Skip Beat! Anime Review Blurb

I’m writing this review 10 episodes into the series.

Since I’ve already done a review of Skip Beat! the manga I’m just going to talk about how the anime compares to the manga in this review. If you’d like the plot summary and character descriptions go here for my manga review. I’d feel too cheap copying the same summary and such in the anime review too. But I would like to mention how Skip Beat! is often called the anti-shoujo because when the heroine (Kyoko) was betrayed by the boy/man (Sho) she dedicated her life to, rather then get sad she laughed in his face and swore revenge! She is going to dedicate her life to Sho in a completely different way! To become a star and overtake him in the entertainment industry. I love a good tale of female vengeance!

The animation art perfectly represents the characters, although I must admit in the anime I felt that Kyoko’s cat-like yellow eyes look better with her original dark hair then with her fun/light color. The only character that feels a bit off in appearances in the anime is Shoko (Sho’s Manager below) because for some reason I pictured her as a beautiful blond and I’m not as happy with her darker hair, she looks much more plain that way.

 Another great part of the animation is that it captured the humor from the manga well, the jokes and silly facial expressions are all there. It’s pretty much exactly like watching the manga in motion, and I consider that a great compliment. I adore the manga and if it strayed far from the manga I’d hate this series, but so far I have no issues with it. If I didn’t like it I’d be like those annoying people at movies that are mumbling about “how the book was way better” after the credits, or describing the differences between the book and the movie DURING the movie! *remembers several total strangers that I’ve wanted to strangle in theaters*

 The opening is ‘meh’, it’s a below average opening in terms of being entertaining and having a catchy song. I watched it once and then never again. Each episode covers approximately 1 chapter of the manga so far, some consider that pace too slow but I think that it’s appropriate. Any faster and the development of all the characters will seem too quick, the only people that probably feel the anime is going too slow are people that adore the manga and can’t wait for their favorite scenes. Currently the manga is at about 131 chapters though so I’m curious about what they’ll do about what pace they go at. I’d be surprised if they ended up doing 131 episodes, not many shoujo anime series are that long even if their manga counterparts are quite long. The plot from later chapters are probably more easily combined into a single episodes.

I love the voice acting, everyone suits their voices quite well. Plus the voice actors (seiyu) happen to be ones I adore. I’m not sure how many of you are fans of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann but Kyoko is the seiyu for Yoko and Ren is the seiyu for Kamina, aawwwww <3, learning that pulled a few special heartstrings for me. Sho is the seiyu of Death the Kidd from Soul Eater, I was pretty happy to hear his voice in another series but it always feels a bit weird for me when the voices of men from my shonen series suddenly appear in my shoujo series. I remember I almost choked on my drink when I heard Renji’s (from Bleach) extremely manly voice in Tale of Saiunkoku.

 Basically if you’re a fan of the manga I see no reason for you to dislike the anime. If you’re someone that just loves a good shoujo anime then this is a great series for you too! If you ask me there are far too many poorly done shoujo anime series out there. Shoujo/drama just doesn’t always transition well into anime in my eyes, and is often just best kept in its original manga form. I was pleasantly surprised that Skip Beat! made a smooth transition onto the TV screen.

I was amused to see a Harry Potter advertisement in the background of one of my favorite anime series (see below). I’m a big Harry Potter fan so I got a kick out of that. I wonder if they paid advertisment fees to have Harry Potter shown in the background?

PS – Skip Beat! Was licensed by Crunchyroll for their site by the 8th episode. So it will soon be available in a free (and completely legal) form soon. Although I myself detest streaming, it just never works right for me.