Manga: Skip Beat! Review

Back in the days when I purchased Shojo Beat monthly, I read the sneak preview of this little manga called "Skip Beat!". It was kind of cute and clever and bizarre. However, giving the first volume a readsy in the book store, I was a little bored with it. Woohoo, girl trying to get back at evil guy. Woop-de-doo...

So I gave it up for some time. I didn't have good internet access up until this last Fall and I finally could catch up with my series. Even though it'd been, oh, half a year, I caught up way too easily..so I decided, well, people love it for some reason, lemme see what's up with this story.

LOVE IT!

Summary:

The basics of it is that Kyoko moves to the city, dropping out of school, all to support the love of her life, Sho(taro). She works night and day to support his dream of being a rock star, sacrificing all her comforts just for him. She's that devoted and seems to dream of marrying him one day. Of course, one day she finds out that he's just using her and moves out of their crappy apartment to live with his manager. JERKKKK.

Now, why Kyoko decides to go with acting is a little beyond me but she chooses that to get better than Sho and outdo him pretty much. In this lapse, she meets Sho's rival (which I might have to reread initial chapters because uh, how is a rock star going to go and rival against an actor/model?). Tsuruga Ren is mean and condescending to poor Kyoko as well, mostly because she's not acting for the right reasons, it seems. However, it's the complications that make this a really fun read.

I'm sure someone does but it's really hard to hate Kyoko. Everyone has that character where they're like, ugh, you're stupid. But I think it's Kyoko's naivety that truly makes her what she is and it's not excruciatingly painful to watch her in the sticky situations.

SPOILER

I know there is hardcore Sho vs. Ren wars but I'm going to be a wuss and say that I adore both of them. Although I will admit I might just like Sho because he makes Ren's defeats of his endeavors disappear. I'm thinking of that Valentine's Day shenanigans, easily one of the funniest portions of the story even when it was serious. My favorite had to be that internal gunfight Kyoko and Sho are having during the "kiss". And I couldn't help snicker when Ren was slowly starting towards them, you just KNEW he was about to kill Sho. And the part that cracked me up the most was after Ren got his turn in and Kyoko got stuck in "spin cycle" mode and Ren's just standing there, watching like "..."

Grade: A

For just all around shojo fun, this is it. Comedy, drama, romance, denial of romance, it's all there. And it's even got a but of mystery to it about these bizarre pasts of these people. Even Kyoko has a questionable back story I can't wait to see more of. Her mother apparently hates her, after all...

(Aside, but if I were honest...Team Ren <3)