SKIP BEAT!

“I’m too sexy for my shirt, too sexy for my shirt…” Ren-sama repeats the mantra that gets him through those hellish interviews.

So Skip Beat is finally here and long have we lovers of the manga waited for it. Will we be disappointed? That depends on what you’re looking for I guess.

If all you are concerned about is the story, then you have no need to worry at all. At least going by the first episode, they haven’t really messed around. Don’t worry if you haven’t read the manga I’ll be covering the premise a little bit later.

If you are concerned about the visuals, then, well they aren’t awful, but they aren’t great. Basically its standard fare. The designs are faithful to the manga so thats good to see, but you aren’t going to blown away by the standard of animation as it looks pretty routine.

The OP “Dream Star” by generous, is pretty pleasant and has a feel good optimistic air to it. Which is fitting given the situation and Kyoko’s new outlook by the end of the episode as she starts her new life.

The ED “Namida” by 2BACKKA, is well meh. There isn’t anything special about it and its kind of forgettable, it gets pretty monotonous when the rap part starts and probably would be better without it. The one good thing I can say about the ending is that it has probably the best shot of Ren I’ve seen so far.

The voice acting is decent although I was surprised by the fact that Ren’s Seiyuu, Katsuyuki Konishi, played OZMA in Macross Frontier. Other notable credits include: Haji from Blood +, Guren in Shounen Onmyouji, Radu in Trinity Blood. Well I could go on, the man has been around and looks to be pretty talented.

Marina Inoue provides the voice for Kyoko and gives a good performance, she’s also provided voices for Gurren Lagann (Yoko) and Library Wars (Iku Kasahara) among many others.

Shou’s voice is provided by Mamoru Miyano, whom you may recognize from Vampire Knight as he is the Zero Kiriyuu.

You’re selling me to the pimp down the street for how much?

So for the uninitiated Skip Beat is the story of Kyoko Mogami who is in love with her friend Shou (Shotaro) Fuwa. His parents run a traditional inn at which Kyoko spends a lot of time and learns a lot about the place and how to run it.

Shou isn’t really very princely, but as the picture suggests, more of an ass-hat.

Shotaru has no desire to inherit his parents inn and instead opts to pursue a career in music. He leaves Kyoto and ask Kyoko to come with him and help with his dream. Which she does with full gusto, working jobs to support them, while it appears Shou does nothing in that department.

She denies herself to make sure Shou has everything he needs and is well taken care of.

Kyoko in fangirl mode is truly a scary sight to behold

Kyoko’s life changes however when on one fateful day as she is taking food for him she overhears him sweet talking his manager. He tells his manager that Kyoko is boring and plain and he that he would like to be rid of her.

Now given the shy type of wallflower Kyoko has appeared to be at this point you’d expect her to be in a flood of tears. Instead Kyoko gets angry, I mean really angry (angry enough to release inner demons!) she attempts to attack Shou but is carted off by security guards.

And you thought Taiga from Toradora was scary. Well meet Kyoko!

Poor Kyoko she looks less like a girl and more like a pretty, boy in this shot.

Shou laughingly tells Kyoko that if she wishes revenge on him she should become a bigger star than he is. Fueled by her rage Kyoko makes some radical changes, starting with her appearance and sets about accomplishing that goal.

So that in a nutshell is the premise for Skip Beat and well a summary of the first episode. Skip Beat isn’t going to blow you away, but if you enjoy the manga, as long as they keep to the plot the way they did in the first episode, this should turn out to be a good show.

The animation isn’t anything to write home about but really with Skip Beat its the story and the heroine Kyoko that make this worth watching. Despite the curve ball life throws her, she doesn’t throw in the towel and cry about how her life sucks.

Kyoko gets angry and uses that to pick herself up and make a new life for herself. If only more shoujo heroines could be like her!