34.07 ( )

Kyoko tells Ren that she and Corn kissed. Setsu's time with her “brother” is up (Kyoko has to go back to filming her show), so she heads out. Unfortunately, Kyoko's show has been getting bad initial ratings. She isn't too upset, but Ms. Amamiya (another person in the show, whose given name I've completely forgotten) is very disappointed. A big accident tempts her to bow out of acting entirely, but Kyoko convinces her to stick with it. The volume ends with a visit from Sho. It turns out that Kyoko's mom has been asking about her but doesn't seem inclined to actually visit her. Sho was worried about how Kyoko would react to this.

When Kyoko finally learns that Ren is Corn, she's probably going to blow up, and I wouldn't blame her for it. Or she'll be hideously embarrassed, which would make me cringe in sympathy. I loved Ren's reaction to Kyoko telling him about having kissed Corn, but I hated that the scene was based on her still not knowing the truth about Ren/Corn.

Although I really enjoyed the direction the series seemed to be taking (which maybe factored into my final rating a bit too much – I'm not sure this volume deserved what I gave it), this volume felt like a very abrupt switch of storytelling gears. And no wonder – I just looked at my volume summaries, and I think the last time Kyoko worked on her current show much was maybe volume 28, almost 10 volumes ago. I had forgotten she even had any other work besides being Setsu.

But, like I said, I'm really looking forward to what might be coming up next. I want to see if Kyoko's show recovers from its low initial ratings, and I want to see what happens with Kyoko's mom. And whoa, Sho was actually a pretty decent guy in this volume. And of course I'm still looking forward to seeing where things go with Ren and Kyoko. I'm glad that Kyoko's at a point where she can be in love with Ren (albeit semi-secretly) and yet not be so consumed by her feelings that she abandons her acting career for him.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) ( )