Let's talk Skip Beat!

[† Talena Mae]

Alternative Titles: スキップ・ビート！; 下一站巨星; 華麗的挑戰; 스킵 비트!; 이길 스킵!

Type: TV/Manga

Episodes: 25/ chapter 183

Status: Compleated/ manga ongoing

Aired: October 5, 2008 and ended on March 29, 2009

Genres: Comedy, Romance, Seinen, Drama

Duration: 24 min. per episode

Rating: Average 4.89 / 5

Synopsis:

Kyouko Mogami lived solely for her childhood friend Shoutaro "Shou" Fuwa. She follows Shou to Tokyo so that he may realize his dream of becoming a famous singer. When his dream is realized, Kyouko overhears the truth behind his decision to bringing her with him: he was using her as a maid.

Shocked and enraged, Kyouko swears to take revenge by outdoing him in show business. With a new look and a new attitude, she joins LME, the agency where Ren Tsuruga (Shou's rival and the #1 actor of LME) works, in the hopes of achieving her goal of destroying Shou's pride.

Along the way, she discovers her true self, makes new friends (and enemies), and finds herself at the heart of some interesting situations that will change her life, and the lives of all others involved, forever.

Read online: http://www.mangafox.com/manga/skip_beat/

Characters

Kyoko Mogami (最上 キョーコ Mogami Kyōko or 京子, Kyōko)

Voiced by: Miki Nagasawa (drama CD), Marina Inoue (anime)

Kyoko is a 16-year-old, 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 (cutting her hair short and dyeing it chestnut), and her attitude and begins the task of applying to L.M.E., the biggest rival of Shō's talent agency. 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 role 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. Kyoko comes to care and eventually falls for Ren, although she doesn't realize it. She helps him in desperate times as a rooster mascot named "BO" with whom Ren expresses freely his worries without knowing it is Kyoko in disguise. Kyoko's father is gone and her mother left her in the care of Sho's parents when she was a child. When told she would need her mother's permission to make a debut, Kyoko tells LME's president her mother does not care where she is or what she is doing. Because she has no father and her relationship with her mother is bad, Kyoko has always wanted to have loving parents, like the ones Sho has. Her mother always expected her to get 100% on all of her tests, but Kyoko did not live up to her mother's expectations, even though she tried really hard. She would cry when she didn't get a perfect score but since she did not want to cry in front of Sho, she went to look for a place to cry. This is where she first meets "Corn" (Also known as "Kuon" or "Ren") Later, she realizes that she was brainwashed into believing that a perfect score is the only way to go. She realizes that a normal person would be very happy to have the grades that she got at school. She loves fairy tales, being fascinated by the idea of an ordinary girl suddenly becoming a beautiful princess loved by everyone.

Ren Tsuruga (敦賀 蓮 Tsuruga Ren)

Voiced by: Ken Narita (drama CD), Katsuyuki Konishi (anime)

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 maintain his polite facade in front of her. He was originally unhappy with Kyoko because of her impure reasons for joining show business, and frequently found ways to annoy and tease her. 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 that ranked Sho seventh, causing the latter to have strong feelings of jealousy and rivalry towards him. Ren tends to become insecure whenever anything happens between Shō 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 Shō's closeness to her, Ren has no intention of giving Kyoko over to him. Ren's mysterious past is another obstruction to his romantic feelings towards Kyoko yet to be fully explored in the manga. However, it is known that the actor of 'Katsuki' in the first Tsukigomori is his father. Tsuruga Ren is a stage name Ren adopted to escape the shadow of his father's fame. It is also known that he had a violent and painful past.

Shō Fuwa (不破 尚 Fuwa Shō)

Voiced by: Nobutoshi Kanna (drama CD), Mamoru Miyano (anime)

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 support him in Tokyo, 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, but stole her first kiss so that she would hate him and obsess over him. 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 ("Mōko") Kotonami (琴南 奏江 Kotonami Kanae)

Voiced by: Yukiko Tagami (drama CD), Risa Hayamizu (anime)

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 nicknamed her Moko because of her habit of saying "mō" as an interjection. 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 best 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. She is convinced that Ren Tsuruga is in love with Kyoko because of the way he acts toward Kyoko.

Yukihito Yashiro (社 倖一 Yashiro Yukihito)

Voiced by: Masahito Kawanago (anime)

He is Ren's manager. When first seen he is a serious character, later on he is used largely for comic relief. We get a better understanding of Ren’s subtle emotional shifts from Yashiro’s not-so-subtle reactions to Ren’s interactions with Kyoko. He fully supports a romantic relationship between the two and often needles Ren about his lack of progress in that area. He also tends to associate anything Ren says to Kyoko and Ren’s feelings for her, even before Ren himself came to terms with them. He doesn't know how to drive, which is why Ren is always seen doing the driving.

He must use latex gloves when handling electronics because any electronic device that he touches directly will soon be rendered useless. In particular, he has mentioned that a cell phone will die after about 10 seconds of direct exposure to his skin.

Lory Takarada (ローリィ宝田 Rōri Takarada)

Voiced by: Banjo Ginga (drama CD), Kouji Ishii (anime)

Lory is the extravagantly flamboyant president of L.M.E. (Lory’s Majestic Entertainment) and Maria's grandfather. He is one of the first people to recognize Kyoko’s potential of being a great star, and created the "Love Me" section because of this. He seems genuinely concerned for Kyoko and wonders what could have happened in her past to cause her to lose the ability to love. He learns in Vol. 4 that Kyoko does not have a father and has a bad relationship with her mother but does not know the details. Later, when he learned that she dropped out of school he arranges for her to attend a high school that accommodates students working in show business and their hectic schedules.

Takenori Sawara (椹 武憲 Sawara Takenori)

Voiced by: Tomoyuki Kōno (drama CD), Kenji Hamada (anime)

He is the head of L.M.E.'s talent section. Sawara was tormented by Kyoko into allowing her to take part in L.M.E.'s newcomer audition (Kyoko originally auditioned under "Talent" rather than "Acting"). Despite the initial meeting, he is actually very supportive of Kyoko, even through her penchant for tripping her own career up.

Maria Takarada (宝田 マリア Takarada Maria)

Voiced by: Hiromi Konno (anime)

Maria is the granddaughter of the president of L.M.E. and used to use her cute appearance to get people's sympathy. She did so before Kyoko's audition; however Kyoko recognized this, and called her out on it. While some people would be angry at Kyoko, Maria began to idolize her, and views her as an ultimate big sister. Maria also suffered from a huge guilt complex from her believing that she is the cause of her mother's death. As a result, Maria thought that her father hates her. Kyoko managed to make Maria understand that her father didn't hate her, or think that Maria caused her mother's death. Maria shares an interest in black magic with Kyoko and has a large crush on Ren Tsuruga.

Shoko Aki (安芸 祥子 Aki Shōko)

Voiced by: Rio Natsuki (anime)

Shoko Aki is Shō Fuwa's manager at Akatoki Agency. Since he and Kyoko split he's been living at her place. Actually he was already living at her place most of the time even when he was still living with Kyoko, though the two of them, Kyoko and Shoko, get along rather well. Shoko Aki herself wanted to become an actress (Act.85), but decided she didn't have the talent for it. But she still wanted work that was connected with show business, and got a job as a manager. She also believes Shō has feelings for Kyoko, and tries to hint at him that he should confess his feelings to her.

[† RazorDan]

havn't read it, but this was once awesome series. I think I rated it a 10 but I can't remember lol

IS there ever gonna be a second series? I would definitely watch it!

[Koudelka]

I have to admit i got sucked in to this one both the manga and the anime- the anime stops in the middle of a story arc so you'd think they would have a second series but it has been quite a while and i've not found any real news that one is in the works (not that i can read Japanese to investigate very well!) i'd definately like to see a second series!

[† Talena Mae]

The anime and the manga thus far have been epic! I'm loving it, I know what you mean Koudelka, they did stop in the middle of an arc.

I don't think there will be a second series, it has been a few years since it stopped ariing... but we can hope.

They are making a live action film out of it though, so fingers crossed it will increase the popularity of the manga/anime again so they will make the second series that everyone is waiting for!

[mriana]

I hope there's gonna be a second season of the anime, the ending was kinda terrible I think, and tell the truth it would be great to see Reino walking and talking. The manga is great, it's always on the top 5 most popular series - as I see.

I don't know how the live action has been turned out - but I guess it couldn't be that bad after all Taiwanese are kinda "not normal" anyway - of course in a good way "not normal", I like Taiwanese dramas so don't misunderstand-.

[† RazorDan]

I personally want more, but like mae said, its been a while and I'm not to hopeful. I've noticed its not that popular with guys, i'm the only one i know who has seen it lol

[† Talena Mae]

I personally want more, but like mae said, its been a while and I'm not to hopeful. I've noticed its not that popular with guys, i'm the only one i know who has seen it lol

You never know RD, with the new live action they have brought out they may consider doing a second season now if the fan base builds up again.

[mriana]

Well I've read somewhere that fans's written a letter to Nakamura Yoshiki-sama about if she knows anything about the 2nd season of Skip Beat! - it was a pretty long letter even with names ~if i remember well, ~ to ask her make a 2nd season - she has even answered, and said it's not that easy to make preparations for an anime, and she was glad that lot of people like her manga, and asked everyone to keep follow her series. Well actually I don't really know if there is gonna be a 2nd season or not, but I heard that they are waiting for Yoshiki-sama to finish the manga ~ I'm not sure if this is true or not ~ >.<

[harper160]

I love both the anime and the manga I hope the do a second season

[Puking_Rainbows]

I haven't read the manga, though I do plan on it. But I loved the anime! I keep hoping they will make a season 2 since the first one ended meh... I wanted some love..

[† Talena Mae]

It has been... three years (about) now. I dont think they will make a second one... but we can hope.

I must say though, i am happy with how they have made the live action skip beat. it follows closely with the manga.

Puking_Rainbows: I suggest you go read the manga, it is great! ^.^ doo eeeet do ettt now ^.^

[HeyVinh]

Extravagant Challenge is getting really good! I tried reading it, but for some reason I can't get over this manga's style. I don't know why, but it bothers me and prevents me from continue reading, so I'll just continue watching the series as it goes on.

[† Talena Mae]

the first few were drawn... in the older style, but the newer ones are drawn really well.

[Yuki_Yume]

Yeah, first ones art wasnt good but it got better lately ~

And plot is becoming interesting

Many mystery is solved

like ren's origin

[BlackLolitarose]

The manga is amazing: funniest thing I've ever read. I haven't gotten to see the anime yet but I want to. I hope they make another season of the anime because they could do it easily.