Addictions are supposed to be Bad, Right?

I started a new manga series this week entitled Skip-Beat! The series is about a 16yr. old girl named Kyoko Mogami who is diving headfirst into show business. Her motive for becoming a star is her desire to crush her former friend Sho Fuwa (a boy). Crush, as in, destroy. The two of them ran away from home together so that Sho could become a famous musician. Kyoko was the one that worked and paid for everything for Sho while he worked on his music. Unfortunately for Kyoko, Sho saw her as nothing more than a glorified housekeeper. (There was nothing romantic about them running away together. They were merely best childhood friends.) When Kyoko found out about Sho's true feelings she swore to him that she would become a bigger star than he would ever be. After a great deal of persistence, Kyoko earned a place in the Love Me section of a management company that worked with Ren Tsuruga who just happened to be the most famous young actor in Japan at the time. (Ren is the guy that Sho is trying to beat out in popularity.) In the Love Me section, Kyoko is given jobs to do that no one else wants to do. Her objective is to do her jobs so well that people around her begin to love her. See, because her heart was broken by Sho and, as you learn through the series, her mother, Kyoko doesn't know how to love anymore. As Kyoko works throughout the books, she begins to grow as a person from the unsure, quiet, bullied girl of her childhood into an up and coming film star.

Skip-Beat! follows Kyoko through her work in the Love Me section (that's her hot pink uniform that she has to wear while working in the Love Me jobs) and into her life surrounding her work as an actress. Ren Tsuruga who starts off as an antagonist before he gets to know Kyoko, ends up becoming Kyoko's teacher when she needs help creating a role.

Sho, Ren, and Kyoko

Of course, you may have guessed by now, at least from the picture above, that the two boys begin to play different parts in Kyoko's life. When Sho realizes how much Kyoko has grown up without him, he starts to want to own her. He doesn't love her, but he can't stand the idea of Kyoko loving anyone but him so he does his best to keep himself in her thoughts constantly. As he figures, even if she hates him, at least that means she's thinking of him instead of anyone else. Ren, on the other hand, falls completely head over heels in love with Kyoko. There are old (childhood) reasons for this that Kyoko knows nothing of, though.

This is the first series that I've read that I just HAD to continue with no matter what. So much so, that even though my library only has up to Volume 18 of the US releases, I went the extra step and visited One Manga where I read the rest of the series that has been released so far. Released in Japan, that is. And now, I'm dying for more. I want Kyoko to realize that Ren is the perfect guy for her, that Sho isn't worth wasting any thoughts on, and that love really is an emotion that she needs to have in her life. Unfortunately, Skip-Beat! is only released every two weeks in Japan. And after it's release there, I have to wait for someone to translate and post the new chapter on One Manga before I can read it. Thankfully, the last chapter was posted on March 5th so sometime tomorrow or maybe early next week the latest chapter will be available for me to read.

Yes, I am addicted to a manga. I knew I very much enjoyed the other two series that I've read so far (Naruto and Tsubasa) but I hadn't gone out of my way to read either of those two online. *Sigh* Oh well, I suppose there's nothing more to do than wait for that next wonderful chapter of Skip-Beat!. In the meantime, I suppose I should go back to unillustrated books since I do have a number of them out of the library. Wish me luck. I'm going to miss Ren and Kyoko so much. *tear*

To Manga or Not To Manga

What is Manga?

From Wikipedia: "The Japanese word manga, literally translated, means 'whimsical pictures'."
"'Manga' as a term used outside Japan refers specifically to comics originally published in Japan."

Naruto by Masashi Kishimoto

From Dictionary.com: man-ga [mahn-guh]: noun: a Japanese graphic novel, typically intended for adults, characterized by highly stylized art

Tsubasa by Clamp

I first started reading manga about a year after Joseph introduced me to Naruto as an anime airing on the Cartoon Network. It didn't take long for me, a lover of action movies, to fall in love with the 13 year old boy known as Naruto who was fighting with all of his heart to save his friendship with his teammate, Sasuke (said Sahs-kay). Once I learned that Naruto, the anime was based on the manga, I went to my library and borrowed as many as I could find that were in numerical order. Soon, however, I had surpassed my library's content and had become disatisfied with waiting for Cartoon Network to air the next episode instead of replaying what they had already shown. This is when Joseph told me that I could watch Naruto online. The only catch to watching it online - the episodes were in Japanese with English subtitles. Bring it on! I've been watching the subtitled episodes ever since and haven't looked back once. Now when I see Naruto on TV it honestly annoys me to hear an American voice because all of the characters are Japanese to me.

Through the years Naruto has grown up and now he's the lead character in Naruto Shippuuden the next "series" in Naruto's life. Once Shippuuden started being released in the manga volumes that are published in the U.S., Joseph and I made the decision to purchase the volumes. I know those of you who visit my blog on Mondays have seen my dedication to the manga this year. What you may not know is that Volume 47 is the last volume published in the U.S. so far. Volume 48 isn't due out until June 2010. Thankfully, there are fansites for crazies like me where other fans post the Japanese editions of the manga online and translate them for non-japanese speaking people. yay!

Anyway, since the next volume of Naruto won't be available until June, I needed to find a different manga for my "fix". That's where Tsubasa came in.

Tsubasa is the story of princess who has lost her memory. Her best friend and two others take her on a journey through time and space searching for her lost memories. Each world they stop in brings a new adventure.

Now, you may be saying, "That's all well and good, Hannah, but why should I read manga? Isn't it just a comic book?"

Yes...kinda. I don't read typical comic books. They aren't interesting to me. But manga has managed what comics never could. Manga SHOWS me the action. It illustrates the movement, the sound, and the descriptions that authors take pages to convey in general fiction. When you read manga you have to observe. The actual words in the manga are usually only dialogue. If you don't observe all of the pictures you might miss a very integral part of the story. I suppose it's the same way with regular comic books, but manga tells a continuing story where all the comics that I've read tend to be short, separate, stories. Anyway, back to observation. When you read manga you have to be prepared to experience a story in a way that a normal printed book could never express. In manga you SEE what the author sees when they write the book. You become immersed in the culture of the book more easily because you don't have to imagine the intricacies of the clothes, the buildings, the landscapes, or the characters themselves.

Granted, imagination is something every person should never give up forever, but manga is a wonderful way to stretch your imagination in ways it may not be used to while also giving it (your imagination) a little bit of a vacation.

It is my goal to expand my manga horizons this year. Before this week I had never read any manga other than Naruto and now that I've found Tsubasa I'm beginning to realize how much I've missed out on the past few years.

One last point before you go. Manga is written for almost every genre. Just because I read action/fantasy doesn't mean that's all there is. There are manga romance, action/adventure, fantasy, paranormal, sports and games, historical drama, horror, mystery, science-fiction...you name it. Now, for titles of manga that you can try out...go here then follow the title links to short summaries of the manga. When you've chosen the manga you want to begin your adventure with, would you mind taking the time to come back here to let me know what it is? I'm gonna need a new series to read soon. I've only got 5 more books left of Tsubasa from the library before I have to track down the next volume in the bookstore or online.