Skip Beat! Review

Skip Beat tells the story of Kyoko Mogami, a cheery 16 year old dropout, who leaves her small town and heads to Tokyo on the arm of the prince of her dreams, Shotaro Fuwa. While Sho focuses on becoming a famous pop idol, Kyoko struggles to hold down three part-time jobs in order to afford their accommodation and living expenses. Not that Kyoko minds of course, she is, after all, a typical shoujo heroine – obedient, self sacrificing and completely besotted with her love interest. Sho, on the other hand, fails to show even the slightest gratitude or even respect Kyoko as a fellow human being. It’s blatantly clear that Sho regards Kyoko as little more than a servant and Kyoko laps it up every second. Initially Kyoko fits into the kind of anime girl I absolutely detest. And then something wonderful happens…

Once Kyoko overhears the truth, or rather it is painstakingly spelt out to her, a rapid transformation takes place. The weak, boring, doormat archetype becomes a hostile, fiery red-head, hell bent on revenge by becoming an idol herself. The premise itself might seem a little far fetched, but it does take into the context the situation and the characters themselves. After all how does a nobody take on an egotistical superstar? By beating them at their own game, of course!

Not that Kyoko has an easy time of breaking into the industry, she has no real talent to speak of, she lacks essential characteristics namely the ability to be loved, her insane rampages do more harm then good and she is pretty much looked down upon by everyone. Nevertheless people are drawn to Kyoko, her straight talking, persistent yet honest nature enables her to stand out, she has something which makes her likeable, and isn’t that how show business ultimately works? In all, personality and being memorable seems to work in Kyoko’s favour and she is given the opportunity to work her way into the agency.

Skip Beat is far more then a mere nobody-to-idol series, it’s a personal journey of self discovery. Kyoko soon realises that she has spent her entire life being groomed by Sho’s parents to become his wife and run their inn. She acknowledges that because of Sho’s interest in her, she never had any real female friends. And even that she would like to be an ordinary high school girl. As the series continues, Kyoko sheds her past, becoming a stronger and more attractive character, her primary motivation for acting is no longer simple vengeance, through Kyoko still dislikes Sho, he is no longer her sole driving force. Kinda relieving actually, it’s good that Kyoko is able to break free from Sho’s total control, even turn the tables a little, rather then remain dependant upon her hatred for Sho. It’s progressive and powerful, yet so very simple.

Despite a relatively good build up, Skip Beat is unable to deliver a satisfactory ending. It just ends, nothing more. It’s highly probable the creators intended to continue the series with a second season, sometimes these things take a while, or sometimes for reasons beyond our control, they simply don’t happen. Too bad. A romantic triangle between Kyoko, Sho and Ren was on the pangs of blossoming but with no real resolution, it makes the entire series feel left wide open. Aside from this, Skip Beat is a truly refreshing show; it takes utterly no time to get into and to fall in love with.

Rating: 8.5/10