Recap / Skip Beat Volume 14

Who's afraid of the big bad wolf?

This volume contains the chapters:

• Act 79. "Suddenly, a Love Story- Introduction" ^note Ren and Kyoko are about to have a schedule that separates them, while Kyoko's increased attention in show business will reunite her with a certain childhood friend-turned-foe.
• Act 80. "Suddenly, a Love Story- Section A" ^note Kyoko is getting some positive attention after appearing in Sho's video, and she's been asked to feature on a late-night show that keeps an eye out for newcomers with promise. It's a surprise for Kyoko to discover that Sho is there, but the real insults come from her co-guests, the band Vie Ghoul.
• Act 81. "Suddenly, a Love Story- Section A, Part 2" ^note Kyoko willingly seeks out Sho in order to confront him about Vie Ghoul, but her words hit a sore spot for Sho and he lashes out physically at her. Being thrown out of the TV studio again, Kyoko receives a scolding from Sawara which Ren walks in on. She lies when asked about the cut on her face, not wanting to spoil the conversation with Ren by mentioning Sho. But when they reach the Dark Moon set, a certain individual is waiting there to confront Kyoko.
• Act 82. "Suddenly, a Love Story- Section A, Part 3" ^note Sho visits the set of Dark Moon to have a private talk with Kyoko and only Ren seems unfazed by this.
• Act 83. "Suddenly, a Love Story- Section B" ^note Ren models, which forces him to delay joining the cast and crew of Dark Moon as they film on location in Karuizawa. Kyoko's is unaware of Karuizawa's reputation as a place that many famous recording artists visit to work. Now who does Kyoko know that is a famous recording artist?
• Act 84. "Suddenly, a Love Story- Section B, Part 2" ^note Kyoko never realizes how much time the two men in her life spend thinking about her. Now there's a third one paying attention to her, but something isn't quite trustworthy about him.

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Chapters in this volume provide examples of:

• Fairytale Motifs: The cover depicts Kyoko as Little Red Riding Hood, complete with a cartoonish wolf licking its chops next to her.
• Fate Drives Us Together: Discussed. While in Okinawa, Yashiro and Ren discuss the likelihood of Kyoko and Sho running into each other while she's in Karuizawa. Yashiro mentions that if they do meet up again, "those two must be bound by some sort of fate." Not even a dozen pages later, Kyoko encounters Sho while out walking.
• Flower Motifs: It's a shoujo managa after all. Most chapters have a few instances of panel backgrounds filling with unexplained flowers.
• Noodle People: Most characters in the series are drawn with excessively long arms and legs, but especially the prettyboys like Ren, Sho, and Reino, who are supposed to be models/ actors/ pop idols.
• Serial Numbers Filed Off: Vie Ghoul has copied everything about Sho Fuwa that made him famous in the first place, from his risque see-through wardrobe to his musical style. They've even paid a spy at the Wood Stick recording studio to steal Sho's unreleased songs so that they can record a cover and claim the songs as their own work. It's a deliberate strategy on their part, hoping to convert as many of Sho's fans into Vie Ghoul fans as possible because he's one of the top Visual Kei artists in Japan.
• Show Within a Show: Dark Moon is a type 1 example, where "characters are involved in the production of the show." The cast and crew even sets off to film on location in the beautiful resort town of Karuizawa.
• Visual Kei: Vie Ghoul's style, to an even greater extent than Sho Fuwa (who they're copying).

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