ItaKiss

Shoujo romance can be a bit of an annoying genre for me. First it is dominated by bishounen love interests who often look more like girls and usually have aloof or abrasive personalities that make you wonder why the heroine fell in love with them in the first place. While at first glance, Itazura na Kiss may not seem to be any different (though with the relieving lack of bishies) it evolved before my very eyes into the most heartwarming romance I have seen to date. The plot for Itazura na Kiss is no different than your standard shoujo romance. A plain andstupid, but cute girl Kotoko has fallen in love and secretly pined for school idol and uber smart Naoki Irie. She finally gathers to courage to write him a love confession letter but he flatly refuses to even accept or let alone read it stating that he doesn’t like "stupid" girls. Of course in a plot twist that can only happen in shoujo, Kotoko's house is destroyed due to faulty construction and she and her father are forced to move in with his old friend, who just happens to be Naoki's father! Hilarity and hijinks ensue. Despite the fairly non groundbreaking premise the story remains quite funny. Kotoko tries desperately to get her feelings across despite Naoki being cold, uninterested, and mean to her. Though some of it walks to line of being unforgivable to my feminist brain, it never has some of the cruel or absolutely mean spirited feeling as I am accustomed to seeing in this genre. But what really sets Itazura's story apart is the eventual payoff to the romance. Yes I know this is going to be a shocking spoiler, but Kotoko and Naoki end up together! Omigosh really! Before some of you get upset at me for revealing that, honestly what did you expect!? What we get in Itazura is something we almost never see in romance; the AFTER in they lived happily ever after. Most romances evolve over the space of at most a year or two where in Itazura the years pass as we see our couple evolve and move on to each new stage of their life. The formulaic romance plot evolves into a bit of a slice of life over the last half of the series. But what is truly beautiful is seeing the characters and even the supporting characters grow and fine love and happiness themselves. It’s quite refreshing to see the spurned love rivals actually can be happy and not spend their lives pining away for an unattainable love. My only real gripe with this is that the extra romances themselves play out too similarly to the main storyline. I mean come on everyone does not fall in love the same way you know! Kotoko makes for a very satisfying shoujo heroine. She has all the attributes that one would expect. She is cute but not overly beautiful, ditzy and clumsy, and not very bright. What she lacks in intelligence she makes up for in determination, hard work, and a singular focus on getting her man. This is where Itazura differs from a lot of shoujo. Our ordinary girl is not surrounded by a harem of pretty boys and while others vie for her love, too her credit her feelings for Naoki never waver. However as loveable and likeable as Kotoko is, you can’t help but wonder what it is she sees in Naoki who is so cold and mean to her. This is my main gripe usually with shoujo as I think it sets a bit of a bad role model for girls who thinks is ok to put up with this kind of thing. Even though she succeeds and manages to get her well deserved reward, you have to wonder why she bothered with him in the first place. Additionally, despite her pursuit of her man there is little else of substance about her. You don’t feel like she has any real dreams of her own beyond her relationship with Naoki. It also annoyed me a bit that even after becoming intimate she still referred to him as Irie-kun. All that being said, seeing Kotoko grow up and experience all the joy and happiness life has to offer brought a smile to my face and a few tears. Our stoic and cold hearted love interest Naoki certainly isn’t the kind of guy I would fall for, but he has all of the attributes that young girls dream about. He is handsome (yet thankfully not a bishie), smart, the son of a company president, and of course admired by women and men alike. His is cold and aloof to everyone and while they at times touch on why this is they sadly never develop this part of his personality very well. He does make a lot of growth in his character over the course of the series, though annoyingly he often reverts back to his old ways in the following episode. But by the end of the series you feel as though he has become an acceptable human being. And to think it only took Kotoko 10 years to get that out of him! Any romance would not be complete without the supporting cast of "cockblockers". There always has to be girls and boys who spring out of the woodwork to try and derail our leads happy romance. Itazura is no different however thankfully we get a cast of supporting characters who break the mold a bit and never seem to outstay their welcome and know when to move on when they have been defeated. There are no real villains in the cast and you will end up liking every one of them and feel all the more happy when they find loves of their own. Every heroine needs a cast of helpful supporters encourages her romantic struggle. The series has some good ones, the biggest cheerleader and most humorous being Naoki's own mother who actively supports Kotoko in wooing her son, scolds him when he is mean to her, and loves her as her own daughter. It is quite sweet. The cast gets quite large towards the end and sadly some favorites tend to fade away into obscurity but you don’t miss them too much because they all are so wonderful to watch. The artwork and animation is quite good. As I mentioned most shoujo series seem to revolve around bishie male characters which we do not get in this series. All the guys look like men, at least the ones that are supposed to be manly. There is some inconsistency at times with the look overall, particularly Kotoko who sometimes looks a bit too childish. The art itself is a bit plain too, by design but the settings, backgrounds, color palette, and character designs are not going to really blow anyone away. The music score is outstanding however. I really loved the EN theme and the performance from Kotoko seiyuu Nana Mizuki who is a favorite of mine and is probably best known as the voice of Fate from Nanoha. Itazuka na Kiss comes close to receiving a perfect score. From a pure enjoyment standpoint alone it surpasses it. This series rivals my love for series with developed post confession romances such as Clannad. While is has a few minor annoyances overall this is the best and most enjoyable romance series I have seen. If your love your romance that’s lite on the tragedy and gives you a heartwarming happy ending then this should be at the very top of your list.

Would you just back down after being told no? To be honest, very few anime make me want to actually write a review about them. This is one of the rare exceptions. I have never seen such a beautiful, but also realistic story. However, there was a myriad of things beautiful about the anime outside of the story. The score for this anime was beautiful, not as much as one would had liked, but they did a very good job with this. The art style also stuck true to the manga written back in 1991, which I also appreciate. However, enough of that, let's get onto why I believe this may be one of the greatest romance anime's of all time. When one watches an anime, usually it is the same thing over and over. You see the guy chasing the girl, and the girl chasing the guy, and at the very end they share an intimate moment and the anime will end. What happens to the couple after? Do they stay together? Get married? Or end up in a situation that end unfortunately? What is left for the viewer? Itazura na Kiss shows exactly what the viewer wants to see. It shows not only Kotoko's attempt to persevere, but also the unlikely relationship between the two. It boldly does something that a lot of anime does not do and that's actually show the after affect of the couple. And I believe this is done beautiful. Itazura na Kiss makes you feel what the other character is feeling, makes you think what the other character is thinking. I didn't expect much going into this, I thought it would be just another girl chasing a guy and being annoying like a plethora of anime leads are. This is easily one of the most enjoyable anime's I have watched to date. Each anime has it's flaws, no doubt about it. However, story wise, it was simply perfect. You didn't see a character automatically shift from being nefarious to being a perfect character. That doesn't happen here, Kotoko and Irei stay true to themselves throughout the whole anime and that's what is most enjoyable about it. Overall, a 9/10. If you are into romance anime or simply want to take a break from your preferred genre like I did, this is a perfect anime to watch and just feel happy about while watching it.

The reason I chose to watch this anime was because it seemed to be highly recommended by others, so I feel like it is partly my duty to give a differing point of view since I really didn't like this anime at all. This shoujo comedy centers on Kotoko, a character who is nothing new to the genre: pretty, but not too pretty, stupid, determined, feminine and someone whose whole being revolves around the guy she likes. Unfortunately the guy she happens to like is mean-spirited when he's not being completely indifferent towards her, rude (and of course incredibly good-looking), arrogant (and also the smartestperson in school without even trying), a complete jerk (who is capable of doing anything he puts his mind to including sports). It never becomes quite clear how it is anyone could fall in love with him beyond his looks and top exam scores, but we're also not supposed to believe that our female protagonist is so shallow as to only want him for his outwardly appearance and therefore it doesn't ever seem to make sense how she could love him so much when he treats her so poorly. As we become aware of Kotoko's strong will and determination when it comes to all things to do with getting her guy, we are also left puzzled by the fact that she doesn't use it to make more of herself independently of him. I forced myself to sit through this anime till the end no matter how bad it was so that I could form a justified opinion on it, I was also perhaps hoping that Kotoko would come to her senses, realise she could do better and dump the guy. But instead we have a character who singularly focuses her life around a man who never truly respects her. I should be fair by saying that this anime did elicit a few chuckles and it starts off amusing enough. The artwork is fairly average. There are quite a few decent secondary characters who keep the plot moving forward and who are a main source of comedic value. But as the anime progresses the main problem I've outlined above becomes a glaring impediment to enjoying the protagonists' romance. Overall, I wouldn't recommend this anime to anyone who likes to see their female characters with an ounce of self-respect, but if you want light-hearted romance and you don't mind what sort of message it conveys about and to girls and women, then by all means watch Itazura no Kiss.

Be warned, this review may contain /spoilers/. Aihara Kotoko is in love with the unattainable Irie Naoki. Fate intervenes when one day Kotoko’s house gets ruined by an earthquake, forcing Kotoko and her father to move in to Naoki and his parents’ house. Does Kotoko have a chance with Naoki after all? The romantic comedy begins! Itazura na Kiss is one of those few anime that go past the main couple’s high school life and transcends into their adult life – their marriage, honeymoon, and university/college experiences. The manga which this anime is based off of is unfinished due to the tragic, untimely death of theauthor. It is said that the anime ended the way the author truly wanted it to finish. Oh my gooood. This is such a beautiful anime. The relationship with Naoki and Kotoko is wonderfully developed, and it’s so heartwarming and beautiful and I love it. I would love to have a husband like Naoki – he’s my dream man, you know – and this is an anime that every person should watch because it’s so beautiful. I had tears in my eyes during the last few episodes, it was that lovely. LOL NO. Excuse me while I rip this crap to pieces. Itazura na Kiss (“Mischievous Kiss” in English, or ItaKiss as it is commonly known) is not the best love story ever. It is also not romantic in the least. Unless, of course, you’re a masochist. If you want a good love story, go watch…hmmm…I actually don’t watch too many romance anime. Ah, I know. Go watch Kimi ni Todoke, or Wolf and Spice, or Fruits Basket, or even Toradora!. Heck, even School Rumble is a better romance than this. I think I need my brain checked, because /I don’t understand why this anime has so many followers and girls screaming “oh my god I love Itazura na Kiss!”/ Please, someone help me understand why this anime is so popular. Seriously – if you Google “Itazura na Kiss anime review” (or even a manga review) over 98% of reviews are positive. /And I don’t understand./ Wow, I’m so pissed off that I can’t even write this review in the way I originally intended. So let’s go straight to the good stuff, shall we? Itazura na Kiss’s female protagonist is Aihara Kotoko, who is one of the stupidest students in her high school – no joke, she’s been in class “F” (the lowest class) all throughout high school. Unfortunately, the guy she likes is Irie Naoki, the most intelligent boy in school (a TENSAI!!1one! or genius) who happens to be in class “A”, which is the highest class. Naoki also happens to be a total jerk. None of their personalities change throughout the series, which goes on for twenty-five torturous episodes. I—I can’t even get a good synopsis out because I hate this anime so much, ughh. I promise that once I regain my composure, I’ll try to write a “redux” of this review. Episode seventeen is when the anime actually starts to get good. For no other reason than they introduce Kamogari Keita. Ahh, Keita, you are the only reason I actually kept watching this anime. No joke. Keita is probably the best character in this entire series, if you ask me. For reasons that I will leave to you to find out, if you ever want to check out this anime. Actually – I’ll spare you the pain of doing that. Keita happens to be the only character (that I can remember, anyway) that tells Kotoko to break it off with Naoki because he’s a bastard that doesn’t care about her. You should have listened to him, Kotoko. I’m disappointed you didn’t. On the plus side, though, this anime has some psychological merits, even if it doesn’t mean to have them. Kotoko is dumb as a rock, and Irie is a genius. Irie uses this blatant gap in their intelligence to use Kotoko and keep her with him, mainly utilizing the carrot-and-stick method. Based on this, we can conclude that Irie has a very low amount of self-esteem, and hides it by being with a stupid girl.