Ranked #322

Itazura na Kiss

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 and stupid, 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.
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Not in recent memory has an anime piqued my need to write a review. This one is a great adaptation of the manga. The setting has been updated to reflect current times. The flavor of the original story has stayed true with extra filler material cut out which paces the anime well. Keep in mind this manga began publishing in 1990. While the art may seem weird to some, this anime really does stay true to the original manga.

This version of Aihara Kotoko is prettier and while still not the sharpest tool in the shed is more tolerable than the manga version. Irie Naoki looks and acts just like he should. The best part about him is watching his gradual tenderness emerge. You can't help but like him more and more as the story progresses.

I'll be updating once I'm done with the series. The manga was never completed due to the tragic, sudden death of the mangaka. The mangaka's husband was consulted on production of this anime. The ending will be as the mangaka originally intended. I can't wait! read more

Fun premise with some genuinely humorous and touching moments, but tries to cram too much story into too few episodes, severely undermining the character development and romance that should be two of the show's star attractions. Irie's characterization suffers most from the compression -- every show of affection comes off as random and perfunctory, seeming less like the result of his feelings for Kotoko than the show meeting a necessary benchmark so it can move on to the next phase of the Irie/Kotoko relationship. (Not surprisingly, Kotoko herself comes off as a bit of a doormat early on, given that she suffers so much abuse with so few rewards.) When your main couple is two people with opposite personalities who don't get along well at first, putting their relationship on fast forward is just a bad idea.

Still, there are good reasons to hang on till the end of Itakiss: the supporting cast is full of entertaining characters, the show has a great sense of humor when it's not being warped out of shape by time constraints, the art scheme manages to be old-fashioned without looking dated, and perhaps most importantly, the pacing and character development become much better around the halfway mark. That's crucial, because whenever Itakiss gets a little breathing room, it becomes more rich, more fun -- becomes, in effect, the charming romantic comedy it always had it in it to be. (Rather awkwardly, the show's potential is most apparent in the final episode, an amusing side story told in flashback that does nothing to advance the romantic plot.)

There are worse ways to fail than from an excess of ambition, and I find the second half of Itazura na Kiss more or less redeems its shaky start. It isn't always great, but it's never truly bad, and it gets better as it goes. If you like shoujo romance and can give a show the benefit of the doubt, give Itakiss a shot. read more

Itazura na Kiss is a Shoujo, Slice of Life, Romantic, Comedy about the unrequited love of our heroine, which slowly develops into true love. This concept is anything but original but this anime adaptation surely did the manga justice.

Here we have the typical shoujo set-up of the average girl (Kotoko Aihara) that has a crush on the school idol (Naoki Irie), but he doesn’t feel the same way towards her. So she makes it her goal to find a way to unlock the door to his heart. This premise is kind of dull on the other hand the whole living together, due to some unforeseen circumstances, thing does help matters progress in an interesting way. Because of this, there are plenty of comedic moments; with only some that will make anyone laugh and surprising developments to add some much needed drama. Sadly a lot had to be sacrificed from the manga storyline to accommodate the limited number of episodes, resulting in numerous skips. So you can expect them to go from Middle School to College faster than in most school-based anime, however it’s not like the romantic relationships progressed as fast. Most shoujo anime fans can still expect a rewarding experience with the story but not as much with the characters.

Kotoko is an annoyingly persistent, love struck girl. Naoki is like a male tsundere, always cold and manipulative but later becomes more kind-hearted; and sure some of his actions are very normal but his attitude can get very annoying. Having these two as the main hero & heroine is a fairly common sight, making the characters a fairly dull aspect of the series. At least there’s an interesting batch of supporting characters to enjoy and the characters in general undergo surprising amounts of development. Well even though the supporting characters do bring with them a fair amount of comedy & developments, some can become such a nuisance, with all their meddling.

This anime is adapted from a fairly old manga (early 90s) and the animation style adopts it well. The surroundings, character designs and their outfits go well with the theme but this also comes with several unappealing factors (weird head shapes). The watercolour backgrounds do help to add depth to the foreground, but the cheesy shoujo effects don’t always go with it. The music also comes with its ups and downs. The OP & ED themes are great but you can’t really say the same about the mundane soundtrack.

Overall Itazura na Kiss isn’t an outstanding shoujo romance nevertheless it is still a great series to watch, with a rewarding end result. Personally I had one major problem with the story and that had to be with the pacing, which felt very disjointed at times but that was a necessity to cram in as much manga story as possible. Even though I didn’t like most of the characters, it was still good to see them develop and grow as the story progressed. There was plenty of drama in throughout the series but this is a Rom/Com at heart and it never lets you forget that.

^_^ read more

when i first started watching itazura, i was worried it was going to be a big mistake. the plot seemed cliched and a bit obvious (don't they always get together in the end...?) but i'm glad i stuck with it, because the getting there part is very well done. i enjoy how the characters are fleshed out, and while the art isn't fabulous, it's enough to get the point across. kotoko is cute, though rather annoying in that her life's desire is to end up with irie. she's really setting an example for little girls. irie, on the other hand, is your stereotypical "too cool for you" perfect, loved-by-all, cold genius. unlike many other characters of his genre, however, irie has depth which you can see in his eventual falling in love with kotoko.
all in all, i have great expectations for this series, as it's one of few that's had me pausing it so i can bury my face in my pillow and squeal "DON'T DO IT!!" thet enjoyment level is high enough to make up for any flaws, and if you like a cute love story, itazura is for you. read more

Itazura na Kiss is about a girl who is not so bright but very determined who falls in love with a verytalented and supposedly "way above her league" guy.The story follows the trials and tribulations that she goes through in her relationship with him.

I liked the story of this anime very much because it is one of the few animes that actually go so far as to follow the relationship of the couple after their marriage. this makes it different from most animes which just end the story when the two confess to each other or something along that line. However, a warning to all that the story line is somewhat predictable and may bore you in terms of plot. The focus on the relationship makes the main genre of the story romance, which i think is portrayed very well in the show, along with the comedy making the show a fairly enjoyable romantic comedy. Another thing to note is that the story moves at an extremely fast pace from high school to college and then work. This may prove unrealistic but it allows us to see the progress in the relationship between the characters and can be overlooked.

The art was your typical shuojo style of animation with big eyes and the "cool" looking guys. It will not meet the standards of artworks like Fate stay night or True Tears(two animes that i also recommend). The style fits the genre of a romantic comedy which is more comical and lighthearted.

The sound was suited the anime with catchy and meaningful (lyrics) songs for the OP and ED. The inserts were also timed nicely to bring out the atmosphere at key points in the story and thus there is still actually some drama and in fact more so than your ordinary romantic comedy.

The characters all have a good deal of depth where most of the characters even the supporting ones have some showtime dedicated to them and thus the focus will not all be hogged by the main characters, this helps to create a more interactive environment for the main characters(more than one couple in the show). I think the characters are truly hysterical at times and is not overdone, thus you still can take the story seriously while getting a good laugh out of it.

I must say the combination of romance-drama-comedy make this anime very entertaining and enjoyable to watch. If you are a looking for a good romance anime with a bit of drama then this anime is for you. The anime is not too dull and will liven up your heart. Romantic moments are abundant in this show so if you love those nice cheesy romance or watching the hard work ploughed into relationships bearing fruit then you will like this. However, as mentioned earlier it can be quite predictable but hey sometimes the most ordinary things can be entertaining with a tweak of comedy added and a good cast of characters to liven the show. This is a romantic comedy at it's best. read more

The series has just ended, and I can finally deem myself worthy enough to write a review. But beware spoilers after the first paragraph!

What is Itazura na Kiss exactly? Probably the most amazing, wonderful, and romantic anime you will ever find. The story follows Kotoko, a cute and spunky girl who, though she is not book smart, is makes up for it in personality traits that a normal human could not possess. Kotoko is the girl everyone who has failed a class wants to be, the girl that gets kicked around by those smarter and more attractive than herself, but who is able to ignore all of these things because of her strong will and determination.
At the beginning, we are introduced to not only Kotoko but Irie-kun, the most intelligent and attractive student in, well, Japan. He is so scarily intelligent and good looking that it is only natural he shuns every girl who professes her love to him. And so naturally, when Kotoko, who has had her eye on Irie for years, tries to give him a love letter, he refuses it. Normally, for any girl, this is where the story would end, but for Kotoko it is only the beginning. After a series of unfortunate events, Kotoko and her father end up in Irie's home. And so begins the story of Itazura na Kiss. Kotoko is put through many trials as she tries to show Irie that she loves him, and living with him and having his AMAZINGLY AWESOMELY HILARIOUS MOTHER on her side is a huge help!

There is a lot to the story that if I said a lot more it would just spoil it, so I'm going to say this at least: Watch Itazura na Kiss. It's hilarious but the love story is one of the most amazing and romantic ones you will ever find. Kotoko will remain one of my favorite characters of all time because through her hard work and determination to win the one that she loves, she proves to everyone that you CAN have your happy ending and have everything you could possibly ever want.

ART: The art may seem a little off, but they tried to stick to the original character designs by Kaoru Tada, who died in the process of writing the manga for it. Episode 25 is scarily a lot like the manga in terms of art. Irie and Kotoko change after they get married...it's hard to put your finger on what is so different. But as the story processes the art seems to get a little sloppier. Other than that, I'm really glad they stuck to Kaoru Tada's original design for the most part.

SOUND: Sound is good. Kotoko has a really cute voice, Irie rarely talks so his is not as important. It's Irie's mother that is so amazing, her laugh is the PERFECT "oh ho ho!" laugh.

CHARACTER: Like I said, you'll never find another like Kotoko. And it's really sweet to see how Irie changes the more that Kotoko affects him and makes him think and wonder about his life, and about how he feels about her. Hands down though, Irie's mother is the best character though. She plays so many tricks to get Kotoko--the daughter she never had--to have her way, and tries to steer Irie along into her trap. She is forceful and hilarious and brings most of the comedy into the VERY sarcastic series.

ENJOYMENT: I was of course very happy watching the series. Filler episodes tend to get annoying, but you're just dying to see what Irie will do next in the earlier episodes. There is a lot that isn't covered in the series that you should know about Irie. I highly suggest reading the manga or at least checking out the Wikipedia article on Itazura na Kiss.

OVERALL: Best anime ever. It was totally amazing, and it doesn't matter WHAT you're genre is: Mecha, Shoujo, Shonen, etc. Just watch Itazura na Kiss. It's the anime that falls into it's own genre because it is so amazing. ARIGATO KAORU TADA FOR YOUR CREATION!!! read more

Itazura na Kiss, or "Mischievous Kiss", does start out as a typical romantic comedy of Kotoko Aihara having a crush on Naoki Irie for a long time. When Kotoko gathers enough courage to give Naoki a love letter on her 18th birthday, he flat out refuses to accept it. That is when the stereotype of romantic comedy takes a nice detour.

Aside from the synopsis that I gave above, Kotoko is pretty much an airhead when it comes to most things where as Naoki seems to be able to do almost anything set in fromt of him. Actually, Naoki said "I can probably do about 90% of all things in the world. But the other 10% I can't do, she does better than anyone." But that's getting to far ahead of ourselves. Their personalities couldn't be further apart either. Kotoko is a lively, daydreaming, hopeless romantic and Naoki is a cold, aloof, almost arrogant guy. And Kotoko seems to be in love with him.

After some of bad mishaps with Kotoko and her father, fate it seems, threw the main characters together since Kotoko and Naoki's fathers knew each other since they were kids. Pretty farfetched, but I'll run with it. Then come on the one-sided love from Kotoko that slowly (I mean slowly) brings Naoki into the realm of loving her bit-by-bit. That and she blackmailed him in the beginning with some embarassing pictures of Naoki as a baby, from his own mother. Sheesh.

(Beware of reading on at this point, SPOILER ALERT!!!)

The exceptional part of this anime is that the story goes far beyond the high school life. It even goes well beyond college. That is what gave it a worthy anime. It doesn't just stick into the high school life like a lot of anime goes through. College, medical school, even their marriage is shown. A nice way of bringing what we most want to see in the love story animes of our time. Of course ther are a few flaws.

Time jumps for example do happen in the anime. But it is not without consideration that the manga does go through some filler where the anime does not. Interesting that the Director wanted to do that. Usually it is the other way around. But there is some more flaws to be had. The fact that Kotoko and Naoki's wedding happened 2 weeks after their engagement threw me off, but it was explained that the mom had in fact, planned everything to happen. Funny how the mom is a brilliant schemer. And when you see Kotomi finally born, you don't really see a lot of character development on the last episode, or even if Kotoko and Naoki wanted another child. Speaking of which, when they do have their child, they still live with Naoki's parents. They are around 30 at the time. Don't you think that they should move out by now?

But flaws aside, it is still worth watching. Character development, sound and story does have great qualities and is well thought out. The artwork on some scenes kind of seemed childish, but that is what was intended so I let it slide. Altogether, a good story to behold. Not a "Must See", but definately worth checking out a couple of episodes to see your interest. read more

This anime caught my atention a while ago. It's a love-drama-slice of life and "Shoujo" if you call it the japanesse way. I wasn't expecting anything good from this one but I was wrong, instead this anime turned to out to be one of my favourites of this genre: it has a pretty decent story complemented with rich characters and a very funny overall development.

The story just begins like it usually does when you mix love and romance with the Shoujo genre: "girl likes a boy and tries to tell him about it". The difference is that (for very incredible circustances xD!) this girl becomes a guest in this boy's house and also that this boy is a perfect genious and this girl is really on the bottom lot of the senior high school classes (Class A > Class E). Almost half the story is about Kotoko trying to get Irie-kun's attention. She does this by attempting a lot of things that always, for some reason, end in the wrong way and become something seriously funny that makes it look like the gap between them get's bigger and bigger. But as the story goes on Irie Naoki realizes his true feelings and let that "genious-perfect-cold" shell go as he get's closer to Kotoko. The story is divided in 3 phases:
1) When the characters are in high school senior year - adolescent stage (the shortest lapse of time).
2) When they are in University or College - pre-adult stage (the longest one).
3) When they have full time jobs - adult stage (intermediate).
The story jumps some years after between this 3 phases but that happens when there is nothing more to expect from the story at that time, so is a good thing that the story's timeline is manipulated accurately.

Very good drawing is what makes this anime good to watch and really feel a connection with the surroundings in it. The characters are very well designed and let's you have a wide range of experiences: some are ugly to watch (on purpose of course) and some others are just gorgeous. So the art goes from ugly to pretty making a perfect balance between these two themes and making this anime a complete one. The sound is something I'm not that enthusiastic about in this anime. Didn't really like the opening or ending and the BMG's in the anime events well I really didn't identiffy them so is like they can delete those sounds inside the anime and I wouldn't notice xD! On the bright side I loved the japanesse voice acting because the voices do feel like each character personal presentation card.

The characters in this anime are just very diverse. They behave and act differently one from another, each one is different in it's own way and make the anime really fresh and friendly to watch. Definitely love Kotoko, she's just so funny and entertaining that you always wish that she comes with another love-atack plan XD! But overall a very heterogenous cast of characters that make the anime funny and interesting in as many ways as types of characters are in it.

A increible cast, a funny story and a good design make this anime worthwhile. I promise that you are going to laugh a lot with this one and really enjoy it. The 25 episodes seen to be very long and boring to watch but as you go through them you will find yourself immersed in the story and, actually, when the anime finishes you will be impressed on how quickly things passed by. I enjoyed this from begining to end, there is no sad ending and I wouldn't call it a happy ending either, it's just like life itself. This anime will tell you what happens when you try your hardest even if you are a failure at everything you do. read more

Itazura na Kiss is, quite simply, a rather generic seeming comedic drama. The basic scenario of the plot has a rather basic structure that is, more or less, rather predictable. It's about a high school girl who is infatuated with a boy who doesn't seem to care for her whatsoever but by some mysterious twist of fate ends up living in his house due to unfortunate circumstances and the development of both the male and female protagonists. Nonetheless, Itazura na Kiss was still rather gripping and kept me peeled to the screen (I marathon-ed through it >___>) until the end.


Story: 7

As mentioned above, the story plot-line was, for the most part rather predictable and seemed to have a lot of reoccurring instances (the most noticeable being Irie's popularity and other men chasing Kotoko). There were also a few lulls in the series and then a number of rushed scenes which left more to be desired on the part of the director. It was still enjoyable and it worked rather well for the most part in forcing character development and the like.


Art: 6

Now, I've never been a fan of the shoujo used in Itakiss but it is fair enough. However, being a recently aired anime, I expected a little more.


Sound: 6

Didn't think of it as anything remarkable but it worked well enough.


Characters: 8

One of the things I loved most about Itakiss is its wide variety of characters ranging from Kin to Kotoko to Irie, there is a very big spectrum of personalities that make this anime rather special and even more hilarious. As far as character development goes, it felt somewhat rushed but it worked overall.


Enjoyment: 8

I thought it was very entertaining and hilarious. read more