Kiss Vol.1

Summary:

The scene opens with a 16 year old Ogawa Kae asking her piano teacher, Goshima Masayuki, "what does a deep kiss feel like?". They were both at the piano school which Kae has attended since she was 11. In the middle of the practice, Kae lost her temper and promptly runs off. As Goshima left the building later on, he look up to see Kae dumping sheets of music scores out of a window as revenge for his earlier attitude towards her. As he walked her home, Kae requested that he play the piano piece for their next class but was refused. so cute She then noticed blood on his finger. He purposely told her it was a papercut from the papers dumped on him, making Kae a little guilty. hehehe
Next day at the piano school, Goshima "received" some healing prizes bandages/plasters from Kae which made him laugh out loud. As their class started, he played "Say You Love Me" by Patti Austen for her. sort of like a thank you for the bandages? Later, the store owner remarks that Kae is already 16 and is turning into a young lady, which gave Goshima some food for thought. After watching Goshima performed at a pub, Kae was reminiscing about the past when she first met Goshima. She admitted that she hates the piano, but likes it too. This brought a smile to Goshima's face as he questioned her contradictions. Kae's answer was a kiss....on the lips, no less! After Kae missed a few classes, because of the kiss of course! Goshima noticed her standing outside the school. As she turns away from him, he remarked that she had given him "quite a challenge" which he would gladly take on. This is one cool piano teacher!

At their lessons, Goshima still treats Kae as usual meaning like a kid! which worries her - after all, they're still teacher-student and he's 8 years older. Her insecurities increase from some remarks by other customers and she felt her actions are childish.Furthermore, Goshima forbids her from going to another of his club performance because "it's not a place for kids". This made Kae mad, and she ran away to hide under a piano. lolz - this is what she always do since a kid As Goshima came to find her, she angrily said that being in love is bothersome and she does not want to anymore. Pulling her out, Goshima just kissed her, prompting her to call him a cheater. Later on, noticing the overflowing ashtray, Kae told him that he is smoking too much and asked if his mouth is lonely. She then pull the cigarette out of his mouth and kissed him.

A guy new side, unimportant character...hehehe, Nakayama, was fetching his 2 brothers from piano school as an excuse to meet Kae. someone has a crush. lolz But his brothers informed him that she already has a piano teacher boyfriend. Poor Nakayama started imagining an old pervert and was shocked when he saw the "real thing" next day. But he still got a chance to chat with Kae whereby she complained about Goshima. hehehe The shop owner saw them together and tried to make Goshima jealous by remarking that Nakayama is trying to pick Kae up. Goshima retorted a little too quickly ~ which means that he is bothered! that he is not in grade school anymore. The next day, Kae had yet another fight with Goshima because he wanted to cancel their Sunday date. It ended with Kae throwing her shoe at him, calling him a stupid old geezer and running off in the rain. The owner & Uchida-san couldn't stop laughing at the sidelines.

Nakayama found her sitting barefooted in the rain. She admitted that it wasn't the canceled date that she cares about, but Goshima's cool attitude that made her feel insecure. As Nakayama was on the verge of confessing his love, Goshima appears. Kae angrily told him that she will not apologize for her actions when Goshima just picked her up like a child! and took her back to the school. When asked if he will be worried if she goes out with another guy, he just gave the same reply as earlier - he is not in grade school anymore, so why worry. Back at home, Nakayama told his brother that he is not giving up on Kae yet.

Notes:
1) Kae's school is also a music store, which is why I use the word owner to represent the character of the Owner. lolz, understand?

2) Uchida's character suddenly appears in my summary, but actually he has made quite a number of appearances in the manga, always together with the Owner. He is also a piano teacher at the school/store.

3) The reason why I said Nakayama's character was unimportant because it really is! Although he is set up to be Goshima's rival in this first volume, I just have to point out that Kae & Goshima's relationship is actually quite strong (no matter how insecure Kae feels) and that no mere side character is going to make much of an impact. Futhermore, Nakayama rarely appears in the subsequent volumes.


Review:

First of all, I just want to rant. At first I wanted to write a post on either Ouran or Diamond Head (since I am quite behind on this 2 series) but my hard disk is suddenly unreadable, and I am freaking out because of the amount of mangas/movies/dramas etc that I have inside there! Anyway, since I could do neither because both manga's are inside my hard disk, I decided to start on a new series which is actually not new and is in fact completed (8 volumes) - Kiss.

Now this manga is written & drawn by the same mangaka who created Beauty is the Beast. In fact, Kiss is her first major work (meaning a long series). The drawing style is similar to BITB but not as clean. Actually, I would say that although her style is distinctive (I can point out at once if a work is hers or not), they're not as attractive as, say, Vanilla Ice. But it is her storyline that is a strength which kept her readers wanting for more. Kiss is the first "teacher-student" relationship manga which I actually like (I used to be turned off by the "very much older guy" kind of relationship stories that I almost never read them coz they always give me the feeling of a cradle snatcher. lolz). Another strength of Kiss is that there isn't much wasted space given on the storyline. Just like Skip Beat, it took me a very long time to "summarize" the entire volume. There is just so much I wanted to write. I feel bad everytime I have to skip out on a scene.

Reading back on my summary, I notice that I didn't potray Kae all that well - she comes off as a whiny brat who's always looking for a quarrel with her sensei/boyfriend. But she's not really like that. In fact, I really like Kae's character. She loves Goshima, and doesn't bother to hide it. She knows that he is more experience and cool-headed and she feels insecure because of that. But this doesn't prevent her from moving forward in the relationship. She fights him so he knows what she is feeling. In fact, Kae is one of the few female characters who is completely open and straightforward when it comes to relationship. She knows what she wants and doesn't hesitate in getting it. I think it is because of this that the relationship formula works in this story. Goshima on the other hand, never show his real feelings, and always acting "adult-like". But when it needs to, he does prove to her that he is serious too (even if it's just using a kiss).

Labels: kiss

Posted at 1:29 AM

10 Days

Summary:

By Miki Aihara the famous mangaka of Hot Gimmick!, the story started with an omiai marriage meeting - this is very common in Japan between high-school senior Aiko Takahashi and office manager/future CEO of his family's company Kiyosumi Shirakawa. Unlike most high-school girls, Aiko doesn't seem displeased with the omiai. In fact, she quite welcome it. Since they're strangers, Shirakawa suggested a 10-days trial where they would go on dates and get to know each other.

Day 2 since Day 1 = the omiai itself - holding hands. Turns out that Shirakawa is the shy/traditional/boring/nerdy kind which is cute actually. But at the end of the date, Aiko's ex-boyfriend turns up. this has to be fast since it's a oneshot. He seems like a nice guy though...Hmmm

Day 3 - Staring into each other's eyes romantically. Which Shirakawa couldn't do! LOLZ

Day 4 - Exchanging mobile email address. I never understand this concept since we call it as sms over here, and e-mail is meant for internets...Hmm, Japan's telecommunication system seems to be different from the rest of the world. Which is why many of their handphones are unusable outside the country

Day 5 - Aiko saw her ex making out with his new girlfriend. She suggested to go to a love hotel with Shirakawa, but he didn't. Finally we knew why Aiko is so agreeable with this omiai. She just want to shock her ex! Shirakawa is too good for her!

Day 6 - An email from Shirakawa, canceling the date because of work. He did not call

Day 7 - Still no contact from Shirakawa.

Day 8 - Nothing.

Day 9 - Email from Shirakawa, suggesting that they forget the whole marriage thing. Aiko replied his email with repeated "IDIOTS" lolz

Aiko appeared in front of Shirakawa's company building. He tried to explain that it's because she could not forget about her ex. Aiko replied that the reason why they broke up was over her refusal of sex with her ex. She did initially thought of using the "marriage" thing to shock him, but that she did not care about it any longer because it of Shirakawa. They made up for the "Day 6 - Day 9" misses and since it's Day 10 now, Aiko agrees to marry him.


Review:

This oneshot is available in the Sweet II oneshots collection.

I've always loved the way Miki Aihara-sensei draws, but her storyline (which consists of the dominant guy and the submissive girl) always annoys me. However, this oneshot is actually quite cute, since it's the guy who is the shy one instead. The girl Aiko is not my favourite kind of female character, but still, she's inside the range of "characters which I don't hate". And as usual, there's always the nice drawings to make up for the lack of character likeability.

Labels: Oneshots/Single volume

Posted at 12:13 AM

Vanilla Ice Vol.3

Summary:

At the nearby Baek Hap Girls School, the jjang - Goo Yong Hwa - was extremely pissed off when she heard of Tae Hee do I sense a cat fight coming up? I just can't imagine Tae Hee in a cat fight though. Of course, we have the tradition of sending a gang of girls to pull her hair beat her up. But unlike tradition, Tae Hee is no ordinary girl. She was totally man-full when it comes to dealing with the girls come on! she refused to fight them because they're girls! Only a guy would say such stuff because they know they're stronger physically. Of course as usual, the girls was so awed that they're already half-worshiping their leader's enemy.

Tae Hee lost yet another bet with Sijun basketball game this time! Like I said a gazillion times already - Sijun is PERFECT. This time, the winner gets a date on Saturday! Naturally, Yoon Sul sense great danger here and decided to be the lightbulb. But no worries, Tae Hee's "stupidness" for the lack of a better word when it comes to Yoon Sul's feelings made him so angry that he ran off, leaving our couple alone YAY. Anyway, the date went well enough - no romanticism though - it was dinner at some noisy, smoky, smelly restaurant but real delicious food! You know the type... There, Sijun told Tae Hee that it was because she was so different than the usual girl that it attracted him hehehe, he uses sheeps as comparisons!After dinner, Sijun accompanies Tae Hee back, but on the way, met with some guys sent by an anonymous enemy?? who proceeded to attack him. Refusing Tae Hee's help, Sijun still manage beat up everyone without a sweat. His fighting style was so cool, that Tae Hee sort of "fell in love" developments!!!! That night she couldn't sleep, thinking of him fighting and her heart started thumping!

At school, Yoon Sul had a "man-to-man" talk with Sijun super funny! about Tae Hee. Later on back at home, Tae Hee admitted to Yoon Sul that she is attracted to Sijun. Of course, this prompted Yoon Sul to become the lightbulb again at their next date. Of course, this time, he didn't run away. The three went on to play billiards, in which the Baek Hap Girls watch on. Yong Hwa remember our lady jjang who is in love with Sijun? was shocked when she saw Tae Hee.

Hwan Sang's school's festival started - with the theme this year being cross-dressing. We get to see Yoon Sul's cosplaying as Card-captor Sakura, but why is Tae Hee dress as a woman??? LOLZ - Tae Hee's suppose to cross-dress as a guy, but since she's a guy in everyone's eyes, therefore, she has to cross-dress as a girl. Understand? But Tae Hee looks so gorgeous that it shocked everyone! And EVEN Sijun join in the action, looking just as beautiful as Tae Hee, until she did not even recognize him I didn't either!!!!








Review:

Okay - before I even say anything, this are the pics I'm sure you readers would like to see of our 3 main characters cross-dressing




Ok - what is it that I like about this volume? Was it because it was different than the normal "girl gets bullied because of her relationship with the most popular guy" scene? Or that we get to have so much eye-candy, especially in the last part where all of them cross dress? Or the fact that the mangaka (sorry to use this phrase since it's a manhwa, not a manga, but u get my meaning) is capable of drawing one of the cutest chibi's out of so many manga/manhwa that I've read? So far the only other chibi drawings which i really love is by Nakamura Yoshiki-sensei (Skip Beat) and Kazuya Minekura-sensei (Gensoumaden Saiyuki).

Here are some cute pics of the chibis I was talking about (clockwise from top left: Vanilla Ice, Skip Beat, Saiyuki)




Notes: Some of you readers might have noticed that in this post, I started using italic, coloured words to voice out my thoughts during writing the summary. I'll be doing it this way from now onwards. It should make it for easier reading (and faster too if you want to skip all my "Kyaa" moments). Too lazy to edit previous posts though.

Labels: vanilla ice

Posted at 10:33 PM