Skip beat!

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Skip beat!
Original title ス キ ッ プ ・ ビ ー ト!
genre Romantic comedy
Manga
country JapanJapan Japan
author Yoshiki Nakamura
publishing company Hakusensha
magazine Hana to Yume
First publication February 2002 - ...
expenditure 42
Anime television series
Country of production JapanJapan Japan
original language Japanese
year 2008
length 25 minutes
Episodes 25 in 1 season
First broadcast October 5, 2008 on TV Tokyo
synchronization

Skip beat! ( jap.ス キ ッ プ ・ ビ ー ト! sukippu bīto! ) is a manga series by the illustrator Yoshiki Nakamura . It can be assigned to the genre Shōjo , for girls.

content

Kyōko Mogami has just finished middle school and lives with the family of her sandpit friend Shōtarō Fuwa, as her mother has never looked after her. At Shotaro's request (or Sho for short), she runs off with him to Tokyo. She supports Shōtarō in trying to become a pop star. She takes three jobs at the same time to enable Shōtarō and herself to live in a luxury apartment. Shōtaro does not appreciate their support and devotion, however, and reciprocates their affection with ignorance and vanity. When Kyōko himself has to listen to Shōtarō commenting on her as a servant in her absence, she realizes that he has only taken advantage of her. Seriously disappointed and driven by a thirst for revenge, she tries to start her own career at the agency that competes with Shōtarō's artist agency.

The entry into the show business is difficult for Kyōko, however, as she has no training in acting. After several attempts, she makes it to a casting, but is rejected there. They have "the feeling of wanting to be loved" and "not the feeling of wanting to love" - ​​an essential quality for artists towards their fans. But her unyielding manner inspires the actor and chairman of the agency and gives him the idea of ​​founding the "Love Me Section". In this, hidden talents should be able to fight for acceptance in the agency through special commitment. As the first and only member of this group, she has to support other stars with all means during their performances. In the agency, Kyōko meets the popular actor Ren Tsuruga, who is in competition with Shōtarō and suggests that her feelings of revenge only harm her.

But Kyoko doesn't stop sticking to her plans and continues to try to hit Shōtarō. Accordingly, she puts all her heart and soul into her work, where she befriends Kotonami Kanae, who was also directed to the "Love me Section", is briefly addressed by Kyoko as Moko-san. Even if Kanae can't stand Kyōko at the beginning, the lively 16-year-old finally grows on her heart. Her relationship with Ren also improves over time. From the initial antipathy, affection gradually develops. Kyoko's involvement as a short-term replacement for Ren's manager Yashiro plays a role - when Ren falls ill during this time, Kyōko conscientiously takes care of her mentor. Ren also discovers that he met Kyoko in his youth, when he was still called "Kuon". But since he has changed his name and appearance, Kyoko does not know that the boy she remembered as "Corn" is her Senpai Ren. Ren increasingly realizes that he is in love for the first time in his life - with Kyōko. Kyoko, too, begins to admire Ren as a person and an actor and begins to feel more than just respect for him. But due to her bitter experiences, Kyoko forbids any thoughts that go beyond professional matters. Yashiro tries again and again to persuade Ren to tell Kyōko the truth about his feelings, but his words are ignored. Because of his past, Ren is convinced that he doesn't deserve happiness.

It owes Kyōko to her grandiose acting in a very successful music video of her archenemy Shōtarō Fuwa that she gets the main role of the antagonist in a multi-part drama in which Ren plays the male lead. Kyōko can develop an excellent reputation as an actress of evil characters through her role as Mio - the vicious and diabolical cousin of the female lead who literally tortures her sister. Soon Shōtarō's good relationship between Kyōko and Ren is a thorn in the side. After all, he still sees Kyōko as his property. So he messes with Ren at every opportunity and tries to humiliate Kyoko to show her that she still belongs to him. Ren's relationship with Shōtaro is more than bad. The fact that the successful singer was Kyōkos first great love and broke her heart on the side, is decisive for him.

In the singer Reino of the popular band Vie Ghoul , however, another competitor appears who has only one goal: To take Shōtarō for fun, everything that belongs to him. So the swarm of girls is also targeting Kyōko, as he finds her demonic aura attractive. He manages to track them down everywhere, and he becomes their stalker. After an attempted rape on Kyōko, which is prevented by Shōtarō's appearance, he changes his plans. From now on he wants to ruin Kyōko's plans for her future and explains to all those present that from now on he will make her life hell so that Kyōko can feel the same hatred towards him as towards Shōtarō. She'll think of him from morning to night, since hatred puts all other feelings in the shade. However, he changes his plans again when he meets Ren. Reino recognizes Ren's dark past and takes flight. Before that, he warns Kyōko that Ren is supernaturally evil and that she should stay away from him, which Kyōko does not take seriously.

Then Kyoko gets the job of her boss Takarada to look after the international star and actor Kuu Hizuri. Kuu is Ren / Kuon's father, but no one except Takarada, father and son knows this, as the secret of the Alterego Ren Tsuruga is well kept. The fictional person gave Kuon the opportunity to start a new life, which is why he also avoids contact with his parents. Kuu is tasked with luring Ren off the defensive by treating Kyoko rudely and driving her to despair. But Kyoko surprisingly contradicts Kuu and he finally accepts her as a mentor. After she tells Kuu about her acting problems with difficult roles, Kuu gives her the task of portraying his son. Kyoko masters the role in which she takes Corn from her childhood as a role model, not knowing that Corn is actually the son of Kuu. Kuu is enthusiastic and a kind of father-child relationship develops between the two of them. The plan to lure Ren from the reserve succeeds, albeit differently than anticipated. He sees Kyoko as "Corn" and fears that she has learned of his past. Finally, there is a reconciliation between Kuu and Kuon.

For Christmas, Kyōko and Maria, the granddaughter of the head of the agency, host a thank you party . It will be an impressive and wonderful celebration to which Ren is of course also invited. At midnight he gave Kyōko a red rose as a birthday present, making it clear that Ren had researched her birthday, as she had previously kept it from everyone. When she returned home, visibly moved by this, a pink diamond fell out of the flower, which she called Princess Rosa , after a fairy tale that Ren had told her about the rose . She uses it to make a necklace, which she has been wearing around her neck as a symbol ever since.

Before Valentine's Day, Reino visits her again. He blackmailed Kyoko, forcing her to make him Valentine's chocolate, which Sho happened to find out about. Sho therefore suspects that Kyoko and Reino have a relationship and have banded together to torture him. The day before Valentine's Day, Sho unexpectedly shows up at the chocolate handover and tells Kyoko how deep she has sunk just to wipe him out. He doesn't listen to her as she tries to explain and throws the chocolate away, right in front of Reino's feet. Sho's madness amuses him and he lets Sho believe that he and Kyoko are a couple. Sho disappears furiously (with jealousy). Reino finally withdraws with the smashed chocolate, under Kyoko's threat to put Ren back on him.

To apologize for his bad behavior and in the belief that otherwise he will lose Kyoko completely, Shotaro appears on the set of Kyoko's drama the next day with a gigantic bouquet of flowers, much to Ren's annoyance. After Kyoko was finally able to explain everything to her rival, Sho is more than relieved and takes a new tactic to make sure that he controls her mind. He steals her first kiss and leaves, satisfied. But Ren comforts Kyoko and cheers her up again, so that Sho's plan doesn't work.

After a third person has joined the Love-me section, the three get assignments from Takarada. Kyoko's one involves looking after an actor named Cain Heel. Cain Heel turns out to be Yakuza playing Ren Tsuruga, who has secretly accepted a (further) Alterego for PR reasons. Kyoko becomes a supportive role - Cain's sister, Setsuka (called Setsu), and lives with Cain to camouflage. It is Cain's assignment to play the murderer in a thriller called "Tragic Maker" while remaining undetected as Ren Tsuruga. But in the role, Ren repeatedly comes across memories of his previous life and threatens to lose control of himself. After initial difficulties, Kyoko succeeds better and better in playing the role of the affectionate sister, and is the only support for Ren in his crisis situation.

The reader finally learns about Kuon's past, who originally grew up in the USA as a mixed race child. Suffering from constant racism, bullying and the pressure of being an actor with a famous father, the shy young Kuon finally collapsed and tried to beat his opponents to death. When his only friend tried to stop him, he died in an accident. Plagued by guilt, self-hatred and thoughts of suicide, Kuon then fled to Japan and tried to start a new life as Ren Tsuruga. Kyoko and Ren grow closer and closer due to their roles as infatuated siblings and Ren's lack of control over themselves. When Ren learns that Kyoko has told Sho that he is only using Ren as a mentor because of his genius and friendliness in order to grow as an actress, he loses his temper. He attacks her full of disappointment and jealousy. But Kyoko as Setsu manages to give him an insight into her emotional world and an unexpectedly erotic contact occurs for both of them. Ultimately, Kyoko has to admit that despite her fear of love and fierce reluctance, she is in love with Ren. When Takarada gets wind of this, he helps her accept her feelings and promises to help her.

On a final shoot of "Tragic Maker" in Guam, Kyoko follows Ren after contacting her mother for the first time in a long time to get a passport. Since Kyoko arrives earlier than expected, she surprises Kuon, who had to travel with his real name due to his passport and is not yet disguised as Ren again. But since Kyoko recognizes "Corn" in him at first, whom she has always taken to be a fairy, Kuon exploits her pronounced tendency towards fairy tales to cover up his identity. But for the first time the two have casual contact with each other and Kuon symbolically tells Kyoko about his problems. Kyoko, in turn, tells him how grateful she is for her difficult life, since without all the difficult times she would never have gotten to the point where she is that day and would never have developed as a person and an actress. During the time together, Kuon not only realizes that Kyoko has special feelings for both Ren and "Corn", but he also finally succeeds in accepting his own past.

Characters

  • Kyōko Mogami is the main character in this story. She is 16, later 17 years old, very polite and hardworking. She dropped out of school for Sho. In general, she has only worked for others all her life, which is why she falls into a crisis of meaning when she learns that Sho has only used her as a maid. Through Sho's lousy behavior, a box is opened inside Kyokos, from which revenge spirits, little revenge Kyokos, emerge, which then always appear when she is angry and whenever the name "Sho" is mentioned. In order to get revenge on Sho - whom she can no longer get any other way due to his star status - she tries to get into the agency LME, which competes with Sho's artist agency. However, she has no enthusiasm or interest in a particular direction in show business, which is why the path to LME is associated with some difficulties. After having experienced all her life that it is pointless to love someone because one is only disappointed (first by her mother, then by Sho), in the opinion of the President of LME, she lacks what an artist is Not to be missed: “the desire to love and be loved”. Therefore, the president founded the so-called Love-Me-Section, which should help to regain this important feeling. After Kyoko has to play a scene with Ren Tsuruga and he is able to manipulate Kyoko's reactions through his acting skills, she feels for the first time the desire to become just as good an actress. Acting afterwards becomes her great love and helps her to create a new Kyoko Mogami, especially since acting is the first thing in her life that she learns and does for herself. The revenge on Sho, which is her main goal at the beginning, slowly fades into the background because she builds her own identity. The friendships and acquaintances she makes during her work also contribute to this. Kyoko's first real girlfriend becomes Kanae Kotanami, who Kyoko initially can't stand because she sees her as competition. But over time, Kanae realizes Kyokos good natures and they become best friends. This is especially important for Kyoko as she was shunned by all girls in her childhood as they were jealous of her for living with Sho. She was also bullied, her things were thrown away, etc. Ren Tsuruga is also becoming an increasingly important person in her life. Although she initially hates him for his malicious behavior towards her, she soon appreciates and admires him as a more experienced actor. As her collaboration with him intensifies, she has to convince herself more than once that she has no other feelings than respect for him, because she fears that she could fall back into her old self if she even felt this minimally allow. Kyoko has a thing for fairy tales and still believes in fairies. She owns a stone that can change color depending on the incidence of light, and believes that magic can make her sadness disappear. She got this stone when she was six years old from a boy whom she met in the woods by a stream and whom she thought was a fairy prince. Since the boy's name was Koon (Corn), she also calls the stone Koon. In addition, she has an incredible ability to make lifelike voodoo dolls, especially Sho and Ren.
  • Ren Tsuruga , at 20 years old, is the most popular man in show business and a famous actor. He is considered very level-headed and friendly in business, but can become extremely strict and unfriendly when it comes to his work. Like Kyoko, he is with the LME agency, but initially acts extremely maliciously towards her because he cannot accept her motive to get into show business out of revenge. Nevertheless, he notices her strong will and doggedness. Kyoko soon realizes that he always puts on his sparkling gentleman smile when he is very angry, and that he mostly conceals his true, sinister side. When he learns that Kyoko has a stone, which she calls Koon (Corn) after the previous owner who gave it to her, he realizes that she is the girl he knew from his childhood. Since, as Ren Tsuruga (his stage name), he doesn't want anything to do with his past anymore, he doesn't tell her that he is the boy from back then. In the course of history you learn more and more about his past and the reasons why he keeps his true identity under wraps. After recognizing in Kyoko more and more of the character traits she showed as a little girl, and after she assured him that her aspirations to become an actress had nothing to do with her revenge, Ren became more and more open to her towards and often helps her. Little by little he develops feelings for her which he does not understand as such at first and which he does not allow for a while due to his past. Although he had some relationships prior to becoming Ren Tsuruga, the President adamantly tells him that he has never really loved, which confuses Ren. Eventually, he has to realize that he has fallen in love with Kyoko, which brings with it some problems. She meets every advances on his part with a superhuman ignorance, unless he uses his dangerous-erotic charisma, which completely disturbs her. For this reason, he is usually forced to stop such actions, because he knows that she is not yet ready for a love relationship and because of his past he believes that he should not be happy. His "divine smile", as Kyoko calls it, which is actually his love smile, is fatal to Kyoko's spirits of revenge.
  • Shō Fuwa is Kyoko's archenemy and a famous singer from the visual kei genre. He always tries to maintain a cool image. In reality, he laughs at stupid TV shows and doesn’t cut a cool figure. He also loves caramel jelly. Only Kyoko knows this side of him. His secret actual name is Shōtarō, which is also extremely uncool, which is why Kyoko prefers to use this name for him. Sho grew up with Kyoko because Kyoko's mother usually left her with Sho's parents in her ryokan (traditional Japanese restaurant / guesthouse). From an early age, Kyoko ran after him and saw him as her prince. His parents wanted him to get married and run the ryokan, but he wanted to become a musician. He asks Kyoko if she is going to Tokyo with him, otherwise he will have to marry a boring wallflower, with the ulterior motive that she can do the work for him. Kyoko later realizes that Sho's parents taught her techniques that the boss of the house (the ryokan's okami) has to master, and that she was trained to be Sho's wife and that he wanted to escape marriage with her. Sho apparently has an affair with pretty much every woman around him, although he never even put his arm around Kyoko, which underlines once again how boring and unattractive he found her. It wasn't until she was working on the shooting of his music video and he saw her in the role of an angel and realized how beautiful she could actually be, and was also completely shocked at how much her character had changed that his attitude towards her changed. However, he continues to regard them as his property. When the group Vie Ghoul steals songs from him, Kyoko brings him back to his senses, albeit unintentionally. When Vie Ghouls singer Reino, who has extrasensory powers, stalks Kyoko and almost sexually abuses her, Sho saves her and takes care of Reino himself in his own way. Even if at this point it seems as if he was developing feelings for Kyoko, and it is also becoming clear again and again that he feels terrible anger and jealousy when he sees Kyoko with other men, he only manages to turn these feelings into malice and Express ownership by upsetting Kyoko's life. He even goes so far as to steal her first kiss in front of Ren and the entire film crew, just so that she hates him even more and can only think of him. At the same time, he enjoys wiping out Ren Tsuruga with it. Ren is his mortal enemy from the start because he is more famous and popular with women, which Sho's ego cannot stand. When he also notices that Ren clearly has feelings for Kyoko, the competition also moves into the private sphere. Although Ren doesn't see Sho as competition in show business (he doesn't even know his name at first), he knows the importance of Sho for Kyoko and is too easily unsettled by Sho.
  • Kanae Kotonami meets Kyoko at the LME casting and immediately attacks her without Kyoko being able to understand. Finally, like Kyoko, she ends up in the love-me section, which is why Kyoko sees her as a partner, which Kanae doesn't initially like. Kyoko is a competitor for her and she has nothing to do with friendship anyway. Gradually, however, she realizes that she trusts Kyoko, and the two become best friends. Kanae is usually quite cool and mostly rejects Kyoko's affectionate cheesy manner, although Kyoko is very important to her. Kyoko affectionately calls her Moko-san (in the German translation "Miss Menno"). Kanae has great acting talent and can memorize a text in no time at all, but she has just as bad an opinion of love as Kyoko, which is why she also gets into the Love Me section. She detests everything that is bourgeois, because she herself comes from a poor background and wants to escape this milieu. She can't handle children either, because she has a huge family and her siblings' children are always besieging her, which is why she tries to avoid her family, especially since they only pump her out for money anyway.
  • Kuon Hizuri is Ren Tsuruga's real name. He is half Japanese (on his father's side), a quarter of him Russian and a quarter of his American (on his mother's side). He grew up in the US, most likely has an American passport, and always wanted to be an actor like his father. His father is Kuu Hizuri, who is famous in Japan and later emigrated to America. His mother is a famous model. When he was ten, while on vacation in Japan, he met Kyoko, to whom he gave the stone, which she later called Koon (Corn), as she understood Kuon's name as Koon (Corn) due to its American accent. He has blonde hair and green eyes, loves nature and animals and has enormous acrobatic skills, which is why Kyoko thinks he is a fairy prince and says he can fly (since he can jump so high). Kuon does not contradict her, but claims that his wings are only shredded every time because they get caught on his father's huge hands. This is to be understood allegorically. Kuon has big problems building its own career in the USA. He has to struggle with the hostility of colleagues and repeatedly hears the accusation that he would only benefit from his father's success. In addition, as a teenager, he was cursed and bullied by others as a freak. At the age of around fifteen, he no longer allows himself to be insulted, but defends himself with violence, which becomes a downright intoxication with violence. When his best friend Rick chases after him one evening to stop him from beating up other opponents, Rick is hit by a car and dies. Kuon blames himself for his friend's death and always wears Rick's broken watch as a reminder of his guilt. After this experience, President Lory, who is friends with Kuon's family, notices Kuon's condition and offers him to start a new life in Japan. With this, Kuon leaves its past behind, has no more contact with its parents, so that its identity is by no means revealed, and creates a new identity as Ren Tsuruga. He does not want to appear again as Kuon until he has managed to make a career in Japan on his own and also to make a name for himself as an actor in the USA. The only people who know his true identity are President Lory and Miss Jelly Woods, who is in charge of his hairstyling. As Ren Tsuruga, he dyed his hair black and wears brown contact lenses. Even as Ren Tsuruga, he still suffers from a bad conscience and believes that he has no right to be happy. In addition, Ren sees his Kuon side as something dangerous that he has to suppress. It is only with Kyoko's help, which is placed at his side through the interference of the president, that he slowly learns to deal with this side.
  • Yashiro is Ren's manager and tends to mutate into a fangirl when it comes to Ren and Kyoko. He is not allowed to touch a cell phone with his bare hands, but only with gloves, because otherwise it will break within seconds. The cause has not yet been researched.
  • Shoko Aki is Sho's manager, with whom he is apparently also having an affair. Most of the time she tries not to give Sho any information about Kyoko and Ren.
  • President Lory Takarada is the President of LME Productions (Lory's Majestic Enterprise) and is extremely extravagant. Whenever it appears somewhere, it turns into a huge show, whether with dancers, camels, a sleigh for Christmas or other fanfare. He loves love stories, whether as a video game, a film or in real life. Therefore, Valentine's Day is also his favorite festival. He often pulls the strings behind the scenes and was the one who enabled Ren to start a new life in Japan.
  • Maria Takarada is the granddaughter of the president and a rather gloomy, but at the same time cute girl. She shares an interest in voodoo with Kyoko and thinks Ren is great. She is trauma because her mother was killed in a plane crash. Maria had wanted her mother to fly to her for her birthday, so Maria blames herself for her death and initially has a difficult relationship with her father, who at the time was the first to blame Maria for her death. It is only with Kyoko's help that she slowly learns to trust her father and develop a relationship with him.
  • Bou , Kyoko's first real job, which she continues to do on the side, is the role of the rooster mascot for the show Bridge Rock , where she wears a full-body costume. As Bou, she befriends Ren and gets to know him from a completely different angle. Of course, Ren doesn't know that Kyoko is in the rooster costume.
  • Reino , singer of the band Vie Ghoul, is Kyoko's "personal torturer", as he calls it. He is a strong medium and is strongly reminiscent of a vampire with his white hair, long, pointed fingernails and Gothic clothing. He lives in a shared apartment with his band mates. Out of sheer boredom, he begins to steal Sho Fuwa's songs and finish him off. When Kyoko shows her darkest side towards him and makes it clear to him that she must be the first person Sho will experience "pure despair", he changes his goal. He has “fallen in love”, so to speak, and wants to feel all of Kyoko's pure hatred towards himself, since he believes that hatred is stronger than love. So he is now doing everything to oust Sho as their archenemy.
  • Chiori Amamiya plays with Kyoko in the television drama Box R. Outwardly, she always acts friendly, but writes her angry and jealous thoughts in her notebook. As a child she was already an actress, but since her first role made such a lasting impression, she got no other roles. Therefore, she changed her name and is now trying to gain a foothold as an actress again. At first she hates Kyoko and tries to harm her because she wishes her to break apart from her first big role just like herself. However, through Kyoko's acting she has to realize that she herself has lost the love of acting and has to regain it. She then switched from her agency to LME and voluntarily joined the Love Me section as the third intern.

Publications

Skip Beat is released in Japan ! since February 2002 in individual chapters in the manga magazine Hana to Yume of the Hakusensha publishing house. These individual chapters are also published regularly in 42 anthologies so far.

The German edition was published from February 2003 to June 2012 in individual chapters in the manga magazine Daisuki . Since February 2004, edited volumes are published by Carlsen Comics ; so far 43 have appeared. The series is published in English by Viz Media , in French by Casterman and in Russian by Comix-ART .

Anime

The studio Hal Filmmaker produced a 25 episodes comprehensive Anime - television series to manga, when Kiyoko Sayama directed. It was broadcast on AT-X , TV Aichi , TV Hokkaido , TV Osaka , TV Setouchi , TV Tokyo and TVQ Kyushu Broadcasting from October 5, 2008 . The series ran on Crunchyroll with English subtitles .

synchronization

role Japanese speaker (seiyū)
Kyōko Mogami Marina Inoue
Shōtarō / Shō Fuwa Mamoru Miyano
Ren Tsuruga Katsuyuki Konishi

Real series

In 2011, Taiwan produced a live series based on the manga. The main roles are played by Ivy Chen, Lee Dong Hae, Choi Si Won and Bianca Bai. From December 18, 2011, the series ran under the name Extravagant Challenge .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ AnimeY

Web links