Animania

Another anime series I recently tried via CrunchyRoll is Skip Beat!. Based on the on-going manga series by Yoshiki Nakamura (currently being released by Viz Media), the 25 episode anime series ran in Japan from October 2008 through March 2009 and appears to cover only the first twelve volumes of the manga (which is currently up to 23). Like the manga, it focuses on teenager Kyoko Mogami, who forgoes high school to move to Tokyo with her childhood friend Shotaro after he asks her to support him in becoming a star. She lives frugally and works to maintain an expensive apartment, while he works to become a big star. However, when she learns that he only asked her to have her continue acting as his maid and that he doesn't care anything about her, Kyoko undergoes a transformation from a mousy pseudo-housewife to a woman-scorned hell-bent on revenge. She joins the agency of his top rival determined to become an actress and a bigger star than him, but his betrayal left her unable to love anybody, a major problem for any actress who must be able to love her fans.

On the whole, I liked the premise of the series as it seemed pretty promising. I'd been curious about the manga and seeing the anime was available on the Crunchyroll, I decided to give it a whirl. Unfortunately, I was sadly disappointed. The animation is top notch at times and the English subtitles had no glaringly obvious issues that I noticed. Kyoko is a great character. I particularly like that she doesn't do the stereotypical crying of rivers over Sho's betrayal and instead goes a little nuts. Her losing her ability to love was a great twist, and well played as she is otherwise an okay girl with a few twisted quirks. However, the series as a whole is fairly predictable and it emphasizes the comedy too much for my taste, to the detriment of the story. A lot of otherwise great scenes are ruined by chibi animation, exaggerated physical gags and facial expressions, screaming, and just plain silliness. This just does not suit me at all, and I found it quickly turned me off to the series.

I also found the series quite predictable, to the point I only watched the first 4 episodes, scanned two middling episodes, then skipped to episode 25, and wasn't lost at all. It because pretty easy to guess how Kyoko would react to situations quickly, such as her stalking of the agency representative, and his coming to grudgingly admiring her (while fearing her) enough to support her efforts. Ren Tsuruga, Sho's rival whom Kyoko is seen cursing early in the series, was the obvious one to become her real love interest (and presumably true love by the series end). Though really, his attraction is hard to understand since he seems to have as much personality as a blade of grass. The childhood connection that is eventually revealed between them was an interesting twice I didn't expect, but left unexplored by the end of the series and largely unknown to them. The anime itself also doesn't really end at all. It stops right in the middle of an actual bit of trouble then just leaves it there without resolution. It also leaves Kyoko and Ren's romance largely up in the air, which is a secondary annoyance.

All in all, if you like over the top romantic comedy with a lot of gags and exaggerations, you'll probably like this series. If you actually want a romance with a little comedy that has the right amount of drama and good story that would go with the stated premise, look elsewhere. From reading reviews of the manga, it seems the same problem exists there regarding the comedic element, so while it appears to have a more fleshed out story-line (and Sho actually remains a rival for Kyoko's affections), I think I'll be skipping it as well.

Rating: C-