I just have to say…oh my god! This chapter….how long do I have to wait for the next one?!?
Firstly, yes, manga is the only thing I really read online. If the bookstores on my side of the world actually spent the time to sell each and every volume of my favourite manga, I would be there, eyes brightly sparkling, hand freely dishing out money from my wallet with a huge silly grin on my face; because really, while I would probably not spend too much money on manga (each volume is about five chapters long, maybe 100-something pages, and is about AUD$15) since they are pretty expensive. I would however, spend money on Skip Beat! even more so for the 3-in-1 editions. Since it’s one of my favourite mangas, as those who follow my blog will know, I’ve done a few pages on this top so far: All About Skip Beat! , The Many Faces of Kyoko Mogami (Skip Beat!), and Skip Beat! by Yoshiki Nakamura.
Today however, I just want to hyperventilate a little on what just happened in the latest chapter! (The pages below start with the one on the left, reading from the right, top most corner across to the left, before going to the second page on the right also from right to left. Sourced from: Kissmanga.com) So this chapter is focussed on Kyoko’s desire to confront her mother for the first time in a long time. (Spoilers alert!!!! Don’t read any further if you don’t want to be spoiled!) In the previous few chapters, Kyoko happened to see her mother on tv as a lawyer on one of those showbiz shows. By coincidence, she is watching this because the tv player at the place she stays at (the little restaurant that she was helping out with at the beginning of the series), recorded the show Saena Mogami was in because it recognised the name ‘Mogami’, which is also Kyoko’s last name–everyone else she knows and recognises and wonders about the name, has seen the show and are worried about Kyoko. And they’re right to, because once Kyoko hears what her mother says on the show, publicly declaring that she is not a mother, Kyoko goes out, and the despair hits her. She ends up telling Sho Fuwa to get lost, and runs off where she sees Ren, who she mistakens as Corn (even though we all know they are the same person, Kuon) and seeks solace in hugging him–of course when she stops crying and realises she’s hugging Ren, she freaks out–
–Which puts Ren in a tough spot, but because this is Ren we’re talking about, he smoothly works his way around the situation, giving a half ridiculous (but to Kyoko kind of believable) reason for being where he is now, and also managing to comfort Kyoko without being overly corny. I really like how this manga is both romance orientated, and yet not. I like how comfort doesn’t always come in terms of hugs and kisses and lovey-dovey things, but rather, because of the relationship between Ren and Kyoko, and because of their own separate characters and attitudes towards life, they take things very slowly between them. Comfort comes in just being together, talking and advice, and also, doing couply things without actually being a couple. And I love the humour Nakamura injects into the story–
–Mind all of the above scenes are taken from Chapter #225. Which brings me to Chapter #226. Where, Kyoko is psyching herself up to go confront her mother. A mother, who so far, we as readers already know doesn’t really think or is seen in Kyoko’s eyes, as not much of a mother, and a mother who Kyoko was always considered as a ‘bother’. Hence why she’s freaking out over confronting her mother. She is determined to do it in Chapter #226, but like many of us know in real life, for the hard things, sometimes we’re just too chicken to do it and we tell ourselves, ‘maybe another day’ again and again. And then, when something can happen earlier than we plan, you are almost tempted to back out, only you go for it, and you end up spending the hour or so before the actual event/meeting/etc thinking of all the excuses you could possibly use to get out of it, until you realise the hour is over and time’s up, and before you know it, you’re facing the music. That’s what happens to Kyoko in #226.
And so Kyoko ends up meeting her mother’s colleague, and—
WHO IS KYOKO’S FATHER? I am now curious. Before I was just curious about what happened to Kyoko’s mother to make Kyoko think that her mother doesn’t care about her, and now, with that reveal, who the hell is Kyoko’s father? I haven’t even yet begun to hypothesize who it could possible be, except I am definitely sure it’s someone in showbiz. But I don’t think we’ve met that person yet, let alone seen them around. There just hasn’t been any potential possibilities. Which makes me wonder, just who is it?
But before that. I am absolutely dying to read the next chapter (don’t know when it will be out, but it better be soon!) because look at how this one ends!
See?! Truthfully, I don’t think Kyoko’s mother hates her, nor do I think she doesn’t see Kyoko as her child. Rather, I think she doesn’t feel like she’s worth being called a ‘mother’ because whatever relationship drama Saena Mogami went through, it was probably the blackest moment in her life in which I reckon she felt worthless once it ended. And because she felt worthless, she pushed all of herself into work to a) distract herself, and b) to feel worthy of herself again, and in turn she pushed all that pressure onto Kyoko too. So while she worked, she left Kyoko alone, didn’t want to see her, didn’t want to be reminded. And then by the time Kyoko ran away, she probably realised how much she was missing of her daughter, and how she probably does not deserve to be called her mother.
Or something like that.
I’m still building my theory, but so far, that’s what I’m getting from Saena Mogami’s character. But because I don’t know enough about her yet, and also because I don’t think she’s really a ‘villain’ character, and because this is Nakamura’s shoujo manga, her character is definitely going to be complex. You just don’t get simple characters in really good mangas.
Words That Flow Like Water 