This TV anime is adapted from the same name of shoujo manga by Yoshiki Nakamura. The manga is published in Year 2002 and it is still on-going series. The TV anime series is with 25 episodes.
Title : Skip Beat! (スキップ・ビート! Sukippu Bīto!)
Genre : Romance Comedy, Music
Episodes : 25
Story :
Kyoko Mogami, a sixteen year-old girl who loves her childhood friend, Sho Fuwa (Shotaro), but is betrayed by him. Having spent a large part of her childhood at Shotaro's parents' inn, she learned a great deal about hostelry and other such jobs. Shotaro, not wishing to take over his parents' business, moves to Tokyo to pursue a career in music. Sho, as he is called by his fans, asks Kyoko to leave high school and her life in Kyoto Prefecture behind to help him. Upon arrival in Tokyo, Kyoko lives an unreasonably frugal life, spending nothing on herself and doing whatever she can for Sho, who eventually becomes ranked seventh of the top twenty most popular entertainers of Japan. One day, she overhears Shotaro complaining about her to his manager, saying that she is a boring and plain girl. He proceeds to sweet-talk and flirt with his manager, in stark contrast to the cold and demanding attitude he usually exhibits towards Kyoko. Kyoko doesn't shed many tears when she learns that Sho thinks she's only good for housekeeping. Instead, her "Pandora's box" opens and she vows vengeance on Sho. As she is carried away by security, Sho mockingly tells her that if she wants revenge, she had better become a bigger star than him. And so, Kyoko changes her appearance and enters the entertainment industry, facing many challenges along the way. Skip Beat! follows Kyoko's journey to climb the showbiz ladder as she meets interesting people, troublemakers and friends alike, with hopes of getting revenge on Shotaro, as well as regaining the sense of compassion that she had lost when her heart was broken by him. As Kyoko cultivates her acting and friendships, she soon discovers a sense of self separate from her initial plans for revenge.
Characters :
Kyoko Mogami
Kyoko is a bright, intelligent girl bent on revenge against the boy that used her feelings of love and devotion for his own selfish gain. More vengeful than depressed, she swears to get even. Shōtaro, the one who used her, tells her that the only way to do this would be to beat him in show business. She changes her hair style and her attitude and begins the task of applying to Shō's rival company, L.M.E. While her audition stood out, the president of the company realized that she lacked the key component needed to become an idol: love, as without genuine love for this profession and for the audience, she could not succeed. However, despite her failure, she had such an interesting audition (she did katsuramuki as her talent portion) that Kyoko was given a second chance. Thus, L.M.E.'s "Love Me" section was founded. Lory made a deal with Kyoko that if she completed all the jobs given to her as a Love-Me employee to the client's satisfaction (determined by points stamped into her record book), by the end of a certain period of time, having accumulated enough points, she would be given a grand debut. Having entered show business, Kyoko found a genuine love for acting and a rare talent for performing a great range of emotions and characters. Her professionalism, raw talent and willingness to give her all for her act eventually earn her the respect of those around her, including Tsuruga Ren and Kotonami Kanae. As a result of her box being opened, her personality is slightly twisted (vaguely reminiscent of Yukino from Kare Kano), and it is a recurring joke during the series that she uses voodoo dolls of Ren and Sho, though less for actual harm and more for purposes of impersonating what they would say in a situation.
Ren Tsuruga
Ren has an extremely kind and gentle persona. He takes his acting very seriously and expects professionalism from those around him. While he maintains a perfect public image, he has frequently shown his true face to Kyoko, failing to keep his polite facade in front of her. He was originally unhappy with Kyoko, and frequently found ways to annoy and tease her because of her impure reasons for joining show business. However, once he realized that her acting was more than a tool for revenge, he began to support her growth as a budding idol. Although at first in denial, he eventually came to terms with his love for Kyoko and grew as an actor as a result of the realization. He makes many attempts to express his love, but Kyoko is continuously blind to all romantic overtures. Ren was voted top male celebrity in Japan on the same poll ranking Shotaro seventh, causing the latter to have strong feelings of jealousy and rivalry towards him. Ren tends to become jealous whenever anything happens between Sho Fuwa and Kyoko due to their former relationship and now their frequent coincidental, and un-coincidental meetings, giving Sho multiple openings to cause him emotional distress. Despite the obvious obstruction of Sho's closeness to her, Ren has no intention of giving Kyoko over to him. Ren's hidden past is another obstruction to his romantic feelings towards Kyokosona. He takes his acting very seriously and expects professionalism from those around him. While he maintains a perfect public image, he has frequently shown his true face to Kyoko, failing to keep his polite facade in front of her. He was originally unhappy with Kyoko, and frequently found ways to annoy and tease her because of her impure reasons for joining show business. However, once he realized that her acting was more than a tool for revenge, he began to support her growth as a budding idol. Although at first in denial, he eventually came to terms with his love for Kyoko and grew as an actor as a result of the realization. He makes many attempts to express his love, but Kyoko is continuously blind to all romantic overtures. Ren was voted top male celebrity in Japan on the same poll ranking Shotaro seventh, causing the latter to have strong feelings of jealousy and rivalry towards him. Ren tends to become jealous whenever anything happens between Sho Fuwa and Kyoko due to their former relationship and now their frequent coincidental, and un-coincidental meetings, giving Sho multiple openings to cause him emotional distress. Despite the obvious obstruction of Sho's closeness to her, Ren has no intention of giving Kyoko over to him. Ren's hidden past is another obstruction to his romantic feelings towards Kyoko yet to be fully explored in the manga.
Shō Fuwa
His real name is Shōtarō (松太郎). He keeps it a secret because he finds it very old-fashioned. He is an extremely egotistical, extremely talented music star. Shō had no qualms about asking Kyoko to give up her life in Kyoto to become his unpaid servant, fully cognizant of her misconceptions of the nature of their relationship. After Kyoko's transformation, he is shocked and soon discovers he had more feelings for her than he originally thought. He has disliked seeing Kyoko's tears since childhood, knows her preferences in food, and of her love for fairy tales and things romantic in nature (even buying her an ornate, whimsical bouquet of blossoms and pearls to her specific tastes). Shō holds a great animosity towards Ren because he is hailed as the coolest, number one guy in Show Biz. Shō declared that he'd steal all of Ren's fans and the title of "The Coolest Male Celebrity" from him. He does not like Ren's closeness to Kyoko and he challenges Ren as he makes it known that he would not willingly give up his place in Kyoko's heart as the one she thinks of the most.
Kanae Kotonami
When introduced, Kotonami's character looks to be the villain to Kyoko's heroine, but Kanae is much more sympathetic than she first appears. Kanae wants desperately to be a top-rate actress and was at the same audition as Kyoko. Although she made it further than Kyoko, she also failed for lack of love. Thus, she became the second member of Love Me. Kyoko calls her Moko. After their tag-team effort in winning an audition for a commercial, despite obvious differences in their personalities, both girls recognize that they are in fact very similar, leading them to become friends. Although her attitude towards Kyoko may seem aloof at times, it is clear that she values their friendship, as she reluctantly shares her secret with Kyoko when she fears her unwillingness to share her troubles might drive Kyoko away.
Actually there are many characters are in this anime series, but I only introduce the 4 main characters as above for you. I like Kyoko very much as she is cute and lively person. At the beginning her main intention to join the show industry is just for her revenge. However, in later days, she discovers that she likes acting which actually she has the potential in it.
Another character I like is Ren. He is a very COOL actor in the anime series. He is a gentleman and always treats the people around him well, except Kyoko as he thinks that she joins in is only for revenge instead of her "heart" for it. But as the days passed, he got the feelings for her but he did not say anything.
Sho is the character who plays the "bad" guy as he 'use' Kyoko as his maid. But I know that in the later story, he likes Kyoko as she is the one who understands him. But this is not show in the anime series, you may read it from the manga.
Well, after I finished watching "Skip Beat!" anime series, I started to read the manga. However, I did not read from the beginning as I am too eager to know the story after the anime series. Thus, I read from chapter 65 onwards. Of course, you may read from the beginning of the manga in order to know more about the story! :P
I like "Skip Beat!" anime series very much as the theme songs are beautiful too. The first opening theme is "Dream Star" by the generous. The first ending theme is "Namida" by 2BACKKA.The second opening theme is "Renaissance" by the generous, and the second ending theme is "Eien" by Yūsaku Kiyama. The facial expressions show on the anime series is very good too. Sometimes it is very funny for me when I see those expressions.
OK, let us take a preview of both the anime and manga of "Skip Beat!"
So, here are the links for both the anime and manga.
Skip Beat! Anime
Skip Beat! Manga
Enjoy watching and/or reading!!! :)
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