![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Manga reviews: Skip Beat 30-31, Library Wars 9
I'm not sure if any of you are following the Skip Beat and Library Wars manga series, but I've found the recent volumes to be so squee-worthy that I just had to share my impressions here. I love Skip Beat for its acting/showbiz themes, and Library Wars because of the way it handles the issues of censorship and the freedom to read in a both comical and serious manner. Since I'm talking about volumes later in the series, this will contain some spoilery talk for readers new to the series. I managed not to give away too much for Library Wars, but spoilers for Ren's past were unavoidable for the Skip Beat discussion, since the plot revolves heavily around them.
Skip Beat volumes 30 and 31: I already posted about my Skip Beat love before, but I'm loving the latest volumes even more! And although I still love the main characters Kyoko and Ren, I find myself being fascinated by one of the new supporting characters, a young actor named Murasame Taira. He's a former "yanki" (or biker gang member) who never backs down from a fight. He is impulsive and hot-tempered, which causes him to get into a couple of fights on the set with Ren, who has gone incognito in a dual role, playing an American actor named Cain Heel who is in turn playing a serial killer named B.J. in the same film as Murasame. No one involved with film except for the director knows that "Cain Heel" is really Ren in disguise, and the reason behind the charade is bit complicated to explain if you don't know Ren's backstory, but essentially, the eccentric president of Ren's talent agency thinks that playing the dark and brooding Cain and the even more dark and violent B.J. will help Ren come to terms with some violent past trauma in which he may have been responsible for a friend's death as a teenager (whether directly or indirectly isn't quite clear yet, though Ren obviously blames himself).
When "Cain Heel" acts rudely towards the rest of the cast in vol. 30, Murasame takes offense and decides to teach Cain a lesson, though he quickly realizes that he might have gotten in over his head when he sees Cain's fighting skills. However, his yanki pride won't allow him to back down and he ends up getting into another fight in vol. 31, this one a great deal more serious when Ren-as-Cain snaps and flashes back to his violent past, and it seems like Ren might actually kill Murasame.
Murasame's hotheadedness reminds a bit of Miyasaka from Haru wo Daiteita, but at the same time, he's a bit more thoughtful and perceptive than Miya-chan. He is at least aware that fighting with Ren/Cain is dangerous even though he still goes ahead and does it anyway. It's also interesting Murasame is able to perceive that in the first fight, Ren is in control of himself, but in that in the second, a thoughtless insult from Murasame struck an unintended emotional chord in Ren caused him to lose control, and moreover he sensed Ren's "fierce intent to kill."
What's also interesting about Murasame is that his past as a gang member is something that most actors would want to keep hidden from the media, but Murasame's background seems to be common knowledge, because he openly jokes about with a couple of his female co-stars, who mention hearing about it on TV. His current image is quite different now--one actress says, "But you're so nice and funny." Still, he isn't ashamed of his past, and the public has apparently accepted it, possibly because he is (apparently) reformed? Murasame even credits his current success to the resolve and determination he learned during his yanki days, when he never backed down from a fight and was always the last man standing "even though I got my butt kicked."
And now I find myself contemplating Haru/Skip Beat crossover bunnies in which Murasame belongs to the same agency as Onozuka and Miyasaka, and is friendly rivals with them...
On a non-Murasame note, I have to admit that I was surprised and delighted by the ending scene of vol. 30, in which Ren's manager Yashiro rushes out of the shower to answer a phone call from Kyoko! I've always thought that he was a good-looking guy, though in a more subdued and less glamorous manner than Ren or the other actors, partially due to his very serious and professional appearance (suit, tie, glasses). But whoa--clad in only a towel, with his hair loose, wet, and uncombed, he is surprisingly hot! Plus, it's always fun to see a cool, collected character caught off-guard. It made me realize that Yashiro is just as hot as any of the actors in the series, and makes me wonder whom I could ship him with! (If you scroll down on the wiki page, you can see a pic of him sans glasses that comes from the just-out-of-the-shower scene.) Someday I'd still like to write a fic about Yashiro getting together with Kaneko and/or Shimizu from Haru to talk about all the trouble that their clients get into! ^_^
***
Library Wars is set in a future where the Japanese government has taken censorship to an extreme (e.g. banning and confiscating books that are deemed dangerous or controversial), and libraries have become independent institutions that fight for the freedom to read--with force, if necessary. The main character, Iku, is a young member of the Library Forces, the military group that defends the libraries' collections. (They also carry out more typical library-type duties such as filing and shelving, and there are non-combatant clerks and librarians as well.)
Iku is kind, cheerful, and well-intentioned, but also hot-headed and impulsive, and her tendency to act before she thinks often gets her in trouble. She excels at combat, but struggles with the more mundane library duties like filing. Meanwhile, her stern and stoic colleague Tezuka is a model soldier, and also excels at the more academic duties that give Iku trouble. They're like fire and water, and unsurprisingly, don't get along very well at first, but gradually learn to respect each other.
So it was fun for a change in this volume to have Tezuka be the one out of his element. In order to receive a promotion to the next level, the young recruits have to pass a skill test that varies from year to year--past tests have included organizing shelves or managing a staged crisis. However, to Tezuka's horror, this year's test is reading a story to children. (You need to keep the children's interest and attention up until the end; you fail if they get distracted and wander off or become disruptive.) The gregarious, friendly Iku isn't worried at all about the challenge, but Tezuka is no good with kids and would probably much rather take on armed combatants than he would a roomful of young children. Still, he's determined to pass the test, and when a colleague takes him to a library storytime as a practice run, it is absolutely hilarious to see how panicky and disconcerted he gets when the kids start climbing on him! There's something oddly appealing about his earnest awkwardness, and it was also nice to see Iku get a chance to shine during her test.
I've read reviews of the first few volumes that complain that Iku continually acts without thinking, and that it's frustrating to see her making the same mistakes over and over again without seeming to learn from them and grow as a character. However, while she's still pretty impulsive, I feel like she's gradually been gaining a bit of maturity and that we get to see some of that progress in this volume.
Skip Beat volumes 30 and 31: I already posted about my Skip Beat love before, but I'm loving the latest volumes even more! And although I still love the main characters Kyoko and Ren, I find myself being fascinated by one of the new supporting characters, a young actor named Murasame Taira. He's a former "yanki" (or biker gang member) who never backs down from a fight. He is impulsive and hot-tempered, which causes him to get into a couple of fights on the set with Ren, who has gone incognito in a dual role, playing an American actor named Cain Heel who is in turn playing a serial killer named B.J. in the same film as Murasame. No one involved with film except for the director knows that "Cain Heel" is really Ren in disguise, and the reason behind the charade is bit complicated to explain if you don't know Ren's backstory, but essentially, the eccentric president of Ren's talent agency thinks that playing the dark and brooding Cain and the even more dark and violent B.J. will help Ren come to terms with some violent past trauma in which he may have been responsible for a friend's death as a teenager (whether directly or indirectly isn't quite clear yet, though Ren obviously blames himself).
When "Cain Heel" acts rudely towards the rest of the cast in vol. 30, Murasame takes offense and decides to teach Cain a lesson, though he quickly realizes that he might have gotten in over his head when he sees Cain's fighting skills. However, his yanki pride won't allow him to back down and he ends up getting into another fight in vol. 31, this one a great deal more serious when Ren-as-Cain snaps and flashes back to his violent past, and it seems like Ren might actually kill Murasame.
Murasame's hotheadedness reminds a bit of Miyasaka from Haru wo Daiteita, but at the same time, he's a bit more thoughtful and perceptive than Miya-chan. He is at least aware that fighting with Ren/Cain is dangerous even though he still goes ahead and does it anyway. It's also interesting Murasame is able to perceive that in the first fight, Ren is in control of himself, but in that in the second, a thoughtless insult from Murasame struck an unintended emotional chord in Ren caused him to lose control, and moreover he sensed Ren's "fierce intent to kill."
What's also interesting about Murasame is that his past as a gang member is something that most actors would want to keep hidden from the media, but Murasame's background seems to be common knowledge, because he openly jokes about with a couple of his female co-stars, who mention hearing about it on TV. His current image is quite different now--one actress says, "But you're so nice and funny." Still, he isn't ashamed of his past, and the public has apparently accepted it, possibly because he is (apparently) reformed? Murasame even credits his current success to the resolve and determination he learned during his yanki days, when he never backed down from a fight and was always the last man standing "even though I got my butt kicked."
And now I find myself contemplating Haru/Skip Beat crossover bunnies in which Murasame belongs to the same agency as Onozuka and Miyasaka, and is friendly rivals with them...
On a non-Murasame note, I have to admit that I was surprised and delighted by the ending scene of vol. 30, in which Ren's manager Yashiro rushes out of the shower to answer a phone call from Kyoko! I've always thought that he was a good-looking guy, though in a more subdued and less glamorous manner than Ren or the other actors, partially due to his very serious and professional appearance (suit, tie, glasses). But whoa--clad in only a towel, with his hair loose, wet, and uncombed, he is surprisingly hot! Plus, it's always fun to see a cool, collected character caught off-guard. It made me realize that Yashiro is just as hot as any of the actors in the series, and makes me wonder whom I could ship him with! (If you scroll down on the wiki page, you can see a pic of him sans glasses that comes from the just-out-of-the-shower scene.) Someday I'd still like to write a fic about Yashiro getting together with Kaneko and/or Shimizu from Haru to talk about all the trouble that their clients get into! ^_^
***
Library Wars is set in a future where the Japanese government has taken censorship to an extreme (e.g. banning and confiscating books that are deemed dangerous or controversial), and libraries have become independent institutions that fight for the freedom to read--with force, if necessary. The main character, Iku, is a young member of the Library Forces, the military group that defends the libraries' collections. (They also carry out more typical library-type duties such as filing and shelving, and there are non-combatant clerks and librarians as well.)
Iku is kind, cheerful, and well-intentioned, but also hot-headed and impulsive, and her tendency to act before she thinks often gets her in trouble. She excels at combat, but struggles with the more mundane library duties like filing. Meanwhile, her stern and stoic colleague Tezuka is a model soldier, and also excels at the more academic duties that give Iku trouble. They're like fire and water, and unsurprisingly, don't get along very well at first, but gradually learn to respect each other.
So it was fun for a change in this volume to have Tezuka be the one out of his element. In order to receive a promotion to the next level, the young recruits have to pass a skill test that varies from year to year--past tests have included organizing shelves or managing a staged crisis. However, to Tezuka's horror, this year's test is reading a story to children. (You need to keep the children's interest and attention up until the end; you fail if they get distracted and wander off or become disruptive.) The gregarious, friendly Iku isn't worried at all about the challenge, but Tezuka is no good with kids and would probably much rather take on armed combatants than he would a roomful of young children. Still, he's determined to pass the test, and when a colleague takes him to a library storytime as a practice run, it is absolutely hilarious to see how panicky and disconcerted he gets when the kids start climbing on him! There's something oddly appealing about his earnest awkwardness, and it was also nice to see Iku get a chance to shine during her test.
I've read reviews of the first few volumes that complain that Iku continually acts without thinking, and that it's frustrating to see her making the same mistakes over and over again without seeming to learn from them and grow as a character. However, while she's still pretty impulsive, I feel like she's gradually been gaining a bit of maturity and that we get to see some of that progress in this volume.