ComicBookBin

Johnny Bullet
Manga
Skip Beat! Volume 37 manga review
By Leroy Douresseaux

September 18, 2016 - 20:36

Publisher(s): Viz Media
Writer(s): Yoshiki Nakamura, Tomo Kimura
Penciller(s): Yoshiki Nakamura
Letterer(s): Sabrina Heep
ISBN: 978-1-4215-8714-1
$9.99 U.S., $12.99 CAN, 192pp, B&W, paperback
Rating: T (Teen)


skipbeat37.jpg
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-




© Copyright 2002-2019 by Toon Doctor Inc. - All rights Reserved. All other texts, images, characters and trademarks are copyright their respective owners. Use of material in this document (including reproduction, modification, distribution, electronic transmission or republication) without prior written permission is strictly prohibited.