I’ve been plowing through the inks for “Small Shen”, seeing that this is the last leg of the book. I hope to get at least all 60 pages done by the end of June, which is a bit of a stretch, but I think I can do it!! Such is the life of rushing deadlines.

I realise I haven’t recommended something for a while, so this week I’ll be writing a recommendation for a popular shoujo manga: Skip Beat!

 

Skip Beat!
(28+ volumes)

I haven’t read Skip Beat! for a while, but I can still remember the totally fun reading experience I had with this series. I only had one afternoon to read it, and I literally speed-read through my friend’s collection. I think I only got up to volume 20, but I would have read more, if more was available at the time.

 

Plot
Skip Beat! follows the story of 16 year-old Kyoko Mogami, who has always been in love with her childhood friend Shotaro Fuwa. While they were growing up, Kyoko acted as Sho’s doormat and gopher, though Shotaro felt no feelings for her, and only thought of her as his slave. Eventually, Sho has Kyoko move to Tokyo so she can slave away as his housekeeper assistant while he pursues a career in showbiz. Sho has some success, though he soon grows arrogant, and Kyoko one day overhears him telling his manager what a boring and plain girl Kyoko is… thus sparking a falling out between Sho and Kyoko that can only be described as “epic”.

Kyoko realises that Sho never cared for her to begin with, and the confrontation between the two causes Sho to throw her out of his house. In retaliation, Kyoko decides to take revenge on Sho, by getting a make-over and climbing the showbiz ladder herself. Her ultimate goal being revenge, she eventually meets another movie star called Tsuruga Ren, who eventually falls in love with her. As their relationship progresses, Kyoko starts to learn more about herself, and to develop a sense of purpose and self outside her initial goals of revenge.

 

Why I recommend this story
I think I’ve made Skip Beat! sound darker than it really is. This actually is a comedy series with streaks of drama and romance, and instead of the usual earnest angst that characterises such stories, this goes for laughs instead if dark moments. In the demographics stake, Skip Beat! falls firmly into the “shoujo romance” category, but with one glaring difference – this one takes the usual shoujo tropes of doormat heroine and distant love interest, and subverts them in a wicked way.

There’s been other shoujo stories such as Kare Kano and Fruit Baskets that also subvert the typical shoujo heroine, but this one out-does in the other two in its gleeful depiction of Kyoko’s darker moments. In fact, this can be said of all the other characters that appear in the series – all of them have a lot more to them than initially meets the eye, especially when it comes to negative traits. That’s not to say they’re two-faced or unlikeable. Most of the characters are adorable, despite their selfishness and pettiness – this is one manga that actually celebrates the way the characters revel in their bad behaviour, whereas another manga would punish them for the same transgressions.

Is it right for a character to be driven entirely by revenge? The story is subtle in the way that Kyoko eventually comes to realise that she really does enjoy showbiz, and that she can have a career outside her single-minded pursuit of Sho’s demise. That’s not to say that this manga has a realistic take on Japanese show-biz – this is pure character dramady, with show-biz as a backdrop, and the creator even freely admits she barely knows anything about actualy show business.

Not that it matters much. Skip Beat! is funny, is charming, and never takes itself too seriously. If you’re looking for something light-hearted with a sweet and upbeat heroine who only has the one flaw of being hilariously nasty about the guy who betrayed her, then this is your book. It’s wonderful to see Kyoko’s negative traits in full-force, because you rarely see such things handled in such a well-balanced and funny way in shoujo.