Kabuki 2: Red

After reading Kabuki vol. 1 I was waiting anxiously for vol. 2. And waiting. And waiting. The release date was pushed back so many times I lost track of it. But finally, Kabuki vol. 2 has been released and I can move on to waiting for vol. 3...Either way, volume 2 returns us to the story of reincarnated lovers Kounosuke and Kageya. In their past lives, Kounosuke was a wealthy warrior and Kageya was his young page. Now they've been reborn into two of their descendants and into vastly different situations. Kounosuke is now penniless (and in high school) while Kageya is the elder (and therefore in charge). The only thing that hasn't changed is their demeanor. Kounosuke was (and still is) high strung and dramatic. He's given to temper tantrums and is easily upset by Kageya's cool manner. He constantly worries about Kageya's feelings for him which fuels most of the drama in the book.Chapter 1 finds the two of them arguing yet again. Kounosuke storms out (yet again) and slips, hitting his head. But his fall has unexpected repercussions as it revives the former owner of Kounosuke's body. The personality that died in volume 1 is back and he's just as shameless as he was when he died. Kageya's attempts to trip him up (literally) and bring back "his" Kounosuke are hilarous and also strangely touching. You can really tell how much Kageya loves him. A pity Kounosuke doesn't get to see it.From there, we meet a former lover of present day Kageya who pops in to stir up trouble. This is the silliest chapter in the book but it was fun all the same. Next we meet another member of the Kageya clan. His resemblance to the Kageya of old stirs up strange feelings in Kounosuke who is still having difficulty with his new life. Drama, angst, a bit of action, and humor finish the story off nicely. The book ends with another chapter of "what happened before Kounosuke was reborn" just like volume 1 did. These chapters tend to be my favorite. The tone is sweet and sad. A nice change from the rest of the book.Yukari Hashida's art remains as beautiful and whispy as it was in volume 1. The humor is dry and the stories run between silliness and serious romance. There are also a number of really nice flashbacks about their relationship in the past. It adds a depth to their characters that's usually lacking in yaoi. Volume 2 also finally delivers some sex to round things out. The book is also of decent length (just under 200 pages). The translation seems good and typo free as well. The only thing missing is the pretty dust jacket that volume 1 had. I guess I can live without it.If I could give half stars I would rate Kabuki vol. 2 as 4.5 stars. It was good but a few bits weren't quite doing it for me. Unfortunately I can't give half stars. Either way, I'm waiting on volume 3. Kabuki is one of my favorite series and I look forward to more temper tantrums and dry humor.

I normally get my manga pre-owned since I have so many of them I'm trying to complete but we all know that there's always one or two in a series which are impossible to find because one idiot will price it really high on ebay or something, and then when others go to sell it, they think it's worth a fortune, so they do it to. On and on it goes, and people think they'll get "ripped off" if they don't price at that high which means they never sell so no books are moving. Then others will refuse to sell theirs even though they don't actually want the book because they think it's worth something so the cycle continues, born from stupidity. Anyway, this is that book of this series.