Skip Beat! 14 by Yoshiki Nakamura: A-

From the back cover:
Vie Ghoul is the new band burning up the charts by stealing Sho’s moves, and Kyoko’s hopping mad on his behalf. Kyoko’s confrontation with Sho about his lack of action doesn’t go as well as she hoped—Sho gets violent, and the frontman for Vie Ghoul gets a good look at Kyoko’s demons. And both men seem a little more interested in Kyoko than Ren would like…

Review:
This volume was a bit of a slow starter, since I really don’t care very much about the director of Dark Moon and his father complex. Sho’s appearance injected some much-needed energy and also brought about the return of Kyoko’s grudge demons and scary facial expressions, which we haven’t seen for a little while.

Throughout the volume, Ren’s manager Yashiro was unapologetically meddling in Ren and Kyoko’s affairs, which was great. Without him pestering Ren, we’d probably never know what Ren was thinking, so he’s very useful in that regard. My favorite scene in the volume was when he and Ren were eating at an outdoor patio and a couple of random guys nearby were discussing Kyoko. After one admitted to fancying her, Yashiro grinned evilly, and the following exchange ensued:

Y: That boy likes her.
R: That’s nice.

I seldom laugh aloud as I read, but that bit cracked me up.

Of course, Ren’s just playing it cool, as his totally sweet phone call to Kyoko to make sure she was ready for a location shoot proved. I loved seeing him unnerved by the possibility that Sho could steal Kyoko away. I’d never considered Sho a serious romantic rival until this volume, and I certainly don’t think he deserves Kyoko, but his attentions are probably the one thing that’d make Ren lose control over his emotions, so I’m all for it.