Skip Beat! (anime)
Posted on April 9th, 2009
Skip Beat! (anime)
[Rating: 8/10]
Genre: Shoujo, Comedy
Kyoko Mogami is an ordinary teenage girl who discovers that Sho Fuwa, the childhood friend she has a crush on is only using her to do his dirty work. Sho is an upcoming pop idol who aims to make it to the top of the charts. Angered by his deceit, Kyoko decides to show him up by entering showbiz and beating him at his game! Will she succeed?
Skip Beat is awesome, not even for me to give it a perfect score but I definitely recommend it~ Based on the manga (and quite a good adaptation at that!) the characters couldn’t have been animated better. The dialogue and comic timing is sharp and witty, there will be something in every episode that makes you laugh, want to facepalm in exasperation, and feel for Kyoko’s misadventures that usually turn out all right in the end. The biggest appeal to me is that all the main characters are not stereotypical shoujo characters, they all have pretty solid characterization and back stories. Even though I this Sho is a bastard, at times I couldn’t help but feel a little sympathetic for him. I’m a huge Ren x Kyoko shipper and hope that there is a second season or that they’ll at least end up together in some way in the manga (which is still ongoing). It also presents the hardwork, stress and tensions going on behind-the-scenes of the seemingly glamorous world of acting and celebrities in a pretty realistic light. The voices behind the characters carry some big name talents such as Miyano Mamoru (Sho) and Katsuyuki Konishi (Ren) as the two main male leads, everyone’s talents complimenting each other nicely.
A great anime which has the potential to hit it off with many anime fans as while it is a shoujo anime for girls, the romance is not played up and doesn’t take center stage. It is more of a coming of age show (on Kyoko’s part) and an ‘insider’s’ look into the entertainment industry in Tokyo.
Filed under: ** anime, romantic comedy, shoujo