Since recently there hasn’t really been an anime I’ve been into (Besides hetalia) I thought I would right up a post about one of my favorite current mangas! I am a bit of a Tsuruga Ren Skip Beat Fangirl! I made a post a while back saying that it is one of my top 5 anime I would like to see continued. The anime ended before any of the juicy parts… I was very disappointed.

In the most current Arc, the Valentine’s day arc, alot has happened. I give this current arc a rating of 9/10— Its only beaten by Ren’s “Role Play” arc. Since alot happens in this arc, I’m only going to cover a summary of the last 5-6 chapters.

The first huge thing to happen this arc was Kyouko was kissed by her ex-love (and sworn enemy) Fuwa Shou. Not only was she kissed against her own will, but she was done so in front of all her co-workers, and Ren, the actor she respects most (who is secretly in love with her). This kiss was totally unexpected, I had to reread this chapter at least a dozen times! I was under the impression Shou was going to do something really stupid… he had been jealous for a while over her relationship with Ren, but also the incident with the goth “beagle” earlier in the arc. What really made him snap though was she mentioned she had a special valentine’s day/Birthday present for him. His kiss wasn’t a “loving” kiss though. He only managed to steal it by tricking her… He gave her a valentines chocolate… and then kissed with this the excuse that he was taking it back (this was a really long and embarrassing kiss). Later he explains his evil plot. He knew that after such an evil deed she would never be able to get her mind off him. Even though she would be fuming for loosing her first kiss to the man she hates most… at least she would be thinking about him. I find it kind of amusing that Shou’s thinking is so similar to the Beagle’s xD

Ren is not happy at all. He rarely lets his scary face get out, but even his manager catches his bad mood. Personally I would have liked it better if he just beat the crap out of Shou on the spot, but that would have been very out of character for him.  Kyouko’s immediate reaction is just complete and total despair. Her brain just isn’t functioning and she’s about to break down in tears (or rather she does)

Ren’s reaction is very typical though. He lectures her that a true actor wouldn’t even be phased by something like that. It wasn’t even a real kiss. Ren warns her not to let it happen again though. (His irritation with this whole situation is quite obvious to anyone with common sense, of course Kyouko doesn’t realize WHY he’s angry though, since she doesn’t know he’s in love with her.)

 Even after accepting this explanation, even though Kyouko is now “functional” she is still very angry.  She mainly reverts to super saiyan “I HATEHATEHATE SHOUTAROU” mode! Ren sees this and is angry and jelous but can’t really do anything more about it for the time being.Somewhere in her rage Kyouko remembers the Valentine’s day gift she had put aside for Ren, and decides its the opportune moment to give it to him. They go off to a side room and she gives him some wine jelly in a really fancy rose colored glass. She’s trying to act really happy… But Ren (being an expert at deception) totally see’s her angry face shining through and is ticked off.

In his anger Ren decides to do something… something to get Shou out of Kyouko’s head.I was having a fangirl heart attack at this moment… that finally after nearly 150 chapters finally something real would happen in their relationship. Even though it was just a little peck on the cheek… it effected Kyouko in a radical way.

Apparently Ren’s magic kiss had the intended effect… all thoughts of Shou were completely driven out of her mind… but…

The kiss had alot of negative effects as well. She is so embarrassed she can’t seem to do her acting role seriously. She looks like she’s about to have a nervous breakdown, she can’t think straight at all. And most of all she can’t look or think of Ren without turning bright red.At this point its the end of 149. I had no idea what would happen in the next chapter. I was really hoping for some real romantic development to occur. But at the back of my head I just had this bad feeling that Ren was going to talk his way out of this. Since he really loves Kyouko he wants her to be happy (and functional) as an actress, and she’s just not at a place emotionally where she can be in a romantic relationship and do that.

I mean… if she’s so immature that this is her reaction to a little kiss on the cheek, what would be her reaction if Ren, a grown man, really confessed his love for her. Besides that I don’t think she’s fully over her anger issues with Shou… I don’t know if she can fully embrace love till she gets over her issues with him. So like I had assumed… Ren takes the easy way out. He tells Kyouko that back in America, this his how he thanked all the female models, that it wasn’t something romantic. Then he goes onto lecture her like he always does.

I have to say I was a little disappointed that more didn’t happen after all the emotional build up of this arc, but I wasn’t really expecting much else either.  I’m hoping we see just a little bit more emotions from Kyouko, I find it hard to believe she can completely throw out her feelings about that kiss… but then again she is hopelessly oblivious, so I don’t expect much from her. Since this seems to be the conclusion of this arc, hopefully the next chapter (released January 4th) will be the start of a new one. I personally hope the next arc is focused on Ren! Maybe they could bring Ren’s parents, or at least dad, back into the story (I really liked the chapters with him.). We also need to know more about Ren’s past, and how come he grew up to be so twisted. To be completely realistic… I don’t think there will be any relationship development till we get both Kyouko’s and Ren’s full story. Even though we are officially 150 chapters into the story, there are so many holes left that need to be filled.

Anyways, this was an good arc (especially compared to the previous arc), and I’m really sad it will probably never be animated TT____TT

At least the arc ended with Ren admitting to being a Playboy =D (He definitely is!!!)

 Hopefully someone out there enjoyed my post and becomes a fellow Ren Skip Beat fangirl.