Skip-Beat!

Skip-Beat! (スキップ・ビート!) is a Japanese shōjo manga by Yoshiki Nakamura. It is the story of Kyoko Mogami (最上 キョーコ) a 16-year-old girl who discovers that her childhood friend and romantic goal, Sho Fuwa, only keeps her around to act as a maid and earn his living expenses, as he works his way to become the top pop idol in Japan. Furious and heart broken, she vows to get revenge by beating him in show business. In Japan, the manga was first published in Hakusensha's shōjo manga magazine Hana to Yume in February 2002, while in the United States, it began publishing under Viz Media's Shojo Beat label in 2006. As of June 2008, nineteen volumes have been released in Japan, and as of May 2009, eighteen volumes have been released in the United States. In 2002, a drama CD adaptation was made and released by Marine Entertainment, and covers the first volume (chapters one to five) of the manga. An anime adaptation is produced by Hal Film Maker, and began airing October 5, 2008. It ended airing with episode twenty-five on July 12, 2009.

Plot
Skip-Beat! follows the story of Kyoko Mogami, a sixteen year-old girl who loves her childhood friend, Sho Fuwa (Shotaro), but is betrayed by him. Having spent a large part of her childhood at Shotaro's parents' inn, she learned a great deal about hostelry and other such jobs. Shotaro, not wishing to take over his parents' business, moves to Tokyo to pursue a career in music. Sho, as he is called by his fans, asks Kyoko to leave high school and her life in Kyoto Prefecture behind to help him. Upon arrival in Tokyo, Kyoko lives an unreasonably frugal life, spending nothing on herself and doing whatever she can for Sho, who eventually becomes ranked seventh of the top twenty most popular entertainers of Japan. One day, she overhears Shotaro complaining about her to his manager, saying that she is a boring and plain girl. He proceeds to sweet-talk and flirt with his manager, in stark contrast to the cold and demanding attitude he usually exhibits towards Kyoko. Kyoko doesn't shed many tears when she learns that Sho thinks she's only good for housekeeping. Instead, her "Pandora's box" opens and she vows vengeance on Sho. As she is carried away by security, Sho mockingly tells her that if she wants revenge, she had better become a bigger star than him. And so, Kyoko changes her appearance and enters the entertainment industry, facing many challenges along the way. Skip Beat! follows Kyoko's journey to climb the showbiz ladder as she meets interesting people, troublemakers and friends alike, with hopes of getting revenge on Shotaro, as well as regaining the sense of compassion that she had lost when her heart was broken by him. As Kyoko cultivates her acting and friendships, she soon discovers a sense of self separate from her initial plans for revenge.

Characters

 * Kyoko Mogami (最上 キョーコ)
 * (drama CD), Marina Inoue (anime)
 * Kyoko is a bright, intelligent girl bent on revenge against the boy that used her feelings of love and devotion for his own selfish gain. More vengeful than depressed, she swears to get even. Shōtaro, the one who used her, tells her that the only way to do this would be to beat him in show business. She changes her hair style and her attitude and begins the task of applying to Shō's rival company, L.M.E. While her audition stood out, the president of the company realized that she lacked the key component needed to become an idol: love, as without genuine love for this profession and for the audience, she could not succeed. However, despite her failure, she had such an interesting audition (she did katsuramuki as her talent portion) that Kyoko was given a second chance. Thus, L.M.E.'s "Love Me" section was founded. Lory made a deal with Kyoko that if she completed all the jobs given to her as a Love-Me employee to the client's satisfaction (determined by points stamped into her record book), by the end of a certain period of time, having accumulated enough points, she would be given a grand debut. Having entered show business, Kyoko found a genuine love for acting and a rare talent for performing a great range of emotions and characters.  Her professionalism, raw talent and willingness to give her all for her act eventually earn her the respect of those around her, including Tsuruga Ren and Kotonami Kanae.


 * Ren Tsuruga (敦賀 蓮)
 * (drama CD), Katsuyuki Konishi (anime)
 * Ren has an extremely kind and gentle persona. He takes his acting very seriously and expects professionalism from those around him. While he maintains a perfect public image, he has frequently shown his true face to Kyoko, failing to keep his polite facade in front of her. He was originally unhappy with Kyoko, and frequently found ways to annoy and tease her because of her impure reasons for joining show business. However, once he realized that her acting was more than a tool for revenge, he began to support her growth as a budding idol. Although at first in denial, he eventually came to terms with his love for Kyoko and grew as an actor as a result of the realization. He makes many attempts to express his love, but Kyoko is continuously blind to all romantic overtures. Ren was voted top male celebrity in Japan on the same poll ranking Shotaro seventh, causing the latter to have strong feelings of jealousy and rivalry towards him. Ren tends to become jealous whenever anything happens between Sho Fuwa and Kyoko due to their former relationship and now their frequent coincidental, and un-coincidental meetings, giving Sho multiple openings to cause him emotional distress. Despite the obvious obstruction of Sho's closeness to her, Ren has no intention of giving Kyoko over to him. Ren's hidden past is another obstruction to his romantic feelings towards Kyoko yet to be fully explored in the manga.

Shō Fuwa (不破 尚)
 * (drama CD), Mamoru Miyano (anime)
 * His real name is Shōtarō (松太郎). He keeps it a secret because he finds it very old-fashioned. He is an extremely egotistical, extremely talented music star. Shō had no qualms about asking Kyoko to give up her life in Kyoto to become his unpaid servant, fully cognizant of her misconceptions of the nature of their relationship. After Kyoko's transformation, he is shocked and soon discovers he had more feelings for her than he originally thought. He has disliked seeing Kyoko's tears since childhood, knows her preferences in food, and of her love for fairy tales and things romantic in nature (even buying her an ornate, whimsical bouquet of blossoms and pearls to her specific tastes). Shō holds a great animosity towards Ren because he is hailed as the coolest, number one guy in Show Biz. Shō declared that he'd steal all of Ren's fans and the title of "The Coolest Male Celebrity" from him. He does not like Ren's closeness to Kyoko and he challenges Ren as he makes it known that he would not willingly give up his place in Kyoko's heart as the one she thinks of the most.

Kanae Kotonami (琴南 奏江)
 * (drama CD), Risa Hayamizu (anime)
 * When introduced, Kotonami's character looks to be the villain to Kyoko's heroine, but Kanae is much more sympathetic than she first appears. Kanae wants desperately to be a top-rate actress and was at the same audition as Kyoko. Although she made it further than Kyoko, she also failed for lack of love. Thus, she became the second member of Love Me. Kyoko calls her Moko. After their tag-team effort in winning an audition for a commercial, despite obvious differences in their personalities, both girls recognize that they are in fact very similar, leading them to become friends. Although her attitude towards Kyoko may seem aloof at times, it is clear that she values their friendship, as she reluctantly shares her secret with Kyoko when she fears her unwillingness to share her troubles might drive Kyoko away.

Yukihito Yashiro (社 倖一)
 * (anime)
 * He is Ren's manager. When first seen he is a serious character, later on he is used largely for comic relief. We get a better understanding of Ren’s subtle emotional shifts from Yashiro’s not-so-subtle reactions to Ren’s interactions with Kyoko. He fully supports a romantic relationship between the two and often needles Ren about his lack of progress in that area. He also tends to associate anything Ren says in relation to Kyoko and his feelings for her, even before Ren himself came to terms with them.
 * He must use latex gloves when handling electronics because any electronic device that he touches directly will soon be rendered useless. In particular, he has mentioned that a cell phone will die after about 10 seconds of direct exposure to his skin.

Lory Takarada (ローリィ宝田)
 * (drama CD), Kouji Ishii (anime)
 * Lory is the extravagantly flamboyant president of L.M.E and Maria's grandfather. He is one of the first people to recognize Kyoko's potential of being a great star, and created the "Love Me" section because of this. He seems genuinely concerned for Kyoko and wonders what could have happened in her past to cause her to lose the ability to love. He learns in Vol. 4 that Kyoko has never known her father and has a bad relationship with her mother but does not know the details.  Later, when he learned that she dropped out of school he arranges for her to attend a high school that is specializes in accommodating students working in show business and their hectic schedules.


 * Takenori Sawara (椹 武憲)
 * (drama CD), Kenji Hamada (anime)
 * He is the head of L.M.E.'s talent section. Sawara was tormented by Kyoko into getting her into an audition (Kyoko originally auditioned under "Talent" rather than "Acting"). Despite the initial meeting, he is actually very supportive of Kyoko, even through her penchant for tripping her own idol career up.


 * Maria Takarada (宝田 マリア)
 * (anime)
 * Maria is the granddaughter of the president of L.M.E. and used to use her cute appearance to get people's sympathy. She did so before Kyoko's audition; however Kyoko recognized this, and called her out on it. While some people would be angry at Kyoko, Maria began to idolize her, and views her as an ultimate big sister. Maria also suffered from a huge guilt complex from her believing that she is the cause of her mother's death. As a result, Maria was unable to talk or even be around her father, since she thought that he hated her. Kyoko managed to make Maria understand that her father didn't hate her, or think that Maria caused her mother's death. Maria also loves to dabble with black magic (along with Kyoko's side) and has a large crush on Ren Tsuruga.


 * Shoko Aki (安芸 祥子)
 * (anime)
 * Shoko Aki is Sho Fuwa's manager. Since he and Kyoko split he's been living at her place. Actually he was already living at her place most of the time even when he was still living with Kyoko, though the two of them, Kyoko and Shoko, get along rather well. Shoko Aki herself wanted to become an actress (Act.85), but decided she didn't have the talent for it. But she still wanted work that was connected with Show business, and got a good job as a manager. She also is aware of Sho's feelings for Kyoko, and tries to hint at him that he should confess his feelings to her.

Manga
Skip-Beat! began as a manga series written and illustrated by Yoshiki Nakamura which started serialized in Hakusensha's shōjo manga magazine Hana to Yume on February 15, 2002. The first bound volume was released in Japan on July 19, 2002, and as of June 19, 2009, 24 volumes have been released in Japan. Now, there are currently 25 volumes. The manga was licensed by Viz Media for release in English in North America on Viz Media's Shojo Beat imprint. The first volume was released in English on July 5, 2006, and, 20 volumes have been released.

Drama CD
A single drama CD entitled ''Skip-Beat! Drama CD'' was released by Marine Entertainment bearing the catalog number "MMCC-7029" on September 26, 2002. The drama CD covers the first volume (chapters one to five) of the manga.

Anime
The anime adaptation was directed by Kiyoko Sayama and animated by Hal Film Maker, it began airing in Japan on October 5, 2008 and most recent episode aired on March 29, 2009. The next expected episode is named, "The End." The first opening theme is "Dream Star" by the generous. The first ending theme is "Namida" by 2BACKKA.The second opening theme is "Renaissance" by the generous, and the second ending theme is "Eien" by Yūsaku Kiyama. Popular anime streaming website Crunchyroll also officially streams the anime online with English subtitles due to an agreement with TV Tokyo.

Live-action Drama
A live-action television drama version has been announced in a press conference in Japan.

Two idol stars of previous Taiwanese drama versions of shōjo manga will headline this new production. Ariel Lin, the actress who starred in the live-action It Started With a Kiss (TV series) adaptation of Kaoru Tada's Itazura na Kiss manga, will play Kyōko. Jerry Yan rose to international stardom in the Meteor Garden drama retelling of Yoko Kamio's Hana Yori Dango manga, and he will now take on the Skip Beat! role of Kyōko's acting mentor Ren Tsuruga. Production has been halted as the Japanese production group is rejudging the script.

Game
A game was released using same name at 28th May 2009 in Playstation 2.

The opening song of this game is "Blow Wind" by SMILY☆SPIKY. The game takes place after the animation of Skip Beat! where the main character, Kyoko Mogami, needs to choose her next job and develop her relationships with others.