'Skip Beat' manga ~ procrastination?

The process of reading all the available 197 chapters took me only 3 days. This is again a new record - the previous was full RuroKen in 4 days.
After finishing the anime 'Skip Beat' I felt an urge to read the original and was not even feared by the fact that the manga contained nearly two hundred chapters and has been published for ten years. After starting reading I simply could not tear myself from it. I could hardly make myself go to bed, I ignored my studying and had my meals while reading.
Now that I think of it, it is not an indicator of something good. 'tis not that I was so interested I wanted more and more. 'tis that I was waiting for something to happen and since nothing happened I went on reading. Let me explain how it was

Stage 1 - reading first 30 chapters
Wow, this is really good! The anime version was close to the original!
Stage 2 - chapters 60-something
Oh, so events shown in the anime version end only here? It sure took a lot of chapters... Well, the most interesting is still ahead...
Stage 3 - reading chapters 87-156
Yesterday I read 86 chapters. Today I could not stop and read 70 more. I am so engrossed in reading... There are so many likeable characters... I cannot wait for the next chance to read but as for now I must go to sleep...
Stage 4 - reading chapters 156-180s
Somehow... I have seen this kind of situation already... And I have seen this expression... And this talk here and these details there are really long...
Stage 5 - reading chapters 180-190s
Finally! I sense some movement towards a breakthrough!
Stage final - reading chapters 193-197
You are kidding... After all that... I only get this???

Plot and characters
What I said about likeable characters is true. The main heroine I already described while speaking of the anime, but the other characters proved to be also great. Even the types I dislike, such as fragile guy director Ogata, or overly positive make-up artist Jelly Woods, became my favourites, not to mention characters like capricious child Maria or arrogant and clumsy friend Kotonami.
Some chapters were also especially cute and enjoyable, such as the thank-you party resulting in Maria meeting her father and Kyoko receiving many presents
Even more I was pleased with the romance that started to bloom. I liked accidental moments making the Main Hero feel jealous toward the Main Heroine, or when the Main Hero fell on top of the Main Heroine, or when the Main Heroine helped the Main Hero regain his senses and overcome the shadow of the past... I loved how the Main Hero and the Main Heroine admitted to themselves their feelings... And then I get a very, very hot scene. And I never get what I wanted.
What did I want? I wanted a confession. An expression of slowly but steadily growing love. A manifestation of trust. At least something weakly resembling any of these.
Instead of that I get nothing. Yeah, pretty nothing. After many repeating moments when Kyoko was thinking 'oh no, I cannot tell Tsuruga about this, he will get angry', when Ren was worried about being overwhelmed by his past, etc., etc. - everything stayed where it was, with both Main Hero and Heroine misunderstanding each other. That is because they chose acting over their true selves. They chose pretending to be Heel instead of opening their souls to each other. She said - I will believe in you. He said - I will not lose to anyone in acting. 197 chapters end in just a silent reconciling.
I am disappointed

Graphics

well, in general what I said about the anime graphics applies to the manga also

conclusion

they say 'Skip Beat' is not your average shoujo, here romance is only of secondary importance, and the growth of the characters is the main theme! absence of kisses only proves its depth!

do not make me laugh. if the 'development' were really crucial, if the 'romance' were absolutely unnecessary, there would not be that scene. you know I swallowed it in several minutes but people say it took 3 chapters for the characters to lie on each other in turns, biting and leaving kiss marks on their partner's bodies. instead of the development and true romance I get a 'development' and a 'romance' - only artificial substitutes which satisfied the readers wanting for some physical manifestation of 'romance', which was enough for them to call it a 'development'
if I knew from the beginning what kind of manga 'Skip Beat' is, I would not be this angry. what made me angry is the fact that the beginning had an absolutely different pace, storyline, manner, style, etc. I am angry because I dared to compare the beginning of this manga with the last chapters. and I am truly angry. if not for my dear friend +Арагорн Араторнович who kindly listened to my thoughts and supported me greatly, though it was 4 A.M. and we were busy with another topic previously, my head would probably have exploded. U-chan, thank you for your understanding

in the end, let me reproduce a post from mangafox forum which I completely agree with. I need not even have written all this because this wonderful person expressed all I could wish to say

'Skip Beat' ~ beating my previous record

I should have learnt my lesson well - NO MORE watching animes based on ongoing manga. what am I doing again? without a second thought I gave a try to 'Skip Beat' believing that 1. a 2009 anime cannot be based on a manga that is still running in 2013, and 2. an average shoujo would not be able to capture my heart. oh, I was wrong - and I do not even know whether this is a good or a bad thing
I have surpassed myself. while in school and first years in university I used to watch no more than 3 episodes a day. then sometimes, when I had free time, I could watch up to 8-10, spending several hours near the screen. my biggest record was probably around 15 episodes, like it happened with 'Working', when I was both interested and free. well, I watched 21 episodes of 'Skip Beat' in one day, after watching the first 4 the day before.

plot and characters

to my surprise, though some achievements of Kyoko were a bit far-fetched, which made 'Skip Beat' look close to average shoujo about a heroine who, by her spirit, gains everyone's love and respect and overcomes all the obstacles, in general 'Skip Beat' is not THAT far from reality. yes, 'twas a bunch of miracles that the LME agency's boss felt interested in Kyoko, and that she learned many useful things while being brought up in Kyoto, etc. however, at least the number of such 'convenient' developments and their scale was not as great as I could expect

moreover, this is an incredibly wise move of the authors to make it so that Kyoko, fortunately, had no reverse harem around her, and even the number of girls who felt jealous of Kyoko because she received some special treatment from some guy was pretty tolerable

then, again, we do not have typical main characters here. Kyoko is not just a 'yooosh gambaru zo!' girl. I mean, she shows much more human feelings than a shoujo main heroine would. first of all, she is able to fall in love sincerely - unlike heroines who sway and cannot choose between their variants. next, Kyoko's condition was brilliantly portrayed when her love and dreams were crushed. her anger, despair, hatred etc. etc., her process of creating her new self are not momentary, her feelings remain through the whole series - while usually they die within a number of episodes and are never again revealed later. she does not try to make friends only because she loves everyone on this planet, but because she never had a female friend. she does not tenderly calm down a crying child, but says that no one comes to help only because a girl is in tears. when someone is unfair she feels hurt, and when someone picks a fight she responds. and of course, she cannot get rid of her desire of revenge easily. for me as a spectator, even if a characters behaves 'wrong' but is led by his strong feelings, 'tis better than if a character becomes a saint, but empty inside

now, we do not even have typical 'love interest' here. well, I could say the same for other characters. I could describe them for a long time, but to make it simple - they are human, though bizarre a bit
oh, and I have forgotten... 'Skip Beat' is funny! really funny. I did laugh a lot at the unexpected plot developments or some characters' lines, but you know... not every anime creating team can allow making SD, simplified faces like here ↓ and make fun while creating a shoujo series

though the characters are the way they are due to the original manga, this does not change the fact that watching 'Skip Beat' never left be bored. I love the LME's president with all his eccentricity

graphics
here I find only one problem. along with beautiful girls with long lashes

and wonderful backgrounds

I see this ↓

such type of men is usually a sign that the work belongs either to the genre that starts with the letter Y (or at least S-A, if you know what I am talking about), or at least determines a very certain direction - pleasing girls, which mainly means the work is shallow. I was truly happy to see the graphic style had nothing to do with the quality

seiyuus

however, I cannot ignore who is Ren's seiyuu - mr Konishi Katsuyuki. well I have already put up with it - Kosugi-san, Ono-D, Toriumi-san, and many other seiyuus with this type of voice are frequently participating either in hentai, or in yaoi/shounenai, or in both, and not in series I could acknowledge as good. 'tis time for me already to learn how to put up with this

the seiyuus I knew were only Miyano-san, Enomoto-san and Kawasumi-san. the others were new to me. and I was not even in the least disappointed. Inoue-san as the protagonist was simply great. I would probably also praise Hayamizu-san for her performance of Kotonami. too bad her list of works is not long

music

unfortunately, I am not able to say much about the background music - I do not remember it. however, OPEDs were good. opening songs were probably nothing outstanding, but still above average. first ending was a very nice hiphop song, and the second, though I did not like the song itself, contained pretty good lyrics fitting the anime's plot

conclusion

am I absolutely satisfied with 'Skip Beat', then? no, unfortunately I must say I am not. and the reason is not the 'and I believe that tomorrow will be better than today' ending. the reason is that the creators made this ending too abrupt which leaves an unfavourable impression. just 10 minutes before the end we see a hint on something important, and then it just ends... moreover, in manga the moment ending the anime was only a beginning, while in the anime we are just made to face the fact we will see nothing else. plus the fact that the 'standard' length is not 25 but 26 episodes. in other words, I cannot but thing the team of creators did not do their best. thought their 'not-best' is not-bad