Our love triangle: Shou, Kyoko, & Ren
So, I was so curious about Skip Beat that I decided to go ahead and read some of it online. Well, that didn’t go too well. I ended up reading all the available chapters in a matter of a few days. I was totally obsessed. I wanted to know how Kyoko would handle herself on all the new acting challenges and I was genuinely drawn into the quirky love triangle. This isn’t the first time this has happened though. I’ve done this sort of “marathon” with a few other series: Gokusen, Claymore, One Piece. All of them I got really hooked on and ended up reading till the end or the latest available chapters. It’s a really bad habit of mine. Whenever something really catches my attention, I tend to go into obsessive reading mode. Not with just manga, books too. I was re-reading Pride and Prejudice a few months ago, and even though I knew what was going to happen, I couldn’t stop reading it as if I was reading it for the first time.
Does anyone else do this as well? Has there ever been a book that drew you in so much that even upon re-reading it, you got absorbed into the world and story all over again?
PS- Looks like I’ve found another manga to collect. :3
–SW
20/03/2012 at 4:46 pm
I love Skip Beat, I think Kyoko is a fascinating character with all her eccentricities <3 I wish they would animate more of it, what we got doesn't even get to the really juicy parts. Anywho I think I just really enjoy stories like Skip Beat in general, with a protagonist finding that one thing they are good at and then striving to better themselves at it (this is of course every sports series, but I can't think of a better way to say it). Well who doesn't like a good success story, but mainly I just really enjoy seeing people who really love what they do. When that is properly conveyed, you are easily swept away along the ride. I like for example Glass Mask and Nodame Cantabile for similar reasons.
And oh yes, I can completely relate, once I find something interesting to read I just cannot stop. I really should pick up more books, but there are a couple that always compel me to finish them even on re-reading. This certainly applies to manga as well, and it's kinda terrible when you think about the sleepless nights spent reading volume after volume!
20/03/2012 at 6:26 pm
Kyoko is definitely the life of the party. She’s just a multifaceted character. She has a scary, cute, weird, etc. side to herself. It really is amazing watching her interact with others. For me, I tend to enjoy books and manga with really distinct characters (that I can relate to on some level). Yashiro is another favourite of mine. He’s just hilarious, especially when teasing Ren. But all the characters are great. I even like the side characters -i.e. the girl who plays Kaori, Natsu’s best friend, too. :3
I’m not even a big fan of “sport-like” manga. I tend to read mostly fantasy or adventure stuff. But I’ve been tempted to try Glass Mask as well. It’s still running right? It’s like the longest running shoujo series. I’m kind of scared thinking how many chapters and volumes that one has. ^__^;;;
Oh yeah. I had two sleepless (well less sleepful) nights because of Skip Beat myself. ^__^;; I did the same when reading the Harry Potter books. The worst was probably Memoirs of a Geshia though. I stayed up reading that till like 3 in the morning on the night before a test way back in highschool. I swore I wouldn’t do that again (letting books screw over school work). So far I’ve kept my word (usually by reading stuff I know could make me addicted when I have a lot of free time). I’m just glad I’m not the only one doing this. ^__^
20/03/2012 at 6:41 pm
Ah yes, this has happened to me lots of times. The most current I can think of is with Gakuen Alice. My roommate told me it’s a pretty good story so I checked it out and I bought the DVDs of the series. I got really hooked with the anime that I finished watching all its 26 episodes in two days (I don’t want to hurt my eyes so I resisted watching it for only a day :) ). The anime left too many questions unanswered so read the manga (starting from chapter 1 because I really really love it!). The manga turned out to be really interesting, so I wasn’t able to stop myself from reading… and I finished reading almost 200 chapters in five days. To top it all, though Tokyopop had rest in peace and stopped publishing the manga, I still bought the volumes available in English so I can reread them through the hardcopies. Addiction is hard to cure :D
Percy Jackson and the Olympians did that to me too :)
20/03/2012 at 10:25 pm
Ah, I’ve been avoiding the Gakuen Alice scans for those exact reasons and because I try not to read something that hasn’t finished. The wait for new chapters kills me. It’s already killing me with Skip Beat. D: I went through the anime pretty quickly too. I watched it during summer so I had lots of free time then and I went through it within a few days as well. It also the anime that got me interested in the manga. :)
21/03/2012 at 12:38 am
Skip Beat had interested me for quite a while. I’m still not sure if I want to watch the anime or just read the manga though..
21/03/2012 at 2:21 pm
The anime is 25 episodes long. I haven’t watched it yet, but it doesn’t look like it will cover any of the latter parts of the manga. I usually go with the manga as I’m more of a manga person. :)
21/03/2012 at 1:41 am
Buying manga versus reading online does allow you to slow down a bit and pace yourself. Many of my series (especially Boys Over Flowers and Nana I probably could have read in a day or two if I had been given a chance, but I just wasn’t willing pay full price for the volumes I was missing and so I held off for a sale. I can get really obsessed with series when I know I won’t have to wait long to read them – by the time I got into Itazura na Kiss four volumes had been released already, and volume five was coming out a week later. I tell you, that week’s wait was horrible because I couldn’t contain my anticipation to find out what happened next in the story.
21/03/2012 at 2:24 pm
Yeah that is really true. All I wanted to do was read a few chapters to see if I would like it and oh boy, I was sucked in! With actual physical books, you have to wait. I remember the wait for Basara would be so painful, but I had to do it because the physical books weren’t printed yet. There were a few times that I couldn’t wait for the books and just read online. Ah, manga is really addicting. u__u
22/03/2012 at 2:06 am
i read the manga, watched the anime and the drama. if you’re curious, the drama is in chinese but it’s decent. not nearly as good as the manga and anime but it has its moments
22/03/2012 at 1:49 pm
Thanks for sharing the info about the drama. I will have to give the drama a look. :) I haven’t watched many of them, but I did enjoy all of the ones I have watched. You also reminded me I still need to watch the Taiwanese adaptation of Hana Yori Dango, Meteor Garden. :3
22/03/2012 at 2:21 am
I definitely know what you mean. I’ve done that with a few series like Imadoki, Alice 19th, Sailor Moon, and a few others. I’m the same as you actually. If I find something I really really like, I become obsessed with it. Pretty much my current obsession is Mass Effect. :P
Skip Beat is a good manga. I have to collect more of the volumes to continue with the series though. I don’t remember where I last left off though.
I also officially tagged you in my recent random post and the questions are up: http://simpleek.wordpress.com/2012/03/19/a-random-post-for-fun/. Just copy the rules and questions and paste them on your next post! Can’t wait to hear your answers. ;)
22/03/2012 at 1:57 pm
I was pretty addicted to Sailor Moon too. It was my first ever manga and I remember re-reading it so many times in anticipation of future volumes. :)
I’m thinking of going with the 3-in-1 volumes for Skip Beat as an online friend kindly pointed out those are in-print and it is also more economic that way too. :3
:D I can’t wait to see your questions. I’ll be working on them later today for sure.
25/03/2012 at 9:16 am
Wow, I have to give you credit for going on a reading marathon with One Piece! Dear god, I would have dropped dead, I think!
I go on reading sprees as well! The weird thing I’ve noticed about my reading sprees is that I have done most of them with manga concerning cooking of all things! I can’t cook to save my life, yet I read them voraciously!
Oh, and you like Pride and Prejudice? You’re awesome. It needed to be said!
Last thing, how is the Claymore manga? Not going to lie, I HATED the anime with a burning passion, but I would like to hear if the manga is worth giving a chance to see if it can change my mind about the series.
25/03/2012 at 2:18 pm
That marathon happened in 2010, so there were a lot less chapters then. xD But yeah, it still took me around a week to “catch up”. Although truth be told, it wasn’t until the crew got to Alabasta that I started reading super addictively and at Thriller Bark, I had a cool down and started reading at a slower pace. If I had read it all like I did Skip Beat, I would have died as well, I think. x3
That’s interesting. I actually haven’t read a manga about food yet. I wonder I would respond to those. I’m alright with cooking but I don’t really like doing it. I hate waiting for stuff to finish (so impatient). haha.
*high five* to another Pride and Prejudice fan~
Hm, well up until the end, the anime is pretty faithful to the manga, so if you didn’t like the anime as a whole, the manga isn’t much different. There are more twists in the manga later on, but it’s still mostly a fighting manga. I personally love the characters and the story has a lot of potential. I really like the fights as well as they can get pretty imaginative. What did you not like about the anime? I can tell you if the manga has that as well. If it’s Raki (he seems to have a lot of hate), he grows up.
26/03/2012 at 12:20 pm
Ah, okay, now I understand! For a minute there, I was beginning to wonder if you were some kind of super robot! Haha, just kidding! I actually did the same thing with Bleach. Took my time until the good stuff happened and then it was hours of staring at the computer!
So far I’ve read manga with desserts and one with curry. There’s one with bread too, but I can’t remember if I only just watched the anime or not… I’m the same when it comes to impatience! When it comes to my feeble attempts at cooking, I always manage to find myself staring at the food, willing it to cook faster and that is like from 3 inches away!
What didn’t I like about Claymore? Well, I know I didn’t care for Raki, but nothing too extreme. I know I wasn’t a huge fan of the drawing style. Aesthetics plays a big role with me. I think the main issue I had with it was that some things just didn’t make sense to me. I think the main parts were with the deaths of Theresa and Priscilla. I can understand emotions getting in the way and causing slip-ups, but I just thought it was really…random and rushed. Sorry if it sounds weird, but I haven’t gone near that series in a long time so I may not be remembering things exactly right.
26/03/2012 at 3:03 pm
The Theresa scenes should be the same for both (if I recall correctly). I’m going to go off on a small tangent here but here is what I felt about Theresa’s death: (SPOILERS)
I thought it was well thought out. The slip up happened because Clair “weakened” Theresa. Theresa had like 3 chances to kill Priscilla but didn’t. Then she got her hands and head lopped off. It was because Priscilla had begged her to kill her before she awakened. Theresa wanted to give her sympathy and her guard was down, which is why Priscilla was able to strike her down with little effort. Well at least that’s my interpretation of these scenes. :)
As for Priscilla’s death, it actually never happened in the manga yet. That was the part where the anime went in a totally different (and stupid imo) direction. Priscilla is still, to this moment, extremely overpowered in the manga and as far as I can tell, shows no remorse for what she did. Her characterization in the manga is actually quite odd and up to interpretation. Although the lack of remorse part is pretty apparent in the last few chapters that feature her. (Not going into details so not to spoil this for you if you decide to give it a try).
28/03/2012 at 5:51 pm
In regards to Theresa, I had the same interpretation, but I guess something about it just seemed off to me still. Maybe it was just something to do with the anime or my view on things in general.
Priscilla isn’t dead in the manga? OK! That changes things A LOT! I am willing to try out the manga just for that! Thanks for the info!!!
29/03/2012 at 11:35 am
Glad I could help. :)