Skip Beat!

[jlucpitard]

The story of Kyouko Mogami's slow progress toward the twin goals of succeeding in the entertainment industry and crushing her one time crush (while others hope for her to find her will to love again and harness her natural acting ability for her own sake...) is amusing to follow. The people around her are all at least as eccentric as she is, in one way or another. The love story is exceedingly slow to develop. Her romantic counterpart, Ren Tsuruga, has his own reasons for accepting how dense she is as he doesn't seem ready to be loved either. In the current storyline the two of them are thrown closer than ever, so we'll have to wait and see how long his lies and her aversion to love can keep them apart. It's actually quite nice that the story is unfolding so slowly as we get to watch her career, and that of her best friend Kanae Kotonami (and her ex- Shou Fuwa) develop. Some story arcs aren't as gripping as others, but the overall growth of the characters is the main thing.

 

This is the work of Yoshiki Nakamura, who also did Tokyo Crazy Paradise. Her art is pretty good with interesting angles and reaction shots, although the perspectives and relative body sizes leave something to be desired. There are times when I have to laugh at the inconsistencies of Ren's body in particular. But- the woman can draw some mighty sexy eyes! Okay, some mighty expressive faces, of which the sexy eyes are my favorite. Her conceit of demons (and rarely angels) inside Kyouko and the way some characters can see them or are sensitive to them is terrific. It takes some getting used to, but once Reino (the Beagle) comes on the scene, her demons even get to become plot points. They rarely come out unless it's something to do with her "rival" Shou Fuwa, although early on they play a larger role as representations of her anger or her strong will.

 

If you like the manga, you will also enjoy the anime which ran for 25 episodes. It followed the manga pretty exactly (*cheers*) and ends far too soon. I haven't heard if they'll do any more episodes, but I don't see why they wouldn't as it was pretty popular in Asia. I hear it will be released in the US shortly (was told that at Katsukon in February of 2010) but wasn't told when that would be.

 

There are several people (groups?) working on this manga and it's worth checking around for different releases as the translations vary and the cleaning of the scans vary. Some focus on speed- feeding our addiction- and others on the accuracy/quality of the work. I applaud them all, since I'm a junkie first and then a connoisseur. Heh.

 

Your thoughts?

[chillli]

yeah,yeah,yeah, i lovvve itt! wasnt a big fan at first,i started with the anime,but i got addcited to it,and when it was over,i had to check out the manga to see what happens,and now im following it like crazy. Jlucpitard summarized it pretty accuratly,not much more to say. i really like the expressions of the characters too,and the comic genre,on the other hand the full people drawings are really scary sometimes...i remember recently there was a part where ren's palm was like twice as big as kyouko's head...,i was like:wtf @onions78@ ,and their legs are like 3/4 of their body,but wth.

about the scans: my routine is to read the very first version,which is usually weirder translation-wise (not following the -san,-kun,and other jap. things etc.) and quite lowquality, and then read the latest version,which is usually medium/high quality and has a good translation.

well,im waiting for the romance-part to unfold as well,but it doesnt bother me as much,cause i think the story and hardships about their professions (esp. acting) is very interesting and enjoyable too.

so,if there IS someone who doesnt follow it,i can only recommend it to them.

[CTOAGN]

I love the manga. I have been reading it since it had only about 30 chapters out, and was ranked somewhere in the 600s in popularity on onemanga.com

now its got over 100, and is ranked near the top

 

Edit: 19th to be precise

[jlucpitard]

W00T! So, okay, we expected

a dark past and I'm glad we see that he beat someone up just a hair too much. No idea if the woman was right and he did kill someone or not. It seems like a heat of the moment sort of scream, so the person may have recovered fine or may have gone on ahead to join the choir of angels and archangels as they sing praises everlasting. Either way, we have the dark past that many fans have thought would be there. So he got his fight skills square and fair. Seaweed hair didn't stand a chance and Kyouko had firm faith in Ren not getting himself hurt, but fear that he'd lose himself in "BJ" and hurt the others so badly that they couldn't get away from it. As it stands, in the US he'd face assault charges (although a good lawyer would claim self defense since he thought Kyouko was in imminent danger.) His enemies were all armed, after all. Did anyone notice that it wasn't until he grabbed seaweed head's weapon that the man really knew the danger he was in? So, I loved the way the President's "talisman" worked. Ren was lost to his memories and fears until he realized she was there.

I don't know how long this arc will be, but it's fun to have the focus be on the two of them!

[jlucpitard]

Good Lord! Fanservice anyone? Heh. I liked the way they slipped in and out of character with one another. Proportions still not a big strength, but sexy looks and... that shower scene. *Fans self*

[TamiBx]

I tried reading it, but I just couldn't keep up with a slow developing story.

I'm a very impatient person... @onions62@

I usually like stories that go straight to the point. And the main character was too dense (at least in the first 15 chapters)for me.

I might give it a try again, when I have free time. @onions74@

[CTOAGN]

well, if your more into romantic stories, skip beat probably isnt really for you. even at chapter 120-something their relationship has barely progressed to friends. Though it is amusing because the main male character likes her, but she hasnt a clue.

[TamiBx]

well, if your more into romantic stories, skip beat probably isnt really for you. even at chapter 120-something their relationship has barely progressed to friends. Though it is amusing because the main male character likes her, but she hasnt a clue.

 

 

Then yeah, it is not for me.

I don't really like dense/kind of blind/a little bit dumb main characters... @onions62@

[jlucpitard]

I tried reading it, but I just couldn't keep up with a slow developing story.

I'm a very impatient person... @onions62@

I usually like stories that go straight to the point. And the main character was too dense (at least in the first 15 chapters)for me.

I might give it a try again, when I have free time. @onions74@

 

Probably not for you, but you might like it in the anime form better. The benefit to this character ignoring/repressing the romantic aspect of the story is that we watch her career develop as well as the side stories. I agree with the dumb main character making me lose interest, but in this series there is an attempt to balance that out with a well developed story. Not that we're 160+ chapters in, we're starting to understand the male hero's reasons for the slow pace of their relationship. It's been hinted at, of course.

[xanderion]

I'm not crazy about long series. I tend to lose interest after 10 volumes, though there some exceptions to my likings.

If I knew the series would be that long and still ongoing, I wouldn't have started it. It was fun at first. But then I was getting tired with the characters going round and round and getting nowhere. It was like one step forward, two steps backwards, one step forward, three steps backward, etc. Just neverending bla-bla and no real focus or development of the characters relationships.

 

I'm more of an action amateur I guess. Just feel like the characters lack real depths to me and consistency.

[Sakubo]

I like this series. I dont mind a long running series as long as there is enough drama or action going on to keep the series interesting. I like this series because there is always something different happening and it keeps the story interesting. Also even though it is long running drama series they dont resort to things like rape to keep the story progressing. Im really tired of the stories that have 500 guys forcing themselves on a girl every single chapter.

[jlucpitard]

I'm really tired of the stories that have 500 guys forcing themselves on a girl every single chapter.

 

Eep! That's one thing this is free of, although she has quite a collection of beautiful men she can choose from should she ever realize her own worth. The evil me would love it if she finally grows as a fully rounded person- able to love again- and she announces to the world that she's dating some random guy she met while riding her bike or something. Ren, Shou, Reino and Hikaru would all shake their heads and go after other starlets... Kidding!! The romantic me is cheering Ren and Kyouko along. Whether as mentor/trainee, fairy prince/child or fake brother/sister, they have chemistry together. Now they just need to help each other heal their hearts and move along.

 

Anyone know if there's a way to see the latest scanlations for Skip Beat!? Onemanga's gone, Mangafox and MangaToshokan have pulled it, so...

[chillli]

Anyone know if there's a way to see the latest scanlations for Skip Beat!? Onemanga's gone, Mangafox and MangaToshokan have pulled it, so...

 

mangatraders uploads it pretty fast too,i always download it from their site,but i dunno about the online-reading sites,cus i dont use them.

[SammyJoe24]

I'm in the middle of the anime right now, but I haven't started the manga yet. I need to, I know . . . but I just haven't gotten around to starting it yet . . .

[lilkimmy2468]

OMO I loooooove Skip Beat. This series always progresses sooooooo slow in the romance department though. I'm sitting there half the time reading the new chapters with a burning frustration going argh! Just progress your relationship with Ren already *explodes* JUST DO IT! LOL @onions59@

[pyonk]

I love this manga, really, my fav one...

but somehow, since it start to out biweekly, the plot seems going slow down... T____T

aarrrggghhtt.... this will be a long-running shoujo manga....

[jlucpitard]

I love this manga, really, my fav one...

but somehow, since it start to out biweekly, the plot seems going slow down... T____T

aarrrggghhtt.... this will be a long-running shoujo manga....

 

 

Looks like it. It may be worth letting the chapters pile up a bit and then reading them in one go. Not sure I have the patience for that, though. There's usually something developing or pushing the story ahead, even if it's not the romantic storyline moving.

[inacutez]

they are very good..actually this manga is one of my fav..

[CTOAGN]

Anyone know if there's a way to see the latest scanlations for Skip Beat!? Onemanga's gone, Mangafox and MangaToshokan have pulled it, so...

Mangafox still works to track how many are out, it updates for new releases, you just cant read them.

 

Im not too sure how frequently it gets updates, but Read.homeunix.com works pretty well for reading. Howerever there are tons of negatives about it as a manga site. First, the manga have no organization beyond alphabetically. This makes finding new manga very difficult. While it will not take off any manga for licensing, it also won't filter the updates at all. It is filled with low quality scans or translations, or pictures that were wrong file size so only part of the image is visible. However, virtually all manga I have ever bothered to look up on it are there, only exceptions being some American manga I tried to sniff out.

All in all, it works until you find a better option.

[lynnnne989]

the manga is deeeff great....so is the anime...but i wish it was longer!

[momei]

I love this manga. I wonder how many volumes this manga will be?

[CTOAGN]

Too many.

[jlucpitard]

Too many.

 

 

Heh! So far we're at 165. I doubt it will get to One Piece proportions, but Tokyo Crazy Paradise, her previous long form manga, wrapped up around 112, so we're past there, but I doubt she'd go past 300. As long as the story keeps moving, I'm happy.

[anileda0]

i liked this manga because it was a funny manga at first but now is also a bit serios and i still like it @onions41@

[jlucpitard]

I can see that. I think she's taking pains to try and lighten the backstory slightly and I think there will be plenty of humor in the future.

The "dark" past where Ren was a killer is out and while it's established that he was an LA thug, the revelations in the latest chapter show that he didn't directly cause the death that was hinted at. It eases up on his dark side and makes the guilt easier to handle.

 

 

The main problem, as I see it, is that Kyouko still has a long way to go and there's no particular catalyst in sight to get her there. That makes it drag a bit. Still, I think her story as an actress will keep my interest for a while.

 

 

 

 

[edited to hide potential spoilers-jlp]