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 Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2007 2:59 pm
Skip Beat! (スキップ・ビート！, Skip Beat!?) is a shōjo manga by Yoshiki Nakamura about a girl's revenge on a boy who viciously betrays and uses her to gain his way into stardom. Changing herself and through perseverance she has to overcome the obstacles in her path of vengeance.
In Japan, it was first published in Hana To Yume, while in the United States, it is published under the Viz Media's Shojo Beat label.
In 2002, a drama CD adaptation was made and released by Marine Entertainment (MMCC-7029). The drama CD covers the first volume (acts 1 to 5) of the manga.
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Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2007 3:01 pm
Plot
The story is about Kyōko Mogami, who was a really nice and quiet girl who fell in love with her childhood friend, Shōtaro. She used to spend a lot of time at Shōtaro's parents' inn and learned a lot about housekeeping and hostelry. Shōtaro (Shō) soon gets bored of living in Kyoto and decided to move to Tokyo, and he asks Kyōko to leave high school and Kyoko to help him pursue a musical career in Tokyo. At the start of the story, Kyōko lives an unreasonably frugal life, spending nothing on herself and doing whatever she can for Shō, who is by now in the top twenty of most popular entertainers in Japan. However, she overhears Shō complaining about her to his manager, saying that she is a boring and plain girl that he'd like to be rid of. Unlike other heroines in the same situation, Kyōko doesn't shed many tears when she learns that Shō thinks she's just good for housekeeping. Instead, her "Pandora's box" opens and she vows vengeance on Shōtaro. Enraged, Kyōko attempts to attack Shō, but is instantly carried off by security, Shō mockingly telling her that if she wants revenge, she'd better become a bigger star than him.
Kyōko immediately cuts and bleaches her hair, while selling her possessions to throw away her past. She then moves out of her apartment into "Darumaya", a place where she works in the evenings. She figures that the only way she can beat Shōtaro is to become more famous than him. She then goes to the largest production company that isn't Shō's, L.M.E.: the same company that manages Ren Tsuruga, one of Japan's most popular actors and Shō’s main rival. Through persistence and partially stalking Mr. Sawara, head of the talento division at L.M.E., she manages to get an audition.
At the audition, Kyōko, whose life had been spent in one form of service or another, performs as her talent the art of katsuramuki, a special type of vegetable peeling. She impresses the judges with her originality (she peels a daikon into an enormous flower) and uniqueness of her skill. She also meets Kanae Kotonami at the audition, who proceeds with Kyōko to the next round.
However, the next round is where Kyōko meets her failure: it is a reaction test where she must listen to a cellphone and spontaneously act out a response. The cellphone conversation is a man telling her that he's sorry, didn't love the other girls, and wants to get back together with her - resulting in Kyoko trashing the phone and screaming in rage. She fails the audition.
At home, Kyōko cries, but not because she's failed the audition, but because she was told that the reaction revealed a lack of love for one's self, and that in order to be an entertainer and be loved by her fans, she has to love them in return. This is something she doesn't think possible: basically, Kyōko has lost the feeling of self-worth that one needs in order to be a human being. Nevertheless, Kyōko impressed the President, Lory Takarada, so much that he says privately to Sawara that if she returns of her own initiative, he'll have a special program waiting for her. He decided that since she lacked the key ingredient to making a star (love), he will make a new branch especially for people like her so they can get back those feelings of love. The "Love Me" branch was then established, but unfortunately for Kyōko the branch is a jack of all trades, so she can find herself doing anything from starring in a commercial to cleaning gum off the floor! With some initial flubs, Kyōko actually starts to excel and gain back some of her feelings of love, as well as memories of a young boy named "Corn" whom she had a special bond with when she was a child.
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Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2007 3:07 pm
Characters
Kyōko Mogami ( 最上キョーコ, Mogami Kyōko?, もがみキョーコ)
Drama voice by Miki Nagasawa
She's not your typical shojo heroine. When the boy she thought she'd be with forever dumped her cruelly, Kyōko didn't weep or wail. Instead she made it her life's goal to get her revenge--and is sticking with it! Kyōko tried to get into the showbiz world by applying to Shō's rival company, L.M.E, but while her audition stood out, the president of the company realized that she lacked the key point needed to become an idol: love. Since she had such an interesting audition (she did katsura-muki as her talent portion) he decided to make a new branch for people like her.
When she is in her room in "Darumaya" she is most of the time seen explaining how she would exact revenge on the two men that make her life miserable to a large poster of Shōtaro and a small photo of Ren (that becomes larger as the story progresses). She becomes a regular in a show... wearing a chicken suit for the character "Bo". She likes to cling to Kanae and calls her "Moko" (it is seen in vol. 4 that every girl hated Kyōko for her familiarity with Shou). It's a sad one-sided friendship; Kyōko follows Moko like a puppy, Moko promptly ignores Kyōko. Kyōko never liked to drink soda (even as a child) but she made herself drink it for an important commercial audition. Kyoko seems to have a bad relationship with her parents. Her mother, Saena, left her with the Fuwa family when Kyoko was much younger, and when Kyoko was acting with Maria, she stated that parents really do exist that despise their children.
Kyoko's father is presumed dead.
In the release of chapter 100, Kyoko came in at #1 on the favorite characters poll, followed closely by Ren.
Shōtaro Fuwa (不破尚太郎, Fuwa Shōtaro?, ふわしょう)
Drama voice by Nobutoshi Kanna
He is a typical stuck up star, and is also very ruthless. Shō had no qualms about tricking Kyōko into going with him to Tokyo so she could be a free servant for him. He also had even less qualms about being extremely cruel to her when she discovered this. Shō eventually figured out that Kyōko was in L.M.E., and was surprised to see her transformation. It is also revealed that he has more feelings for her than he originally thought. Shō thinks of Ren as his rival and is extremely petty at times when they meet.
Ren Tsuruga (敦賀蓮, Tsuruga Ren?, つるがれん)
Drama voice by Ken Narita
Ren is, in outward appearances, an extremely nice and polite star. However, he shows his true self whenever he deals with Kyōko. Although at times teasing, he harbors an unrequited love for Kyōko. As the story progresses, flashbacks reveal a past with Kyōko when she was smaller, however, Kyōko is still unaware of this. She cannot reconcile the sweet "fairy-prince Corn" with Ren's current personality. Interestingly, at the age of twenty, Ren has lived a large portion of his life in America. In fact, he began his acting career in the US albeit disastrously. Although he gained experience, he was fired so often that he has lost count in contrast to the staunch and disciplined actor he is today. Fortunately, his past in America is unknown to the public as Tsuruga Ren is only a stage name. Although there are hints of a dark past, his earlier years are shrouded in mystery. However, recent chapters imply that his name was originally Kuon.
Kanae Kotonami (琴南奏江, Kotonami Kanae?, ことなみかなえ)
Drama voice by Yukiko Tagami
Kotonami's character, at first glance, looks like she was being set up to be the villain to Kyōko's angel, but as with all of the female characters in this series, Kanae is much nicer than she appears. While there was fur flying about at the beginning, both girls had a need for a true friend, and are finding that in each other (albeit reluctantly on Kanae's part and too willingly on Kyōko's part. Kyōko likes to call her "Moko"). Kanae desperately wanted to be a star and was at the same audition as Kyōko, but while she did better than Kyōko, she also failed. She became the second member of Love Me, and has used that to her advantage. Kanae puts up a strong front, but is very self-conscious and is prone to self doubt. It is later revealed that Kotonami has problem dealing with kids, stemming from the fact that she comes from a large family with an obscenely large amount of nieces, nephews, and siblings.
Lory Takarada (ローリィ宝田, Lory Takarada? ローリィたからだ)
Drama voice by Banjo Ginga
He's the President of L.M.E, and is very showy. He is one of the first people to recognize Kyōko's promise of being a great star, and created the "Love Me" section because of this. Lory has a very deep voice, and often has a huge entourage with him to create the world's greatest entrances. He also has a granddaughter, Maria, who idolizes Kyōko.
Takenori Sawara (椹武憲, Sawara Takenori?, さわらたけのり)
Drama voice by Tomoyuki Kōno
He's a part of L.M.E. and was tormented by Kyōko into getting her into an audition. He's actually very supportive, despite Kyōko's penchant for tripping her own idol career up.
Maria Takarada
Maria is the granddaughter of the President of L.M.E. and used to use her cute appearance to get people's sympathy. She did so before Kyōko's audition, however Kyōko recognized this, and called her out on it. While some people would be angry at Kyōko, Maria began to idolize her, and views her as an ultimate big sister. Maria also suffered from a huge guilt complex from her believing that she is the cause of her mother's death.
As a result, Maria was unable to talk or even be around her father, since she thought that he hated her. Kyōko managed to make Maria understand that her father didn't hate her, or think that Maria caused her mother's death. Maria also loves to dabble with black magic (along with Kyouko's side) and also has a large crush on Ren Tsuruga.
Kyoko's Demons
Kyōko's demons were always with her, however they were kept at bay by her extreme love and devotion to Shō. When Shō's true impression of her comes to light, so do her demons. The demons often scare everyone around her, which Kyōko uses to her benefit. They also help keep Kyōko's drive going, as she sometimes questions her motives for stardom. Most of the time, the demons are held back by Kyoko's remaining pure feelings whenever the "pure Kyoko" feels that the anger is getting out of line. The demons give Kyoko a dark aura that is frightening to passersby. She has also used them as kanashibari to trap Kanae Kotonami.
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Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2007 3:09 pm
Notes
*Katsura-Muki is the art of vegetable peeling, and is extremely hard to do. Often only the best top chefs are able to do this, which is why Kyōko's ability to do so impressed the judges.
*In Japan, by law students only have to go to school up until the 9th grade, so this is why Kyōko is able to drop out of school. Just like most places, Japan does not have very many openings for high school drop outs, so most students are encouraged to at least finish high school.
*In Japanese, キョーコ, if translated directly is Kyouko, but is correctly romanized in the Hepburn style as Kyōko. Viz uses the romanization of Kyoko for its easier readability to their customers. See also: Japanese Long Vowels
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