Comics / Manga

Skip Beat! Volume 37 manga review

By Leroy Douresseaux
September 18, 2016 - 20:36

Skip Beat Volume 37 cover image

Rated “T” for “Teen”

Kyoko Mogami loves her childhood friend, Shotaro “Sho” Fuwa.  She follows him to Tokyo and works hard to support him while he pursues his dream of being a top pop idol.  Sho betrays Kyoko, however, so the 16-year-old decides to get revenge by becoming a bigger star than Sho, who is ranked seventh among the top 20 most popular male celebrities in Japan.

As Skip Beat!, Vol. 37 (Chapters 219 to 224) opens, Kyoko acts as an assistant manager to Moko Kanae, the actress recently injured in a car accident.  Kyoko has also made amazing strides in making her wounded heart whole, but a reunion with her mother, the ice queen attorney, Saena Mogami, will test that.  Plus, another troublesome figure in Kyoko's life returns.

THE LOWDOWN:  I have been receiving review copies of many VIZ Media titles and publications for almost a decade.  My press rep only recently starting sending me copies of the Skip Beat! manga.  I had heard of the series a long time ago, and going by the title, assumed it was either a sports or music manga.  I was only mildly interested in Skip Beat! after reading it for the first time.

Skip Beat! Volume 37 has turned me into a fan of the series.  Of course, I am a long-time easy mark for shojo manga, especially the sugary, pop confections published under VIZ Media's “Shojo Beat” imprint.  There is as much conniving in a volume of Skip Beat! as there is in a week's worth of an American daytime television soap opera (what few remain).  Here, the characters have the long knives out for one another, but creator Yoshiki Nakamura does not allow backstabbing.  That would be too easy.  It is more fun to allow the characters to go at it face to face.  Pungent and edgy, Skip Beat! should not be skipped.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  Fans of tart shojo romance will want to try the Shojo Beat title, Skip Beat!

A-

Rating: A- /10

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12