Hatsukoi Limited. (Hatsukoi Limited)

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Alternative Titles

Synonyms: Hatsukoi Gentei.

Japanese: 初恋限定。

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Information

Type: TV

Episodes: 12

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Apr 12, 2009 to Jun 28, 2009

Premiered: Spring 2009

Broadcast: Sundays at 00:00 (JST)

Producers: Shueisha

Licensors: Sentai Filmworks

Studios: J.C.Staff

Source: Manga

Genres: Comedy, Romance

Theme: School

Demographic: Shounen

Duration: 24 min. per ep.

Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older

Statistics

Score: 7.27¹ (scored by 40,807 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #2942²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #2054

Members: 101,567

Favorites: 226

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7.27

Ranked #2942Popularity #2054Members 101,567

Spring 2009TVJ.C.Staff

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Episodes: /12

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Synopsis

Ayumi Arihara believes that being loved is the ultimate key to happiness—which is why her greatest wish is to have a boy confess to her. A series of unfortunate events leads to her ideal dream coming true, albeit in a nightmarish way: the towering and terrifying Misao Zaitsu confesses his love to Ayumi through a letter.

Mentally exhausted from not knowing what to do, Ayumi collapses in class. A classmate comes to her rescue, carrying her princess-style to the infirmary. This makes Ayumi fall in love with the cute boy, only to realize he is none other than Misao's younger brother, Mamoru.

Feeling caught between a rock and a hard place, Ayumi must decide whether to stick to her idea of love or pursue what she truly desires. However, Ayumi is not alone in her struggles—all her friends are also taking on the challenges of first love, and for teenagers, it is never as easy as it seems.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Hatsukoi Limited. was released on DVD as Hatsukoi Limited by Sentai Filmworks on July 31, 2012.

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Hatsukoi Limited.
Side story:	Hatsukoi Limited.: Gentei Shoujo

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Yamamoto, Misaki

Main

Tanaka, Rie
Japanese

Enomoto, Kei

Main

Itou, Shizuka
Japanese

Bessho, Koyoi

Main

Toyosaki, Aki
Japanese

Kusuda, Etsu

Main

Asanuma, Shintaro
Japanese

Dobashi, Rika

Main

Kotobuki, Minako
Japanese

Arihara, Ayumi

Main

Ise, Mariya
Japanese

Chikura, Nao

Main

Fujimura, Ayumi
Japanese

Sogabe, Hiroyuki

Main

Sakurai, Takahiro
Japanese

Watase, Meguru

Main

Shiraishi, Ryouko
Japanese

Zaitsu, Mamoru

Main

Irino, Miyu
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Nakayama, Nobuhiro

Producer

Kawase, Kouhei

Producer

Matsukura, Yuuji

Producer

Takechi, Tsuneo

Producer

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Opening Theme

"Future Stream" by Sphere (スフィア)

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Ending Theme

	1: "Hatsukoi limited (初恋 limited)" by marble (eps 1-5, 7-8, 10-12)
	2: "Gensou no Basho, Sorezore no Michi no Ue (幻想の場所、それぞれの道の上)" by marble (eps 6)
	3: "Sora ni Mau (空に舞う)" by marble (eps 9)

Reviews

Jun 28, 2009

KaminaKai

Recommended

*One step at a time, slowly they find themselves falling in love.*

“Geez, women are so hard to understand” – Etsu Kusuda

Most, if not all male viewers tend to agree with that statement. The various male characters in Hatsukoi Limited (literally means first love limited) all experienced the same problem. But before you get the wrong idea, it should mentioned that this anime is directed from the female perspective most of the time. Hatsukoi Limited explores the early love life of a group of teenage girls and how they cope with boys that they like (or don’t like). While 12 episodes are hardly enough to cover ... any in depth relationship for over half a dozen girls, the story remains a highly enjoyable one. Simply put, Hatsukoi Limited is as close to an idealized slice of life / romance comedy one could find in the market now a day.

Complex love web is one of the main elements in the story. However, viewers will have no trouble adapting to the environment as everything build on one another slowly one step at a time. In fact, the overall plot to the story tags along quite well with each major character’s development. One could even say the characters are a natural complement to the story or vice versa (this may be a natural thing to say, but in reality not a lot of shows can even do this properly).

A well structured story must also have a logical order for presenting its characters and Hatsukoi Limited excel in this department as well, as previously mentioned. What most people worry about is the sudden rush of information in the early episodes (like just dumping all you need to know about all the characters in episode 1), but thankfully that is not the case for Hatsukoi Limited. In hindsight, starting the story with Ayumi was an obvious choice for the author although her character as a whole may not have been the easiest to accept by most audiences.

Viewers will enjoy watching most of the characters grow and develop themselves along the way. Most have gotten more mature and act more reasonably, but there are some exceptions. Whether the lack of character development for these characters are attributed to the length of the series or the story was meant to be that way, is up to viewers to decide. However, it should be pointed out that all the characters have a sense of realism in them, nothing from their characteristics seem fictitious or too fantasy-like. Through the eyes of these 14 to 16 years old, one might even see a resemblance of your own younger self.

Perhaps the most painful part of Hatsukoi Limited with regards to its characters is that, like most shounen shows out there, it has really wimpy, stupid, and annoying guys (to make matter worse, most of them look quite ugly too). On the other hand, the females characters are often really smart, kawaii, and gorgeous looking babes (yes Misaki, that means you)!

Quite frankly, it was the character animation that first caught my attention to this wonderful romance comedy as the storyline sounded rather generic to me at first. As to be expect from J.C. Staff, they always deliver high quality animation (and consistent too). The backgrounds are often lacking in detail, but that help put the characters in focus and viewers will spend 90% of the time looking at the characters anyway, thus there isn’t much to complain about. It was also interesting to see that the characters in the anime seem to be an exact carbon copy of their original manga self. Believe it or not, it is not easy to find an anime adaptation that follows the manga as closely as Hatsukoi Limited, both in the looks of the characters and the story itself.

Finally, music is THE area that surpirsed me the most throughout the show. First off, both OP and ED are just splendid. The additional BGM and soundtracks in between just amplifies whatever tiny emotion I had in my mind, making this series a bit more successful than it should have been in my eyes. I hope you will find Hatsukoi Limited as enjoyable as it did for me and it is definitely a series in which I plan to have a blu-ray collection of in the future.

Are you in love right now?

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Apr 21, 2017

LegendAqua

Mixed Feelings

"Are you in love right now?"

Well with this anime..it's more divisive than "in love" actually...

Hatsukoi Limited follows several unrequited relationships and each of the earlier episodes focuses on one set of relationships while developing the ones from the previous episode in tandem, which makes one elaborate love dodecahedron.

Well since this is a relationship-based romance naime, LA needs to start off with the characters themselves and their relationships. Let's start with Ayumi Arihara voiced by Mariya Ise, one of the genki ditz of her girl group who has a crush on Mamoru Zaitsu voiced by Miyu Irino but his older brother Misao voiced by Kenji Nomura ... also has a thing for Ayumi, she was probably LA favourite character in the anime mainly due to personality. Next we have Rika Dobashi voiced by Minako Kotobuki a calm yet athletic member of the girl group who has a nice romance with Haruto Terai voiced by Nobuhiko Okamoto in which they have this superiority inferiority complex towards each other. Next is Nao Chikura voiced by Ayumi Fujimura, one of the more shy member of the girl group and Hiroyuki Sogabe voiced by Takahiro Sakurai had a crush on her BUT she also has a fleeting romance with one of her former art club seniors by the form of Yukito Renjou voiced by Akira Ishida. Next (YES, there's still more!) is Misaki Yamamoto voiced by Rie Tanaka and Mamoru Zaitsu has a crush on her BUT Misaki likes Ayumi's older brother Yuuji voiced by Hiroyuki Yoshino (in which HE has a sister complex and doesn't really have feelings for Misaki), next is Meguru Watase voiced by Ryoko Shiraishi in which she and Gengorou Takei voiced by Kazuya Nakai DO have feelings for each other ALONG with their love of swimming but Meguru has other worries but that a bit later. Second to last is Koyoi Bessho voiced by Aki Toyosaki who has a brother complex to her older brother Yoshihiko Bessho voiced by Satoshi Hino in which he has feelings for Misaki and FINALLY we have Kei Enomoto voiced by Shizuka Ito, the alpha *ahem* bitch of the girl group in which she has a violent tsundere relationship with Etsu Kusuda voiced by Shintaro Asanuma the local pervert of the series and friends of Sogabe and Mamoru and later on Enomoto gets a rival in the form of Sumire Fudounomiya voiced by Ayako Kawasumi. Did you get all that???

Ok in all honesty, the relationships ranges across the board and even the "great relationships" has skewed priorities to the "horribly awful relationships" have a silver lining. In terms of favourites and worst romances in the anime itself, LA thought that Chikura's and Dobashi's were some of the best one-shot romances with hardly a gleam of skewed priorities to them. Misaki's, Meguru's and Ayumi's were ok relationships with a few problems to them (Misaki's due to the fallout results concerning Mamoru, Meguru's for skewed priorities such as -sigh- her big boobs and Ayumi's for not being developed enough not just to Mamoru but to Misao as well and it's NEVER resolved...completely). LA would place Koyoi's relationship to be of comedic relief in a ways and NOT meant to be taken seriously, even if it's incest and you know LA rule with incest in anime (as long as it's their completely serious about it's subject matter of incest or it plays it up for the sake of comedy with no seriousness and dignity towards it's characters and Koyoi's is essentially this) thus Koyoi's only focus episode is a bit grating but it's only for the sake of comedy. -sigh- here we go...LA REALLY didn't like Enomoto and Kusuda's relationship, Enomoto for always having her belief that they need to be handsome and rich in order to even START dating her (see what LA means by alpha bitch?) AS well as Enomoto's CONSTANT tsun and violent verbal and sometimes physical abuse to Kusuda just because he's being perverted and eyeing someone else, Kusuda is no better as he's one of the main source of pervertedness in the anime besides the stray panty shots. Relationship-wise it's one of the most destructive relationship in the anime and by the end of it even with Enomoto and Kusuda's realization LA still hated the both of them by the end of it.

Well here's also the thing, be it relationships that has no flaws and it's the perfect romance or one of the most destructive ones and LA didn't like them one bit, the perfect romance will have quips of completely idealistic to the destructive romances to be too harsh or unbelievably pessimistic and because of that LA chose Ayumi as LA's favourite she's in the middle of having flaws in her relationships but she's also idealistic in a ways.

In terms of animation by JC Staff, the character designs were pretty to typical designs for the vast amount of characters in this anime and sometimes LA mistook characters for other similar looking characters (see Yoshihiko and Mamoru...no seriously...one time LA ACTUALLY thought this at one point), the backgrounding is typical but nothing to gawk at either. Finally the comedic moments does use the chibi visuals (both facial expressions and their entire body at times...Koyoi and Ayumi being the main culprit what with both of them being the comedic reliefs). The animation overall is decent with some level to detail on it's character designs but not much beyond that.

In terms of voice acting, well this voice cast is JUST amazing, from Mariya Ise to Ayako Kawasumi and even Sayuri Yahagi!. Yes, LA did have a HUGE problem with Shizuka Ito's character but it is her CHARACTER LA didn't like, her vocals were still suited to Enomoto nonetheless. LA's favourite voice actor would go to Mariya Ise along with Ryoko Shiraishi. Nonetheless fantastic vocal line up!.

Hatsukoi Limited for LA's experience in watching this anime ultimately depends on how you view the characters and their relationships in which they entail, you might hate some of the characters or you might love them and their relationships for the one true pairing or you see both the good or the bad towards one of the relationship. LA overall felt VERY divisive about this anime due to this but ALSO thought it had shades of wasted potential towards some of the relationships it had going for it.

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Dec 12, 2019

isalvy

Not Recommended

I mean if there was one thing I learnt from myanimelist is to prepare yourself to see what the worst comments said. And frankly I have to agree with most that was said, a lot of these parings were bad or ridiculous, even when going in with the low expectations. And I'll start by explaining all the love parings this show has. Though I might end up spoiling who gets together I won't actually spoil too much of the show so you can enjoy it yourselves if you want to. Overall I find this show bad but there were some parts to it that made ...

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Recent News

Sentai Filmworks Licenses Hatsukoi Limited

According to their official press release, Sentai Filmworks has licensed Hatsukoi Limited. The series will soon be available digitally with a subbed DVD release plan...read more

Mar 28, 2012 8:10 PM by Florete | Discuss (16 comments)

DVD Extra Short Anime of Hatsukoi Limited and Pandora Hearts

Each of the six volumes of the DVD and Blu-ray Disc of "Hatsukoi Limited" includes a short anime "Gentei Shoujo.". The first volume will be relea...read more

Apr 14, 2009 2:23 AM by dtshyk | Discuss (15 comments)

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Poll: Hatsukoi Limited Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Annisa - Jun 27, 2009	148 replies	by bakakisima »» Apr 22, 12:53 PM
Poll: Hatsukoi Limited Episode 11 Discussion ( 1 2 ) dbaranyi - Jun 20, 2009	57 replies	by bakakisima »» Apr 22, 11:56 AM
Poll: Hatsukoi Limited Episode 10 Discussion ( 1 2 ) ShanaFlame - Jun 13, 2009	74 replies	by bakakisima »» Apr 22, 11:31 AM
Poll: Hatsukoi Limited Episode 9 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) ShanaFlame - Jun 5, 2009	109 replies	by bakakisima »» Apr 22, 10:42 AM
Poll: Hatsukoi Limited Episode 7 Discussion ( 1 2 ) othic - May 23, 2009	65 replies	by bakakisima »» Apr 22, 9:50 AM

Hatsukoi Limited.

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Characters & Voice Actors

Yamamoto, Misaki

Enomoto, Kei

Bessho, Koyoi

Kusuda, Etsu

Dobashi, Rika

Arihara, Ayumi

Chikura, Nao

Sogabe, Hiroyuki

Watase, Meguru

Zaitsu, Mamoru

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Hatsukoi Limited.

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Information

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Synopsis

Background

Visit MALxJapan MALxJapan -More than just anime-

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Characters & Voice Actors

Staff

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Ending Theme

Reviews

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