There are many attempts made by the series to be dramatic and weighty to develop the a supposedly "epic romance" arc between Kyosuke and Madoka but this doesn’t work when status quo reigns supreme. The two characters almost confess their feelings to each other after going through life-threatening ordeals but pretend nothing of the sort ever happened in the very next episode. This all occurs between a sequence of slapstick, light-hearted events; leaving KOR with a severe mood whiplash. Kyosuke and his family are espers but the powers are gimmicky and have little bearing on the series - they are only used by the narrative to create or solve the aforementioned problems when they have run out of ideas (which happens a lot). KOR is hardly the serious drama or romance it pretends to be, and the ties it has to science fiction are flimsy. There is no plot to speak of as it is a slice-of-life anime but being so heavily formulaic and melodramatic is inexcusable.
There is a large amount of borrowing from 1980s American teen movies but KOR can only incorporate these tropes in the most insipid of ways, turning otherwise promising conventions into tedious filler. And there is A LOT of filler. More than half the episodes in this series are completely useless, with their only role being comedic fluff. Calling it “comedic” is probably giving KOR too much credit though, because it isn’t funny at all. In fact, most of these “jokes” are related to sexual harassment and other cringe worthy moments. KOR revolves around constant misunderstandings and lies, or degrading the characters for a joke. Many fans of the series attribute the spontaneous and rash decisions the characters make to them being impressionable teenagers but I don’t buy it, the characters aren’t just young and therefore stupid, they are *just* stupid. And if them being morons wasn't enough, they are also scumbags to boot.
Kyosuke may be framed by the narrative as an “innocent boy” in difficult circumstances, but this only works if he isn’t the cause of so many problems in the first place or at least makes an active attempt to solve them. Kyosuke basically decides to solve his problems by lying. He’ll never tell Hikaru he doesn’t want to date her, but he’ll mumble something about them not really being a couple when anyone else asks him about it. He toys with her heart and takes advantage of her kindness all whilst he daydreams about Madoka in a Playboy bunny suit. He plays two best female friends against each other. He chases a girl when he’s pretending to date her best friend. He is emotionally cheating on Hikaru but the story adores him too much to give him the School Days treatment. You can have a jerkass main character if the series addresses it. You can NOT, on the other hand, have a jerkass main character who the plot sincerely believes is a "nice guy" when there is nothing convincing to prove to the audience that this is the case. The audience should not be spoon fed the concept that Kyosuke is heroic when he is unable to free himself of his douchebaggery. Thus KOR fails at one of the most basic core principles of storytelling - show, not tell.
Hikaru is the designated villain whereas Kyosuke is the designated hero. Yes, Hikaru is annoying with her hyperactivity and very dense, but none of the troublesome circumstances in the series are her fault. Forcing the audience to view her as the perpetrator is just a way to let Kyosuke off the hook. Viewers are manipulated into seeing Hikaru as someone "bad" when she is genuinely innocent, much like how the plot says Kyosuke is "good" when he is the complete opposite. Hikaru’s life as a character is near non-existent as her only role is to be an obstacle between Madoka and Kyosuke officially getting together. The romance is framed as “nice guy” Kyosuke slowly changing the delinquent Madoka into a “good girl” through the power of love while being besieged by the love-struck Hikaru. This is multiple levels of wrong because the story presents Kyosuke to be righteous when he really isn’t, Madoka must be “fixed” by this kind of man, and Hikaru is supposedly an awful person for simply being in love with Kyosuke. Kyosuke overcoming Hikaru and finally winning the “prize” named Madoka, is the deeply sexist message strewn throughout the series.
The female lead, Madoka, is different from the others in the series - she develops and actually feels like a character for the most part. But this only because she is a highly idealised woman that men want and dream of. She is the wonderful and talented character of the cast because she *needs* to be as such. She is a Mary Sue created for Kysouke. Her sole purpose is catering towards the male gaze. Why does a boring and dreadful person like Kyosuke end up with Madoka? Because Madoka's very existence is rooted in the pleasing of Kyosuke. Her shallow background and lack of agency stems from this inability to live outside of being his "reward". She caters to many of Kyosuke's desires and even her "negative" traits such as aloofness and violent streak actually work as fetish fuel. Kyosuke is a sufferer of the Madonna-Whore complex. He thinks Madoka is highly attractive due to her delinquency but fears that this wild lifestyle means she must have had sexual encounters in the past. To solve this, Madoka is rendered by the plot to be a virgin and "not that kind of girl" despite her personality clearly contradicting with a life of celibacy. Madoka's life conforms to being the perfect girl for Kyosuke. We KNOW it will be Madoka in the end because it's a part of Matsumoto's sexual fantasy, no matter how hard they might throw the suggestion that Hikaru is fine too. Hikaru never stood a chance. It's predictable and lazy.
Kyosuke is a sack of shit. While Madoka is an interesting character (albeit a dream girl), it doesn’t help her when she’s in love with said sack of shit. This obviously isn’t how Matsumoto wanted Kyosuke to be perceived as. KOR gives Kyosuke an obvious favoritism as it never calls him out on his selfishness, instead opting to portray him as the sympathetic character you’re supposed to root for. Matsumoto empathized with Kyosuke because he is his self-insertion - an author avatar and escapist character. The fans, the majority of whom are male, admire Kyosuke because they can imprint themselves onto his blandness and live their Madoka-chasing visions through him. Simply looking at the large number of worshippers this title has garnered is a reflection of how easily people will eat up misogynist trite like a pack of undiscerning pigs. KOR is Matusmoto's wish-fulfilment and wet dream, and by extension KOR’s fans as well. KOR treating who Kyosuke will choose in the end as a giant mystery is a failure when the result is obvious (if Madoka's image being plastered everywhere were not enough of a clue). There is little to mention about the other characters. They are unmemorable and largely unimportant. Kyosuke’s sisters - Kurumi and Manami are nuisances, and his perverted friends - Komatsu and Hatta - with their aggressive brand of misogyny are deplorable.
The animation employs extensive use of stock footage and flashbacks. Despite it feeling like a rush-job and glaringly obvious when being lazy, it does manage to reach the average standard. It never falls to the point of being ridiculously off-model with the quality remaining consistent nearly all the time. It may be limited but it does well within its budget and the need to cover a length of 48 episodes. Despite the mediocore animation, everything is still quite nice to look at. KOR utilises a bright colour palette and Akemi Takada’s illustrative work. As expected of Takada, she breathed new life into Matsumoto’s plain and lacklustre character designs after she re-drew them. The male characters seem fairly boring in comparison to the female characters, but everyone remains highly expressive and although simple, the figures all manage to stand out from each other. This is a series aimed towards male audiences thus all the female characters have bishoujo features, but it isn’t overblown and is much more subtle than other titles within the same demographic.
As if the characters themselves weren’t annoying for their personalities, they have annoying voices to boot. Toru Furuya plays Kyosuke, the unlucky every man and his voice definitely gives off the impression of average. The only character that has a nice voice is Madoka. Hiromi Tsuru truly stands out for her performance as Madoka; she can shift her voice to fit the shy and awkward Madoka to the assertive and tough Madoka instantaneously. No one else has any good performances and are a pain to listen to. Chieko Honda and Hara Eriko use the most unpleasant, squeaky voices for Kurumi and Hikaru respectively. Komatsu and Hatta sound like two skeeves who live in a moldy basement. KOR has more dialogue than necessary and with these kinds of voices - you wish that everyone would just shut up for good. Most of the music was composed by Shirou Sagisu, well known for his work on Neon Genesis Evangelion. The voice acting may be horrible but the soundtrack is really quite brilliant. It is probably the only thing in this series I can truly enjoy. It is a highly highly popular soundtrack with over twenty CDs been released of it. It consists largely of 80s pop but a great variety in that genre is covered. There are many vocalists featured, all giving out fine performances with their catchy songs. This style of such music might not fit everyone’s taste it as it can be a little cheesy but it captures the mood of suburban teen life and a decent production value was put in it. I guess 80s music is just so good that even a crappy show like this can't sink it.
This anime would have better been as a two hour flick or cut down to 13 episodes rather than having it stand at 48. Age is no excuse for its poor execution and it pales in comparison to the older, Maison Ikkoku. I find it incredibly insulting when people compare the two. The fans and promotional art of the characters drawn in soft-focus attempted to sell this anime off as a dramedy; a nostalgic look at youth with all the angst and self-discovering that comes along with it. What I got instead was some bullshit sitcom with destructive ideas about women that I think people only love because they were younger and stupider back then and the series is now coated in a thick layer of honeyed nostalgia. KOR is often called an unintentional period piece and I agree with this notion - it captures a slew of outdated social norms perfectly. I would not recommend this series to anyone unless they wanted to know its significance in how the shounen romcom developed, or if they want to make fun of how badly it has aged. You can check out KOR for the history lesson but you only need to see a few episodes to get a general idea of how it's similar to other anime out there, you don't need to go through the whole whopping shebang. I doubt you would learn anything from actually watching this series. Just know that it pioneered many of the tropes and situations we have come to loathe in the modern day such as horrible protagonists and romances that don't go anywhere. I watched it to understand the influence it had as an older series but I think I destroyed half my brain in the process. Kimagure Orange Road is a complete waste of time and any investment in it will leave oneself invariably frustrated. This anime is deader than the disco in it.
