Skip Beat!: Volume 22

by Yoshiki Nakamura, 187 pages

When Kyoko Mogami realizes Sho Fuwa, the love of her life for whom she's given up everything and whom she's followed to Tokyo to support, thinks of her as nothing but a free housekeeper on his path to celebrity stardom, she goes on the warpath, vowing to beat him in his own field. If anybody's going to be a show business idol, it'll be her!

In this volume, Kyoko is focused on finding the perfect motivation for her new character. She's afraid of being typecast as a bully, which was her breakout role in another ongoing TV drama, but she can't turn down a job if she wants to make it in the business. So she delves down deep and finds what makes Natsu, her current role, different from Mio, her first bully role, and surprises everyone with the dramatic contrast. But although Kyoko's figured out how to escape her past persona, not all of her cast members can say the same about themselves. What will Kyoko do when one of her colleagues takes her talent and self-confidence personally?

Skip Beat! is awesome! The romance (with Kyoko's mentor, the popular actor and model Ren Tsuruga) is just a quiet, parallel, sub-surface plot to Kyoko's development as an actor and a self-actualized adult. She may not always be aware of it, but her passion and pursuit of perfection have long ago left off being about revenge against that twerp Sho and have come to have everything to do with finding and growing into her true self. Nakamura's skill and creativity in coming up with Kyoko's insights and interpretations of her roles are impressive. You know it's good when you don't even notice that there's no blatant progress in the romance plot (which Kyoko hasn't even picked up on yet, although Ren definitely has) because you're too involved in how she's going to read her latest role and make it real and human and unforgettable. And while Nakamura's anatomical artwork is often less than attractive, her layouts are very good and her characters' expressions are so versatile and nuanced that you don't much care if their bodies are a little gangly. And really, the fact that the character's aren't always perfectly beautiful just adds to their believability and inner attractiveness.

Get a few volumes under your belt, and you'll see why this series is on my *squee* list.