southeast Asia, Manga Reviewer had reviewed it and commented on how the comic had tried to explore Kasumi and Shouhei, most especially their past. It had said that the manga was rushed, with the words TO BE CONTINUED found on the ending of the 2nd volume since their backgrounds were not fully explored. The review also commented that Kasumi and Shouhei were undeveloped, mostly trying to focus on Kasumi's past without going into the subject any further.