Skip Beat 10
Posted: March 3, 2008 Filed under: Skip Beat Leave a comment »This volume is mostly concerned with how to do the best “Dark Moon” drama the characters can make. Three of the characters (Kyoko, Ren, and the director) have personal hurdles to get over concerning the drama, and Kyoko and the director’s problems are dealt with in detail here. The Director has to figure out how to make a drama that’s way better than the drama from 20 years ago so he can escape comparison from the former director, and Kyoko has to figure out how to make her character “hers,” a challenge since this is her first major role.
Of course, Kyoko takes every challenge and defeats it as hard as she possibly can. Her version of the character is almost murderous, and she has a terrifying and accurate portrayal of the character by the end of the volume. She’s so awesome.
I read Swan directly after reading this volume, and let me tell you, it was almost a slap in the face to follow Skip Beat with Swan. After seeing Kyoko sort out her problems with minimal fuss and with so much success, it was hard to switch gears and go to Swan. Volume 12 of Swan started off with Masumi so consumed with… self-doubt, I suppose, and so sure she was going to lose to her rival that she was mimicking her rival’s dance off stage almost subconsciously because she was out of her mind and nearly unable to perform. Masumi is so weak compared to Kyoko, but both series are very good in their own way. The better heroine is probably Kyoko though, and I think my opinion of Masumi forever dropped… it just seemed right for her to be weak in the context of her own series all this time.
