Nakamura Yoshiki - Skip Beat, vol. 12-13 (Eng. trans.)

[oyceter]

Hrm. I think I may stop keeping up with this series even nominally; shounen tropes just don't seem to work that well with me unless I'm intrinsically interested in the subject. (Yes, it's a shoujo series but the acting power-ups and exaggeration of competition is so shounen.)

Comments

[rayechu]

Aww, that is sad because I think Skip Beat hits all of the right notes for me. I am sitting here waiting for next volume. I am actually surprised by the number of people that seem to like SB considering the kind of weird art style and radical change in the main character in volume one.

[oyceter]

No, I can see how it would hit notes for other people! It's just that I tend to be much more into shoujo tropes than I am with shounen ones.

[meganbmoore]

I think Ren is supposed to be 20-22. Young enough that it'll be fine in a couple years, but old enough that right now, it's "OMG NO BAD!" territory. (Which seems to be how the mangaka approaches it, so it doesn't bother me where it would elsewhere. Now, if he starts aggressively pursueing her-like, say, the "hero" in I Hate You More Than Anyone-it'll be another story.)

I think when I posted on Vol 13, I was promised that we were moving past the "learning how to act your character" thing. Though I haven't read vol 14 yet, so I can't say for sure.

[oyceter]

Yeah, I think the age difference is less the problem and more of it is the division between high school and having a job.

[swanjun]

I like this series a lot, but I agree that volume 13 was very, very silly. All of the reaction shots to the acting test were just ridiculous. Hopefully we will indeed be moving beyond that in the future, though I've not read volume 14 yet myself.

[oyceter]

*nods* I mean, I can also see how the exaggeration of the acting can be fun-I love the same tropes in food manga, where each dish is the new Best Thing Ever and each ingredient is rarer and more awesome than the last. But I guess it just doesn't work for me with acting because I'm pretty uninterested in actors in general in RL.

[oyceter]

Heee! Yeah, I don't know! I guess the shounen thing just doesn't always work on me. It does when it's all about the food, but when it comes to other topics, I'm a bit meh.

[meganbmoore]

You know, I hadn't even noticed the shounen-ness until you mentioned it, but you're right. My main problem (aside from Ren's part taking too long, but I also have that reaction in some shounen) was the lack of Kanae. My Skip-Beat priorities are:
1. Kyoko.
2. Kanae.
3. However-you-want-to-interpret-it!Kyoko/Kanae.
4. Kyoko/Ren.
5. Ren.

MY PRIORITIES WERE BEING NEGLECTED!

[oyceter]

Heeeee, yes! I, uh, think the predominance of Ren in these volumes didn't particularly help with my lack of interest.

[sarasusa]

Gotta say, I'm still loving it--but then, I'm still reading Whistle and Prince of Tennis, so who knows. There's [spoiler] some interesting developments on the Sho front in #14, plus an odd threat out of left field as well. And Kyoko's reaction to Ren's silent piano practice really cracks me up--I think that's vol. 14 also.

[oyceter]

*nods* Yeah, I think I'm just not interested enough in the characters or in the acting world in general to keep following.

[jinian]

Aww, it's sad that you don't love it when I do, but I suppose you are best served by quitting now. You'd know by this point whether it was going to work for you.

[oyceter]

Yeah, I dunno! I don't dislike it, I'm just... disinterested.