Ranked #1991

Pita-Ten (Manga)

Kotarou Higuchi is a young boy with a lot of troubles. His mother died when he was young, his father is away often for work leaving Kotarou to take care of things around the apartment they live in and, on top of that, he's not the best student and has to study hard just to get average marks, but wait! One day a mysterious girl claiming to be an angel moves in next door and won't leave him alone.

You know, to be honest, Pita Ten has what sounds like an extremely typical plot. In mahou shoujo this is usually the sort of situation you find, the main variance being: is the guy a pervert or not? The story with Pita Ten though, well...it is a bit typical at first. Still, later on in the series it evolves into a much more serious tone that questions the roles people have in our lives, how death will affect people and subtly touches on human nature as a whole often. But the thing I love especially about the series was that it really did touch my heart, from the sweet moments to the sad ones. Although Pita Ten's story is somewhat typical, it does what a lot of series in the genre cannot and makes you yearn for a happy ending for all the characters, not just what might be perceived as the main couple, no matter how impossible that is. (Also, no, Kotarou is not a pervert).

The art is by Koge Donbo, which, in my opinion, almost instantly means it will be remarkable. The character designs are all very cute, if not original. Still there are almost no points in the series where the art is anything less than wonderful (not counting, I suppose, the moments where the characters a chibi for humorous purposes, but even then they succeed in being quite adorable). Koge Donbo doesn't quite have a perfect or mature art style, but her style fits the story perfectly and only makes the series better.

Almost all of the characters are in sixth grade (the last grade of elementary school in most of Japan) and so they are quite focused on middle school entrance exams often. Usually I find this a worn out character storyline, but somehow it isn't in Pita Ten. The characters only develop more in what they hope to achieve by these exams (Ayanokoji in particular has a lot of character depth around this). Although I've known some people to call Misha (the main character who claims to be an angel) annoying, I loved her from the moment I started reading (and took up her name as a nickname for about two years). I think once more of her past is revealed you can forgive her for being slightly annoying. All in all the characters were very good since most of them have quite interesting pasts and almost all of them do something important to move along the series, which seems to not be the case often, as supporting characters fade in and out without much importance in a lot of other series. Happily this is not the case in Pita Ten, where almost all the characters are immediately lovable (there is one exception in my opinion, but isn't there always?)

On a personal note, Pita Ten was the first manga I really read and bought all of the volumes of. I've sold most of my other manga series over the years, but Pita Ten is still on my bookshelf. Often times I go back and read a few chapters randomly, and a few times I've read the whole series in one sitting. It's the only series I do that with and it's because I enjoy it so much. Pita Ten starts out as a bit of a light-hearted manga with some romance, drama and comedy, but over the course of the series it begins to evolve to show you more and more of what's going on until everything is revealed to be completely different from your initial opinion. The first few volumes don't feel like much besides some laughs and a bit of budding romance, but they are fun to read. Past that things take a turn for the even better as the comedy and romantic elements become a bit less and the supernatural and drama pieces show up more and more. Pita Ten is one of those series that goes from cute and bubbly to deadly serious to romance to...well you get the idea. However, unlike a lot of series, Pita Ten does it with nearly flawless execution, meaning you get just about everything you could want without it feeling too weighed down.

Overall, Pita Ten probably isn't the best series out there, it definitely isn't original and it isn't trying to be. To me Pita Ten isn't about falling in love or finding love. Instead it's more about loving life and all the ordinary things around you. The entire series, for as many sad scenes as it has, never fails to make me happy. Anyone looking for a sweet story, that gets bitter at sometimes and silly at others, but never loses its beauty, should find their perfect fit with Pita Ten. read more

Let me just start off by saying: DO NOT WATCH THE ANIME.
Compared to the manga, the anime is complete crap. (My apologies if you have already seen the pita-ten anime and are scouting out the reviews to see if the manga is worth-while.)
The manga is much darker, and more in depth than the anime.

Pita-ten is the first, and by far the best, manga I have ever read. And this is coming from a life time lover of CLAMP's mangas.
Koge Donbo- I salute you.

Another thing to remember: Yes, this is a pretty common shoujo story-line. A boy befriends a magical being, blah, blah, blah skip to happy ending. Pita-ten is not like that.

Story: 8
Kotarou Higuchi is a calm sixth grader who lives in an apartment with his ever absent father. His life is considerably normal, until one day he gets a new neighbor who has an unhealthy obsession with him. This neighbor is Misha, and as it turns out, is a dysfunctional angel whose mission in life is to make kotarou happy.
As Misha and Kotarou's friendship grows (or inevitable love, in Misha's eyes), Kotarou learns that his past is shrouded in more mystery than he believed was possible.

Art:9
Koge Donbo's style is unbelievably adorable, but she has a way of making her characters very emotional when the time calls for it. Of course, Pita-Ten is not without it's comedy moments, and the art makes it 10 times better.

Characters:8
Again, the manga goes more in depth into the main characters than the anime. You may be suprised to find that Shia (another mysterious resident who moves in with Misha) has a darker personality than you remembered. The characters in Pita-Ten are all memorable, and all play in part in Misha's unexpected interruption into their lives.

Enjoyment: 9
I never found myself doubting where the story was going through all 8 volumes. Sure, things get a little bit stranger near the end, but in a way that it's not unrelated to what was happening earlier on.
I can honestly say I laughed at some parts, I cried at some parts, and I was generally glad I had spent the time to read it when I was done.

Overall:
Pita-Ten is a story about love, the mistakes we make, friendship, death, and the hard choices that come our way.
Trust me when I say you won't regret reading this wonderful, sometimes heart-wrenching story.
Thanks for reading.
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