Let me summarize it here in english.
In spite of the numerous shounen I’ve watched, comparing Skip Beat to those never came to my mind.
According to me, your arguments are valid except for the last ones concerning the slowness of Kyouko and Ren’s relationship evolution.
Whereas many fans complain about it or they accept it fearing the end of the series, I think it is one of the strong points of SB. Indeed, I praise the progressive relation establishment (the contrary to sudden, easy and frail relations) which is likely to mean a longer, genuine and more sustainable relationship.

About the eccentricity of Skip Beat!, -Love Me section, Kyouko’s character etc…-, I dare saying that we close our eyes on it since it reminds plausible and it does provide the romantic comedy we can appreciate.
On the other points which set up the global story – I mean the character’s past -, I think you can consider them as utopic elements.
Indeed, I think that manga is one of the greatest support of utopia. That’s what most of fans are instinctively looking for in my opinion.

The last but not least, since you accept thoses eccentric points which set up the story and you base on this to follow the characters especially how each of them manage to find their way in a given situation you realise how brillant the author and the manga is.

@Misu: I like how this post enraged some Skip Beat fans to the point of defending their favorite manga with their BURNING PASSION AND LOVE! haha.

Kyoko has her typical-ity and non-typical-ity. I think her latest reaction has been… somewhat out-of-character, but hey she’s but a naive little girl at heart. Always good to see her KICK ASS nonetheless :3

And yes, Mokooooo~ I’ve been so focused on Kyoko back when I read the manga that her awesomeness alluded me. Yashiro is still hands down the best character in the series for me

Haha, just kidding. It’s definitely something that would fall under my category of “trashy shoujo”. Mostly because it is not terrible and partly because I hesitate to call anything I enjoyed bad. Trashy shoujos follow the line of predictability and cliché, with things we’ve seen a million times but keep getting brought back because they are tried and true. (And we’re at fault for enjoying them when they are!)
At first I thought Kyouko would be different what with she actually gets ANGRY and even BITTER (whoaaa), something that doesn’t happen much. But she turned out to be your typical naive happy-go-lucky shoujo lead at heart, even when she has her dark moments.

AAAAANYWAY I personally like Mou- I mean, Kanae, for being so unfortunately won over as Kyouko’s friend, despite her resistance.

But let’s not have illusions about the series. The plot is predictable and often frustratingly dragged out. The characters are all stock (even the super-awesome Yashiro-san), and the drawing is often less than proportionate.

All of that doesn’t mean that Skip Beat can’t be a fun series, however, which is I think the point you’re trying to make at the end of your post. Despite its numerous flaws, we can all still love the series for its vibrancy and high squeal-factor.

Thanks for your fun and thoughtful review. I agree whole-heartedly!

Firstly the violent part of Kyoko’s personality works real well as it is always comical, if not exaggerated. Don’t tell me you want yet another weak, pathetic shoujo girl that is blindly nice to everyone. Also Kyoko worked hard to create the relationships she has in showbiz with the other characters. None of them liked her straight away and very often many still despise her or have her as their rival.
There haven’t been that many ‘Toughest Challenges’ either. As any person who does drama (like I do) you very often have quite the same problems that Kyoko had with her characters. E.g.: Not being empathetic enough (Mia), type casting (Natsu), working with other people in the soda commercial, etc.
With Lorry well I see your point, but don’t you think it would be incredibly boring with a normal boss? It’s nice to have someone to move the story along and come on it’s a comedy manga, it’s supposed to be bizarre!
The ‘Love Me Section’ is corny and defendly is there to make Kyoko regain love again. But I know if I like the audience, I am always more inclined to do my absolute best and feel inspired to do my best for them.
Um sorry but unless we are reading a tragedy doesn’t the main character always win? It would be horrible if they didn’t. All that effort for nothing! What does that teacher kids for gods sake?
Yes defendly agree with there though about how the author likes to drag it out, but I never find Skip Beat boring.
She’s a whiny dense stupid naïve crybaby! I will show you what faults this statement has:
1. Whiny: she was taught by Sho’s parents to never show pain no matter how great it is to the customers of the Inn and so applies it to acting. Busy schedule, weird chicken suit, obnoxious actors – I didn’t hear her complain? True she comes to Ren when she doesn’t get something, but that is because she is a newbie, not whining.
2. Dense: yeah best word to describe her as… Grrr, come on notice the fricken obvious!
3. Stupid: Hello? Top marks in school, quick to pick up new drama techniques, etc. Dense? Defendly. Stupid? Not so much.
4. Naïve: she’s way less naïve then she used be when she was together with Sho. Plus nearly all shoujo manga characters are far more naïve than the average westerner. Or are you perhaps talking about the fact that she still believes in fairies? That part’s just cute!
5. Crybaby: she cries out of anger most of the time not because she’s constantly depressed or looking for ‘prince charming’ to come along and cheer her.
Yeah I know the whole ‘I used to know you when we were children’ is done in about every second manga. This does not mean that the story itself can’t be original. The whole thing where he tells her stories of fairies and disappears after giving her a stone to soak up all her unhappiness is not an uninteresting story.
Um her past with her mother has never affected her enough to make her cry at all, now you’re telling lies. She always gets a look of anger/sadness on her face when she thinks of her; won’t you if your mum treated you like that?
Also acting does help quite a lot. I’ll take myself as an example: When I was 13 I was an incredibly shy, introverted person. So when I started acting I had a way of letting out all my pent up emotions into something positive, so that made me feel like I had a lot less to worry about (family issues, don’t ask). The more my teacher praised me the more my confidence went up. By now 4 years on I’m proud to say I’m way more social, happy person because of it. =D
Um the fact that Ren has ‘never experienced falling in love’ and can keep up such a facade is perfectly reasonable. As long as the guy has dated enough girls and gained enough experience he could easily pull it off. You don’t need to have fallen in love to be able to flirt, be charming, etc. I’m not to sure what you mean by how ‘complicated’ his character is either. He’s a character from a manga, far easier to understand then someone from a real book. Try reading, Pride and Prejudice or Wurthing Heights for example and then come back to me with a thorough understanding of Darcy or Heathcliff.
Skip Beat is one of the slowest-progressing romance in is the history! Just get over it and tell her you love her Ren! Got to admit though there’s a heap of other manga I’d love to add to the pile including Fruits basket, Oran High School Host Club to just name a few. This is quite normal in the shoujo, though extremely annoying.
Sho’s change in character, well it is kind of gradual and as Kyoko’s growing up he probably would become more attracted to her physically. Hm but yeah I would of liked him to stay the villain too, but I think sensei wanted a love rival for Kyoko other than the beagle.
And to finish of yes Yashiro is SUPER AWESOME!

Note: Sorry I ended up writing so much but I just felt like showing that Skip Beat is not crap and that this review hasn’t been backed up probably. ‘The most harm you can do to a cause is to support it with poor arguments.’ :p
Please don’t be offended I’m not attacking you personally!
Sources: I’ve read altogether 198 manga fully and have been a fan of Skip Beat for 2 years now. Oh and did I also mention I love acting?

1.its funny.
2.its light
3.she’s a crybaby yes but she actually fights back.(not the annoying damsel-in-distress type)
4.it’s well executed.
5.reverse harem!!!

thats enough to keep me rooting for skip beat.

No heroic love story (hero defeats the odds winning love along the way) is ever going to be original. Let’s face it: Love is not all that original. Its strength (for pushing merchandise anyway) lies in the fact that it is supposedly attainable to all and the hope that YOU will attain this wondrous thing too is what keeps us all reading, but I digress. Skip Beat does what it does extraordinarily well.

The fact that the mangaka can take a story that is generic and repetitive at best and polish it to the point that we CARE about it showcases her genius. Skip Beat may not be art but Yoshiki Nakamura is definitively an artist.