Forbidden Dance (aka: Tenshi no Kiss) Vol. #02

By Sakura Eries     February 12, 2006
Release Date: October 01, 2003



Creative Talent
Writer/Artist:Hinako Ashihara
Translated by:Takae Brewer
Adapted by:

What They Say
Aya sneaks out of the all-important National Ballet Competition to see her best friend Nachan. It's a race against the clock as Aya searches for her distraught friend while trying to get back in time for her own performance. But when Nachan threatens suicide, will Aya be able to tear herself away in time? The world of dance can make or break you and each dancer must find within themselves the will and the resolve to overcome any setback in order to make their dream come true.

The Review
Packaging:
Tokyopop did a better job packaging Volume Two of this series. On the front cover is a cute picture of a puzzled looking Akira and Aya in black shirts at counter angles to each other, and on the back is the story summary in black text with a pastel still life of ballet slippers. They keep the same sepia color scheme and vertical bar with dancer silhouettes as in Volume One, but the additional colors and contrast in Volume Two make this cover stand out much more than the first volume's. An introductory story summary is included beneath the table of contents although it is somewhat lackluster and the character profile pictures are grainy. There's also a single page of what looks like original cover art. It's printed in black and white, and I really wish they had kept it in color.

Extras consist of embedded author's notes (Ashihara's Diary) and author's postscript notes "Losing Weight through Ballet" (I really hope Japanese girls don't really use manga for fitness advice) and "My Trip to England." These mini-manga are a bit cartoony, but they're kind of fun (I always enjoy it when mangaka share their writing and research process with readers).


Art: Again, the artwork here is top-notch. The ballet theater scenes capture the grandeur of the setting as well as the beauty of the dance wonderfully. (I can see little girls wanting to copy the pictures of Diana in full costume). Ashihara does a very good job of communicating the impact Aya's dancing has upon her audience at the Finals. Less effective is her portrayal of Aya's 32 turns at the climax of the Swan Lake performance. She only uses a single page, and I am surprised that she did not use more panels for this dramatic point. For less dramatic scenes, Ashihara again reverts to chibi characters -- perhaps a little too much for my taste in this volume.

SFX/Text: Sound effects are largely untranslated, and signs are translated as overlays. Except for just a couple of awkward points, text translation is pretty good with smooth dialogue and slang worked in. As in the first volume, there's not a lot of swearing (which I always appreciate) and no honorifics. However, I did notice a couple of spots where the text was put into the wrong speech bubbles.

Content: It's the day of the all-important Nationals Competition, and nothing is going right. Aya has just discovered the truth about her "best friend" Nachan, Finals are about to start, she's nowhere near the competition site, and all the roads are blocked by traffic. Determined to compete, she runs in the sweltering heat to the auditorium, and barely makes it in time for her stage call. By then, she is so exhausted, she does not know if she will be able to make it through her performance. However, she receives an unexpected message of encouragement from, of all people, Akira. It's exactly the boost she needs, and Aya goes on to give the performance of her life.

Everyone is moved by her dancing, including Mr. Jones, the judge that gave her a zero in the preliminaries, and Yoshino. In fact, after watching Aya, Yoshino goes on to a rather unique performance of her own. Aya wins the competition and officially becomes a member of COOL.

However, joining COOL brings on a whole new set of challenges. She may be the best junior ballerina in Japan, but can she keep up with COOL's rigorous standards? On top of that, she's realizing that she is falling for Akira while he shows no romantic interest in her at all. To complicate matters, just as Aya is becoming aware of her attraction to Akira, Diana Roberts comes to town as part of the touring British Regent's Ballet. Diana is a beautiful world renown ballerina AND Akira's former classmate. While Diana's familiar attitude towards Akira flares Aya's jealousy, Aya cannot help but admire Diana's amazing talent. Then, days before the Regent's Ballet Company's performance of Swan Lake, Aya discovers Diana's secret, a secret that can bring Diana's shining career to a crashing halt.

Comments
So, after as much drama as Ashihara can pack in, Aya makes it to the competition to give the best performance of her life. While you expect that Aya will win, what you don't expect is her impact on Yoshino. I liked the way that things are resolved between the two girls. However, less satisfying is the way that things are left hanging between Nachan and Aya. There is no reconciliation scene between the two of them, and I really think that that loose end could have been wrapped up better.

Herein ends one arc, and the next begins. Yoshino and Nachan leave the scene just in time for Aya's new rival, Diana Roberts to enter. Diana Roberts is a stereotypical Prima Ballerina: beautiful, talented, and a huge pain to work with. For Aya, who is struggling to keep up with COOL 's pace and hoping to capture more of Akira's interest, Diana is a major source of aggravation. Not only are Diana's abilities far beyond Aya's, but Akira seems to have a soft spot for her. While Aya's new goals are making her official debut with COOL and (on a less conscious level) making it with Akira, most of this volume is devoted to the dynamic between Aya and Diana, who opens Aya's eyes to the self-destructive aspects of dance.

Ashihara seems to have a penchant for the dramatic, and she goes a little overboard in this second arc, especially with drama queen Diana. There are a couple of points that stretch the limits of plausibility, namely Diana Roberts' ability to hide her secret throughout all the Regent's dress rehearsals and Aya sneaking into the Regent's performance without the other dancers or staff noticing. However, I did enjoy her gritty portrayal of the competitive nature of professional dancing and Aya’s responses to her new challenges (no matter how ridiculous they may be). And while the focus is on the two ballerinas, Ashihara does a good job of keeping you intrigued by revealing bits and pieces of Akira's past little by little.