The Skip Beat! universe consists of a large array of characters. Yoshiki Nakamura has created a fictional world giving the country of Japan an alternate reality featuring imaginary actors, singers and other entertainers. The heroine, Kyoko Mogami, attempts to become a star in show business to get revenge on Shō Fuwa. As the protagonist surmounts obstacles on her journey to stardom, new situations and characters are introduced.
Main characters Kyoko Mogami (anime), Ivy Chen (live-action) Instead of staying home and attending high school in Kyoto, travels with her childhood friend Shō Fuwa to Tokyo to help him while he makes it big as an idol. When she finds out that he only invited her so she could be his maid, her heart and innocence are shattered. Her box opened (Pandora's Box) and it set free a lot of little demon's that looked like Kyoko, (they often stick onto other people and make them unable to move, choke them, or scare them to death. The surviving Angels in Kyoko's body try to suppress them but they get overpowered by the demons and so Kyoko sets free a scary aura). More vengeful than depressed, she swears to avenge herself. Shō comments the only way to do this would be to beat him in show business, so that's what she decides to do. She changes her hair style and begins the task of applying to Shō's rival company (Akatoki Agency), L.M.E. While her audition stood out (she performed katsura), the president of the company realized that she lacked the key point needed to become an idol: love, as without genuine love for this profession and for the audience, she cannot make it far in this world. However, despite her failure, she had such an impressionable audition that Kyoko is given a second chance. The L.M.E. "Love Me" section is thus founded. Lory makes a deal with Kyoko that if she wholeheartedly completes all the jobs given to her as a Love-Me employee to the client's satisfaction (which is determined by how many points they stamp onto her record book), by the end of a certain period of time, when she has accumulated enough points, she will be given a grand debut. Thus begins her journey into the show business world. As an actress, Kyoko is unrefined but creative and spontaneous, able to impress talent scouts with her unique talents and improvisations. In her earlier jobs, she utilizes the skills she learned from working in an inn in Kyoto Prefecture (like cooking, walking "properly", and performing a traditional tea ceremony) to act the part of a wealthy, cultured lady. Though passionate and hot-tempered, Kyoko is able to show impressive professionalism and discipline when it comes to acting, even to the point of putting the job before her health. When forced to perform a tea ceremony in a movie scene with Ren, she is able to keep a serene face and act her part while kneeling on a badly fractured ankle. Yet despite the pain, she refuses to get up or stop until the scene is completed. Because of this, the director and everyone else was incredibly awed by her determination and strength. Later on, Shuhei (Kuu), Ren's father, says she was a "scary kind of actress", much like Ren. Her debut was for a soft drink commercial. Kyoko never liked to drink soda (even as a child) but she made herself drink it for the important commercial audition. Her first major role was Mio, the antagonist in the television drama Dark Moon. Her character, disregarding her acting capabilities is shown to be very pure regardless of whether she's in a good or a bad mood, as seen when she was fuming after Shō stole her first kiss when she was hoping for her first kiss to be like what it was in fairy tales. Not long after that, she's thrown into a huge dilemma over Ren's attempted kiss on her cheek to get Shō out of her mind (which is now replaced with Ren and couldn't concentrate on the Dark Moon set later on). Before Ren tries to prove that the kiss doesn't have any hidden intentions behind it by stating that "Foreigners express their affection often using actions", Kyoko thought that Ren was a playboy, but has since retracted her statement because she believed his reasoning. Kyoko has a fondness for cosmetics, fairy tales (aforementioned are linked to princesses) and anything magical (she was raised in a very strict manner due to being part of an inn, and thus such tales are one of the ways where she would get away from it), as seen when Kanae gave her a rare cosmetics set as a present on her birthday, which is December 25. She becomes a regular in a show wearing a chicken suit for the character "Bo". She assumes this character on several occasions to talk to Ren, because he won't open up about his problems to anyone he knows. As Kanae is her first true friend, she likes to cling on to her and calls her "Moko"(because Kanae uses 'Mo' often as an interjection) (she doesn't have any friends before then because every girl hated Kyoko for her familiarity with Shō). When she is in her room in "Darumaya" she is often seen explaining how she would exact revenge on the two men that make her life miserable to a large poster of Shōtaro and a small photo of Ren, the picture becomes much larger as the story progresses (the size of the picture reflects her level of hatred towards the person on it). She also carries with her many curse dolls of Ren and Shō, which she uses to vent her anger and perform curses. The dolls, incredible in the attention to detail, are handmade by Kyoko. They feature Shō and Ren in various state of fear, distress and submission. After her relationship with Ren improves, she often 'consults' her Ren doll during times of stress. Kyoko seems to have a bad relationship with her parents. Her mother, Saena, was a strict and emotionally distant parent who eventually left her with the Fuwa family when Kyoko was still six. The effects of Kyoko's difficult childhood can be seen throughout the series, particularly in her acting. For example, when she was acting with Maria, she stated that parents that despise their children really exist. Kyoko's father has been absent throughout the series. As her parents were not able to give her love, she followed Shō with all her heart (before the start of the series), but after his betrayal, she has lost all hope and became very cynical when it comes to love and thus it is a taboo subject for her, with the slightest mention of it getting her all angry and depressed. Valentine's Day is also the most hated occasion for her, and she believes that all girls who give chocolate to men out of love will end up like her. Kyoko has a noticeable crush on Ren later in the series but she mistakes it for respect sometimes and even denies it since she "couldn't possibly let herself fall in love again". After seeing the certain scene where "Katsuki" (played by Ren) is looking at the girl he loves in the play, Kyoko remembers the smile (he has shown it for her a couple of times before) and comes to the conclusion that Ren might not hate her or dislike her, as she thought before. It is shown that Kyoko does not know that Ren is "Corn" her "fairy-prince". Recently, she was the caretaker for Kuu (aka Shuhei), an actor who played in the previous version of the drama "Dark Moon". He is also Ren's father, although Kyoko does not know this. After Dark Moon started airing, Kyoko was cast in a high school drama as Natsu, which is a "Bully Role"; however Kyoko runs into the problem of being type-cast, as the director asks her to do her "Natsu" role based on "Mio". This is in spite of the fact that two roles should be different, as Mio is an extremely embittered rich young heiress, while Natsu is a relatively normal girl from a normal family who merely likes to pick on her classmates. But after some training from Ren on "how to act like a model" she stuns the cast with her new appearance and attitude for the role of Natsu, easily impressing the director with this new representation of Natsu. Later on, Kyoko was given a job by the president that she was to meet a scary person by the name of Cain Heel, who turns out to be Ren, who is into his character so much to the extent that Kyoko fell due to fear. After the incident, Ren confronted her and revealed who he was. He brought her back to the president and the president bestowed a job to Kyoko; she was to act as Cain Heel's younger sister, Setsuka, or better known as Setsu. She was given a complete makeover to complete the role of Cain's sister. Kyoko was trying to find the correct method to portray Setsu, and was unable to get fully into character, as seen when she was tremendously worried about Ren (as Cain Heel)'s safety while he's fighting off 4 guys who attacked him after his refusal to allow them to hit on Kyoko (as Setsuka Heel) and when she was yelling at Ren to stop when he was about to lose it and injure one badly, which is different from her previous characters, when she's fully in character as Mio and Natsu even while off-set, and continued to act as Kuon even while meeting Ren and Yashiro at Sunrise TV. More recently, Kyoko has started to realize her "new feelings" for Ren. In one monologue, she talks about how all the locks on her "box", except onem fell off when Ren kissed her on the cheek. However, she was able to put them back on and seal back up her "box." She goes on to say that at the moment Ren took her hands and said "let's do this together", most of the locks came off easily. Kyoko constantly denies these feelings to herself, trying to convince herself (somewhat unsuccessfully) that Ren sees her as a child and not as a love interest. Now, she seems to have 'found Setsu', as she is completely in character, even going so far as to walk into the bathroom when Ren (acting as Cain) is taking a bath, shocking the director who was the one who 'created' the character 'Cain Heel'. Previously, when she accidentally walked in on Ren while he was showering (she was worried about him since he wouldn't answer her) she panicked for a long time, though she covered it in front of Ren, causing him to wonder if she saw him as a man. Currently, she's trying to find a way to help Ren come out of the darkness that's haunting him (his past). While on a break from acting as Setsuka, she is pondering over the situation and wonders if someone has lost their life because of Ren, though she never finishes the thought since Kijima (a well known actor whose interest in Kyoko is obvious to everyone but her) texts her. After begin captured by Shō with the help of Mimori, Kyoko is forced to go to lunch with him, where after concerned with her punctuality makes him give her a lift to her next job (TMB). But when she meets eyes with an unexpected Ren Tsuruga who also has work there, Shō makes Kyoko tell him her real feelings for Ren Tsuruga. She tells Shō that she feels nothing for him and states "I don't want to turn into an idiot [(fall in love)] again. [...] and even if I were to become an idiot again for some reason... it still... wouldn't be because of Tsuruga-san" in chapter 191. Kyoko arrives at her job to play Bo still late even after the whole ordeal, Kyoko admits to herself that if she were to allow herself to become an "idiot" again she would be worse of an idiot with Tsuruga than she ever was with Shō. The next day Kyoko is nervous because she knows that Tsuruga is bound to be angry at her but when she doesn't receive even a phone call, she can't help but worry. But now she must suppress the unwanted feelings and return to being Setsuka Heel and live with her awaiting dotting older brother and beloved senpai who is still dealing with his suppressed unresolved feeling of dismay (he's really mad at this point because of Kyoko's text message to Kijima, and seeing her with Shō) and the shadows which lurk from his past.