Marmalade Boy

I enjoyed this anime for the first 20-30 episodes, however after that I felt it went downhill. The story line was repetitive and unimaginative, the silly twist at the end, which turns out not to be a twist, seemed like a pointless desperate attempt to salvage what was left of the plot. The characters experience that same problems over and over again, without any change or development. At first I found the characters lovable and amusing, but as the anime progresses, they become more and more tired and frustrating. I unfortunately couldn't find many subbed episodes, and I'm not a massive fan of Michelle Ruff's ... voice acting, so that was off putting. The art work wasn't the style I'm interested in, however I loved the tennis scenes, and thought the art in those moments was superb. I only finished this anime, because after all that time spent watching it, I didn't want to leave it up in the air. However it is predictable and boring. I had hoped for a little more energy and variation.

Overall, not an anime I would recommend.

Edit: I wasn't a huge fan of the soundtrack, it sounded like the jingly tunes you hear in the background of a childrens tv show... saying that however, there were 3 songs, I absolutely adored and now have on my ipod. So I did gain something from this anime.

-Unlikeable protagonist that’s very hard to root for
-Complex character dynamics that leave a bad taste
-Sub-par animation
+Bubbly, eye-catching designs
+Pleasant, classic soundtrack adds to melodramatic tone

It’s stated the definition of Marmalade is a fruit spread made from boiling water, sugar, and citrus peel, resulting in a combination of sweet, tart, and bitter flavors. On the surface Marmalade Boy is just that: a sugary tale of growing pains and finding love between two members of the same family. Bright colors, a classical soundtrack, and characters with wide, emotive features draw the viewer in. However, the resulting melodrama may leave a sour taste for some.

Watching step ... siblings Miki and Yuu fall hopelessly in love is both a joy and frustration. The biggest issue with the show is our heroine Miki. Her character only consists of being in love with her deuteragonist Yuu and she doesn’t grow in any meaningful way. Yuu has a compelling backstory but you’ll most likely be rolling your eyes as to why you should root for his love with such a fickle, whiny, and selfish protagonist. The story also romanticizes the fact the twins continue to pursue a sexual relationship despite the fact they are step siblings; nothing more to say there. The animation is also very stiff at times.

Your mileage will vary with Marmalade Boy. Instead, watch Wataru Yoshizumi’s (Marmalade Boy’s creator) sister series Ultra Maniac for a lighthearted comedy and sweet romance.

Marmalade Boy is one of those mid-90s shoujo romantic melodramas that were popular with older fans and this one particularly stuck out due to the complicated romance angles it played with throughout much of its run. Through the bizarre marital mix-arounds that their parents make, Miki and Yuu find themselves living together under the same roof and try to adjust to their bizarre predicament while slowly finding themselves falling for one another. With their developing relationship, however, comes a number of characters who each take their own romantic interests in one of our two leads, often conspiring to break the two apart so they they ... can have the one that interests them to themselves. For the first 20+ episodes, this involved close friends of the two leads which did make this aspect of the series work well at first. But when Miki and Yuu become an official couple later on, characters with no past ties to them are added to the mix just to create melodrama out of the predicaments and slowly led my tolerance of the series to start getting pushed when the slightest suspicion of activity lead Miki or Yuu's emotions (in many cases, the former) to get overblown, their relationship being strained and then getting patched up again upon realizing any misunderstanding that they got in was blown out of proportion. This regularly made me question why I should care for Miki and Yuu as a pairing after the first 25 episodes in the series with how unbelievably dense Miki's character could be at the slightest of misunderstandings involving Yuu.

At least up until the American arc of the series, the supporting cast to Marmalade Boy were perhaps the most engaging element to the series to check out as the series would focus on the romantic developments of Yuu and Miki's friends once the two become an official couple. The most engaging of these developments for me came in the form of the student-teacher relationship developing with Miki's friend Meiko and her English teacher Namura. While occasionally dabbling into melodrama, this development in the series doesn't get anywhere as overblown as the romantic predicaments faced by Yuu and Miki. The couple believably face a great deal of scrutiny and difficulty in having their relationship acknowledged in a positive light by others throughout much of the series, said events causing their relationship to be strained for a good period of time in the series. Had this series focused entirely on Meiko and Namura's relationship and shortened it to a quarter or half year long anime, this could have made for engaging drama for a romance title. Instead, we get stuck with Miki and Yuu as the main pairing. Once the American arc begins, any focus on the supporting cast is shafted to a great extent in favor of the new American characters that Yuu comes to know, one of whom being a culprit in another of the show's overblown misunderstandings that get tossed in for melodrama.

Visually, Marmalade Boy isn't winning any awards for artistic quality as the series has drab colors and simple details for scenery and character designs. The series often recycles animated frames, has occasions of off-model character designs and resorts to flashbacks in order to cover up any shortcomings that the series would have for its visuals. The music offers up a mix of upbeat and dramatic musical pieces used to accompany the title's situations, notably the J-Pop tracks sticking out, and not in a good way, as the show is known to feature the same obnoxious J-Pop song ("Moment") whenever some sort of plot twist develops with any of the show's characters and this tends to get repetitive very quick.

Overall, Marmalade Boy isn't much different from mid-90s shoujo titles Fushigi Yuugi TV and Hana Yori Dango in being very overblown and obnoxious in the romantic predicaments faced by the main pairings of their titles. While the supporting characters help to provide some sanity to the series with their romantic developments, they get shafted later on in favor of greater focus on the main couple I least care for in the form of Miki and Yuu. Unless you're a sap for 90s romance melodramas, this is one title sure to increasingly test your tolerance as it progresses thanks to its heaping load of melodrama.

Drama.... from beginning to end. Marmalade Boy is mainly about the two love interests Miki and Yuu thinking that the other is cheating on them. Then you also have random and when i say random i mean completely random supporting cast that end up falling in love with them, only to cause more unneeded drama.

To me i found nothing romantic about this anime at all let begin, Miki"s parents went on vacation in Hawaii and meets Yuu's parents both parents decided to switch spouses with each other. Then instead of just splitting up, they then decide to move in all together with there ... two teenage kids into one big house. The story line then gets very repetitive and the main characters experience the EXACTED same problems over and over and over again....just with a different person. The whole story depends on various love triangles, then just when they are about to be happy another random cast member would come out of no where and cause some sort of drama. Lets not forget countless scenes of Miki crying while running down endless flights of stairs over something that was not true. The point being not an anime I would recommend for you to watch.

- Achievement Unlocked : Completing a Shoujo anime with 76 episodes! -

Marmalade Boy began off as a decent typical Shoujo, Drama and Romance anime. But as time passes, it just got more and more boring from the over usage of the same old cliche we see every time in Shoujo anime. The notable "Love Triangle" ( A romantic relationship involving three or more people ).

Honestly, if this show had lesser episode. It could've been better. Okay, okay, I like the idea of having many episode so watchers won't get bored. However. The con of having TOO many episode is if the production can't keep ... the watchers entertained. Their show is doomed.

..Well, I wouldn't say I totally hate the show. Despite the old ass animation, voice, music and art. Because I'm a Shoujo, Drama and Romance lover. I find this anime an "average" show that doesn't really got to my expectations nor below it. In conclusion, it's all right.

Uh, anyways.. The anime was alright overall.. Watch this if you like a lot love triangle. That's it. I'm done. End of review.

As a romantic story lover, I'm kind of easy with Shojo adaptation. However I recently started to get bored with it and maramalade boy is a perfect exemple of how to get bored of a story.
It started with a really good plot: Mikki and Yuu's parent decided to switch parteners and live happily all four of them with they're respective childrens.
But Miki realised that Yuu is in fact in love with her.
That is the first problem of this story. I know that it's easy to work with a perfect male character but seriously, Yuu is way too perfect and Miki is way too ... anoying. Already in the first episode, Yuu end up kissing her for absolutely no reason! And during the whole story I coudn't found any reason for the attirance between these two. At least Ginta and Miki were friends and they were having a passion for tennis, but Yuu and Miki are just random.
Second, following the problem of the first couple: Love triangle. And that is a big one! I could understant the love square between Yuu, Miki, Ginta and Arimi but it end up beeing a cliché in the actual story. Like every new character will create a new love triangle, triying to break one of the actual couple. And Miki, as she is stupid, will always end up being jealous, doing stupid shit and end up apologising to her poor perfect boyfiend. So we end up with lots of character that were in love with one of the protagonist, so what do we do about them ?
Here comes third problem: over romance. About every character who has his heart broken will eventually found love again or will desappear (surely because the author don't know what to do with it anymore (still love you Kei <3 ))
So yeah, that was kinda bad, but why did I watch it that far ?
Well, even if it's bad and had a lot of cliché, there is still some good points.
First: Yuu. He is an argument by himself. He is the perfect Boyfriend,cool, kind, intelligent, handsome and had a real sens of humour. Who can't fall in love with him seriously ? Plus he is really comprehensive and always forgive Miki for the stupid shit she does.
Second: it's beautiful, the animation and style is quite outdated but it's still good.They even tried some direction thing that endend up not that bad, but really over dramatic. I kind of miss this kind of effect in today's anime.
In the end what do I think of it ? Excellent Aestetic vibe, adorable characters except for Miki, BUT WAY TOO LONG. Watching about half of the story is way enough.

I'll say one thing for sure the manga is better than the anime. The anime felt dragged and unnecessarily long which you will agree with if you read the manga.
Otherwise this is a good anime there are filler moments but nothing was too boring. IT was a fun time but the animation may seem old now and less fluid like the ones we are getting now so keep that in mind.

All in all the parents and their antics are fun. Miki is actually one of the first FL's I got to experience so she will always have a special place in my heart. Yuu is ... also a good ML.
The story just felt too lengthy... that's the only problem I had, especially as the eps went by.