Skip Beat! chaps 1-168; Crazy Girl Shin Bia chaps 52-58; The One chap 72

 Yes, I did it. I've spent a week of my free time life just reading 'Skip Beat'. After that it's the longest manga I've ever read. And it's still ongoing O_o Pretty creepy O_o In the meantime there were 6 chaps of Crazy Girls Shin Bia, as well as 'The One' chap 72, released. So here some words about them
Crazy Girl Shin Bia chaps 52-58

I read them during the break from Skip Beat. In SB I was near 50th chap, so the story was still excellent and come back to Bia was quite hurtful. Well... from the beginning I knew, Bia isn't a masterpiece... But it was a small shock...

Plot:
Yoo Beak rescues Bia from a giant snake and because of that he is poisoned. It turns out Bia's sword is very special. Yoo Beak takes his interest in it, however Bia manages he is not suspicious about it. Later, Ka Yeon is accused of attempt upon life of her mistress, but Bia stands for her. In the night, Mu Yeong meets a shaman who promises helping him in a fight with Yoo Beak and sending Shin Bia back to her world. When girl hears about it she decides to spend last day with Yoo Beak, but he doesn't have time. In the end, with a little hesitation, Bia and Mu Yeong start their voyage to a scared land where they are going to meet the shaman. In the middle of the night Yoo Beak finds out Bia has escaped and starts a pursuit.

We know from the manhwa that a shaman will be a traitor, so in the nearest future I'm waiting for a fight beetwen him and Yoo Beak. There are 7 volumes more, so I'm certain Bia won't come back to our world. On the other hand she is in a state when she is able to tell the truth about her origin to Yoo Beak. I'm looking forward to it! As the story is quite good, the art is still what pains me the most. Like this example... In this scene she was supposed to look supercute O_o IMO, she looks worse than ever before (it's not because of my colouring I think ;) )


The One chap 72

The pleasure of reading it was spoiled for me, because I've read a translation and then images weren't so needed. However the text only was also not enough...  What's a good news, last pages were about Lele and I suppose, in next chap we'll get more of her. Concerning about other characters issues makes story more realistic (as much as society of rich people in Sweden resembles that one ;P ) but I'm a little bored by it. Well... it took the mangaka 6 months to get to, I suppose 66% of this part. We still have to wait until Yin will be rescued and he finally reunites with Lele....

Plot:
Yin starts being nice do Mandy (Madame Mode :P), he gives her a present on the anniversary, while her husband forgets about  it. Long escapes from Taylor's and meets with Ulysses. He promises to be his lover for 2 years in exchange of his brother freedom. Lele is on a rehearsal. Unfortunately, when it's her turn to get on a catwalk, she trips. The last thing we see is her falling through the curtain. 

 That suprised me a lot! I thought Yin would take a revenge on Mandy in a blink, but it looks like he's got another idea... Or maybe he is really threaten now? I really want to know! And I feel sorry for Long... Somehow it feels like he is selling himself... He's so popular and has so much money, still the only thing he can offer to rescue his brother is his body... I pity him :( As for Lele, she always turns a failure into success, so I'm not worried about her. She would walk a catwalk in the greatest style. Maybe somebody would think she resembles an almost forgotten model from Taiwan? Time will tell.
Yes, I'm looking forward to lighter chapters about fame and love, but still story is interesting how it goes now. I'm glad in a week time new chap will be out ^^


Skip Beat! chaps 1-168

Here we are with the biggest topic. I guess many of you know this title. It's popular and it's difficult for me to say why I haven't started it... well... 3 years ago for example.  Let me think... at the beginning I was looking for unpopular mangas (this way I found Akuma to Love Song which is very popular now :P) and later I was looking for short mangas... And 2 weeks ago I've read a review of Skip Beat! There were magic words 'Kyoko is one of the best shoujo characters I've ever come across'. And I believed it. So here I am. At 24th of December I finished it and I'm dying waiting for new chap.

Summary:
Kyoko is a kindhearted girl who for her beloved prince moves to Tokyo. While he is making a career in showbiz she is making a living in part-time jobs. She doesn't have enough money and time to go to high school, but it doesn't matter as long as she is with Shou. One unhappy day she founds out Shou is only using her. The results of this no one could predict. A calm and nice girl wakes up her inner devils and swore to the heavens she would make Shou suffer as he never has before. Because of her determination, she get a place in L.M.E. company. And soon after it comes out she is really talented actress. But in L.M.E. there's an actor who really despises Kyoko for her reason. His name is Ren and their paths will be crossing each other really often...

As I've written before, I started reading because I was positive Kyoko will be different from shoujo girls... She is in some way, but in the other, she still resembles some of them. Like, not searching too far, Lele. Still, her sensitiveness approaching to intelligence is something rather uncommon. It looks like she is really smart, but she doesn't put enough effort to think everyday situations calmly and because of that she makes really stupid mistakes.

Men characters are great too... Especially, I love a boy from 'Beagles' with ESP powers. He creeps me out sometimes, but just his ability to see Kyoko's demons makes him my favourite.

I really love in this manga a mix of reality and magic. They're just coexisting and one thing doesn't spoil another.

As I was coming up to the latest chapters a sad feeling burst through me. The idea of waiting whole month for next chap was too much for me. Especially, the story turned a little bit gloomy and later the mangaka has a bad habit of retelling previous chapter, so from 30 pages only 20 contain something new. Fortunately, Hana to Yume is semi-month ^^

What's coming to the latest chapter, I really liked it. The way Ren treats Kyoko affirms he thinks about her as about sb special. Not just a girl he loves and cherishes, buy also a dependable friend with whom he wants to go through the toughest  moments.