Recap / Skip Beat Volume 8

Don't let the crepe fool you - revenge is the sweetest dish of all!

What Kyoko thought was a perfect chance to get revenge on Sho isn't going as well as she'd hoped. He's figured out that she's the same Kyoko he ditched months ago, and though he hasn't kicked her off the set he's holding that fact over her head. Kyoko's rage is so overpowering that she forgets she's supposed to be acting and tries to throttle Sho for real. Despite her hatred for Sho, Kyoko wants to do her best with her acting. She turns to her new friend Moko for advice, and with Moko's help, she's able to pull through and give a super-star performance. But her problems aren't through just yet: Sho still thinks he owns Kyoko body and soul, but his manager is worried that Kyoko might be stealing his heart!

A later confrontation with Ren leaves Kyoko down in the dumps. What's more, Moko is troubled and won't open up to Kyoko about it. Kyoko wants to repay Moko for helping her through a tough spot, and she's prepared to go to some crazy lengths to figure out what's wrong with her buddy.

This volume contains the chapters:

• Act 42. "Sin Like an Angel" ^note After challenging Sho before their scene together, Kyoko flubs the first take when her rage gets out of control and she tries to strangle him. She despairs at being unable convincingly portray the role of a pure-hearted angel, especially after Sho mocks her inability to control her temper. Who can she turn to for acting advice?
• Act 43. "The Last Rite" ^note Kyoko needs advice on her role and tries contacting Moko first, then, in a moment of desperation, Ren. Moko calls her back, and Kyoko asks her opinion regarding the angel role. After their talk Kyoko returns to the set conflicted, but also in touch with genuine emotion she can use in her portrayal.
• Act 44. "Prisoner" ^note Able to draw on her relationship with Moko to bring out the emotions necessary for the angel role, Kyoko plays it flawlessly. Sho is shaken to see that her tears are real, and this time it's Sho who flubs the scene. Kyoko takes the opportunity to throw Sho's mocking words back at him.
• Act 45. "A Happy Break" ^note The filming for Sho's promotional video has ended successfully and Kyoko is ecstatic that her acting may have improved a little. But she runs into Sho on her way out of the studio and they get into an argument. During their argument Ren returns Kyoko's phone call, and Sho does something drastic.
• Act 46. "An Unexpected Cold Front" ^note Kyoko has been worried sick since Sho hijacked her call with Ren. She suspects Ren is still angry with her, though she doesn't know if he knows that voice on her end was Sho Fuwa. Ren does in fact know. The situation reaches the boiling point when Kyoko runs into Ren at LME and Ren confronts her, inquiring whether she ruined Sho's promotional video with her plans for vengeance.
• Act 47. "Mysterious Guy, Mysterious Girl" ^note Kyoko doesn't know why Ren is angry with her, even though she confessed that working on Sho's promotional video wasn't for revenge. She runs into Moko, but Moko seems troubled and won't open up to Kyoko. Kyoko enlists Maria's help in trailing Moko so that they can get to the bottom of what's troubling her.
• Act 48. "An Encounter with Catastrophe" ^note Yashiro tries to blackmail Ren into spilling the beans as to what's going on between Kyoko and Sho. Maria and Kyoko continue to tail Moko.

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Chapters in this volume provide examples of:

• Conspicuous Trenchcoat: When they raid the costume department to find outfits appropriate for their Kanae stakeout, both Kyoko and Maria dress up in pinstripe suits, longcoats, dark sunglasses and fedoras. They're trying to go for the Badass Longcoat look of private detectives, but a couple of passersby mistake them for flashers.
• Enjo Kosai: When Kyoko and Maria tail Kanae to find out what she likes, they come to the conclusion that she is going on paid dates after they see her dressed as wildly different characters with three different men (two of them old enough to be her father) in the space of a few days. Kanae is engaging in paid relationships, but not the type that Kyoko and Maria thought: Kanae accepted them as acting assignments. She pretended to be one man's girlfriend so he could discourage an Abhorrent Admirer, and in the case of the older men she pretended to be their estranged/ deceased daughters after studying videos and photographs of the girls.
• Flower Motifs: It's a shoujo managa after all:
  • The cover shows Kyoko sitting happily amidst red and yellow pansies.
  • The title page for chapter 48 shows Kanae looking troubled amidst some lilies.
  • Most chapters have a few instances of panel backgrounds filling with unexplained flowers.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Kyoko has this reaction when she thinks that Moko has a boyfriend. Curse The Hypotenuse ensues with her grudge demons out in full force, but I Want My Beloved to Be Happy wins out in the end.
• Like an Old Married Couple: After Sho discovered Kyoko's true identity in the previous volume, they bickered constantly during the filming. Sho's manager Shoko and general producer Asami both wonder if the two are still dating. Sho is offended, pointing out that they were just arguing, while Kyoko is incensed because the two never dated in the first place.
• Method Acting: Kyoko mentally replaces Mimori with Moko when shooting the angel scenes. She ends up bawling after the cameras have stopped rolling because she's so distraught at the thought of Moko hating her for killing the devil.
• Pseudo-Romantic Friendship: While tailing Kanae, Maria and Kyoko observe her on a date with a man they've never seen before - the two even go out to lunch and share their food. Maria wishes that she could share her lunch on a date with Ren, but Kyoko wishes she could share her lunch on a date with Kanae.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend: The familiarity with which Kyoko and Sho bicker during the filming causes Sho's manager Shoko and general producer Asami to wonder if the two are still involved, which Kyoko and Sho vehemently deny.
• Spoiled Brat: Hio Uesugi (who Kyoko meets at the very end of Act 48) threatens to end Kyoko's career within moments of meeting her, just because she's Moko's partner in the Love-Me Section.
• Walking Techbane: Ren's manager Yashiro can corrupt any electronic device and completely brick a cell phone by touching it with his bare hands for ten seconds. Using this ability, he attempts to blackmail Ren into revealing why their last interaction with Kyoko has thrown Ren so off his game. He refuses to tell Yashiro, and several chapters later Ren visits Lory's mansion to receive a new cell phone.

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