Skip Beat 20
Posted: February 25, 2010 Filed under: Skip Beat 6 Comments »Yoshiki Nakamura – Viz – 2010 – 24+ volumes
I read this volume twice today, along with a ton of other comics, so I feel like I’ve numbed myself to it a bit and am not going to be able to do it justice. Take my word for it, though. This volume was just as heart-crushingly adorable as all the others that have come before it. Maybe more so, because we get to see Kyoko and Maria acting adorable together and they, along with Lory, throwing a big happy “thank you”/holiday/birthday party. Good stuff, and still chock full of the little hilarious asides that make the series amazing.
But yes, that’s basically what happens. After making Maria sad and putting her foot in her mouth about Maria’s birthday (the day her mother died), Kyoko suggests they throw a party to thank all the people in their lives for that year. Maria agrees, and the two of them go all-out preparing the party. Lory is forbidden from helping because he is a guest, so the two receive funding and help from a mysterious “Daddy Long-Legs.” Funny stuff.
The best parts are the… war that Moko wages with herself when trying to acquire the perfect gift for Kyoko. She doesn’t have any problem finding a gift, and in fact, doesn’t intend to give a gift until she spots the perfect item. It is perfectly suited to Kyoko’s tastes. Thus, Moko must embarass herself in order to buy it. This mental tug-of-war is rather expertly depicted. It comes across pretty clearly how Kyoko’s joy is what keeps the blinding rage at bay in Moko’s mind.
Also, there’s Ren. Of course, Ren is invited by both Kyoko and Maria, but he’s of course most excited about Kyoko. A childhood memory also means he gets to act all smooth and nice at the end of the party, a real prince. Ren always steals the show, though. I do hope this leads to something more concrete between them, although the significance of his gift is downplayed when Kyoko gets hit with a series of good things all in a row.
There’s also some interesting family dynamics shown in the Lory/Maria family. We get to meet an awesome uncle, and someone else, too. I was hoping for both to be a little more extreme, being related to Lory and all, but I did like Uncle Tora all the same. And it made for such a sugary sweet story that I can’t bring myself to really find faults with the gentlemen.
Skip Beat still has it. It’s one of my absolute favorite shoujo series of all time. I could literally read it forever and never get tired of it. Although… again, twenty volumes in, I don’t think it’s wrong of me to wish for a little bit more between Ren and Kyoko. I mean, she still has absolutely no idea he has a gigantic crush on her and is also her childhood fairy prince. I mean, he’d only have to tell her that to win her over forever. And man, is he ever cute and little boy-ish around her.
See, only Skip Beat can make me say embarrassing things like that.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
I love this series as well, just reread the whole thing these past weeks…
Since I’m quite new to manga (having only read this and Hana Kimi), I’m wondering if you could recommend a couple on a similar note to these two for future readings?
Thanks so much.
By the way, your reviews are amazingly in depth.
Thanks! I’m glad you like my reviews. ^_^ As for series similar to Skip Beat and Hana-Kimi… hmm… I like Skip Beat because it sort of breaks out of some of the usual shoujo manga devices, so unfortunately there’s not a lot of other series I can think of where the heroine is quite as strong and upbeat as Kyoko. But Hana-Kimi is pretty old-school as far as shoujo manga goes, so there are a lot of series that are pretty similar and just as enjoyable.
- I’ve only read a few volumes, but Boys Over Flowers is a series I always associate with Hana-Kimi. It’s a similar lengthy high school romance that follows a group of friends through their years at school, but it’s slightly more soapy and dramatic in parts than Hana-Kimi. It can get just as silly and funny, though. It’s just a bit older, so the beginning parts can be dated.
- Another classic is Itazura na Kiss. It’s also an older series, and a bit dated, but it’s another long one that follows a couple from their beginnings in high school through marriage and beyond. They hate each other at first, but the characters seem to be slowly developing (I’ve only read the first long-format volume, it just started coming out in English). It’s a comedy, but seems to have a slightly softer touch than Hana-Kimi. It’s a bit slower-paced, though.
- W Juliet is similar to Hana-Kimi in that, again, it tracks a couple through high school. W Juliet has an acting theme, and the couple cross-dresses and are better suited to acting roles in their opposite genders. It has a lot of the same kind of comedy/drama moments as Hana-Kimi, too. It wasn’t quite as good, but still very addictive and easy-to-read.
- Paradise Kiss is one of my favorites. It’s short, and follows a group of friends who are fashion designers in an art-oriented high school and the girl who becomes their model and falls in love with their leader. It’s dramatic, beautiful, off-beat, and everything I love about shoujo manga all in five volumes. It’s a bit darker in tone than either Hana-Kimi or Skip Beat, but completely amazing.
- I was never Fruits Basket’s biggest fan, but it’s a popular series that runs along the same romantic comedy/drama in high school lines. Its twist is that the cheery heroine gets caught up in a huge family that has been cursed with the animals of the Chinese Zodiac, so hugging them turns them into their respective animals. This means they can’t have relationships outside their enormous family, controlled by an abusive “God” character. The heroine sets out to break the curse, of course, and fall in love with one of the two boys who wind up taking her in. I got frustrated because it had too many characters, but it does do a good job of developing every single one of them in touching ways.
- I tend to gravitate towards more mean-spirited series, since conflict makes for pretty addictive drama. Peach Girl and Hot Gimmick are both trashy beyond belief, but I couldn’t put either of them down while I was reading them. Both are high school romances that thrive on drama and putting their heroines through every type of ridiculous melodramatic situation you can think of, all in the name of their crushes. Gakuen Prince also falls into this category, but is so trashy and mean-spirited that I feel uncomfortable reading it. I’m still completely addicted, though.
- I also really like the syrupy-sweet flavor of Korean girls’ comics, which fall into the same category of romantic comedies/dramas set in high school. You’re So Cool, 12th Boy, Sugarholic, and Bird Prince are all along those lines and all very good. Click is another gender-bender, but slightly more mean-spirited and completely addictive as a result. Let Dai is one of my favorite series period, but is about a torrid love affair between two high school boys and the ridiculous amounts of drama and violence that happen around them. Dark stuff, but an incredible read all the same. Goong is a great series that takes the high school romance and makes it among Korean royalty, taking a regular girl and marrying her against her will to the crown prince and dropping her straight in the middle of depressing palace life and the drama that goes with it. It’s also mean-spirited, but very funny, and I love the art and royal costumes.
- There are a few classics that aren’t like Hana-Kimi, but you might enjoy anyway. Fumi Yoshinaga writes wonderful comics for women, and a good starting place is the slice-of-life series Flower of Life, about a group of high school students. Honey and Clover is another slice-of-life/romance/comedy about a group of students in art school that continues through their adult lives. We Were There is an absolutely heartbreaking drama/romance set in high school.
I could keep going, but that’s probably way too much already. ^_^; Let me know if you try any and wind up enjoying them!
Oh my, such an in depth recommendation, I’m going to have to bookmark this page for references :P. Dang, now I want to go try all of them, other than Fruits Basket…
I’m probably going to try out Paradise Kiss first and slowly make my way through…
Thanks so much!
No problem! Glad to help. And I’m happy to hear you’re starting with Paradise Kiss. It really is the best, and is still one of my favorites even seven or so years after I picked it up the first time.
I was so happy while reading this volume… ^_^;
Watching Kyoko and Maria plan and run the party, and Moko dither about buying Kyoko’s gift (and all of the mood-swings that the three girls go through in the process) was very entertaining. It brought a smile to my face, and even a few loud laughs (thankfully I’ve only got a couple of cats with me to disturb right this second). *^_^*
I agree with you about wanting to see Kyoko’s and Ren’s relationship move forward a bit more, and I’m sad that Viz has had to slow the release of the series so much (due to being just behind the Japanese release at this point) from it’s every-other-month schedule.
Skip Beat! and NANA are two of my favorite, must-read-IMMEDIATELY shoujo titles (the recently-concluded Red River was another, along with Basara), and my day was improved by being able to read Skip Beat! #20. Now that it’s read, at least I won’t be taking it with me tomorrow if I have to show up for jury duty. ^_^; As a 36-year old guy, that might get me more than a few odd looks.
I’ll read the book again, this evening…
Ooh, I just picked up the last volume of Red River and still need to start from the beginning. I keep telling myself I’ll start it up when I finish the somewhat unexciting-at-this-point Wild Act. I’ve heard from several people that Red River is highly addictive and a good series to have a lot of volumes on hand for.