Tenshi no Kiss Vol.2

Synopsis:

Alternative titles: Forbidden Dance, Angel’s Kiss.

Continuing the arc from the last volume, Nacchan prevents Aya from leaving for the competition by threatening suicide. It almost became a reality when she accidentally stumble, but Aya managed to save her in time. In the process, Nacchan fainted. Desperate, Aya called Akira and asked him to take care of Nacchan while she rushed to the competition. Luckily, she was not late. However, Aya was clearly tired, out of breath and sweating profusely. Before her turn onstage, Akira called her and told her that Nacchan is among the audience and rooting for her. She also wanted to apologize to Aya for all that she had done. The call boosted Aya’s will and she put on a great show. Everyone was amazed by it, even Aya herself who never thought she was able so dance to well.

Seeing Aya’s performance, Yoshino threw everything into the wind, and gave a surprisingly emotional but unorthodox performance, thereby losing any bit of chance of winning the competition. However, as Yoshino later explained to Aya, eventhough she has a strong personality – she made herself a perfect “textbook” dancer because it was the only way she thought she could surpass Aya. But she know better now, and she will find another dance troupe which will allow her to express her emotions.

As expected, Aya won the competition hands down, and she rushed off to find Akira. That night, Cool had a welcoming party for Aya but someone – Diana Roberts – came to Akira in the gardens, hug him and exclaimed that she “misses” him. It seems that the British Regents Ballet are having a tour in Japan with Diana as their lead in the performance, SwanLake. And Diana & Akira were actually classmates years ago.

During their practice sessions (which Diana attended to watch them), Aya made a lot of mistakes but at the end of the session, Akira still told her that she will be having a small part in the upcoming Cool performance. Both of them decided to continue their practice together and didn’t notice Diana leaving. When they were searching for her later on, Aya found her at the theatre (where Regents will be performing SwanLake practicing. As she watches in awe, she realizes how superior Diana’s dancing were, but then found out that Diana’s ankle was seriously hurt. Diana forced her to keep quiet about it. Aya approaches Akira and scolded him for not doing anything even though he knew about Diana’s injury. He just answered that it was none of her business.

On the debut performance of SwanLake, Aya was still convinced that Diana will definitely fall – especially for Act 2. She went looking for Diana and told her that she will take over her place for Act 2, thereby allowing her to finish performing her last dance. Using heavy makeup, both of them manage to disguise Aya, but her dancing was still not good enough. Many of the audience realizes that it was not Diana who was dancing onstage, but only Akira & the Cool troupe dancers knew that the ballerina was Aya. After Diana took over again in Act 3, she danced incredibly and they had a standing ovation that night. Diana collapsed right then.

Review:

I’ll be giving a shorter review this time. There is more development with the relationship between Aya & Akira, with Diana being the third party to give the story more twists.

The artwork is nice. There are more focus on the dancing, especially for the ballet performances, as we get some glimpse at both Aya & Yoshino’s performances in the competition finals as well as Diana’s performance as Odette in SwanLake. I especially like the drawing in the scenes with Diana’s dancing. She is incredibly beautiful as Odette. Overall, my review would be the same as in volume 1 with the exception on what was already mentioned above. As usual, I highly recommend this manga to all.

Labels: tenshi no kiss

Posted at 1:26 AM