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Posts Tagged Skip Beat

Review: Skip Beat! (Vol. 23)

By Lissa Pattillo on Monday, April 18, 2011

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Reviewer: Shannon Fay

Manga-ka: Yoshiki Nakamura
Publisher: viz Media
Rating: Teen (13+)
Release Date: April 2011

Synopsis: “Chiori’s rage threatens the whole production when she lashes out and hurts Kyoko. Kyoko is used to overcoming obstacles, and she uses her injury as an excuse to push Chiori into exploring her acting. But Chiori has a traumatic past. Will focusing on the dark side of her character bring it all rushing back?!”

My favourite parts of Skip Beat are when the characters talk about acting and examine their craft. Unfortunately, this volume takes that aspect too far. There’s long stretches of the book where the characters just go on and on, explaining their machinations and motivations. At certain points it seems more like a volume of Death Note than Skip Beat.

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Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: Manga, Skip Beat, Viz Media

Review: Skip Beat! (Vol. 21)

By Shannon Fay on Thursday, August 19, 2010

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Reviewer: Shannon Fay

Manga-ka: Yoshiki Nakamura
Publisher: Viz Media
Rating: Teen (13+)
Release Date: August 2010

Synopsis: “Kyoko is basking in the glow of working a Christmas miracle and getting some birthday booty of her own. But she’s so unused to this kind of joy that she ends up late to the script reading for her new drama. Now her whole day is a mess and Ren is mad at her! Can Kyoko balance revenge, a career and her own happiness?”

I find I enjoy Skip Beat most when the characters are pretending to be other people. That’s not a dig at the main characters. I really like Kyoko and Ren and find them a nice change from usual shojo leads. But,when they’re acting, or at least working on their craft, that’s when it feels like the manga is firing on all cylinders. This volume brings the focus back to show business world, making it one of the better volumes in the series in a long time.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Manga, Shoujo Beat, Skip Beat, Viz Media

Review: Skip Beat! (Vol. 20)

By Lissa Pattillo on Monday, March 15, 2010

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Reviewer: Lissa Pattillo

Manga-ka: Yoshiki Nakamura
Publisher: Viz Media
Rating: Teen (13+)
Release Date: March 2010

Synopsis: “It’s the season of giving in Tokyo, but Lory’s granddaughter Maria is in no mood to celebrate. Kyoko, never one to sit out a challenge, finally gets Maria to admit what has her so soured on the holidays. It turns out December 24 is Maria’s birthday–and the anniversary of her mother’s death! Can Kyoko work a Christmas miracle and give this little girl a happy birthday?”

Does it seem to anyone else that Kyoko has lost most of what made her interesting originally? It’s easy not to notice when spread out over twenty progressing volumes, but a volume like this really hits it home when having recently reread the earlier books. Where’s the chaos? The bull-headed-ness? The unadulterated spite? Well, at least we have love, friendship and smiles trying to fill that void – for better or worse.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Manga, Shoujo Beat, Skip Beat, Viz Media

Release List: October 2009

By Lissa Pattillo on Saturday, October 10, 2009

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October is here and thus Autumn is officially upon us! And as I’m sure everyone knows, October is also the month of Halloween – but do any of these month’s releases offer some spooky complimenting reads?

Let’s take a brief look – CMX has the second volume of Ballad of A Shinigami out (a series of which I really enjoyed the first book of) and Del Rey has volume fourteen of XXXholic. But of course what about the vampires? Digital Manga offers up the next installment of Vampire Hunter D, Tokyopop the long-awaited-by-its-fans next volume of Vampire Doll and volume fourteen of Chibi Vampire, Viz Media’s Rosario+Vampire and Yen Press’s Cirque Du Freak. Those’re just some of the books ready to be enjoyed on dark, eery night so check them out and have a ghoulishly pleasant October!

You can check out the full list of October 2009’s currently scheduled manga releases under the cut:

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Categories: Release Lists
Tags: 20th Century Boys, Negima, One Piece, Skip Beat, Slam Dunk, Viz Signature

Review: Skip Beat! (Vol. 18)

By Shannon Fay on Tuesday, August 18, 2009

3 Comments »

Reviewer: Shannon Fay

Manga-ka: Yoshiki Nakamura
Publisher: Viz Media
Rating: Teen (13+)
Release Date: May 2009

Synopsis: “Kyoko Mogami followed her true love Sho to Tokyo to support him while he made it big as an idol. But he’s casting her out now that he’s famous! Kyoko won’t suffer in silence–she’s going to get her sweet revenge by beating Sho in show biz! Kyoko hasn’t had a Love Me Section job in a while, and this newest assignment is pushing her limits. She’s now the personal assistant to Koo Hizuri, a Japanese actor turned Hollywood star, and everyone knows how assistants are treated in Hollywood! Can Kyoko see past Koo’s meanness, or will his nastiness just make her demons worse?!”

A character in the TV show ‘Slings and Arrows’ once argued that only smart people can be great actors. I’m willing to bet that the manga-ka of Skip Beat would agree with her. The cast of Skip Beat might not be mensa members, but they are smart enough to take a good hard look at themselves before trying to be someone else.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Manga, Shoujo Beat, Skip Beat, Viz Media

Release List: May 2009

By Lissa Pattillo on Tuesday, April 28, 2009

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Five months after I say these release lists will be monthly occurences and suddenly ‘poof’, nothing. Sorry to those who’ve been coming back and looking for them. Your e-mails have not fallen on blind eyes and Kuriousity’s monthly release lists are back! Collecting the release titles in a month can be time-consuming but it’s still something I hope to keep up with that I’ve got myself a much easier system, aka, no author names which saves an amazing amount of time on typing and formatting.

So that said, mark May 2009 as an awesome start to a manga-filled summer and check out of the titles you can look forward to seeing on your bookstore shelves in the next month :)

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Categories: Release Lists
Tags: Black Jack, Fullmetal Alchemist, Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, Negima, Skip Beat

Review: Skip Beat! (Vol. 01)

By Lissa Pattillo on Thursday, August 28, 2008

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Manga-ka: Yoshiki Nakamura
Publisher: Viz
Rating: Teen (13+)
Released: July 2006

Synopsis: “Kyoko knows she’s not plain and uninteresting, no matter what Sho says. With the help of a little makeover, Kyoko’s ready to exact her revenge. But first she needs to land an audition, and she sets her sights on the agency where Sho’s lead rival works. Her persistence pays off, but her broken heart turns out to be a disadvantage. Kyoko has lost the will to love anybody, let alone fans she’s never met. Can the agency see past this problem to Kyoko’s true star potential?”

Skip Beat, volume one, begins the story of Kyoko, a small-town girl who follows her childhood friend to Tokyo as support on his road to fame. While her friend, Sho, steadily reaches his goal of success and popularity, Kyoko discovers that she was asked to tag along as a housemaid over any sort of emotional or romantic support. Heartbroken and angered, Kyoko decides to get vengeance on Sho in the only way she thinks would really hurt him: become a celebrity and become more popular than him.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Skip Beat, Viz Media

Release List: September 2008

By Lissa Pattillo on Monday, August 11, 2008

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Starting with the upcoming September 2008 releases, I’m going to be posting a list of what new manga books you can expect to see in the coming months! Looooong lists, but all the better to excercise our wallets with right? Lists are in alphabetical order, and include their publisher’s logo, volume and creator(s).

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