Skip Beat! Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Skip Beat! Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 10, 2018

Skip Beat! is Pied Piper’s second at bat in the Blu-ray arena, and it comes to market at least partially as the result of a crowdfunding campaign (some details on the campaign can be found here). The understandably “energetic” text on the linked site mentions how popular Skip Beat! is with diehard anime fans, and while it’s both genial and manic as so many shōjo offerings tend to be, I doubt many anime fans would put the show in their all time classic list. The series follows the exploits of Kyoko, a teenaged girl who came to the big city with what appears to be her boyfriend, or at least her (platonic) friend, Fuwa Shotarou. That detail is only doled out part way through the series’ first episode, after it’s been shown the Shotarou is on his way to being a pop idol of gargantuan proportions around Japan, and after Kyoko’s love of his music has been amply depicted by her panicked trip to a local emporium to demand a poster that should have been included with her CD purchase. Shotarou may be an idol to everyone else, but he seems to be something of a gigolo, at least as evidenced by the way he treats Kyoko, who works more than one job to keep him happily ensconced in a nice apartment that she shares with him (at least for a little while). When the two have an understandable falling out, the series becomes a kind of comedic take on A Star Is Born, with a female making inroads on a career path already traveled by her erstwhile main squeeze.

There’s a kind of “Japanese Idol” aspect to what ends up happening, that is if you’ve ever seen an American Idol contestant carve a rose (or cabbage) out of a radish, but as much as Skip Beat! tends to kind of skewer pop culture and the rush to achieve fame, the show really achieves most of its power through the character of Kyoto. She’s more than a bit annoying at times, but there’s an underlying sweetness to her that may end up ironically serving her well in an otherwise cutthroat world. The show is full of visual whimsy, often lapsing into chibi versions and offering weird little flourishes like Kyoko’s tongue regularly becoming a hand to grab onto various items.

Skip Beat! Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Skip Beat! is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Pied Piper with an (upscaled) 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. As Pied Piper mentions briefly on its crowdfunding page, the standard definition source was considered "optimal" for upscaling, and as far as these things go, Skip Beat! often looks quite good. There really aren't many if any "jaggies" or other signs of stair stepping and the like, with most line detail remaining firm and precise. The one disappointment I personally had here was with regard to the saturation and vividness of the palette. The show only rarely gets into anything resembling true visual "pop", and those moments tend to be fleeting. That said, my hunch is fans of the series will be generally well pleased with the look here, one which avoids not just some of the typical bugaboos of upscaling, but compression anomalies as well.

Skip Beat! Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

One of the supposed "selling points" of this release is a new English dub, and this release offers both Japanese and English language tracks in LPCM 2.0. Voice work is typically strong on both tracks, though I actually preferred the original Japanese characterizations. Fidelity is fine on both tracks, with no major differences in amplitude or mix levels.

Skip Beat! Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Caitlin Glass Interview (1080p; 2:47)


• Robbie Daymond Interview (1080p; 2:15)


• Mela Lee Interview (1080p; 4:33)


• Cristina Vee Interview (1080p; 4:19)


• Taliesin Jaffe Interview (1080p; 3:21)


• Christian La Monte Interview (1080p; 2:15)


• Clean Opening 1 (1080p; 1:29)


• Clean Opening 2 (1080p; 1:30)


• Clean Ending 1 (1080p; 1:29)


• Clean Ending 2 (1080p; 1:29)


• Clean Previews (1080p; 9:32)


• Behind the Scenes Video (1080i; 2:31)


• Behind the Beat Video (1080p; 3:20)


• Behind the Scenes Photo Slideshow (1080p; 8:50)


• Behind the Beat Photo Slideshow (1080p; 3:10)


• Honorifics Presentation Slideshow (1080p; 48:00) is kind of a dictionary of sorts.


• Localization Credits (1080p; 3:58)

All of these supplements are found on Disc Three of this three disc set. These have all been authored separately (without a Play All option) and kind of strangely all without chapter skip options.

Skip Beat! Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

As evidenced by the relatively easy time Skip Beat! had reaching its crowdfunding goal, there is obviously a fanbase for this enjoyable if lightweight series. Fans of the show should be generally well pleased with the technical merits here, and Pied Piper has also assembled some appealing supplements.