Urk! This manga reminds me why I was way more into shonen manga, growing up...
Okay. I love kawaii things. I love frills, sparkles, pastels, the works! But shoujo manga tends to be such a miss for me. Not all of them, but a lot. Too focused on boys being my main problem. Skip Beat! is no exception.
Main character Kyoko starts the omnibus manga as a homely girl whose entire like is devoted to Sho. Kyoko worked in Sho's family business, learning many traditional Japanese pastimes such as performance of tea ceremonies and the proper wear of a kimono. She moves into the big city with him after he decides that he doesn't want to run his family's inn--and asks Kyoko to come along. What Kyoko think is a token of their solid friendship and love turns out to be...
Anything but. Dreams crushed and reality sinking in, Kyoko decides that the best way to get back at him is to...become a bigger star than he is. ;n_n Okay. No problem with that, I can see this as a viable method of revenge. Knock him off of his high horse!
The story is just all kinds of ridiculous. At times hard to follow. The constant "..." between lines of text bugged my attention span. Though very humorous at some points, I found that it took me way too long to finish this book. I think I was pretty much done after the commentary about how pale skin is seen as pure or whatever.
This probably isn't a fair review, given my anime/manga tastes. While I do love anime like Sailor Moon and Fruits Basket, I am much more of a shonen girl. Skip Beat! is also a classic (it was released when I was 12), so I do remember it being popular but I never got into it. After reading other reviews I see that some other prefer the anime. I would be willing to give that a try. Otherwise, I don't feel compelled to continue this series. :(