Ranked #716

Kimagure Orange Road

Kimagure Orange Road is a classic and one of my all time favorite anime. While it stands on its own as a love triangle romance/comedy its got some quirky characters and situations thrown in there.

At the very beginning of the anime you find out that the Kasuga family are espers, throw in over the top girl gangs and delinquents and you have a weird concoction with a romance anime.

Watching it today it is a bit dated for visuals, but even so they still work to this day as the animation is good enough that the characters are able to convey the emotions properly.

The voice acting is top shelf and the music while corny by todays standards has enough timeless "pop" sound to it that you can still get into it as a guilty pleasure.

While some of the minor characters can be accused of being one dimensional the main three of Kyosuke, Madoka and Hikaru easily stand fully developed. Madoka especially shows the full gamut of emotions in this anime. Yes while it can be argued she is the prototypical tsundere and in some episodes she certainly can be, however those episodes are mainly one and done filler episodes dealing with delinquent characters where as in most of the anime she is showing more girly and kind emotions. Kyosuke is the main character and he is generally likeable albeit the typical indecisive lead character. Hikaru is the other half of the triangle and best friends with madoka, she might be the least complex character as she has a strong crush on Kyosuke and just wants to have fun.

48 eps of tv goodness 2 movies and 8 ovas so the series is not what I would call short, but if you give it a chance it will be over before you know it. This anime is certainly a classic if you like romance anime it really should not be missed. read more

Roughly twelve years ago, I picked up this anime series. A friend had it on Laser Disc ... LASER DISC. Given that, this should help you understand how old this series actually is. If you can get over the fact that this is a relatively old anime (and the fact that it shows) then this is a very well executed series.

Art:
As stated earlier, this IS an old anime. However, for its time, it was above average and, quite possibly, great. The artistic style really adds to the story (though a couple of the fight scenes were ... awkwardly executed).

Sound:
Again, the sound, by today's standards would be sub par. But for its time, it is way above good. The voice acting is way beyond good, which adds to the series story line.

Story/Character:
Without spoiling anything, all I can say is that the story is really good. Really the story is character driven. The three main characters REALLY shine but their personalities are drawn out very well by all of the supporting characters. VERY, VERY well done. read more

Kimagure Orange Road is a classic Romantic anime and one of the best of the genre no doubt.


The story revolves around a love traingle between the 3 main characters. Kyosuke and Madoka are in love but their indecisive and whimsical natures, respectively, and their fear of hurting Hikaru, who's in love with Kyosuke, make things harder.


There are 3 main characters:

Kyosuke Kasuga - The typical indicisive male lead who's not very strong and courageous.
Hikaru Hiyama - A very clingy and not very intelligent girl who's Madoka's best friend.
Madoka Ayukawa: No doubt the best character of the show.The Archetypal Kimagure(whimsical) character. One of the first tsunderes in anime and one of the best characters ever created. She's musically talented, intelligent and beautiful.


The secondary characters do a good job on pointing out the main characters flaws and qualities, and some of them are quite entertaining.


The art is your typical 80's anime art, it's obviously outdated nowadays but the characters are very well drawn.


The soundtrack is very good, it fits the show quite well.
The voice actors do a great job, they sound very natural.


The show is very enjoyable, I consider it the 2nd best romance anime/manga of all time(1st is Maison Ikkoku), I Definitely recomend it, if you liked Masion Ikkoku, Ranma 1/2 and Urusei Yatsura you'll like this.
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A true classic. Please do not let the early animation style nor the length of this anime discourage you; it is a fantastic work, and deserves to be enjoyed by anyone who considers themselves a fan of romantic anime.

Something no one else has mentioned is the beautiful, original way the story wraps up. The ending is the best finish of any anime I have watched; it is magical, and makes watching all 48 episodes incredibly satisfying. Do yourself a favour and invest the time in this show; you will be rewarded.

The characters are well-defined and original; it's really nice to see a series that contrasts a sophistocated, prideful character (Ayukawa) with a childish, straightforward one (Hikaru) instead of the usual tsundere/yandere/loli mashups.

Even though there are a lot of unrealistic/escapist moments, it's kind of surprising to see that there's a lot of maturity in a shonen series like this. Kasuga learns not to make excuses in love, that he doesn't have to learn about Ayukawa's past to get along with her, and Ayukawa and Hikaru are reasonably forgiving.

But it has its weaknesses. The anime doesn't do a convincing job of explaining why Kasuga can't just tell Hikaru to beat it, and they never really connect the way Kasuga and Ayukawa do. There are also a lot of filler episodes. read more

Recommend to me by a couple friends who watched all the new anime series such as : Love Hina, DNA2, H&C, Suzuka, etc and this Anime blows them all away.

Art:
Made in the 80s , so don't expect too much as far as artwork goes. Very low level of fanservice, but considering the animation was made in the 80s, It is quite good. The artwork lack is made up 10 folds by the Storyline.

Sound:
The bgm/ost is beautiful. It felt as if I was in the 80s. The music blended very well with the story unfolding. We have the jazz from the main character, the Jrock/punk playing at just the right moments.

Story/Character:
For a 48 episode series, it may seem long, but I wished there was more to it. The story is about 3 friends who meet up and from there a story of friendship unfolds. It's love at first site for Kasuga and for the duration of the story, we get to see the friendship , the pain, the happiness that will soon follow as Kasuga decides on who he truly loves. At no point is this a shallow-like animation we see in Lova Hina or the newer harem animations. Character development is very strong for the main two characters, Kasuga and Ayukawa, with the 3rd girl in the love interest just there for stiring up tension IMHO. So, Sit back and enjoy a quality comedy-romance anime that does justice. read more

If you loved Ranma ½ like I didn’t then KOR is a step up and in a better direction plus you’ll actually feel like finishing it. As for the animation of this show its definatly Ranma ½ 1987 style so nothing really sharp but I like the way they went with it. The characters are good and you’ll find some of them annoying which means their filling their part right. As far as the music goes I’d say it’s a definite plus with the rock style guitar playing and a sax mixed in, it’s the love music from the late 80’s. Story line while good as a whole gets bogged down sometimes and they probably could have cut 5-10 eps out of this series. This is supposed to be comedic romance but well all I found was awkward situation humor. read more