Recap / Skip Beat Volume 1

She's a girl on a mission!

This volume contains the chapters:

• Act 1. "And the Box Was Opened" ^note Kyoko Mogami lives in a high-rise apartment with her childhood friend, Sho Fuwa. Sho is a rising music star, and in order to support the both of them Kyoko works at three jobs. On the day Kyoko decides to pay a surprise visit to Sho at his studio she overhears him seriously dissing her to his manager. Kyoko confronts him and he promptly dumps her, telling her the only way she can ever get revenge on him is to become a bigger superstar than he is. The Pandora's Box in Kyoko's heart opens and she vows to defeat him at his own game.
• Act 2. "Once She Haunts You, There's No Stopping It" ^note  After canceling the lease on the expensive apartment she and Sho lived in, Kyoko is now living above Darumaya, a restaurant where she works in the evenings. Kyoko seeks a way to enter showbiz through LME, the only agency that can rival Sho's, but she's not really interested in acting, singing or any other talent...
• Act 3. "The Feast of Horror, part 1" ^note Ren Tsuruga, Sho's biggest rival, discovers Kyoko's motivation for trying to enter showbiz is revenge, which makes Ren immediately dislike her. Meanwhile, the LME talent auditions are starting! How will Kyoko do in the auditions? Does she have the talent to become a top star and get her revenge?
• Act 4. "The Feast of Horror, part 2" ^note Kyoko manages to impress the judges with her katsuramuki skills, by carving a radish into a rose. But she bombs a critical reaction test when she loses control of her negative emotions - does this spell disaster for her future?
• Act 5. "The Emotion She Lacks" ^note Realizing that she has lost the part of herself that is able to love, Kyoko becomes dejected. Has she decided to give up on the showbiz world?

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Chapters in this volume provide examples of:

• Childhood Friends: Kyoko and Sho - Kyoko lived at Sho's house while growing up because her mother wasn't around to take care of her most of the time.
• Determinator: Once she sets her mind to something, Kyoko can unleash seemingly superhuman reserves of strength, speed, stamina, and persistence until she accomplishes her goal.
• Flower Motifs: It's a shoujo managa after all - the cover has Kyoko frolicking against a backdrop of cheerful yellow blooms, and most chapters have a few instances of panel backgrounds filling with unexplained flowers.
• Girl Next Door: Kyoko to Sho. (She even lived with Sho's family growing up.) Unfortunately for Kyoko, Sho refuses to think of her as a potential romantic partner - because she's been catering to his emotional and financial well-being for so long, he feels entitled to her attention and even refers to her as a housekeeper.
• Important Haircut: As part of her makeover after deciding to become famous, Kyoko gets an expensive haircut.
• Inspirational Insult: The plot kicks off when Sho dumps Kyoko, calling her a plain, boring, worthless girl with no talent. He brags that the only method of revenge she could use against him would be beat him in the entertainment world, which for a girl like her would be impossible. A furious Kyoko decides to do just that and become more famous than Sho.
• Large Ham: Lory Takarada, president of LME. The first time he's introduced, it's wearing an over-the-top cowboy costume at the center of a troupe of Carnival dancers. This isn't just a one-off, either — Lory is constantly showing up in unexpected places with cohorts of fully costumed actors and dancers around him, while he himself enjoys wearing outrageous costumes to work.
• The Makeover: After she decides to join show business, Kyoko dyes her hair, gets a trendy cut, and buys a new wardrobe with the cash she got from selling her Sho Fuwa CDs and collectibles.
• Mundane Made Awesome: During the auditions, Kyoko demonstrates her skills in katsuramuki (vegetable peeling) to sculpt a daikon radish into a rose. In a room full of girls who chose to sing, dance, or play a musical instrument, her unusual talent helps her to stand out from the crowd.
• Patient Childhood Love Interest: Kyoko always held a torch for Sho - she even moved to Tokyo to support him, and worked several jobs to pay for the expensive apartment he insisted they rent (while he wrote songs and watched tv all day). She selflessly sacrificed her own happiness for him in the belief that one day he'd return her affections... up until the point Sho dumped her and had security throw her out of the studio.
• Security Blanket: The stone that Kyoko's mysterious childhood friend gave her - it's one piece of her past she was unable to throw away when she completed her makeover.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Chestnut pudding is Sho's favorite food, but he can't tell anyone because it totally ruins the cool and aloof image he's trying to project as a celebrity. Kyoko knows this, and since Sho has been spending less and less time at their apartment she has figured out that if she buys it for him, she can bribe him into staying a bit longer.
• Woman Scorned: Kyoko. Sho was basically her only friend while growing up, and Kyoko was convinced that one day he'd return her affections and she'd become the Victorious Childhood Friend. Instead, Sho tossed her aside the moment she ceased to be useful to him and it really did a number on her psyche.

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