Manga Hanabi Review: Skip Beat!

This is another post in my quest to try to add more manga into my mostly anime centric blog! One of the thing’s in my life that inspired me to be more aware of how much manga plays a role in my everyday life was ironically, recently when I had to take a few days off of reading manga. It just so happens that last week almost all of my favorite web manga/manhwa that I’ve been following went on break between chapter seasons. So I had like a dozen online manga that weren’t up dating any more. With no new manga to read I suddenly found myself with hours of free time. I never realized how much time I was spending reading manga everyday, until I didn’t have manga to read. I also noticed that now that I don’t have online manga to read, I almost never look at my phone. My phone battery is lasting three times longer than it used to! And having all this extra time in my day was fun and enlightening and liberating . . . For about two days, then I was looking at my manga bookshelf for something to re-read. And that’s why for this review I thought I would post about my favorite manga series to re-read. I’ve probably read this series a dozen times already! It’s a zany comedy revenge story that takes place in both the music and acting industry of Japan. What sets this series apart from the rest is that the main character is so energetic and comes up with the most diabolical ideas on how to get her revenge. If she wasn’t such a good person, she would make an excellent villain.

Skip Beat

Skip Beat is one of my favorite manga series to re-read. It’s a fairly long series that has a lot of drama, twists and turns, and it also shows the behind the scenes of show biz in Japan. The story begins with Kyoko a girl that grew up in the countryside near a traditional Japanese inn that was owned by the family of her best friend and crush Shotaro. So she learned excellent customer service and hospitality at an early age from Shotaro’s mom. Once Kyoko got into high school Shotaro decided that he didn’t want to take over the family business and he wanted to become a rock star. So he asked Kyoko to go with him to Tokyo as he tried to survive in the entertainment industry. Kyoko being completely head over heels for Shotaro, of course agreed and dropped out of school and ran away from home to help Shotaro pursue his dreams.

And everything was awesome in Kyoko’s mind. She was holding down three jobs and paying for Shotaro’s luxury condo, his designer clothes, all his food and bills, but she was living with her prince charming, so everything was just awesome. Shotaro being a bit of a primadonna, ended up getting angry at Kyoko because while she was praising him she said that once he became an adult, no celebrity would be able to compete with Shotaro’s greatness. But in Shotaro’s mind, he didn’t need to grow up to compete with the more experienced celebrities. So he storms off, and Kyoko is left feeling guilty for not praising him carefully enough. The next day Kyoko gets the idea to surprise Shotaro at work with some lunch from the fast food restaurant where she works as one of her jobs. As she’s wandering around the studio looking for Shotaro, she hears him before she sees him. And what she over hears changes things forever.

She over hears a conversation between Shotaro and his manager/other girlfriend, in which his manager is encouraging Shotaro to send Kyoko back home because it’s wrong for Kyoko to be working herself to death and missing out on high school all so she can support Shotaro’s lifestyle. Kyoko was wasting her life on Shotaro, when he was already successful enough now to support himself. Shotaro has a different point of view. In his mind Kyoko is just his maid, and her only use is to take care of him, and he doesn’t really care if she works herself to the bone for him.

Needless to say, Kyoko was a little bit angry when she heard this and ended up exploding! Not only did she throw the lunch she had brought at Shotaro, she also ended up trashing the whole room they were in! Of course, within moments security showed up to drag Kyoko away, but as they did, she vowed to get revenge on Shotaro even if she had to beat him at his own game and become a bigger celebrity than he was!

What I love about Skip Beat

I think my favorite part that I love about the series Skip Beat is definitely the main character. Kyoko is just so fun to follow. Her reactions are so extreme and she has so much energy. Nothing keeps her down! And she isn’t afraid of being the bad guy or playing dirty to get her revenge. If she wasn’t so friendly and kind, Kyoko would have made a hilarious villain. I love how she turns her super fan skills (that used to support Shotaro) into skills that know just how to get under Shotaro’s skin! Her badminton battle with Shotaro while she was disguised in a giant chicken suit was both awesome and hilarious! Shotaro definitely should have thought twice before making an enemy out of his childhood friend. Who better to know all his weaknesses?