Skip Beat!

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When I first heard about Skip Beat, I (sadly) wasn't one of the first people who loved it from its summary. In fact, after reading the brief summary I went "Psshhh, what's so great about this? No originality at all! The art isn't even that great either!" and walked away.
The reason I first started to read it was because
1) I had finished my favorite manga at the time
2) I was extremely bored and it was ranked quite high
Horrible reasons I know, and I really didn't think I would enjoy Skip Beat at all. In fact I don't know why there were so many ... people that love this series.

After the first chapter, I was hooked. The main girl at first was just like any other but the comedy and sarcasm and carefully drawn out eyes got my attention. Plus, the originally "not so original" plot began to seem much more interesting. After that, I read every single chapter up to 139 in about 3 days.

Story: It's not that high on the originality style because I can probably name a couple of stories that revolve around revenge and etc. However, the plot after the beginning, although a bit cliche, is still quite different and makes you crave more. That's the important thing, sure plot is necessary but even if the plot isn't "original" so long as the characters are good, then the story will automatically be good. Which is why this is 9.

Art: Okay, so the bodies are a bit exaggerated and elongated to show how "beautiful" they really are. Even though this a bit of a turnoff for me at first before I read the manga, I grew to be able to ignore the bodies and focus more on the facial expressions and eyes. Her eyes are amazing, it shows you all of the emotions and feelings. Since you can grow to ignore or later like me now, enjoy the exaggeration then art goes to 10. If you can't, it's more 9 since you cannot deny that most shoujo manga art is quite beautiful.

Character: No matter what anyone says, characters are JUST AS or even MORE important than the plot. No matter how unique or original your plot is, if your characters don't match up to it, the book or manga is not going to fare well. What Skip Beat lacks in it's originality department, it shows up in the characters. I won't go into great detail at the people because it would border on spoilers but as you read you can greatly identify each of the character's inner thoughts. Since this is told in Kyoko's perspective, you get to see how crazy she gets and laugh your head off at her "misfortune"! Truly an interesting main character.

Enjoyment: It's great. That's all I can really say. You laugh, you sympathize, you cry and you get angry along with Kyoko. It's amazing when a manga can get you going that much. This manga really is great and I'm sure even the worst critics (like me) can enjoy this.

Overall: 10. Simply (almost) perfect. A great read!

(Man that really was long! But I hoped this helped at least someone!)

Skip Beat isn’t your classic Shoujo, The cover is deceiving, on the outside it looks cute and fluffy, you open it up expecting a pleasing little love story with the usual clichés of a cute protagonist and her knight in shining armour.
But Skip Beats protagonist is not a mere Mary sue… Not at all, she’s dark, vengeful lacking in essential emotions such as love and her knight in shining armour Shoutaro, is an egotistical user.

Story: I first started reading this manga after being dumped in a foreign country for a local Thai girl, so for me this was like medicine… I could really relate ... to the character, and laugh with the story as it puts light on a dark subject.
It isn’t fun being used by the person you love, but instead of Kyoko rolling up in a hole she deside’s to get her revenge on Sho by entering his scene, the entertainment world.
The only possible down side to the story line could be the length, if you like the couple to be together within the first five chapters, Skip Beat might not be for you. But I found in this Shoujo I didn’t need them to be together for this to be one of my fav’s. Factors such as the humour, the characters personalities, and the story arcs all make up for this.

Characters: it’s a pleasure to read about these Char’s, Kyoko may be on a mission for revenge but her char grows throughout the story, she’s abit of a dork and lovable, you’ll be laughing during every chapter.
All the chars do advance during the story, at first you see Sho as the bastard he is… But later on he starts to grow on you… and the reader starts to forgive what he had done.. Its an emotional journey when you start to feel bad for the villain.

Art: To be honest, I did not like the art so much at the start.. (This proves how good the story line must be.) But I find now… I really like it… Why…. Well… I think her drawing is flawless in that style. It isn’t exactly a style I see a lot, but she can express things so well in the story. Hand actions, facial expressions, I even find the main man Ren quite attractive. This is Strange seeing as I didn’t like the art style to be gin with… I deduce that It must grow on you. But something I loved right from the start was her chibi’s! They are so very cute!

= Story =
- I have to say, it's rare to find a plot where a girl goes all out to get revenge on some guy she thought she loved (in manga that is). Fuwa betrays Mogami who then does a 180 on him. That's basically it. The story itself has different events, but they all somehow connect to the fact that Mogami is out for revenge by becoming more popular than Fuwa. It's basic enough to understand the characters at least which some times can get out of hand in Shoujo mangas.

HOWEVER, I may love the story, but only certain parts. Skip Beat starts off ... slow. REALLY, REALLY slow so the point where you literally have to stop reading. I honestly only read the series b/c I wanted to see what Fuwa and Mogami would do next if they were to meet. I don't care much for anything else b/c I feel that the pace is inconsistent and there's absolutely nothing to keep you reading. Mogami and Fuwa have a connection and their actions are what keep me reading. So yeah... the plot itself is rather inconsistent to my discontentment. -

= Art =
- Nakamura Yoshiki has a very unique style. She doesn't tend to... sharpen the chin's of her male characters. So their chins are basically... a parabola. Compared to her previous work 'Tokyo Paradise,' her art has changed significantly. But when you see how she draws their side profiles, it's... different than how you see her characters front and center. Another thing that makes her art style unique if the ratio of torso to legs. When you look at a full scale drawing of someone, you can see that their legs are incredibly long and their torso is literally half the size of their legs. Some times it does look really... out of place, but her art in general in amazing. -

= Character =
- I absolutely love Mogami. In the world of Shoujo manga, the female heroine is almost always useless in some degree or another. Mogami is one of those rare female heroines that don't cry about everything and who actually are able to defend themselves. Plus she has these mini demon Mogami's who defend her. They represent her thoughts.

Skip Beat fans, or the majority of them anyways, LOVE Tsuruga Ren. He's handsome, an actor and a model. It's also been hinted that he's an American with problems. People pair him with Mogami as well b/c a) ___________________ and b) _______________________ (spoilers). But I don't like him. It's not b/c I'm a Fuwa - Mogami fangirl, but b/c he's not my type of ideal character. He's that one well known guy who hides his true feelings (not enough to call him tsundere though) and who is the ideal guy for every girl. I don't like him as a character even after learning about his back story.

People will hate me for saying this, but I like Fuwa a lot more than Tsuruga. He's an arrogant douche who... you can love and hate. Again, the chemistry (if you can call it that) b/n him and Mogami is enticing. It makes you wonder what they'll do next time when they meet. Or how far Mogami will go to surpass Fuwa. But Fuwa doesn't get as much 'screen' time as everyone else... which saddens me. But he is a decent douche and if Mogami isn't as thickheaded as she is then the story would've turned in my favor.

Note: Mogami is a girl motivated by hatred. She literally has common sense, but lack any sort of emotion when it comes to Fuwa. She's naturally naive and ignorant, but not like Misao (Black Bird). Also, she's fairly gullible. -

= Enjoyment/Overall =
- The series is still fairly decent. I am still reading it now, but the past chapters... well.... I had to force myself to read them. The story is really slow at this point. 'Why not drop it?' you may ask. Chapter 199 was just updated and after going through all those chapters, I'm not just going to drop it. This manga is a 'droppable' manga so if you don't like it the first few chapters, I HIGHLY encourage you to force yourself to read it a little more. It starts getting more interesting around chapters 20 and 30. -