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