I would like to note that all picture files uploaded are not scanlated by me. Credits go to the various scanlators of the mangas which i reviewed.
I would also like to thank them for enabling us English readers to have access to all these wonderful mangas. Click on the pictures if you wish to see them in full resolution. ^_^
Ohara is still displeased over the fact that everyone fawns over Misore instead of her. She even accused Yuu for taking sides with Misore. Yuu tries to lift her spirits and told her that she is in the middle of writing a new script, Hana, and she has the perfect part for Ohara to play. Meanwhile, Touya is getting busier with his drama work and all the interviews Kina arranged for him. A tired Touya finally told Kina to cancel every interview and rode off in his bike.
After reading the unfinished script, Ohara was happy and felt that the lead character seems perfect for her. However, Yuu announced that she wanted Ohara to play the show-girl spirit, a supporting character. Ohara got angry and told Yuu she refuses to act in a supporting character and be behind Misore all the time. Ohara then went to a bar where she met another director, Hino, of Radium 100 theatre group. She complaint to him about her troubles and told him about Yuu's script. Later on, Ohara threatened to leave Garandou for Radium 100. However, Yuu did not blame her and even decided to go watch a Radium 100 play with her.
Everyone got a shocked when they realized that the play by Radium 100 was actually stolen from Yuu. It turns out that Hino took advantage of his conversations with Ohara who told him the script. A crying Yuu went back to the company and Shougo hugged her, only to be seen by Touya. Although Shougo told Yuu to be confident and show them that they're the real thing, Yuu lost her confidence. A guilty Ohara resigned from Garandou.
Yuu went to look for Touya to "borrow a little fighting spirit" only to be pushed away by him. Later at the TV company building, Shougo punched Hino in front of everyone, and the story spread to Touya. Curious, he went to ask Shougo about it, and found out about everything. Shougo told Yuu that he wants her to stage a one-day play with her script and said that if she didn't, it will forever haunt her. However, they're still lacking an actress for the Dolly (spirit-girl) role.
Touya came looking for Yuu to apologize and she told him about her troubles. Touya, who had already previously read the script, offers to play that role. However, it has to be a secret as Touya is still bonded to his contract. Even the play itself was a secret as they plan to promote another of Garandou's play but stage Hana on the first day. However, Touya slyly revealed to Hino and to those nearby that he will be appearing for the first night stage-play of Garandou. The rumour spreads and everyone was curious. Even Ohara came to watch.
From the start of the play, the audiences realized the similarity of it to Radium 100's play. Hino started to break out in cold sweat and tried to stop the play by accusing them as thieves. However, he was overpowered by the music of the play. Hana was a success and no one recognizes Touya as Dolly. A regretful Ohara came backstage to apologize and was accepted back into Garandou. A snooping reporter caught Touya leaving the building and realizes that he was Dolly. The news broke and suddenly Garandou & Yuu was bombarded by the reporters. An angry Kina slapped Touya for not understanding the work she put in as his manager. Touya warned her that she doesn't understand his needs as well.
An annual stage-play award results were published in a magazine, and Yuu heard about a famous and talented director/scripwriter/actor Kazuma Rin. She received a free ticket from Shougo to watch his play and bumped into Touya who came to watch as well. Both of them were very impressed with Kazuma Rin. After the play, they had dinner together. Yuu commented that this felt like a date, but Touya refuted and said he can't imagine her in a romantic relationship. He further innocently told a dissapointed Yuu that he can't afford the time to be in love and he thinks it's the same with her.
The next day, Kazuma Rin came looking for Shougo for an introduction to Touya, only to find out it is Yuu he should pursue if he wants the introduction. He wants Touya for his next production, and Yuu told him that Touya already saw Kazuma's play and there is no need for Yuu to be the middle person. Before leaving, Kazuma manages to persuade Yuu to restage Hana. It was later on confirm that Touya has accepted Kazuma's production for his comeback to the stage. Meanwhile, Yuu is busy reproducing Hana with Ohara as Dolly and a new actress for Misore's original role. However, troubles arises almost at once when Yuu realizes that Ohara is copying Touya's Dolly. Ohara got angry and slapped her.
Review:
A 300+ page volume! This was crazy to summarize!!! But it is a wonderful volume nonetheless. I really started to enjoy this manga from this volume onwards.
First off, am really really pissed off with the character Ohara. She is truly truly spoilt, and for no reason other than her own vainness that she is a great actress. She thinks she's a diva who does not deserve anything less than the lead role, and when things doesn't go her own way, she threatened and even slap the director.
Honestly, I kind of forgive her when she realizes her mistakes in the middle of the volume, but what the heck is going on with her when she slapped Yuu???? I didn't even feel that angry when Kina slapped Touya. Kina tried her best even though she doesn't realize that it is not what Touya wanted, and for that, I think her actions is justified to some extent. But not with Ohara. Ohara is just one plain B****. I wonder why Yuu even tolerates her.
The play Hana is very interesting - only for the fact that for once, its scenes were shown more extensively compared to the other plays which appear in this manga. Touya makes a very pretty spirit-girl as well =P
As for the romantic development between Touya and Yuu, it is clear that Touya felt jealousy. But he doesn't seem to realize this and has focus his energy towards his acting, hence his innocent comments to Yuu during their dinner date. However, Yuu is clearly in tune with her feelings and cherishes the tickets that he gave her (did not summarized this part).
The chapter opened with a flashback to 7 years old Kae going for piano lessons reluctantly for the first time. She met university student Goshima who was to be her piano teacher. Although hating her lessons at first, she grew to like it and listening to Goshima play Canon brought a skip to her heart. At present time, a 16 years old Kae decided to play Canon for the next recital.
A new character - Tamaki appeared at the music school looking for Goshima. Having similar disposition and mannerism, Tamaki turns out to be his cousin. That night, everyone went to watch Goshima's performance at another pub. Tamaki made a surprise sit-in by playing the saxophone which complements perfectly with Goshima's piano. The both of them made a striking pair, and Kae was jealous because she felt like a kid next to Goshima. The next day Tamaki teases Goshima for his feelings and protectiveness over Kae. Unfortunately, Kae walked right into them while they "seemingly kiss". An angry Kae toss her papers at them, crying.
Kae fell sick with the flu, and when Goshima visited her, she kissed him, announcing that he better get sick as well and she will kill him if he passes the flu to Tamaki as well. Kae got better in time for the recital, while Goshima really caught the flu from her. Kae told Tamaki that she envied her and Tamaki just replied by kissing her kiss between girls!!! kyaaa!!! hehehehe saying that she is returning Goshima's kisses. Tamaki really like teasing Kae as she felt envy herself that Goshima managed to find a someone that he cares for whereas Tamaki doesn't.
April 1st arrived and Kae's waiting for Goshima for a date, but he couldn't make it. Instead, he sent his younger brother, Nobu, to inform her. The two ended up spending the whole day chatting about Goshima. Nobu observes that Goshima is very protective of Kae even though she doesn't realize it and that Kae's his main weakness.
Kae's birthday arrived, and Goshima gave her perfume Estee Lauder's Pleasures! I have that perfume!! it smells wonderful. He caught her dancing alone with his coat, and teases her about it, but still dance with her in the end. They attracted alot of people and Uchida observes that Kae is getting prettier and that many guys are going to fall for her. This observation came true as a couple of guys started approaching her. Goshima had to "exert his influence" to make the guys back off actually he's not even exerting any influence. he just glared at them!!! Naturally Kae got mad at him as she felt he was acting like her father.heheheeh, Goshima's worried bout her getting caught by another guy, and she's worried that they're not equal because of his maturity.
The final chapter closes of with Goshima getting sick again and Kae visited him. The sick Goshima dreamt about his parent's final days before the plane crash and when he woke up, he started wondering about death. Kae left the house to buy more medicine, and Goshima's inner heart worried non-stop about what if Kae also left him because of an accident. However, Kae's safe return brought him back to reality and he smiled and said that she is his biggest failure in life.
Review:
Unlike Volume 1, here we get to see much of Goshima's own insecurities regarding this relationship with Kae. Although he still acted cool and nonchalant, it is not all that simple. Kae is very attractive, eventhough she doesn't realize it, and always intrepret his protective actions wrongly.
Kyouko seems worried about her Kuon and questioned Kuu. She felt that she has split from the Kuon she imagined to a total new character during her impersonation. Kuu told her that there is nothing wrong with it - he merely wanted her to act as his son, not the "real son"....meaning he did not want her to become the original Kuon, but to create a whole new Kuon. The exercise was considered successful. Furthermore, Kuu said that if Kyouko can overcome her weakness of "preference in only certain princess roles", she would be an incredible actress. President Lory called, telling Kuu that a seemingly angry Ren wants to meet with him.
Later on, Kuu & Ren finally met as father and son in the presence of President Lory. Not much details or history is revealed, but it was indicated that Kuu's popularity as an actor have overshadowed his son and because of this, Ren could not stand on his own and escaped with the help President Lory to start over again as a fresh actor in Japan. He has not been in contact with his parents for years. And Julia (Ren's mother) has been yearning for her son. That is the main reason why Kuu came back to Japan - to ask Ren to be Kuon again for a while and film a video message for his mother.
The next day at DM set, Kyouko apologizes for acting in front of Ren and pretending to not know him. They chatted about her character as Kuon, and Ren complimented her, saying that she manage to portray Kuon's feelings for his dad perfectly. This is an indirect reference that Ren loves his father very much, and when Kyouko later told Kuu what Ren said, he was very touched.
However, Kuu has decided to return to US sooner than expected because his mission (the video tape of Kuon) is complete and he wishes to bring it back to Julia asap. During his goodbye party, both Ren & Kyouko attended, and Kyouko announced that she will not run away and willing to take the bully girl role (in the drama Box-R) while Ren said - inside the video he taped - that he will also not run away and take up the challenge to act as a killer in his next role.
Review:
It is wonderful to finally see some revealing secrets regarding Ren's past. It is quite certain that Ren must have murdered or tried to murder someone before in US. As with my predictions in volume 17 and also the scene this time where he told Kuu that he will not run away from the role of a murderer, I wonder how this will turn out.
Another interesting part is how the scene manage to show a very nice parallelism between Ren & Kyouko in the final chapter in terms of their acting development. As it is shown from Kuu's POV, who refer to the both of them as his son Kuon - it brought the level of parallelism even higher than just a normal "I will not run away from this role" scene.
Ah...such a long hiatus.....But Kira-Kira Sekai has risen again!
First off, I just noticed that I missed recapping the final 2 chapters of Skip Beat Vol.18!!!!!! How in the world did i managed to do that, I will never know. But the post has been edited......and next up will be Volume 19!
See you soon!
Posted at 4:08 PM
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Ai no Tame Ni
Summary: Harada Aki is a popular girl with plenty of good friends, both girls & guys. She is also known as the queen of introductions! Plenty of couples hooked up because of her, and she's always planning camps and goukons whenever anyone wants a help to find a boyfriend/girlfriend. Aki's special talent is remembering names as well as their phone numbers. lolz
One day, a couple of guys from another class came up. Turns out one of them wants to get a girlfriend and needed Aki's help. Although she does not know both of them, Aki willingly cook up a goukon she planned everthing within a minute with her trusty handphone! Seeing her actions, the other guy, Furuya Takahiro, laughed and called her a miu piao!
That weekend at the goukon, Furuya came as well. Although still angry at him, Aki continued to make the goukon a success by livening up the atmosphere with silly antics. In the middle of the goukon, Furuya suddenly dragged her out and they left together. Aki was so mad because she felt that she had ditched everyone else, making Furuya laughed.
A few days later, both of the bump into each other on the street and Aki asked for Furuya's number, seeing that they are "kind of friends". However her phone's capacity has reached its limit! that phone appearantly can save up to 500 numbers! Aki's amazing! Undaunted, Aki still asked Furuya to give his number, saying that she is capable of remembering it! it became a running gag in the story when Furuya would just suddenly ask Aki his number and she would always recite it correctly, which just makes Furuya laugh. They chatted about Aki's matchmaking skills and Furuya stated that he now know why Aki has so many friends.
They met up again in the teacher's office, when Aki overheard a teacher saying that the upcoming school activites to pull out weeds off the track field! will be held on the day of the fireworks. Angry, Aki demanded that it is unfair since the girls have to prepare beforehand and will be busy the whole day! The teacher just told her that she'll have take care of it alone if she's so adamant...what kind of teacher is that?!! The day of the fireworks, poor Aki alone is pulling out weeds, when Furuya appears! yeah, like you readers did not expect that! hahaha They spent the whole day in the hot field and only finished by night time. Because of Furuya's kindness, Aki became more attentive of Furuya and his actions around school. Yay! she's falling in love~~ One day, a guy came while Aki & Furuya was chatting and asked her to introduced him to other girls, since the he doesn't like the girl she hook him up with in the first place. Angry, Aki refused because both sides (boy and girl) are her friends. The guy got angry as well and said that she is high and mighty, and that if it wasn't because she could introduce him to girls, he wouldn't be friends with a boring girl like her! And he just walked away.
When Furuya asked if it's alright to just let things off like that, Aki replied yes, because she could see the truth in his words. She was too proud of her matchmaking abilities. Furuya just patted her head and said that he felt it was alot of fun being with her. Aki started crying and wondered how she can face her friend since she introduced such a jerk to her. Furuya stayed with her through her tears and advice her to apologize.
Later, a group of girls came to Aki and one of them asked to be introduced to Furuya, saying that she is interested in him. Aki was shocked, and promptly refused, saying that she likes him!!! And at that moment, Furuya was just standing behind her!!! Embarrassed, because she hadn't properly sort out her feelings, Aki ran off to the rooftop to hide.
However, the girls decided that since Aki helped them all the time before, it's their turn to help her! They dragged her into a classroom where Furuya was waiting, and locked them in together! There, Furuya confessed that he had liked Aki all along!!! When their friends and schoolmates who were all plastered along the windows of the classroom! shouted that he should kiss her, he did just that! Review:
This is one of the sweetest one-shot high school romance I've ever read!!! It is really so sweet to see friendship and love this innocent. Other than the part where the guy said those cruel stuff to Aki, the rest was just what I would like to imagine my friendship with my schoolmates to be.
Aki's character is so nice that Furuya always laughed at her. But I could feel his respect behind his laugh. For example, at the goukon, Aki brought plenty of pretty and nice girls whom she knows the guys would like. Although Furuya teased that she's not those kind of evil-high-school girl who would bring ugly girls to enhance her own beauty, I could feel that he likes this part of hers who only wants good for her friends.
Definitely a manga that I've read over and over again.
Summary:
Yay! The hot pink LoveMe suit made its appearance after such a long time!!
Kyouko is very pissed off with this assignment of taking care of Super VIP, Hollywood major star, former Hozu Shuuhei it's former because he decided to dump that name for a reason and even gave it a grand burial!! Kuu-san while he's back in Japan. fireworks please.
Flashback to President Lory suggesting to Ren about meeting him. Ren did not answer, but look pained.... back to present time, Yashiro rushed in to inform Ren that he saw Kyouko together with Kuu on the TV. the programme is of course showing Kuu's grand arrival back to Japan
That evening at the hotel, Kyouko finally finish preparing Kyoto-style food for Kuu. However, he refuses to eat it, giving all sorts of excuses. It has been that way since his arrival. Kuu seems bent on making Kyouko mad! Meanwhile, Ren called President Lory - asking about Kyouko's situation with Kuu...he seems suspicious on what the president & Kuu are up to.
Back at the hotel, the war between Kuu & Kyouko is still going on. The fight, in short, is about whether Kuu will eat the food prepared by her. Kuu is surprised by Kyouko's determination in not giving in! Naturally, he lost and went running to President Lory instead! lolz
At President Lory's house, Kuu revealed that no matter what, he have to get Kyouko angry/mad enough so that she can go crying to Ren. Feeling worried, he asked the president whether Ren will really come to him on his own accord. President Lory was confident that Ren would, if it is something regarding Kyouko.
After coming back to the hotel, Kuu found Kyouko waiting for him, and apologizing for their fight earlier. our Kyouko is worried about getting fired :) All is alright again, when Kyouko saw a music programme news about Sho. Seems like he is dominating the charts with all his releases and is currently considered as the top musician/singer in the Japan music industry!
This shocked Kyouko to oblivion and she was more convinced than ever to not accept roles similar to Mio from DM. Overhearing her conversation on the phone, Kuu reprimanded her about her choosiness and gave her some advice as well as a lesson - she is to act as Kuu's son for a day. now comes the confirmation! drumrolls...The son's name is Kuon! Similar to Corn right? Even Kyouko got confused by the names at first.
Having no idea on how to act as Kuu's perfect son, Kyouko was feeling troubled. When meeting with Ren at the DM set, she wanted to ask him for advice, but realizes that she should not always depend on him. Ren on the other hand, is getting even more suspicious at Kyouko's weird antics. Back in her dressing room, Kyouko remembered back on the words Ren said when he was advicing her on Mio. She realizes she can mirror her act on a certain perfect being - Corn!!!
Early that morning, President Lory receives yet another call from Ren!! He is more determined now in finding out what is going on with Kyouko-Kuu. President Lory smiled...
At the hotel, Kuu woke up to the sounds of his son!!! Eating the horrible breakfast his son prepared, because in Kyouko's mind, the son can't cook! Kuu looked blessed. And Kyouko, who had never felt a parent's love could not control herself and started crying.
After breakfast Kyouko followed Kuu to several TV events and bumped into both Ren & Yashiro. Ren was surprised to see Kyouko pretending 'not to know him' and got an even bigger shocked when Kuu suddenly appeared and called her Kuon. However he quickly hid his emotions and greeted Kuu as a stranger. Later that night, a serious Ren called President Lory.
Review:
Honestly, I think my recap this time is not so good...haiz.... so here's a super condensed version of this volume:
Kuu came back to Japan for a reason - to force Ren to meet him (for some reason). He hatched a plan with President Lory for Kyouko to come "take care" of him. During that time, he will try to make Kyouko go to Ren to complain about him. Ren will then surely find Kuu! However, in the middle, the story turns to Kyouko's problems regarding her acting roles. Therefore, Kuu (who is suppose to be the bully at first) decided to help her! And that is why, Kyouko is acting as Kuon!
Back to my review, I find this volume extremely interesting. The fact that we know Ren = Corn, and that it is implied that Corn = Kuon, we can safely infer that Ren is Kuu's son. All that is left is why their father-son relationship degenerated to the current state in which Ren refuses to meet him and why he is so desperate to meet Ren.
It is really cute how Ren tried to find out what the heck is going on, but don't dare to poke too deep into the matter. I can't wait for the father-son meeting!!
本当にご免なさい To those who follow my reviews, I am so sorry for not updating recently. As mentioned in my previous post, my external hard disk crashed and I did not have any mood to write any reviews not even my beloved Vanilla Ice or Skip Beat!
But today, I'm here to show some works of the very talented StarMasayume! I got to meet her in the StageStorm forum and saw some of her works there as well as in devianART. Now there might be a few of you out who had already known of Star and seen her artworks, so I'm sure that you would agree with me how good she is. I am especially in love with her chibi drawings!
From the start of the play, the audiences realized the similarity of it to Radium 100's play. Hino started to break out in cold sweat and tried to stop the play by accusing them as thieves. However, he was overpowered by the music of the play. Hana was a success and no one recognizes Touya as Dolly. A regretful Ohara came backstage to apologize and was accepted back into Garandou. A snooping reporter caught Touya leaving the building and realizes that he was Dolly. The news broke and suddenly Garandou & Yuu was bombarded by the reporters. An angry Kina slapped Touya for not understanding the work she put in as his manager. Touya warned her that she doesn't understand his needs as well. 
Kae's birthday arrived, and Goshima gave her perfume Estee Lauder's Pleasures! I have that perfume!! it smells wonderful. He caught her dancing alone with his coat, and teases her about it, but still dance with her in the end. They attracted alot of people and Uchida observes that Kae is getting prettier and that many guys are going to fall for her. This observation came true as a couple of guys started approaching her. Goshima had to "exert his influence" to make the guys back off actually he's not even exerting any influence. he just glared at them!!! Naturally Kae got mad at him as she felt he was acting like her father.heheheeh, Goshima's worried bout her getting caught by another guy, and she's worried that they're not equal because of his maturity.
Summary:
Review:
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