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Feb. 17th, 2011 11:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsI was going to say, 'so I started reading Skip Beat . . .'
But uh since I just chewed through volumes 4-8 yesterday at a terrifyingly rapid clip and am now currently SCOURING THE LIBRARY SYSTEM to see if I can get my next fix from any of the libraries within walking distance on my lunch break without having to wait for them to be sent to me, I, um, I guess 'started' is not the right term anymore?
Anyway: all of you who recommended me Skip Beat, you are clearly excellent and wise, because I am already in love with so many things about it. SO MANY THINGS.
Skip Beat is about Kyoko, a sweet and hardworking doormat who dropped out of school and ran away to Tokyo to support her childhood friend super-hot budding idol Sho - except in the first chapter it turns out that Sho has just been using her while he climbs to the top, and her whole life has revolved around someone who doesn't care anything about her.
So of course Kyoko promptly swears that she will become a super-famous idol just so she can STOMPLE SHO INTO THE GROUND.
Obviously it is not so easy, but on the other hand Kyoko is a ridiculously terrifying Determinator. She will work harder than ANYONE to rise up from the top and achieve her goal! She will stalk the managers and hover menacingly in their direction until they give in! She will wear hideous uniforms! She will dress like a giant chicken! If you tell her to clean up a spot on the floor, dammit, she will polish the WHOLE HALLWAY UNTIL IT SHINES! Everyone in the industry who meets her is like, "Dang, that girl has serious guts and talent! Shame that she's basically a seething ball of vengeance-driven demonic hatred."
(Kyoko does not actually look like a chicken most of the time. BUT SHE WILL WEAR THE CHICKEN SUIT ALL THE TIME IF THAT'S WHAT IT TAKES.)
The most hilarious thing about Skip Beat is that it's basically a shonen sports story . . . about ACTING. There are rivalries and challenges and ACTING BATTLES; multiple times, people are like "the show must go on! So I will act . . . THROUGH THE PAIN OF MY BROKEN LEG!" and "I will destroy you by being SO MUCH a better actor than you that you will have no choice but to react the way I want you to in this scene! OWNED!"
Also, with all the show-biz-leveling-up exercises, I keep having highly enjoyable flashbacks to all my summers of drama camp. (I was terrible at drama camp, for the record. BUT I LOVED IT ANYWAY.)
And meanwhile there is the heartwarming story of Kyoko realizing that she's starting to love acting and show business for herself, and not just because she wants REVENGE, and also going back to school, and also: MAKING FRIENDS FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER. Kyoko's ways of making friendships are unorthodox, and go something like this:
KYOKO'S AGENCY DIRECTOR: Kyoko, if you tame my little spoiled-brat granddaughter, I will pay for your acting lessons.
KYOKO: Okay! Hey, Maria, CRYING GETS GIRLS NOWHERE IN LIFE EXCEPT SUFFERING AND HEARTBREAK.
MARIA: . . .
KYOKO: By the way, are those voodoo curse dolls that you're playing with?
MARIA: Yes . . .
KYOKO: Wanna see mine? >:D
MARIA: omg Kyoko you're so evil, YOU UNDERSTAND ME, I love you please be my big sister! *___*
KYOKO: Well, that was easy.
KYOKO'S AGENCY DIRECTOR: . . .
KYOKO: Hey Kanae, we are agency newbies together, and now that my life is not all about Sho I have realized I want girlfriends! let's be friends! let's be friends! let's be friends! :D :D :D
KANAE: How many times do I have to tell you, I do not want to be friends. WE ARE AGENCY RIVALS REMEMBER.
KYOKO: Let us overcome obstacles together and be BFF forever! :D :D :D
KANAE: Well, we can overcome this one obstacle together. One. But that does not mean we're friends.
KYOKO: :DDDDDDDD!
KANAE: . . . or maybe two obstacles. BUT THAT'S IT.
KYOKO: Let's go shopping together! I bought you ice cream!
KANAE: I guess this ice cream tastes pretty good.
KYOKO: That's because it tastes like ~*~friendship~*~ >:D >:D >:D
(Seriously, Kyoko's determination to become friends with Kanae is hilariously adorable. She looooooooves her. She thinks she's so cool and awesome and talented and SHE JUST WANTS TO HAVE A BEST FRIEND, OKAY. She constructs elaborate fantasies in which they skip gleefully through the streets together! She calls her for advice, and when Kanae calls her back she forgets to actually talk into the phone because she's so busy being excited that Kanae ~*~cares~*~!)
And then of course there is the future dude love interest, Ren, BIGGEST SUPERSTAR IN JAPAN, who spends the first few volumes clutching his pearls about Kyoko's ~impure motives!~ for joining show business and being a kind of hilariously judgy troll while his manager is just like "god, your reputation is built on being cool and mature and yet I have never seen anyone react this ridiculously to having a crush." (Meanwhile, Kyoko flips him off and gives him a corner in her shrine of hatred.)
But all this hilarity aside, the basic thing is that I just really really love stories about girls who have been living for other people figuring out how to live for themselves. (Kyoko and Yoko from Twelve Kingdoms should start a CLUB.)
But uh since I just chewed through volumes 4-8 yesterday at a terrifyingly rapid clip and am now currently SCOURING THE LIBRARY SYSTEM to see if I can get my next fix from any of the libraries within walking distance on my lunch break without having to wait for them to be sent to me, I, um, I guess 'started' is not the right term anymore?
Anyway: all of you who recommended me Skip Beat, you are clearly excellent and wise, because I am already in love with so many things about it. SO MANY THINGS.
Skip Beat is about Kyoko, a sweet and hardworking doormat who dropped out of school and ran away to Tokyo to support her childhood friend super-hot budding idol Sho - except in the first chapter it turns out that Sho has just been using her while he climbs to the top, and her whole life has revolved around someone who doesn't care anything about her.
So of course Kyoko promptly swears that she will become a super-famous idol just so she can STOMPLE SHO INTO THE GROUND.
Obviously it is not so easy, but on the other hand Kyoko is a ridiculously terrifying Determinator. She will work harder than ANYONE to rise up from the top and achieve her goal! She will stalk the managers and hover menacingly in their direction until they give in! She will wear hideous uniforms! She will dress like a giant chicken! If you tell her to clean up a spot on the floor, dammit, she will polish the WHOLE HALLWAY UNTIL IT SHINES! Everyone in the industry who meets her is like, "Dang, that girl has serious guts and talent! Shame that she's basically a seething ball of vengeance-driven demonic hatred."
(Kyoko does not actually look like a chicken most of the time. BUT SHE WILL WEAR THE CHICKEN SUIT ALL THE TIME IF THAT'S WHAT IT TAKES.)
The most hilarious thing about Skip Beat is that it's basically a shonen sports story . . . about ACTING. There are rivalries and challenges and ACTING BATTLES; multiple times, people are like "the show must go on! So I will act . . . THROUGH THE PAIN OF MY BROKEN LEG!" and "I will destroy you by being SO MUCH a better actor than you that you will have no choice but to react the way I want you to in this scene! OWNED!"
Also, with all the show-biz-leveling-up exercises, I keep having highly enjoyable flashbacks to all my summers of drama camp. (I was terrible at drama camp, for the record. BUT I LOVED IT ANYWAY.)
And meanwhile there is the heartwarming story of Kyoko realizing that she's starting to love acting and show business for herself, and not just because she wants REVENGE, and also going back to school, and also: MAKING FRIENDS FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER. Kyoko's ways of making friendships are unorthodox, and go something like this:
KYOKO'S AGENCY DIRECTOR: Kyoko, if you tame my little spoiled-brat granddaughter, I will pay for your acting lessons.
KYOKO: Okay! Hey, Maria, CRYING GETS GIRLS NOWHERE IN LIFE EXCEPT SUFFERING AND HEARTBREAK.
MARIA: . . .
KYOKO: By the way, are those voodoo curse dolls that you're playing with?
MARIA: Yes . . .
KYOKO: Wanna see mine? >:D
MARIA: omg Kyoko you're so evil, YOU UNDERSTAND ME, I love you please be my big sister! *___*
KYOKO: Well, that was easy.
KYOKO'S AGENCY DIRECTOR: . . .
KYOKO: Hey Kanae, we are agency newbies together, and now that my life is not all about Sho I have realized I want girlfriends! let's be friends! let's be friends! let's be friends! :D :D :D
KANAE: How many times do I have to tell you, I do not want to be friends. WE ARE AGENCY RIVALS REMEMBER.
KYOKO: Let us overcome obstacles together and be BFF forever! :D :D :D
KANAE: Well, we can overcome this one obstacle together. One. But that does not mean we're friends.
KYOKO: :DDDDDDDD!
KANAE: . . . or maybe two obstacles. BUT THAT'S IT.
KYOKO: Let's go shopping together! I bought you ice cream!
KANAE: I guess this ice cream tastes pretty good.
KYOKO: That's because it tastes like ~*~friendship~*~ >:D >:D >:D
(Seriously, Kyoko's determination to become friends with Kanae is hilariously adorable. She looooooooves her. She thinks she's so cool and awesome and talented and SHE JUST WANTS TO HAVE A BEST FRIEND, OKAY. She constructs elaborate fantasies in which they skip gleefully through the streets together! She calls her for advice, and when Kanae calls her back she forgets to actually talk into the phone because she's so busy being excited that Kanae ~*~cares~*~!)
And then of course there is the future dude love interest, Ren, BIGGEST SUPERSTAR IN JAPAN, who spends the first few volumes clutching his pearls about Kyoko's ~impure motives!~ for joining show business and being a kind of hilariously judgy troll while his manager is just like "god, your reputation is built on being cool and mature and yet I have never seen anyone react this ridiculously to having a crush." (Meanwhile, Kyoko flips him off and gives him a corner in her shrine of hatred.)
But all this hilarity aside, the basic thing is that I just really really love stories about girls who have been living for other people figuring out how to live for themselves. (Kyoko and Yoko from Twelve Kingdoms should start a CLUB.)
