Ep 16, Sign ha V.
Tetsuya bought Reiko a new pair of high heel shoes. Reiko was happy, but
when she suddenly looked at her live-in's old ugly, dirty sneakers,
she decided to buy something in return instead. After calling Papa for
buying Porsches for Tetsuya, she hanged up on her dad because she suddenly
realised that she was better off getting a job to earn money to buy gifts
instead . (More meanlingful).

The next thing you know is that she turned on the TV, and after seeing
an interview of a successful mangaka (SUZUKI yuNIko^_^), she decided to
join the industry. She drawed some manga on her own and brought it to
the KISS editor. After seing the crap which she has drawn, instead of
telling her the truth (because that would make Reiko more troublesome),

Here came the fun part. Typically Reiko was good at nothing. The more
she helped, the worse it got. She first introduced herself by spilling
ink on the drafts, then put the drafts in a washing machine to clean it
(how could she think of this method is beyond me^_^). When asked by
Suzuki to draw flowers in a scene (background Roses), Reiko drew ALL OVER
the window (including the characters, of course):(. When Suzuki asked her
to erase it, she used the eraser so hard that the whole draft was torn.

When Eating time came, and everyone said "Ramen", "Soba", etc.
(typical of a mangaka office's hectic and modest lifestyle), and Reiko
forced everyone to have sushi. At the end of the day when all the work
was finished, Reiko rubbed salt on her sensei by saying "Don't you now
can spend time with your BF?" This really ticked Suzuki Sensei off by
starting to grumble about no social life , such as she had yet to
see her family for ten years, never dressed up nicely to go out,....and
the only thing she was thinking now was to catch some zzzz. (Needless to
say when Suzuki was starting to express herself, the selfish Reiko
was already on her way back home! Poor Suzuki wound up doing a
monologue....)

And with the assistant day pay, Reiko managed to buy a new pair
of sneakers for Tetsuya...

Ep 20 Doujou suru nara, yarasetekure,!!

A bored Reiko dropped by Takada's home, only to caught Takada
masturbating. Not knowing what Takada was doing to himself, Reiko
imitated his act in front of Kyoko to describe what she saw (Reiko
did not know what masturbation was). Kyoko was totally pissed off
and claimed , "I have sex with (Takada) everyday and (Takada) still
masturbates!!!.......hey, Reiko, Does Tetsuya do the same thing?!"
Reiko, not willing to admit she did not know the term, thought
that it was about eating (or a food), and said "Men should
do it publically with pride (I cannot translate the correct term)...
Obviosuly seeing Kyoko was shocked at the answer, Reiko realized
that masturbation was an act not to be shown to others. However,
unwilling to admit she did not know what masturbation was, she went
on an investigation trip..

First victim: Ayame-chan. "Ayame-chan, where do you mastrubate?"
While Ayame desperately denying this, Reiko innocently opened
up the fridge and picked out an eggplant and asked
"Ayame-cahn, are you going to have "Mapo Nasu"(an dish made with eggplant)
tonight? ", "can you teach me what to do with an eggplant other than
Mapo Nasu?", "(How to cook it)?...", and without any answer from a
crazed Ayame, Reiko left. (As to why Ayame became VERY nervous after
Reiko picked out the eggplant, that I will leave to yuall's
interpretation ^_^)

Second Victim: Tetsuya. "Tetsuya-kun, do you masturbate?"(while the
two were having dinner..). Another embarrassed denial.

Third victim: Junko. But this time Junko explained WHAT mastubation
was before she was in turn being asked. Getting the shocking truth, Reiko
did the same questioning ("Ju...Junko-chan mo shiteru...no ne?").
Another embarrassing scene
Š"Ee..yadashisshitenaiwayoo. Atashi ha... Minna...shitetano...ne....
minna...minna.....".

Back to Tetsuya: Thinking that everyone does it, Reiko was dissapointed. She
"hated" Tetsuya for masturbating. Tetsuya then said "don't be stupid, we two
live together, had you ever seen me doing it?...." Refusing to accept the
answer, Reiko slammed the door and went back to the first victim.

First victim: Ayame-chan this time was so fed up with Reiko that
she admitted it. When knowing that Reiko obviously did not do it
before, she said, "why don't you try riding the bike?"

So Reiko took out the bicycle (Ayame's of course, who else? )
and promptly experienced "it" for the first time. She felt guilty.

Back home she immeditaly sought out Tetsuya and said "Don't mastrubate,
we'll have sex!" The embarrassed and bemused Tetsuya said "Its alright,
Reiko. I really do not masturbate. There is really no need to ....
Anyway, do you masturbate?"

The story ends with the typical " Ho ho ho ho" sarcastic laugh of Reiko
frantically denying masturbation....

(end of translation)

Again, I am not a native speaker, so I do not guarantee the quality of this synopsis.

The best story of this volume is actually ep 18, "Tetsuya no ichiban
nagai hi (Tetsuya's longest day), about a surprised visit
from (Reiko's) Papa while Reiko was away. Yes, as you can guess,
getting stuck with an older model of Reiko with the same obnoxiousness
is not a good experience for Tetsuya. I'll translate it into a synopsis if yuall want it.

For some strange reasons, the Shiratori Reiko series seemed to be getting
better and better. I am happy about it, since usually this type of
episodic comedy usually squeezes out a mangaka's inspiration easily.
Mr. Fujishima's AMG is a good example. Suzuki and her assistant's
inspiration flows just keep on going.

Final note: Suzuki's chief assitant MATSUMOTO Satoru is leaving, and his
place will be taken by Kokubun. Matsumoto has worked with Suzuki for 6 years.
Naturally, there is an ad for new assistants to replace Kokubun, too.

(Personally I think that Suzuki's male assistants must have large
influences on the manga to make Shiratori Reiko de Gozaimasu! "readable"
for guys.)

Happy reading, yoroshiku ne:)

keke