meganbmoore | manga: Skip-Beat Vol 17

I am apparently a pervert, as I spent about 5 minutes giggling over the fact that Sho had 699 votes (about 1/3 what Ren and Kyoko each had) in the popularity contest for the series. Actually, I find it interesting that the 5 most popular characters were the 5 main characters. I can’t think of any popularity contest results that I’ve seen printed in other shoujo off the top of my head, but they seem to be all over the place in shounen popularity polls.

Also, I find it strange that Kyoko, Bo, Mio and the grudge Kyokos all counted separately, as two are roles Kyoko plays, and the other a part of her character.

Oh man…Kyoko fell asleep while Ren was resting on her lap, and he laid there and looked up at her while she was sleeping? That has to be some sort of commentary on “watching her sleep,” but I’m too busy laughing. Ditto for Kyoko launching herself at the doorframe after tripping while Ren was being a proper shoujo hero and trying to catch her. Though I don’t know if she was trying to save her pride, or her idea of his pride!

Ren is genuinely worried Kyoko will kill him if he makes a move on her! What? (Though he’s probably right.)

And she was keeping a hammer under her skirt so that she could use it to protect herself if Reino attacked her again! Actually, I’m somewhat annoyed that Ren kept it, though I’m sure his fear was that she’d use it and then die of the mortification of ruining Mio’s perfect image. And…err…Reino must have really gotten to her if she really thought Corn’s rock would protect her from him.

Uhm…part of me like Ren rescuing Kyoko from Reino, and part of me was miffed that she needed to be rescued. Though I still think it makes sense for Kyoko to be completely out of it in this situation, as she’s never faced any sort of sexual threat before. Actually, she has so many issues thanks to Sho and her mother that I’m not sure she can even process that anyone would look at her in a remotely sexual way. I mean, this is the girl who’s proud of being called plain, after all. (Granted, it’s because Kanae called her plain, but…)

Reino has psychic powers. Oy. I think they were just an excuse for Ren’s scary face and flashbacks to his Dark And Angsty Past. Which apparently involves bleached hair, smoking, guns, and fights with gangs. The psychic powers also resulted in Ren/Kyoko hugging, which I cannot object to. Ren is never going to live until Kyoko turns 18, is he?

AND AT LONG LAST, MOKO IS BACK! FINALLY! Seriously, it was about time. And she is dodging bear hugs and lecturing Kyoko about posture and worrying about Kyoko finding out about whatever Sho is up to now. And causing nosebleeds by saying she wanted to try out a new ice cream flavor with Kyoko.

I can’t wait to see how Kyoko gets out of being typecast in Mio-like roles, though it’s a bit of a shock to see her go back to having bleached hair.

Finally, Mr. Koo? The guy who played Ren’s role in the first version of “Drak Moon”? I predict that he is Ren’s father. There’s the foreigner thing, and that they kinda look alike. But mostly, his evilness and grudge against Kyoko is like an amplified version of when Ren was annoyed with her for using his profession to get revenge.

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YOU GOT TO THE NOSEBLEED. 8DDD I swear, this series just gets more and more blatant as it progresses.

I wasn't really bothered by the second scene with Reino - I felt that Kyoko didn't really need rescuing, just that Ren (quite understandably) mis-interpreted it and rescued her anyway. I mean, they were scuffling like kids rather than Reino trying to molest her, so...

The previous scene with him, though? That one bugged me. ._.; I felt that there were ways that scene could have played out that wouldn't have bugged me, and I felt like Nakamura was really trying, but kind of... failed.

I think that what bugs us is that it was SHO, and that the way it plays out ends up being more a personal thing between Sho and Reino. I'm not bugged that Kyoko needed rescuing then-she's a 16-year-old encountering aggressive sexuality for the first time, just that it played out being less about her and more about Sho. And yeah,t his time, I think she could have handled it herself, BUT STILL!

Well, it's not that she turned into a deer-in-headlights that bugs me specifically either, since I mean, that's not at all unrealistic... I don't think I can properly articulate all the ways in which I think it wasn't handled well, but the Sho thing was probably part of it.

Oh! And I just remembered! I thought I would mention to you in case you didn't know, you can actually watch the Skip Beat anime legally right now. I don't know the exact details but it has something to do with a deal crunchy roll (http://www.crunchyroll.com/) has with the Japanese company? I think the way it works is if you subscribe, the new episode is released on crunchy roll, subbed, at the same time as when the episode broadcasts in Japan. If you don't have a subscription, new episodes become available one week after they've broadcast (although I think they are only accessible for one week or something?) Although the downside is I've heard that the subs are pretty... questionable. Like, not engrish, but just bad translations.

Yeah. But I'm also more a manga person than an anime one in general, especially animethat's adapted from manga, so I'll likely just wait until DVDS.

I figured that was likely, but I just thought I'd put it out there. XD On the upside, the anime has followed the manga very closely so far. Also Kyoko's VA is totally awesome.

manga: Skip-Beat Vol 17

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