Fury That Burns Orange

Not too long ago I started to get back into manga, and because of that I've either caught to their latest chapters or even I completed them -- specifically, Kimi no Iru Machi and Mx0 resepectivally. The most recent manga I started reading is Skip Beat!, mainly because I watched the anime when it aired back in 2008. So since there was no real sign of it having a continuation of that anime, I finally got around to reading the manga and it is fantastic.

Probably the biggest draw for me is Kyouko; the way she is first introduced as an ordinary girl with her fan girl tendencies wasn't all that striking to me. However, around the end of the first chapter, we get to see a much darker and far less pure side of this ordinary girl. I've always been one for female characters that act sweet on the surface, but deeper down they are the opposite of that. Probably because I watch/read too many shounen that harp on the fact that the female protagonist -- and/or love interest -- is a sweet, innocent, and pure girl. But Skip Beat! not being a shounen, but rather a shoujo, there will be far more variety in female characters -- and a lot more cattiness, and I mean A LOT.

Another factor that makes it appealing to me is the base premise of the story reminds me of Bakuman, only on the side of acting rather than manga, and the main characters' motivations differ. Either way, with the fact that Skip Beat! is a revenge story combined with Kyouko's fiery fury, makes for some entertaining situation that she get herself into.

And of course there are some more spoiler bits I want to get to, that will be discussed below.

So as of writing this, I've gotten to the 30th chapter, which is the beginning of volume 6, so keep that in mind when reading past this. Skip Beat!'s contrast of a rather tragic character -- that being, Kyouko devoting most of her youth chasing after a guy, Shoutarou, who never even liked her -- and how silly she is most of the time, is an interesting one. It's almost like a weird disconnect of her past, but actually quite encouraging to try and not let your past affect how you carry yourself now. So even with Kyouko basically definition her self worth on some guy from her home town, she never was presented as a shallow character with no discerning feature; and instead we get a three dimensional character who can be overly silly at times, but rather ruthless in others.

The one thing that is still a mystery, which we probably be covered in the chapters I've yet to get to, is Kyouko's parents. As far as I know, Kyouko isn't in that great of a relationship with her mother and it seem like her mother lives a quite luxurious life -- based on the one picture I've seen of her. It almost makes me think that she might be in the entertainment industry, and Kyouko will bump into her eventual.

There is a lot to the manga I still haven't finished, hell I haven't even gotten pasted where the anime stopped at yet. So I'm curious to see what will have with Kyouko and the Love Me Section, I just need to continue reading and eventually catch up to these monthly releases of chapters.