Marmalade Boy

Miki Koishikawa is a high school student who enjoys a very simple life. However, her ordinary life is about to be turned upside down, and she may not be able to handle everything that is coming her way.

After a very "fun" holiday in Hawaii, her parents have decided to get a divorce. As if this wasn’t enough of a shock for the poor girl, she also discovers that they will soon be re-marrying and swapping partners with another couple who they met on holiday. In order to include Miki in this shocking turn of events, they ask her to give the new couple a chance, and set up a dinner date with everyone. Miki may have tried to be emotionally prepared for her new parents, but what she was not expecting was their handsome son Matsuura Yuu.

Miki develops an instant crush for Yuu. What starts off as a lovely friendship between them soon develops into romantic feelings which they are both finding hard to control. But more trouble is ahead in their relationship, as both Miki and Yuu have admirers of their own who are trying very hard to keep them separated.

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Background

Marmalade Boy received a Taiwanese 30-episode live-action television series (called Júzǐjiāng Nánhái). The series starred pop star Stella as Miki and F4 member Ken Zhu as Yuu. Although the basic premise was the same, it did not feature many of the characters of the anime, and the love triangles were considerably simplified.

It also received a dating simulation video game was released by Bandai Entertainment for the Nintendo Game Boy system in Japan on January 1, 1995. It was released for the Super Famicom (Super Nintendo) system on April 21, 1995. The game puts players in the role of Miki, who must try to win the heart of one of her three potential suitors from the series: Yuu, Ginta, or Kei.

Episode Videos

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Marmalade Boy
Prequel:	Marmalade Boy Movie

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Koishikawa, Miki

Main

Kouda, Mariko
Japanese

Matsuura, Yuu

Main

Okiayu, Ryoutarou
Japanese

Akizuki, Meiko

Supporting

Yamazaki, Wakana
Japanese

Miwa, Satoshi

Supporting

Oota, Shinichirou
Japanese

Tsuchiya, Kei

Supporting

Ishida, Akira
Japanese

Suzuki, Arimi

Supporting

Hisakawa, Aya
Japanese

Suou, Ginta

Supporting

Kanemaru, Junichi
Japanese

Namura, Shinichi

Supporting

Furuya, Toru
Japanese

Grant, Michael

Supporting

Midorikawa, Hikaru
Japanese

Rokutanda, Tsutomu

Supporting

Tanaka, Kazunari
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Yabe, Akinori

Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Yamayoshi, Yasuo

Episode Director, Storyboard

Umezawa, Atsutoshi

Episode Director, Storyboard

Oka, Yoshihiro

Episode Director, Storyboard

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Opening Theme

"Egao ni Aitai" by Rie Hamada

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Ending Theme

	1: "Suteki na Serenade" by Miho Fujiwara (eps 1-31)
	2: "Kareha Iro no Crescendo" by Yasuhiro Mizushima (eps 32-53)
	3: "Yoake no Etude" by Yoko Ichikawa (eps 54-76)

Reviews

Oct 13, 2010

Hias

Recommended

Shoujo stories honestly are very hit or miss with me, and not just because I'm a guy! But they tend to be much too sweet, too fluffy and indulgent for it's own good. Catering to the daydream love fantasies of both young girls and middle aged women alike, I heard the name Marmalade Boy for a few years, and even considered picking it up at one point when I read an article about the series on another site. But a critical opinion of the show, given to me by a friend made me lose any interest in pursuing this one.

About 2 years later, I took ... the plunge and decided to give an actual try...and I think it's safe to say that I'm glad I did. Marmalade Boy is a classic shoujo series from the 90's, and it's influence is probably seen in just about every other shoujo manga ever since. There are love triangles galore, angst, hormones, crying, everything you'd expect from a show like this! But what makes MB stand out is the fact that it plays out like a Soap-Opera-- In that it's twist come at such fierce speed that you can't help but go"Wait...what?", and boy is like crack. MB turned out to be one of the most addicting animes that I've seen in quite some time, you can never really comprehend how or why the melodramatic 'drama' entices you so to keep on going.

Miki Koishikawa is your average highschool girl, aside from being rather at first embarrassed by her parents' eccentric and illogical behavior by switching spouses from another couple, then all together moving into one big house, bringing daughter Miki and son(from the second couple of course) Yuu with them. Miki and Yuu soon fall in love together though, and their relationship is challenged and manipulated many times by jealous ex's. There will not be a single moment where you don't think"Why are some of these kids so damn selfish?", but then you realize that that's the point of MB in the first place. It's about young men and women falling in love for the first time, and acting on their emotions, not logic. What makes MB work is that it's so addicting in it's own indulgent little way, but at the same time it shows an innocent and honest side to the human heart.

The animation and art can be an acquired taste-- this is an anime from 1994, and it shows by rearing it's low budget head pretty often, but it's quite manageable once you get used to it. The ost also fares well, my only complaint regarding it is that they use/reuse/remix the main theme way too many times, making the song too tedious to listen to outside of watching. Regardless, I have to say that the final ending theme("Yoake no Etude") really complimented on the events of the final half.

While I may have have enjoyed it quite a bit, like all shoujo-- It's probably not for everyone, especially people who nitpick and complain about as many illogical fallacies they can find in a show. Because frankly, there will be too many to really even count. The best example would have to be the New York City arc that pops up during the 3rd quater of the anime. These kids will infuriate you, baffle you and annoy you at how stupid they can act by being so self-absorbed. But like I said earlier, MB continued to hold a charm that kept me from losing my composure. It may sound like it's not even worth a shot, but in an odd way, it's still worth plowing through.

MB really was a wild ride in the end, so much that after the final episode was complete, and the final credits rolled, I couldn't help myself but feel saddened that I had to say goodbye to this cast of folk that I soon found myself attached to. And I'm confident to tell you guys that I thought the ending tightened up all the loose ends we wanted tightened by the end, so no annoying cliffhangers.

While the final arc can get pretty twisted, and the irrational behavior will baffle some people. I also believe that it's fantastic as it still provides a lovable cast, and shows us a very sweet and sincere look at growing, learning and falling in love with someone you want to spend the rest of your life with. With an open mind, and despite some of it's issues with the wonky mindsets, MB is a very enjoyable watch for both women and men.

And certainly one that'll go down in my books as one of my personal favorites.

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May 24, 2010

LolaStarr

Mixed Feelings

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 ...

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Aug 24, 2009

Bishounen_Hunter

Not Recommended

For a lot of people when they think “shoujo” they think of Full Moon wo Sagashite, Boys Over Flowers, Fruits Basket and of course, Marmalade Boy. That's why I picked the title.....Buuuuuuuuut while I DO love shoujo but I could barely tolerate Marmalade Boy mainly there is too much unnecessary angst and most of the drama is self-inflicted. This show did not touch me neither on an emotional nor intellectual level.
It has a very dated look, very 80's with flat coloring as well as stiff unnatural movements that's predictably associated with anime from that era.
Out of the whole series I the song I loved most ... was MOMENT, even though it's completely overused in the series. I dunno, something about the xylophone and that 80's base beat really worked for me. I include it on every anime playlist I make for my iPOD. The SAYONARA song was a little too melodramatic for me, sorry.
The whole series is melodramatic, with all the terrible music and dramatic lighting, exaggerated posings, let's not forget the constant crying and running down endless flights of stairs....EGAD! For me this show is too much like a daytime soap opera they could call it “As Miki Turns” seriously someone give that girl some Klonopin or Lexapro because she is just too anxious it's kind of annoying. The story has no real plot just people falling in love with each other, over and over again and thenmore people show up to form love triangles, love squares and love polygons...after a while it all becomes a bit tedious. The only really interesting story would be Mako and Nao-Chan, the student-teacher relationship.
The character design is terrible, the faces are OK but body-wise they're a hot mess....A HOT MESS!!! It's like they took silhouettes intended for high fashion design and tried to make it work for anime. Um, can we say FAIL boys and girls? Everyone's hips were too narrow and combined with those matchstick-like legs that moved awkwardly a lot of the time they walked and posed like their thighs were fused together. The girls' torsos seemed fine and acceptable by anime standards but the boys' shoulders and torsos on the other hand were very broad [sometimes the width of about 3 heads] and yet there is no muscle mass or even any kind of definition they are just abnormally larger “skeletally” than the girls. Things get worse when you look at an actual adult male in the series, they look even more freakishly larger and disproportionate in relation to the school kids.
I own it but I can't re-watch it. Miki brings too much unnecessary anxiety upon herself, every minute the guy is gone she thinks he's cheating on her or forgotten about her or dead....it's annoying. She's the kind of person that could potentially become a stalker. Personally, I would recommend Boys over Flowers or Full Moon wo Sagashite over Marmalade Boy any day.

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