Comics / Manga

Skip Beat! Volume 38 manga review

By Leroy Douresseaux
March 12, 2017 - 23:08

Skip Beat Volume 38 cover image

Rated “T” for “Teen”

Kyoko Mogami loved her childhood friend, Shotaro “Sho” Fuwa.  She followed him to Tokyo and worked hard to support him while he pursued his dream of being a top pop idol.  Sho betrayed Kyoko, so the 16-year-old decided 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. 38 (Chapters 225 to 230) opens, Kyoko tries to save face with Ren Tsuruga, the actor with whom she has a complicated relationship.  That's nothing, really.  Now, it is time for Kyoko to confront Saena “Sae” Mogami, the mother who abandoned her.  Saena's story is one of a young female lawyer, a big upcoming trial, possible corporate espionage, and a seemingly caring young man who is always bringing food to Saena.

[This volume includes the bonus manga, “How They Acted Then: Human Kaleidoscope in the Dead of Night.”]

THE LOWDOWN:  I am late to the Skip Beat! party.  I have been receiving review copies of many VIZ Media titles and publications for a decade, but my press rep only started sending me copies of the Skip Beat! manga within the last two years.

Before there was the television series, “Empire,” on the FOX network, there was Skip Beat!  I think that if someone produced an “Empire” comic book, there would be very few comic book creators that could write it better than Skip Beat creator, Yoshiki Nakamura.

Skip Beat! Volume 38 starts off with some boring fluff between two youngsters.  That is just pastry puff compared to the main course of this volume – the confrontation between super-estranged mother-daughter duo, Sae and Kyoko.  You could cut the tension between mother and daughter, but you would need a lightsaber or Wolverine's claws.  Holla!  Vol. 38 does not disappoint, and it also does a big part of its job – make readers want to come back for Vol. 39.  I ain't skipping Skip Beat!

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Fans of tart shojo romance will want to try the Shojo Beat title, Skip Beat!

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Rating: A /10

Last Updated: January 17, 2025 - 08:20