Skip Beat

[KoKo37]

http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/7918/13146ue2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)


Kyoko followed her true love and childhood friend Sho to Tokyo so she could help him reach his dream of becoming an idol. She cleans, cooks, works three jobs and does nothing for herself because she loves him so much, but gets nothing in return. Still, she remains by his side. But then one day she goes unannounced to his agency with a delivery, and overhears him talking about her; he reveals to his manager that he only took her with him as a maid, and that he doesn't care for her at all. Upon hearing this, Kyoko doesn't just sit around and cry. She cuts and dyes her hair, changes her clothes and attitude and thus begins her journey to join showbiz and have her revenge against Sho.

-ANN
ANN (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=10091)
AniDB (http://anidb.net/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=anime&aid=6103)


[Chihiro] Skip Beat - Episode 1 [XVID] (http://www.nyaatorrents.org/?page=download&tid=36119)
Not the greatest group subbing this series, nor a h264 release, but I'm not sure if we're going to get anything better.


Edit : [Ureshii-Yoroshiku] Episode 1 [1280x720.mkv] (http://a.scarywater.net/yoroshiku/%5BUreshii-Yoroshiku%5D_Skip_Beat_-_01_%281280x720%29_%5B7B002B27%5D.mkv.torrent)
It looks like a good group did pick up this series after all :).

[Munsu]

Isn't the manga supposed to be well liked? I'm pretty sure Ryllharu has recommened it before if I'm not mistaken. If that's the case, very wierd that no one is really looking into subbing this (someone that actually matters).

[Death13a]

It really wierd that Skip Beat always gets bad hand (manga suffering from LQ scanalation at least now someone fixing it.) Anyway watch Skip Beat If it gets enough views then someone better will pick it up.

spoiler: (just enough to get you riled up) check out this page and next one to see just how much kyouko can change with make up

http://www.onemanga.com/Skip_Beat/129/01/

[Munsu]

I'll let that spoiler pass, but let it be the last one. If anyone has a problem with it, let it be known and I'll remove it immediately.

[Everon]

The manga is recommendable. There are a number of complex and well thought out developments in the story.

Any clues how long this anime will run?

[Ryllharu]

Death13, you certainly could have picked a much earlier chapter (from the end of volume 2) if you wanted to still get the point across.

I do like this series, and was pretty sad to see it go so long without a sub. I don't know how much I can really comment on each episode, given how many times I've read the first 14 volumes, not to mention the scans, of the manga. It is certainly Yoshiki Nakamura's best work thus far and there is a ton of humor in the series to go along with all the typical shoujo drama.

I was fairly worried about the casting of Marina Inoue as Kyouko. Her past roles (Tsukiumi in Sekirei, Kana in Minami-ke, Yoko in Gurren Lagann, Erio in Nanoha) have been far more masculine characters and she apparently enjoys playing male roles better. I was very pleasantly surprised to see her play Kyouko with such a feminine tone for the normal times. Marina Inoue is perfect for the periods were Kyouko gets serious or evil (as we saw in eps 1).

I hope everyone else gives this series a shot, no matter how long it ends up being, and enjoys it as much as I enjoy the manga.

EDIT:

[Chihiro]​_Skip​_Beat​_02​_[h264] (http://www.nyaatorrents.org/?page=download&tid=36597)

[Munsu]

Well first episode by Ureshii-Yoroshiku:
http://a.scarywater.net/yoroshiku/%5BUreshii-Yoroshiku%5D_Skip_Beat_-_01_%281280x720%29_%5B7B002B27%5D.mkv.torrent

So we have some decent subbers for it.

[Everon]

I forgot about this show entirely after the first episode. I'm trying to catch up right now. Anyone still watching this? Should I bother watching the 5 episodes I've missed?

[Death13a]

I watch on youtube and will download when i want to archive. And you should watch Skip Beat as you will really like characters or really hate them as show intended, and you will really enjoy comedy part. Anyway if you ever read or watched Shoujo you should watch/read Skip Beat.

[Everon]

Just watched the second and third episode. My impression so far is that its decent adaptation from the manga. It feels a little uneven though. Little things detract from the show. Most of it is technical, like pacing and the sound quality (there's an echo coming from that recording booth they're using -- its driving me nuts). I can't fault it too much for those problems.

Its a good show. I'll keep watching.

[Ryllharu]

The echo is when Kyouko or some other character talks in their own head. Unlike a lot of show, a great deal of the dialogue in Yoshiki Nakamura's manga is internal. It's a little more prominent in this series than say, Itazura na Kiss was, though.

It is a bit over the top, but they really need to differentiate the two forms of dialogue for this series.

[oyabun]

Chihiro seems to be dropping this series after December. I hope someone picks it up. It is a great series after all. I becoming to wonder why the thread is dead. Here's more of the episodes:

[Chihiro]​_Skip​_Beat​_09​_[h264][A85D907E].mkv (http://www.anirena.com/viewtracker.php?action=download&id=17012)
[Chihiro]​_Skip​_Beat​_08​_[XviD][378A7F22].​avi (http://www.anirena.com/viewtracker.php?action=download&id=16922)
[Chihiro]​_Skip​_Beat​_07​_[h264][1B097FFD].​mkv (http://www.nyaatorrents.org/?page=download&tid=40721)
[Chihiro]​_Skip​_Beat​_06​_[h264][1077524A].​mkv (http://www.nyaatorrents.org/?page=torrentinfo&tid=39954)
[Chihiro]​_Skip​_Beat​_05​_[h264][B164A047].​mkv (http://www.nyaatorrents.org/?page=torrentinfo&tid=38803)
[Chihiro]​_Skip​_Beat​_04​_[h264][034D74DD].​mkv (http://www.nyaatorrents.org/?page=torrentinfo&tid=38124)
[Chihiro]​_Skip​_Beat​_03​_[h264][22085F58].​mkv (http://www.nyaatorrents.org/?page=torrentinfo&tid=36999)

[enkoujin]

Actually, a reason why Chihiro is dropping it is because CrunchyRoll had an agreement with TV Tokyo to air subbed anime on their website, including Naruto Shippuden and Skip Beat.


I'm working with TV TOKYO to bring you the best anime titles immediately after broadcast! Starting January 8th, we'll have the newest eps of Naruto Shippuden, Shugo Chara, Skip Beat!, and many other titles on CR with english subs for ppl everywhere possible (with some exceptions like Japan).

http://www.crunchyroll.com/forumtopic-387209/Exciting-news-guys.html
http://www.crunchyroll.com/library/Skip_Beat!

[enkoujin]

Is anyone actually keeping up with these series? At first, the series starts off slow, but it's very enjoyable now that Shotaro knows who and what Kyoko is doing now. As for those who are not keeping up with the CrunchyRoll releases, Crustyroll is an acceptable sub group subbing for torrents:

http://baka-updates.com/search/search?searchitem=skip+beat!&submit.x=0&submit.y=0&submit=submit&searchradio=releases

I have also noticed the brilliant writing in this series. It is very apparent how melodramatic this series is (for example, the scene involving the audition for the juice commercial), which is very appropriate when considering the genre and the career involvement of the characters [acting].

[RyougaZell]

Heck. I didn't even knew there was a thread for this. Am I following it? Definitely.

[Kraco]

Yeah, this is a most excellent series. Brilliant writing and very good acting. I have nothing bad to say about the graphics, either. Melodrama and excessive theatrics are right down my alley as well, just like a main character with a single-minded purpose and the will to see it to the very end. Though in this case that remains to be seen as it's a conflicting situation of both revenge and love, and the paths to those ends might be divergent.

[Ryllharu]

Disclaimer: Bear with me, this is not going to be a, "Manga is better, anime sux" post. Call it a mid-season review.

I dropped this series. As much as I love the characters, the story, everything. The cast surprised me very pleasantly, the animation kept up for quite a while, but ultimately I couldn't take it anymore.

CrunchyRoll alone makes this series unwatchable. Aside from the annoying factor of them delaying the free versions for often a considerable length, the translation provided by MX Media LLC is woefully inadequate. A great deal of the humor in this series is in written text usually as visual gags, or in signs. The overwhelming majority of these go untranslated. There's just so much being missed.

The other problem I had was that I was a little worried that they would not be able to keep up to the quality of the art. Yoshiki Nakamura is incredibly detailed in all her works, and the budget for a longer series like Skip Beat just can't keep it up. The same problem happened with Ai Yazawa when they did NANA. Her art is similar in style to Yoshiki Nakamura, vividly sharp detail and then super-simplified for comedic effect. Where Paradise Kiss, being much shorter, captured her work perfectly, NANA fell a little bit short.

Skip Beat also has suffered the same fate. Everything ended up a little bit rounder, a little bit more generic. For the most part it is still wonderful, though, particularly in the recent episodes with the Promotional Video storyline, it doesn't really make it all the way there. I find it loses a lot of the impact in the way they've done the last few episodes. ( Full disclosure: I am looking at screenshots, and taking a peek at CR ).

I suppose in the end, I'm just a little underwhelmed.

That all said, since the series is only 25 episodes, I highly encourage anyone watching the series to read the manga right where it leaves off (maybe a little bit before). If you like these arcs covered in the anime, it only gets better. The series is on par with Glass Mask, but a lot more humor and the individual arcs a little less drawn out.

[Kraco]

I think that was pretty much a manga is better than anime talk. A long time ago (or perhaps not), over at the MT channel, I happened upon a volume of Skip Beat manga scans packed into a troublesome test archive Yuki had arranged. I sorted out the test (for my own amusement), but I joked afterwards the contents of those pages held no interest for me and I stopped reading after one page.

Much later, Sapphi was trying to convince me to start to watch the show. I resisted for as long as was humanly possible, remembering the manga pages, until I finally gave up and watched the first episode. And then I watched the rest released so far about as fast as I could download them.

I'm just saying that things can happen.

[RyougaZell]

I've long resigned to the fact that manga versions are always better. I watch animated series for the sole purpose of seeing it animated, but many are not at the level of the manga. Im planning to pick the manga when the anime ends. Heck... I may even try to BUY IT since 16 volumes are published already.

And call me weird if you must, but I even got into Shugo Chara lately (<--- Card Captor Sakura and Sailor Moon fan... so sue me for liking Shugo Chara) and plan to get the manga this weekend...

I've definitely enjoyed the Skip Beat anime. Sadly CrustyRoll, being a rip of CrunchyRoll suffers from the translations Ryll points out. I'll probably end up hating the anime when I completely read the manga. I know I loved the sole chapter I've seen.

[Ryllharu]

I think that was pretty much a manga is better than anime talk.Okay, maybe it was, but I tried doing my best to not sound that way.

@RZ
I can strongly recommend the English published volumes if you want to buy them. Viz does a really good job with them. My only complaint is they don't use the honorifics like Del Rey does for Negima. As we've seen in the anime, Kyoko speaks very formally due in part to her upbringing, so it does work out with "Mr." and "Ms." replacing "-san", but the other characters don't always work. For a series like Skip Beat!, the way each of the characters refer to each other can mean a lot.

(Maria ends up sounding a little strange because she usually calls Kyoko Onee-sama.)

[RyougaZell]

I'll take that into consideration. But it would be kinda expensive getting the 16 volumes now with the high cost of the dollar.... who am I kidding? i'll probably buy them anyway... after Shugo Chara...

[Kraco]

Yeah, I certainly admit it's sad all real subs disappeared. Crustyroll was the least bad of the remaining ones, but it's not saying much when you need to call something that. Still, I got used to it. Beggars can't be choosers. At least the language isn't horrible, even if translations are lacking.


And call me weird if you must, but I even got into Shugo Chara lately (<--- Card Captor Sakura and Sailor Moon fan... so sue me for liking Shugo Chara) and plan to get the manga this weekend...

When it started, I watched half of the first ep of Shugo Chara, and had to visit my doctor for an insulin shot for a sudden development of acute diabetes. Needless to say, I never finished the first episode.

[Kraco]

There was an Ureshii-Yoroshiku release yesterday (ep 10), so I reckon Crustyroll (or Chihiro) isn't the final version to archive after all. Still, Crustyroll just release the episode 22, so waiting for the better versions for the first watch isn't really a viable option.

[Ryllharu]

Chihiro also dropped Skip Beat after episode 13 in order to support CrunchyRoll and the production company's efforts to translate the series into English.

[enkoujin]

Final episode:

[Crustyroll] Skip Beat - 25 [h264][1280x720][79D335AA].mkv (http://tracker.minglong.org/torrents/%5BCrustyroll%5D%20Skip%20Beat%20-%2025%20%5Bh264%5D%5B1280x720%5D%5B79D335AA%5D.mkv .torrent)

For anyone interested in reading further ahead, the chapter after the series ends begins at chapter 67, but I'd start from chapter 1.

[Kraco]

It surely didn't conclude anything. We didn't even learn if Tsuruga managed to get his acting right, or why he has such an anti-love and anti-closeness problem. Kind of a strange last episode, unless there's a second season coming. I hope there is, for this was one fine series.

I'm not going to start to read the manga, though. It wouldn't feel the same, because Marina Inoue's voice acting played such a big role for me, in addition to how the exaggerated emotions and moods were animated. All in all the graphics were nothing to tell your city's art gallery curator about, but I felt they used their budget really well and invested where it mattered.

[Ryllharu]

I'm not going to start to read the manga, though. It wouldn't feel the same, because Marina Inoue's voice acting played such a big role for me, in addition to how the exaggerated emotions and moods were animated. All in all the graphics were nothing to tell your city's art gallery curator about, but I felt they used their budget really well and invested where it mattered.That's the thing about Yoshiki Nakamura's (the mangaka) art style...

The anime actually subdued it to an effect. Some of the exaggerated emotions, well, mostly Kyoko, are even more elaborate, more detailed, and more over the top. Maybe it's just the cleaner lines of one artist and her few assistants compared to a crew of Korean animators/in-betweeners. They didn't really capture how much weirder she gets when Kyoko slips into Fairy La La Land or when her miasma goes way out of control.

I don't really see your point about Marina Inoue either. Aside from the experience itself, I haven't had any problems imagining an actors voice inside my head when I start from the anime and then go to the manga. Starting the manga first, I had a fairly different imagined voice for everyone but Ren and probably Erika Kouenji (Moko's spoiled blond rival). They were great once I got used to them though, particularly Moko, Shouko, and Kyoko. I can only really see the problem starting from the other way around.

[Sapphire]

I'm not watching the last ep until they make a second season D:..

[Kraco]

You are already reading the manga, so it's not the same for you. I want to retain my pristine image of the anime. No doubt the effect would be even much stronger had I only been reading the manga and not wanting to watch the anime. However, anime is far more important to me than manga as an art form, which causes me to very often not to grab the manga after an anime, but it rarely prevents me from watching the anime after reading a manga.

[RyougaZell]

The manga version of Skip Beat is simply... fabulous.
I really need to save money for Amazon's crappy and expensive shipment... errr... to buy the 16 published volumes in English

[Shadow Skill]

I'm not happy with the ending. :(

So many anime seem to be ending on a cliff hanger.

[Sapphire]

I know right? It's like... "Now that we've hooked you, you'll have to follow the manga to see what happens next! Hahahha!"

I'd love to read the manga for the beginning, but there's no way I could prevent myself from continuing past 24 eps worth and voluntarily spoiling myself.

[shinta|hikari]

Then do so. "Spoiling" yourself by reading Skip Beat can only be taken in the positive sense of the word.

[RyougaZell]

There's also material that was skipped from the anime, to center more on Kyoko, so in a way you wouldn't be reading the same thing again.

I'll probably end up buying it anyway. Amazon currently has Skip Beat on their books promotion of 4 for 3. I just hope it stays for another 15 days, so I can buy it to be charged until the next month.