The Spring 2024 Manga Guide

Heat x Beat: I May Be an Omega, but I'm Going to Be an Idol!

What's It About? 

Asahi wants nothing more than to be an idol, and when he's chosen as the latest member of boyband B-Marks, he's over the moon. Except for one little detail: Asahi is an omega and one of the other members, Madoka, is an alpha. Insisting on staying unmated to remain loyal to their fanbase, Asahi agrees to a "friends with benefits" arrangement to appease their hormonal urges without commitment. At least, that's what he intends...

Heat x Beat: I May Be an Omega, But I'm Going to Be an Idol! has art and story by Ken Homerun with an English translation by Katie Kimura. This volume is lettered and retouched by Vibraannt Publishing Studios. Published by Tokyopop's LoveLove imprint (March 19, 2024).

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Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

Whenever I read an omegaverse book, I remember the horrors of explaining "omegaverse" to my mother. Explaining the idea behind the whole alpha/beta/omega "gender" thing is something that a lot of omegaverse works spend some time on (albeit less awkwardly than me), so I'm pleased that Heat x Beat skips that whole spiel. Ken Homerun assumes that you already know what an omegaverse story is, and that's why you picked up their book. The result is a much less cumbersome start to the story than many other titles. This book has a level of trust in the reader that I like.

Interestingly enough, it spends more time digging into a brief discussion of why idols aren't supposed to date. At the end of the story, our protagonists, Asahi and Madoka, would both like to be mates. Asahi has fallen in love throughout the volume, and Madoka has fallen for Asahi at first sight. But Asahi is afraid to go through with it; not only would that mean admitting to the fans that he's an omega, but also risking being dunned out of the business by a precipitous plunge in popularity. Idols, another character explains, are supposed to be single so that fans can be in love with them, and finding out that they're in a committed relationship risks destroying that balance. It's something that other idol manga have explored before to a degree, but I like the subtlety that this one employs; in the pivotal scene where Asahi and Madoka admit their relationship to the fans, a few women are seen leaving the audience. Many more stay, but that one panel of people leaving does a lovely job of showing that their fears aren't for nothing. Some people really will abandon an idol who's no longer "pure."

Things are a bit mixed in the rest of the story. The first two chapters are outstanding, but there's a bit of a downward slide from there, as if the creator suddenly learned that they'd only have six chapters to tell the story, not six volumes. We never really get a good explanation for why rival band Tyrant's leader is so keen on Asahi and his group succeeding, and the romance is rushed, meaning that we don't ever really get to see Asahi falling in love with Madoka; it's not supposed to be instalove, but it feels like it because of the condensed plot. The art is very attractive, though, which helps to make up for some of the issues, and while there's no real reason for everyone to have dog ears and tails, it doesn't detract from the rest of the artwork. Sex scenes are present but not explicit until the final one, which is still very short by genre standards.

On the whole, I enjoyed this. It's not great, but it's good enough, especially if omegaverse and/or puppy-boys are your thing.

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Lauren Orsini
Rating:

I admit that in the past, I have been too quick to dismiss fiction set in the omegaverse as a simple premise for a fetish. The truth is much more interesting than that. The omegaverse is a thought experiment that envisions our social roles, sexual hierarchy, and options for gender expression far differently than in the real world. While characters in the omegaverse may appear to be male, nonbinary, or female, their hidden secondary sex characteristics have stark implications for how they are perceived in society, and it can go far beyond a kink thing.

Heat x Beat is much more complex than it seems at first glance. It may be an explicit adult manga, but not until page 200 or so! Up until then, it's a surprisingly thorough hypothetical. I can tell the author thought hard about how alpha, beta, and omega roles would complicate the entertainment industry and make scandals among performers even messier than they are now. In a world in which some people are born as omegas, who experience an animalistic "heat" when they encounter alpha humans, are these people able to live normal lives? Not everyone thinks so, and that's why protagonist Asahi is so determined to succeed as an idol despite the omega characteristics he cannot control—and why he is determined to keep it a secret. He tells everyone he's a beta during auditions and thinks he's safe until he learns that alpha idol Madoka is in his group, and even worse (he thinks at first), Madoka has the hots for him.

But long before Asahi and Madoka finally surrender to the inevitable, the story builds up their world down to the last detail. For example, we learn that healthcare is fantastic in the omegaverse, where Asahi picks up his free heat suppressants from the hospital as easily as breathing. And in a world where everyone has dog ears and a tail, headsets, hats, and cell phones are shaped differently to accommodate these features. Gender politics are twice as complicated in this world, as illustrated by a subplot with Asahi's inspiration: a female omega performer who has vanished without a trace… or has she? When scandals start to build up against him, can Asahi make a decision that will save his career and reputation?

All this build-up leads to a tender and affectionate (and uncensored) romance, one that feels especially well-earned when the challenges of Asahi and Madoka's world have been so richly described. Combined with its charming character designs, I think this one is going to be popular even with people who aren't usually omegaverse fans.