Customer Reviews

Skip Beat! Vol. 1

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Skip Beat! is a wonderful, hilarious manga about fifteen-year old Mogami Kyoko, who is initially a sweet, devoted young girl who, upon his request, comes to Tokyo with her childhood friend, Fuwa Shou, to support him as he pursues his musical career. Kyoko has dreamed since she was a little girl that Shou was her prince, and that one day, he would marry her and she would be like a princess...

Until the day that Kyoko overhears him complaining about her - how boring, naive, and ugly she is, and a complete drag on his time. Rather than breaking into tears, Kyoko is disgusted and enraged, and declares that she'll have her revenge - and since by now, Shou really is a very popular star, she'll enact this vengeance by becoming a bigger star than *him*.

Kyoko is the reason this manga is so great: she's determined (she gives new meaning to the word), a hard worker, ambitious, and constantly trying to find out who she really is and who she wants to be. Plus, she makes and utilizes voodoo dolls - how can you not love her?

This volume covers Kyoko's very beginnings into the world of showbiz, and introduces Kyoko's likely love interest, the very popular (and wonderfully evil and yet so perfect) actor, Tsuruga Ren.

Nakamura Yoshiki (NOT Yoshiko, Amazon) is a great manga artist who won my heart with Tokyo Crazy Paradise, the series with which she really refined her drawing style. In any case, Skip Beat! is fully of great drawings, fantastic paneling, and the most hilarious dialogue. It's fresh, unique, and given to few of the typical shoujo cliches; I'd agree with another reviewer and state that Nakamura really raises the bar for shoujo.

As to how Viz did: they included some cultural notes that clarify what might be confusing for non-Japanese readers, which I was pleased with... but there's a WHOPPING BIG GRAMMATICAL ERROR in this book that I pitched a fit over. That said, it was only one (albeit a big one - it was even in bold), so the rest of the translation is done very well, and the packaging, in line with the rest of their Shoujo Beat line, is tidy with a regular gloss, if not as great as, say, Del Rey's XXXHolic packaging.

Highly recommended for anyone who loves great characters, humor, potential love triangles, and a flat-out wonderful series.

Kyoko Mogami is a modest and diligent girl. After graduating from middle school, she followed her childhood friend Sho Fuwa to Tokyo to help him with his pop star career in the hope that they have a joint future. She is working hard to support Sho's super star dream. But by accident she learns that Sho only brought her along because he didn't want to do any strenuous work and therefore needed a "servant". Kyoko decided to start her revenge project by joining the Show Biz. Hoping one day she will beat him in his own field.
I have read manga for so many years (over 10 years...), this is my favorite now. I have read the Chinese edition to Vol 12, and it's getting better and better. I wasn't that interested in the "super star love story" at the beginning. But, I was very curious why Skip Beat is so popular in Asia. So, I give it a try. It turned out to be a warm, loving story. Oh, and it's very funny. This manga has great story, and each character is well designed. Skip Beat trully raised my expectation for Shojo manga.

Where to even start? How about with THIS MANGA IS AWESOME! Skip Beat! Volume 1 kicks off a great start to what promises to be an addictive series.

At first, I wasn't sure on buying this manga because of the whole "girl followed childhood friend turned star--childhood friend turned star just using girl--girl finds out and wants to now make it into show biz just to extract her revenge on him." It sounded like a typical and predictable manga plot of revenge that I really had to toy with the idea of buying it on a whim.

But boy, am I glad that I did! It may have the used and reused revenge plot line, but Yoskihi Nakamura makes this plot idea completly atypical!

This manga grabs you with its off beat style and humor, the only complaint I have about it is the way the two lead males are drawn. It's either their faces are too narrow, or that their necks are just too thick. It takes a little getting used to, but Skip Beat! is worth it!

Believe me, it's a very special comic. Why I'm so sure about this? Because this series of comic books doesn't like other comic books you have ever seen before:
1. The plot is not that easy you can imagine what will go on the next (and usually it will make a very different plot from what you imagine).
2. Girls in the story do not weak; instead, they are very resolute ("Kyoko" is the best example).
3. Instead of falling in love when the first sight, they will "use their reason" and trying to understand the person.

First and last, if you see this massage, please believe what I said. It's a series of comic books worth to read.

Where to begin with this manga, I don't quite know myself. I'll go back to the history this manga had with me. I was in 5th grade when i stumbled across manga. The very first manga volume I bought was Skip Beat in 2005. I believe that was when this manga first started being published in America. I think after reading the first volume i fell in love with manga itself. So since then, my very first volume has seen many accidents but it is still very well loved.

Now enough of me. Skip beat starts off a little slow in the first volume and i've had many of my friends drop it since they thought it was too boring. BUT!!! They were wrong! You meet Kyoko, a pure kind hearted girl you'd find in a ton of shoujo manga (a dime a dozen), she is deeply in love with her childhood friend, Shou. Shou is a famous singer who moved to tokyo with kyoko after leaving home. Shou reveals he has been using her and dumps her. (even though they have never been dating) So she seeks to get revenge by joining his business and she gets a whole new makeover. Unable to love and filled with anger, she starts running at full pace to become a star! (I won't ruin anything else but i covered a lot) This is what makes Skip beat different, Kyoko doesn't become your average heroine anymore but more of a wild animal?!?!?! If you decide to read more of skip beat, i'm sure you won't regret it. You'll be brought along to experience the KYOKO WORLDWINDDDD~ With Ren, Shou, Lory, Maria and all the rest of the fun characters.

I'm sorry i did no real justice to the manga with my review but please with all due respect, read this!!!

Ms.Nakamura's comics are really fun and excinting!
especially Skip Beat!I always look forward to the
upcoming plots>///<
GO! GO! Kyoko!

Kyoko is in love with her childhood friend, Sho - a well-known singer. She works hard to pay the rent to their expensive apartment. But she discovers Sho was using her and only brought her along with him to use her as his maid. Kicked to the curb, Kyoko only has one thing in mind - to get revenge on Sho by beating him in Showbiz!

There's always quite a few manga out there concerning showbiz. But I can see why Skip Beat is such a popular and long running manga. For one it's outright hilarious! I just couldn't stop laughing from all of Kyoko antics, she was just such a funny heroine. We saw a few more characters in the first volume - Sho of course as well as Ren, Sho's biggest rival but no one to really build an opinion on yet besides Kyoko.

Although the summary sounds like it could get cliche it really wasn't. Skip Beat strays from all the over-used plots in shoujo (manga targeted for girls). And I've read well past the first volume and so a heads up - the romance is really really slow. And I'm actually fine with that because the story works better that way. The manga is really all about Kyoko's exposure and adventures in the world of showbiz and acting.

The art is so-so I suppose. The mangaka has her own unique style, expect the drawings for Ren look really awkward. OK, all the really tall people in the manga look awkward and their heads are kind of small. The art does improve later on and honestly it was not that much of a set back for me.

Skip Beat is one of the most popular shoujo manga and I really don't think it's overrated . If you want to step away from the cliche stories of most shoujo, have a lot of good laughs and just an overall fun story than I suggest you give Skip Beat a try!

I warn you, if you are in the mood for a purely happy, fluffy story, this isn't it. While this story has quite a bit of angst-filled moments, it is filled with hilarious and heart-warming moments as well. This is the perfect story for anyone who's ever been completely hurt in life and looking for a way to heal their heart and learn to love again. The heroine of the story, Kyoko, has been to hell and back in her life. She's been thrown away by her biological mother, taken in only to be "used" (with the couple's goal being) to be married off to a couple's son (whom she falls head-over-heels in love with), only to have the jerk use her as his maid to escape inheriting his parents inn business. She enters the acting arena, with only vengeance in her heart and mind, only to meet with a guy she's always professed to hate (only to support the former "love interest" Shou), Tsuruga Ren - who also has had to deal with a lot of pain in life, but his one happy time as a child was when he and Kyoko were friends (which he realizes a few books into the series). This story is amazing and the intricate way the mangaka tells this story is unbelievable. I HIGHLY recommend this story...if I could, I'd give it 10 stars :)

Keep in mind I'm writing this review from the perspective of someone who has read everything released so far (no spoilers).

The art is beautiful, the characters are well developed, and the comedy aspect of this series is laugh out loud funny. Kyoko is the strongest female shojo heroine I've ever encountered, her refusal to be sad and self pitying is admirable. You really feel yourself getting behind Kyoko and cheering her on! This is a manga series I can re-read ANY number of times many times in a row and still feel content (please note I can only do this with one other manga series). The only drawback is I've caught up to Japan and have to wait for each chapter release eagerly. This manga has my highest shojo recommendation; it manages to have all the most positive aspects of a typical shojo story without any over girlie or sappy stuff that makes you cringe.

So speaking from someone who eagerly awaits every Skip Beat! release...as good as it is now in volume 1, the best is yet to come!

Tired of shojo with a seemingly perfect girl and Mr. Right hitting it off and living happily ever after? Then, read Skip Beat. The main character, Kyoko, is out for revenge against her former friend, Sho Fuwa. He used her as a maid while he made his climb up to fame. Kyoko overhears a conversation he has with his manager about this, and then, its on. She vows revenge.

Kyoko isn't one of those girls that does everything for the right reason. She isn't especially good looking or smart or anything. She is truly average. She is picked on and made fun of. A lot of things she does don't work. Most of the guys in the series are initially mean to her.

Her revenge filled struggle for fame is riddled with failures, embarassments, and lessons. The story is very easy to relate to despite a difference in situations. Everyone has felt like Kyoko at some point.

This series is a breath of fresh air for the shojo world. It is different than your typical story. I'm really glad that I gave this series a chance. It is a great read. I'd recomend it definately.