Manga for the Month of May: Skip Beat!

 [MANGA]

Synopsis: Skip Beat is the story of Kyoko Mogami, a 16-year-old girl who is friends with one of Japan's rising young pop idols, and has been since they were small children.  A family friend, it was always expected Kyoko would marry Sho Fuwa, and she waited on every command of his with a smile until, one day, she overheard that he only keeps her around because she's a decent maid and it looks good to the camera to have her around.  When confronted, Sho throw Kyoko out, but not before she vows to get revenge by beating him in show business.  Met with much mirth at first, Sho perhaps starts paying attention to Kyoko as she starts starring in shows alongside Sho's most envied rival, Tsuruga Ren...

Volumes: 31

Status:  Ongoing

Genres: Comedy, Drama, Romance, Shoujo, Slice Of Life

Author: Nakamura Yoshiki

Commentary:  I stumbled on Skip Beat back in high school when I was looking for acting anime and manga.  This series certainly is the herald of all things acting related.  I started with the anime, and though it has a decent enough resolution as a series, the story and character development does continue in the manga which is always lovely.  So I continued reading on.  The story shirks most traditional shoujo since the goal isn't OMG IS SHE GONNA FALL IN LOVE WITH SO AND SO and doesn't have scenes like THEY'RE HAVING THEIR FIRST DATE THIS IS ADORABLE.  Those might happen, sure (it has been 200 chapters so cut me some slack maybe) but within the course of Kyoko getting her revenge and Ren being the most passive-aggressive actor around.  Because you have to understand - all of the characters are actors, so half the joy of this manga is trying to figure out when they're not just lying to each other but themselves.  It really is great, with a running joke almost every chapter.  There are portions, especially now, when you start to realize that this isn't a fluffy shoujo and the darker sides of people start to emerge, but it doesn't detract from the fact that this is an excellent series, and if I had over three-hundred dollars and shelf space I would buy every volume that hit the states to support it!