In keeping with the broadcast of Skip Beat!'s anime adaptation as well as my love for the almighty Kyoko-sama and her wild, extraordinary, wonderful, demonic personality, this month I would like to make mention of a particular item that I'm sure all Skip Beat! fans want a piece of.
In Volume 2, Act 15 of the manga, we are introduced to the infamous Ren and Sho voodoo dolls -- handmade by Kyoko and all accessories come separately.
As a part of her grudge at its best, Kyoko is extremely focused on doing whatever it is she can to take down the two men she finds that she scorns the most in her life. While Ren eventually becomes a respected senpai as an actor and as a person to her, there is no doubt that Kyoko had harbored no good will towards him in the beginning. As for Sho, there is no need to emphasize the hatred seething beneath Kyoko's determination to beat the man at what he does best.
Not only are posters tacked up in her room of the two men (size according to her level of hatred) but Kyoko has presented to the fans her very own handmade voodoo dolls. In essence, these are merely a form of hobby she does to relieve stress when she's caught in a corner.
In Volume 1, Act 3, page 16 of the manga -- yes, I am down to the detail -- we first see Kyoko sewing her first voodoo doll after witnessing the beauty of all the other auditioners for the talent section of LME. (Also see above for anime adaptation scene.) Because of stress, she pulls her borrowed sewing kit out and begins to make a voodoo doll, muttering something to the extent of needing someone's strand of hair for the thing to work. It is because of this that Kanae mistakens her for the "lost" Maria's mother and throws the child mercilessly at her. And it is because of this that Kyoko gets to make her first impression on the equally morbid and twisted young child.
In Volume 3, Act 16, as a ploy to "lure" Maria, the problem child and Takarada Lory's granddaughter out in order to help with a slight issue in the acting section of LME, the Kyoko handmade voodoo dolls are employed. It is here that we are introduced to the "Ren scared stiff of Kyoko" doll, the "Ren surrendering to Kyoko" doll, and the "Sho crying to Kyoko to admit his crimes" doll. There are many others, but either I've missed them or they have not made their debut.
Nonetheless, it is quite a wonder that Kyoko could do so much with just pictures and cheap fabrics and materials -- since she has no money. On top of that, the way in which she so carefully details each outfit on the dolls is extremely amazing to anyone who sees them. To Kyoko, this is just a way to relieve her stress and present her superiority versus Ren and Sho. She has absolutely no idea how strange or incredible it is that she could even get the fabric and the design of the dolls' clothes so exact.
As the story progresses, Kyoko rarely pulls out the voodoo dolls for anything other than to talk to them or pretend that they are talking to her. Especially with the Ren doll, as she grows to respect him more and more, she often pulls out a submissive Ren doll just for the purpose of imagining what he would say to her during certain situations. Sadly, Kyoko is a very good judge of character during the present story line, because she is really good at knowing what it is that Ren would say to her and usually she's right.
The dolls are an essential part of the storyline, not only because I think they're kind of cool, but they bring to Kyoko a very good ally in her plight.
Takarada Maria is the granddaughter of the president of LME and until she met Kyoko she felt that she could never trust adults at all. Kyoko straight forwardly treated Maria like she would treat anyone else, not mattering that Maria is just a child and definitely not mattering that Maria is the granddaughter of the company president.
Sharing a love for the "dark arts" in the doll's items, Maria easily showed herself upon seeing all the Ren dolls, praising them for their attention to detail. She then gets into a deep discussion with Kyoko about the different types of dolls that can be used and reveals that she's been trying to make Ren fall in love with her with various types of dolls.
Kyoko, of course, uses her dolls for the sake of cursing Ren and Sho. On a side note, it mentions in one scene of the manga that Kyoko will work on her dolls whenever she is feeling particularly stressed.
Handcrafted wonderfully, I'm sure everyone would love to have a submussive Ren or Sho doll. I'm almost tempted to google such items to see if any company has decided to manufacture these dolls. I'm sure a lot of fans would do the same.
So why are the voodoo dolls created by Kyoko-sama the spotlight for October? There are a plethora of reasons.
Kyoko has too many traits about her that I want to talk about from her personality to all her little crazy, quirky actions. If I wanted to do a spotlight on her, it would take a long time to accumulate all of her qualities on paper. And also, I want to leave all of that for a feature piece in the future. Make no mistake, I would probably do a spotlight on Kyoko and there is a possibility that I would do it next month or the month after. I love this girl a lot just because of how strong and innocent she can be.
But I ran out of time because the end of the month is drawing near and I really couldn't think of a good spotlight for this month. And then I decided on writing one over a particular item in a manga or anime and the first thing I thought of that stood out were the dolls.
A wonderful idea if I may say so myself. And along the way, it is October and Halloween is coming up soon. While voodoo dolls cannot be counted as items for the holiday, they are nonetheless something associated with the dark arts, which in turn can be associated with Halloween. Good twist, no?
Anyway, of all the quirky Kyoko habits, I found this one to be one of interest. Just the amount of work and detail that go into making her dolls is a wonderful feat. I often tell myself that Mogami Kyoko is not as simple as she always seems. There is just so much to this girl and Moko-san is right to fear her.
As an afterthough, I look forward to seeing the actual dolls in animation soon.
*All photo's credited to Skip Beat! and its creator Nakamura Yoshiki.
*Anime screenshot taken from Skip Beat!'s second episode.
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