I've been doing Manga Mondays every week since I started my blog 2 years ago. It's always been a personal feature, but now I'm going to try turning it into a meme. There are quite a few people who do Manga Mondays. I don't claim by any means that I owned or created the idea of Manga Mondays - it's an obvious choice given the alliteration. I think a meme would be a good way for everyone to publicize their own Manga Mondays and get a little more publicity.
The linky will be below my review.
Skip Beat! vol. 8 by Yoshiki Nakamura
Kyoko Mogami followed her true love Sho to Tokyo to support him while he made it big as an idol. But he's casting her out now that he's famous! Kyoko won't suffer in silence--she's going to get her sweet revenge by beating Sho in show biz!
Kyoko's perfect chance to wreak her revenge on Sho isn't going as well as she'd hoped. In fact, her rage is so consuming that she forgets she's supposed to be acting and tries to throttle Sho for real. (courtesy of the back cover and Goodreads)
Review
*Warning: Potential spoilers. My manga reviews tend to be more of a summary than a review. I find it hard to review manga in the same way I do regular books.
A lot goes on in this volume. Perhaps too much. There are so many plot lines that it doesn't have any particular theme or focus. But that's okay. I loved getting a little bit of everything.
The synopsis gives us the impression that Kyoko can't keep her cool acting in Sho's video. That's true at first, but she quickly recovers. She's able to out-act Sho. She stays in character so much that she throws him off. And of course Sho, being selfish and arrogant, pins all the blame on her. It gets even worse when he realizes that Kyoko knows Ren, his rival and enemy.
In a complicated way, Sho's anger at Kyoko leads to Ren believing that Kyoko is happy about her performance because she got some revenge at Sho. And that's not the case at all - she was happy because she was able to get beyond her vengeful feelings. But Ren's misunderstanding causes a rift between them. I find it ironic that Ren is so upset about Kyoko's grudges that he reacts by holding his own grudge against Kyoko. Quite the double standard.
A final subplot is Kyoko's attempt to discover what's bothering Moko. Since Moko is now her best friend, they should share everything right? Kyoko can't stand that Moko is hiding her problems, so she becomes a private investigator. Complete with a suit and a sidekick (Maria). The obligatory comic relief act for the volume. Plus it's sets up volume 9.
Are you back yet Alison? It was so nice to finally meet you and hang out with you for a few days! I hope you had a blast at your first BEA:):)
ReplyDeleteQuestion: I'm new to the Manga Monday MEME and wanted to know how to navigate a Manga book, so I may tell my readers how too. Thanks Alison for this fun MEME made me like another genre of book!!! Love it:)
ReplyDeleteTraditional mangas are usually read from right to left so what would be considered the back in a normal book would actually be the front in a manga and from there you would start from the top right and move to the left and then down and right again. Mangas usually have guide that you will find at the back (in a normal book we would call this front) that tells you how to read it. It's a bit tricky at first but you get use to it.
DeleteThank you so very much that HELPED!!
DeletePerfect explanation Sandy. Thanks for the help! I've been so tired the past few days that I've been sleeping rather than commenting.
DeleteSounds like a transitional volume, which in manga it seems to work and not annoy me as much. Perhaps because it's shorter than books or the fact that it's suppose to be episodic anyway? And yeah, I get frustrated with the double standards too. Looking forward to what happens next!
ReplyDeleteI LOVED this volume, the next volume was also pretty fun to read, especially because I love Kyoko and Moko's relationship so much! :)
ReplyDelete