However, for a weird turn of events, that happened.
And I found out that Aishite knight is actually a very enjoyable shoujo.
A very fresh one, at that.
The story is quite simple, but it literally draws you in- I could keep reading it without missing a beat and enjoying it to the point I would actually start rooting for certain characters. There's nothing relatively new, well in a way there is, but only if contextualized. What I mean to say is that it was an original piece back in the 80's: it was one of the first shoujos which would actually portray the everyday life of a common university girl having a love story with a hot and alternative rock singer. However taken as it is, nowadays, it just looks like your delusional fantasy of fan wishing for his favourite band member to hopelessly for in love with her.
Hence there's nothing relatively considerable from this aspect of the genre. Despite that, I must say that as a standalone work it has a lot of interesting aspects of the 80's life one can totally appreciate. The boys are all very and utterly open-minded towards, well, various interests. Starting from an alternative music genre to alternative orientations.
Since the romantic development is very quick, the story can be described with a reductive series of events that stand against or support said romantic plot. That said, I believe the strong point of this manga was actually the rapid resolution of those same problems. They didn't even stretch far enough to be considered dull and repetitive, so in the end they would be more similar to quarrels than ordeals.
The characters are maybe the most enjoyable part. They're not particularly exceptional, but they grew to you. Satoshi was actually the most undeveloped out of all of them, poor thing. Though the true stars of this manga are Sheila and Ryoutaro. I believe they made up for the entire manga and I mean it. The latter, specifically was a true "foil" for Go. The chemistry between him and Yakko was practically explosive. I found myself rooting for him more than once. (Also a special mention to Sheila and their approach to half the male cast-)
As I said, the characters are very peculiar in their own way. Even Yakko, typical indecisive main heroine had still in her a tough attitude at times. (Though believe me when I say that I, for one, would have lost my mind for Ryutaro, so I cannot blame her).
That said I may now move to the next point: the art. You will hear only praise from me. The art was the epitome of traditional manga style ever, truly unripe, but that's a given seeing as the artist was still young. Though some panels left me speechless- She captured the essence of her time in few lines. The characters sparkled and the backgrounds were absent or just sketched, but you could totally feel them as if you were there.
As a shoujo manga it was seriously so well done I found myself in awe after reading it.
I recommend it to those who want some vintage readings or just want to have an easy and nice read of a very classic love story.
