• Title: Itazura na Kiss
  • Studio: TMS Entertainment
  • Genre: Shoujo/Romantic Comedy

Ratings (out of 5):

  • Story: ♥♥

  • Animation: ♥♥♥
  • Characters: ♥½
  • OP/ED Themes: ♥♥½
  • Overall: ♥♥♥ (It’s a nice little throwback, but nothing all that amazing.)

Thoughts:
Liked Marmalade Boy? Then Itazura na Kiss is your cup of tea, practically guaranteed. Kotoko Aihara is in the F-class at her school, also known as the “leftover class”– the lowest achievers of the school. Naoko Irie is the top of the A-class, i.e. the smartest guy in the school, and also a pretty hot guy. In spite of the disparity between their classes, Kotoko falls for Irie at first glance and confesses to him via love letter. He rejects it without even looking at it, and later explains that he hates stupid girls. Sounds like a real winner, doesn’t he, ladies?

So! Later that night, Kotoko and her friends go to her house, which is brand-new. Then an earthquake happens and the brand-new, poorly-constructed house falls to bits. When her dad’s friend offers to let them stay at his house, her dad accepts…and then, if you didn’t already guess, it turns out that Kotoko’s dad’s friend is Irie’s dad. I.e. she’s moving in temporarily with Irie. WHOA!

Irie welcomes her by getting his little brother Yuuki to humiliate her in front of the adults with her poor kanji skills, by the way. Why does anyone like this guy, exactly? So to sum up: Kotoko has to live with the guy who rejected her, who is a total douche. I, for one, am hoping to god that she actually starts to show some redeeming character traits and tears him down a few dozen notches. (Though going by Marmalade Boy, the notches would be minimal.)

Another reason for the Marmalade Boy comparison is that it’s a contemporary of this show’s original manga; Itazura ran from ‘91 to ‘99, when creator Kaoru Tada passed away suddenly, and MB was ‘92-’95. As such, some of the shoujo stylings are similar, particularly pointier features and clothing styles. However, the animation is perfectly modern, and the manga’s style is adapted, so the show doesn’t look or feel particularly out-dated.

That said, it’s no Love*Com or Ouran High School Host Club in terms of being fresh and a bit different, but it’s a nice throwback to the kind of shoujo show we haven’t seen in ages…especially now that the romantic comedy anime genre is flooded with shounen moe shows.


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