 | This article is missing information about the manga's release info and reception. (April 2015) |
| Pixie Pop | |
 The cover of the final volume featuring Mayu (bottom-left), Shinya (top-right) and Pucho (right). | |
| ゴックン!ぷーちょ (Gokkun! Pūcho) | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Romantic comedy, fantasy, magical girl |
| Manga | |
| Written by | Ema Toyama |
| Published by | Kodansha |
| English publisher | |
| Magazine | Nakayoshi |
| Original run | 2004 – 2005 |
| Volumes | 3 |
Pixie Pop (Japanese: ゴックン!ぷーちょ, Hepburn: Gokkun! Pūcho) is a shōjo manga created by Ema Toyama. The series was first published in 2004 by Kodansha. Pixie Pop was then later translated and released on 13 February 2007 by Tokyopop.
The series lasted for three volumes and rated for 13 (Teens 13 and/or older) for romance. Although the story's theme mainly focuses on the romance that ensues between the protagonist and her crush, Pixie Pop also contains fantasy elements, such as the existence of drink fairies and magical abilities.
The story follows the adventures of 12-year-old Mayu Kousaka who is just starting middle school. Her family owns a successful café business, and as such, she is heavily selective about what she drinks. Mayu especially enjoys soda pop, though she is known to like anything that has flavor.
When Mayu goes to her first day of middle school, she finds that she must sit next to her former elementary school crush, Shinya Amamiya. The memory of when he turned her down on the day of elementary school graduation still plagues Mayu's mind, and she is incapable of making any true effort to speak to him.
As Mayu is sitting at the bar, a glass and several cans of pop near her, she begins to reminisce about her first meeting with Shinya, when he helped her find her mother. A single teardrop falls into her glass, turning the pop seven different colors. Figuring it was one of her mother's "experiments", she drinks the strange liquid, and finds it to be disgusting. This is when she sees Pucho, who suddenly appears. As it turns out, Pucho is a magical drink spirit, who had gotten the recipe for the seven-color drink (which is supposed to transform drink fairies into adults). Bitter that Mayu drank it instead of her, Pucho proceeds to terrorize Mayu, who thinks that she's merely dreaming and drinks some cold milk to wake herself up. In all actuality, it turns her into a giant. From that point on, anything Mayu drinks (with the exception of water, although it did turn her invisible one time) will cause her to transform. Many times, Mayu has no control over what she does or says during her transformations, and the only way to undo them is with the magic words spoken by Pucho: "Puppuku Pucho!".
The rest of the series centers around Mayu and Pucho's adventures to uncover the colors of the seven-color drink in order to assemble it again, as it is said that the feelings of love create them. As such, Pucho vows to make Shinya fall in love with Mayu.
Pixie Pop has generally been received well, as Patricia Beard of The Fandom Post writes that "The mangaka is very clever and funny in her introduction of drinks and their effect on Mayu. This may be a single joke story, but it is well focused and well-paced for a three-volume series."
However, it has been criticised as being predictable. A. E. Sparrow of IGN writes that "It doesn't really break new ground" and "It's fairly obvious she's going to end up with Amamiya".[1]
Leroy Douresseaux of Comic Book Bin enjoyed its humor, and also considered it to be more of a children's comic.[2]
