Manga Mondays #123 - Skip Beat! vol. 24 by Yoshiki Nakamura

Manga Mondays Meme!

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. 24 by Yoshiki Nakamura

Summary

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!

Valentine’s Day is on its way, but Kyoko won’t be able to celebrate love and friendship the normal way. She’s getting blackmailed into giving chocolate to guys she hates, she has her ongoing revenge to oblige, and to top it all off, it’s Ren’s birthday! How can Kyoko give him a meaningful present when she’s slinging meaningless chocolate left and right?(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.

I am computer-less for the next week. My hard drive decided to take an undeserved vacation, so it is on its way to Salt Lake City where it will get a brand new hard drive. I'll pick it up when I fly to Utah this weekend (going to the Libba Bray event!!!!). I'll still be able to update the blog through my husband's computer at night but my comments will probably be limited. Boo. :-(

Valentine's Day is such a different holiday in Japan. The girls are supposed to give guys in their life (boyfriends, friends, work colleagues) chocolates. The guys don't reciprocate until March - White Day - when it's their turn to give the girls treats.


Volume 24 is sweet at moments but also eye-roll inducing silly at other moments. It's not one of my favorite volumes. The part that I didn't like was the story arc where Reino, the lead singer of Vie Ghoul, blackmails Kyoko into making him homemade chocolates for Valentine's Day. How does he do this? By plucking one of Kyoko's grudges from her and holding it hostage. He threatens to kiss the grudge. Essentially, he's trapped a bit of her soul. This is creepy in some ways and ridiculous in others. I love Kyoko's grudges, but I prefer to think of them as abstract figures. As representations of Kyoko's inner anger rather than physical tiny Kyoko dopplegangers.

There are a few good moments with Sho. He wants Kyoko to give him chocolates, but can't quite admit it. Even more so, he really doesn't want her to give them to other people. He hates the idea that she might give chocolates to Ren...or to Reino - he's worried that Reino has some sort of hold over her. He's not concerned in a protective sense. Rather, he still thinks of Kyoko as property, as a conquest.

I did like the moments with Ren. Ren is worried that Kyoko will get him chocolates just like every other girl he knows. But then he's also worried if she doesn't give him chocolates. He knows that Kyoko doesn't like him in a romantic way - or at least she hasn't admitted that to herself yet. He's worried that she'll never like him. Mr. Yashiro does an excellent job of making Ren hyper-focus on Kyoko's every move even more than he does on his own. In the end, Kyoko doesn't get him chocolates. She knows he doesn't like them. Rather, she gets him a different present. But we don't get to see him open it! What is it?! We'll have to wait and see.

The volume does end on a cliff-hanger. Sho shows up with a gigantic, expensive bouquet. What's going to happen?

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