Skip Beat 3 in 1 Volume manga review
“The Radius”:
Title: Skip Beat 3 in 1 Volume
Artist/Author: Yoshiki Nakamura
Distributor: Viz Media
American release date: 3-6-12
Format and length: Shojo Beat manga
Publisher/Industry Age Rating: T
Overall Personal Rating: B+
Suppose the guy you devoted your life to was really only using you as a housekeeper, what would your reaction be? How about revenge?
Synopsis:
Volume 1:
Kyoko Mogami is working two jobs in Tokyo. She is working hard supporting and taking care of Sho Fuwa, a childhood friend of hers. After 9th grade, he had asked her to come with him as he lives a more glamorous life being a celebrity. Always being devoted to him, she is thrilled to accept. As she continues to work two jobs, he is beginning to achieve some fame, but he really isn’t treating Kyoko very well. She feels she understands and works hard to make hime happy. However, the higher the level of success he reaches, the meaner and more distant he becomes. Kyoko still hangs in there, even apologizing to him when he is the unpleasant one. When she was bringing food to Sho one day, she over hears him talking about her to someone. He thinks of Kyoko as plain and boring person who is basically a housemaid. He only brought her along to earn a living and take care of things. To him, it is okay to be such a user because after all, she chose to come of her own free will. This has affected Kyoko to her core and unleashed all of her evil feelings that had been locked away. She vows her revenge as he only laughs.
She leaves him behind and makes herself over, at least on the outside. She still has some of her old naive and innocent feelings that surface sometimes, making her feel the low self esteem that got her into all of this. She begins to live at the Darumaya where she had been working. The owners act somewhat like surrogate parents. Kyoko is going to beat Sho by becoming a bigger star than him. She gets down to business in trying to become a celebrity. She goes to the LME talent agency, one large enough to rival that of Sho’s. Well, it can’t be that easy, but with persistence, she gets into an audition. On the day of the audition there is a lot of stress and Kyoko is one out of a hundred women. They ask her why she wants to be a celebrity and she tells them straight out that her reason is revenge. The president of the LME talent agency will be the deciding factor of who gets in. He is quite a character himself as he marches in with an entourage and a flourish. Kanae Kotonami is also auditioning, she is a beauty and has a talent for memorizing lines almost instantly. How can Kyoko compete with that? She tries with an unusual talent that may be surprising yet out of place, but is at least memorable. Well, perhaps obvious, is the outcome of the auditions. Mr. Sawara from the agency tells her,” A celebrity can only be loved when the public wants them”. She may have lost but she got some important people’s attention.
Volume 2:
After the audition, Kyoko is ready to give up, but one of her bosses encourages her on. He helps redirect her focus again. Kyoko is still consumed by thoughts of Sho even though they are tortuously negative, unfortunately he seems to have forgotten her. No matter how man times she falls, she will get up. She sneaks back into the LME building and runs into an actress and knocks her down. Helping to carry the actress’s stuff, she is seen again by the president. He thinks Kyoko could be a fun project and creates a brand new division called Love-Me to put her in. She is going to have to learn to put heart into her work and then maybe they will sponsor her debut into the world of fame. Ren Tsuruga is a big celebrity at the LME agency. He is much bigger than Sho. When it comes to work is his serious and strict, not exactly being nice or polite.
Kyoko goes to work, her first task is a bit of humiliating cleaning, but she gives it her all. Next, she has to assist the actress Ruriko Matsunai, a Japanese idol. She is self-absorbed, assumes she is superior and expects large quantities of attention. She is to act in a movie with Ren. With his serious demeanor, he comes acrosss as distant and Ruriko doesn’t get the attention she expects. She throws a fit and now it might be Kyoko’s time to slip into the spotlight
Volume 3:
Kyoko falls and hurts her leg. Even so, she is willing to move into Ruriko’s place. Only, Ruriko doesn’t step away. A competition between the two develops, who is the top actress, who can be serious and do her best. Working through the pain of her injury and opposite Ren, Kyoko surprises all who are watching leaving Ruriko no choice but to try harder. Who will they choose? Either way, both win some respect from their rival.
To Kyoko’s surprise, there’s another person in the Love-Me division, the girl from the audition, Kanae Kotonami. Not thrilled with the situation but at least they are in the same boat. They get sent to the training school that is supposed to feed into the LME agency, not the other way around. The other students are sure how to accept people in their midst who to them have already made it. Kyoko has another task as well. The agency’s president has a young granddaughter, Maria, who is causing trouble at the school.
She has already met Kyoko and admired her. Kyoko needs to get the troubles to stop and at the same time perform as a student. As always, she is revved up by a challenged.
Commentary:
Sorry that the synopsis got kind of long, but it is hard when it feels more like 3 reviews in 1 than just one review. The first episode is very pivotal to the entire series. Without the introduction and the set up of such an angry protagonist, it all doesn’t really make sense. After all what is the point having a main character who isn’t very likable? Even though later volumes have a quick explanation, it just doesn’t really get to the heart of the series. I had originally begun to read Skip Beat futher on in the series, so it was good to go back and catch the beginning. A lot happens in the first 3 volumes which I wasn’t prepared for because the episode I started with volume 25about Valentine’s Day, only encompasses a day and I found the pacing detail a bit too slow for my tastes. This one is not that way at all. The pacing is quick and energetic. The author really set up well the need for Kyoko’s revenge and how intense it is, making this driving force believable and even understandable.The author’s notes are interesting when they talk about the backgrounds of creating the manga, discussing the development of a main character that won’t have a broad appeal to the general public because it is not a typical sort of a shojo formula or type. The cast gets large rather quickly, but the introductions are well done and don’t seem rushed. The characters are unique and many of them aren’t very likable, very self-absorbed unpleasant people. Sho is the worst. I find the story unpleasant when he is around (Which fits his character! The one you like to hate). Kyoko is melodramatic or even explosive in her emotions. She has a lot to prove and she won’t back down from a challenge. What has me most interested in this manga is that it seems so different from other shojo, which it why I give it a high grade. This is anything but typical. No cute and plucky girl. Actually no one at all is cute, there isn’t even a pet for comic relief. The quirkiest character is the president of LME but even he seems to have selfish motives. I think the setting is perfect, where else would we assume to have a concentration of these kind of people.
I really appreciate the End Notes of a volume. It helps explain things missed by people like me who don’t thoroughly know the Japanese culture.
Extras:
Author’s Notes
End Notes
Overall Grade: B+
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Categories: Manga Reviews, Manga S, March 2012 Releases, Newly Released and Pre-Release Reviews, The Basement
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