Skip Beat! Ep. 03 - Needs More Ren

With my new job, I'm finding myself falling behind on anime already. I'm doing my very best to keep up with at least Skip Beat! Kyoko's talent (as you may have already guessed) is cutting vegetables. However, it's not just vegetable cutting. It's creating a daikon rose, which is a very difficult sort of cut that only master chefs can perform. The judges are very impressed and Kyoko moves on to the second phase along with the black-haired woman, Kanae Kotonami. Kanae takes Kyoko aside and says the only reason she passed is because she's a "rare animal" like a hippo. She has no talent, she's just interested. Kanae predicts that Kyoko won't make it past phase two. Phase two is a reaction test. The girls have to react to a voice on a cell phone. Kanae blows everyone away by conjuring up a smile and tears in mere seconds. When Kyoko gets the phone, she hears a man apologizing for being selfish and playing with other women. He wants to get back together. But Kyoko can only think of Sho and she throws the phone to the ground, breaking it in her anger. Unsurprisingly, she doesn't pass. She asks Sawara why, and he explains that she lacks the ability to love. She says she lost it and she doesn't want it anymore, claiming it's just the prelude to despair. Sawara wonders what happened to cause her to lose her ability to love, but he doesn't press the issue. Back at the darumaya where Kyoko works and lives, she's incredibly depressed, but then she remembers something (or SOMEONE) called "Corn," and she pulls out a blue stone from her belongings. After holding the stone, she feels much better, thanking the magic of the stone for always making her happy again. In the meantime, the LME president Lory looks over Kyoko's file again and decides that if she returns, he'll give her a second chance.

Not enough Ren. : ( I feel empty and sad without Ren. Also, it's interesting how they brought up corn so early on. In the manga, the blue stone wasn't mentioned until a good deal later. It's kinda nice for those who know the story of the blue stone (anyone notice that it's in the first episode?). Kinda a frustrating episode, since seeing Kyoko fail is hard. But I'm actually happy she didn't make it the first time. It doesn't follow the normal conventions of someone with amazing talent blowing everyone away and making it to the top with ease. Real actors fail auditions all the time. XD Next episode, emo Kyoko mopes. And more Ren. Which is good. Ren is good.

--Ou-bento