First Date: Kimi Kiss
- Title: Kimi Kiss pure rouge
- Studio: J.C. Staff
- Genre: Romance
Ratings (out of 5):
- Story: ♥♥♥
- Animation: ♥♥♥
- Characters: ♥♥♥♥
- OP/ED Themes: ♥♥♥
- Overall: ♥♥♥½ (Oh baby baby.)
Thoughts:
Yet Another Dating Sim-Turned-Anime…but I like this one better than most of the others. I think part of it is the presence of female lead Mao(-neechan), who is both hot and fun, and not over-blown or a mere archetype. In fact, so far none of the characters feel one-dimensional, except maybe Aihara’s younger sister and Hiiragi, the president of the movie research club (which Aihara and male lead Kouichi are members of, under duress).
So, the story is thus: one morning Kouichi wakes up to the ringing of a doorbell. On his way down the stairs the person at the door opens up: it’s Mao. But he doesn’t recognize her. She teases him, asks for a drink, and then goes to take a shower– and during all this time he still has no clue who she is. It isn’t until Aihara arrives to go with Kouichi to a club activity that Mao’s identity is revealed: she’s a childhood friend of both Aihara (who DID recognize her) and Kouichi, and she went to France two years earlier.
Insert rant about how the hell Kouichi can fail to recognize someone he hasn’t seen in only two years, especially since he’s old enough to have a decent memory (second year senior high school) and since she doesn’t seem to have changed physically at all.
…But she has changed a lot personality-wise, it seems. And she’s clearly hiding the reason she came back to Japan from France for only the last year of high school.
I think the reason this series stands out among all the other dating sim/eroge adaptations so far this season is the characters. None of them are crazy over-the-top stereotypes. Like, it feels like someone sat down and wrote a story, instead of like they were trying to cram in as many “types” of females as possible. (There’re even multiple male characters– and so far the two side character males have gotten way more action than the lead! I.e. the male side characters are there for more than just comedy relief and occasional plot-pushing; they actually play a role in the story!)
So, yeah, Kimi Kiss is on my watch list for the time being.
Tags: fall-2007, first-dates, kimi-kiss-pure-rouge
October 11th, 2007 at 5:26 pm
I liked this show because the characters were more down to earth in terms of design and personality.
October 19th, 2007 at 9:15 am
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