Skip Beat! 11 Another episode of Skip Beat, another bunch of show business lessons for Kyoko to learn. This episode had her realizing that her place is still far beneath Sho’s in the show biz hierarchy, and that Ren is a much cooler guy than she had initially thought. I can’t decide whether to keep blogging about this show because the pace is so slow - there isn’t much to say. I read about a hundred chapters of the manga to date and LOVED it, so I’m pretty impatient with the anime now. The most interesting aspect of the Skip Beat manga (beyond the Kyoko x Ren romance which is sweet but epically slow-moving) is the way Kyoko and her fellow actors struggle and use their own life experiences to develop roles. This makes the story quite episodic - which is a total interest-killer for me in anime - but the solutions they devise for their problems are always really interesting. The first serious instance of this character development happens in Mouko and Kyoko’s CM audition arc, which is set to begin next week. I just don’t feel that Skip Beat’s long explanations of scenes, character motivations and method acting translate as well in this animated version as they do on the printed page. That being said, I’m going to keep watching the anime (I just might not watch it immediately as it’s released). And if anyone is looking for a good plot-driven, romantic and intelligent shoujo manga, Skip Beat is highly recommended.
Read the rest of this entry Entry meta