And so the anime verison of Skip Beat ends. I’m pretty sure most anime only fans are disappointed by the ending, and probably some of the manga fans, are upset by the ending. But I’m alright with it. I was expecting a cliffhanger anyways, even if it had been a 51 episode show, since it doesn’t look like Nakamura-sensei was going to finish anytime soon.

The title of the episode is “And the door opens” a play on the title of the 1st episode. To an extent it fits perfectly especially considering this episode is all about realization.

The opening scene with Bo the chicken and Ren was hirlous. Even though Kyoko thinking it was perfectly alright for Ren to date a sixteen year old was kind of creepy. Especially when she said “Make her yours. ^^; It was also cute when Yashiro commented that Ren’s manrexia must be caused by his worrying about the role, when in fact Ren hadn’t thought about it all, since he was have more of a super in denial about his feelings moment. It’s always funny to see usually cool and collected characters to act goofy. If only Yashiro knew that Ren was struggling with his feelings for Kyoko. He’d have a major fangirl moment.

The scene were Kyoko gets angry because the lead actress says that Kyoko’s a better actor then Ren was also awesome to see in animation. After all the thing that inspired Kyoko in particular to go into acting was because she wanted to act on an equal level with Ren one day. She had a tremous respect for him as a follow artist, even before she started to like him as a human being, something that only exploded when she saw him continue to do his job despite the fact he was about to faint during the subsitute manager arc. It would be hard to listen to anyone insult someone you respected a lot, even if they complimented you in the process. Like someone insulting your favorite teacher, or something.

Yes! Finally in the last episode I get to see my third favorite character at his best. Yashiro finally acted like the fangirl we all know he. He showed all the stages of fangirlism in a matter of minutes. The uncontrolable happiness, the ‘oh maybe it won’t happen’, then the crazy laugh of shipping trimupth, followed by deep, deep depression when you realize how oblious both the characters are and how the ship doesn’t look like it has much chance of sailing. Yashiro is one of us through and through. It’s also sweet to see how much he worries about Ren, not only as a job, but also as a friend.

I’m confused that Yashiro can’t imagine Ren’s real smile though. Has he not seen “the heavenly smile”? Perchaps he just can’t imagine him with a big sheepish smile. I can’t really either just based on his character traits. It wouldn’t really suit him.

I really love this scene! It’s just so cute how he didn’t want to meet her eyes, and got all embarrassed and rushed off when he did by accident. Girls in love are cute enough I guess, but I find boys in love (in fiction at least) adorable. Especially if they’re super cool and collected outwardly usually, and then become all flustered when they fall in love. I blame Jane Austin for my love of this.

The two big romance-hinting  scenes were excellently excuted by Hal Maker. The scene in the living room were he looks at her and their both quiet is particularly well done. The simplicity and slience said so much. I think it was better here even then in the manga. It almost makes up for the fact that the scene from volume 12 won’t be animated. Almost. Sigh it’s so sad that the anime ended right when we were getting close to my favorite scenes in the manga. The car scene was also very good, and was probably a good place to leave off in the anime. It was such an emotionally charged scene in the manga, that it makes a memorable place to end the series. I don’t really think of anything imediality afterwards that can fit.

“I always act so cool and indifferent, when I’m happy.”

Probably the best descripter of his behavior. Even when he’s being “nice” he doesn’t act like things personally affect him. He’s getting better about it in the manga, but still not really up to speed on it yet. He would’ve probably been put in the Love Me devison if it had existed when his career started. The anime seems to imply that he knows what he needs to do with Katsuki now, that he realizes the character and himself have similar circumstances when it comes to love anyways.

Hmm..How you interupt the scene with Kyoko and the corn stone is up to you.  There are too possible theories. 1) When she saw the spark of light in the stone, she thought the stone had granted the wish that Ren would understand his character or 2) that she suddenly realized that “Corn” and Ren were the same person. Personally I think it’s the second option since the anime put such a big empahis on the stone, both in the first OP and both EDs, and how it connected Ren and Kyoko especially in the second ED. Also, her first lines in the monlouge at the ending and the smile she gave him at the very end of the series when she saw him and Yashiro come up to greet her the next morning.

The ending monlouge showing all the major characters in the series was cute. I particularly liked how they showed Maria writing to her Daddy, and Moko talking to Hiou since we never got to see that arc in the anime. Also Ogata and Sho’s music video producer having lunch together, since I  semi-shipped them together in the manga. Sho’s ending really made me laugh though. He was the only one who really didn’t get a happy ending (even Erica and Ruriko looked happy in their little scenes). He’s the bitter and jealous one now, whereas Kyoko moving forward in her life happily. This is a fitting end for Shotaro. Especially anime Sho, who doesn’t even get semi-redeem like he does in the manga.

So that’s the end. All in all I liked the series. There were moments when it suffered a bit from adaption decay, but undeniably, the first few episodes and the last few episodes were excellent. The animation and music weren’t the best, but the writing and voice acting more then made up for it. It’s also kept my love for the series alive which might have died a little due to the current manga arc, though chapter 137 was simply awesome. I recommend that the anime only viewers who were unhappy with the anime ending read the manga. What happens directly after this point more then makes up for the anime ending if you didn’t enjoy.