Title: Skip Beat 32
Author: Yoshiki Nakamura
Publisher: Viz Media/ Shojo Beat
American Release Date: December 3, 2013
Format: Manga
Genre: Shojo, Drama
Publisher Age Rating: 13+
Personal Review Rating:B+
Can we choose our own personality to live the life we need?
Synopsis:
Sho has become preoccupied with Kyoko, his manager wishes they would just get together so that things smooth out. But that’s not going to happen anytime soon, especially the way he goes about things. Sho waited outside of Kyoko’s school, and with Mimori helping, he basically kidnaps her into his limo so that they can talk, although it is more of a confrontation with plenty of yelling. Sho is still employing his old tactics of degrading Kyoko to manipulate her.
After Ren sees them in the car together, Kyoko is worried that he will react angrily. She can’t stop thinking about him and he isn’t responding to her messages. Finally, she goes to the apartment in the character of Setsu to find him.
Commentary:
The story and the character development is the real stars of the series. Things have changed so much from the beginning. Kyoko may have some typical characteristics for a shojo protagonist, but is what she has done in her circumstances that makes her different. Skip Beat is a series that appeals to a wider audience demographic than most drama shojo. I’ve met people from teens to forties, male and female who keep up with the series.
Something that really stood out in this volume was that the many personas between Kyoko and Ren are starting to seem like separate individuals. Even the characters notice it, as they wonder which one they are speaking today. I feel like we know the real Kyoko, but I’m not so sure about Ren. With his past, I’m not sure he knows either.
The art style is a bold style and often dynamic, but it lacks consistency. Ren almost looks like someone else, and I don’t mean it in the way he changes personas. It is more when the artist is using a adventurous angle or something. There are times when the guys have the elongated shojo look (which I don’t really like) and at other times, they have realistic proportions. To me, this is the weakest link.
This volume is quick reading, like many of the others. I don’t know why it seems to go by so quickly. But I don’t mean that the pacing was off, in the past, I remember a volume which was all Valentine’s Day and it seemed so slow, now it’s more that it all flows very well. It leaves the reader waiting for the next volume.
Overall Grade: B+
