much transparent as it’s possible and it would be a lie to tell, that I disliked show overall. Some elements were annoying or disruptive which quite meessed up my point of view. There were repetetive aspects which were used often in terms of character traits and relationships as such. Fortunatelly final part of the anime and it’s last episodes saved show in my opinion and I found them most enjoyable. ItaKiss is basically cliché shoujo romance with solid execution which is easy to love or hate, that’s why audience
opinions are so diversed. I’m little bit more on that positive note, although my preferation are other demographics for sure.
STORY:7/10
Setting of the story changes as our main protagonists growing. This idea was more enjoyable than only one cliché setting like high school throughout the show. Narrative tends to be repetetive with some girl misstreating, some conflict which resolves to jealousy
or sadness and then resolution in the end of the episode or episode right after. Usually it doesn’t take longer then 2 episodes to solve the conflict. Still it was solidly executed so that repetetivenes didn’t bothered me at all. There was little bit much of a love triangle
and unrequited love to my taste which doesn’t help originality of the plot. Almost all of the main relationships or crushes started from some kind of one-sided obsession (Kotoko x Irie, Christine x Kin, Keita x Kotoko, Yuuko x Irie, Yuuko x Sudou), this also felt worn at some point. Connections seems artifical and forceful at the beggining thanks to that. Pacing is all right as show can effectively switch between humorous and more dramatic moments, interactions well connected, storytelling makes sense. Next, I will divide each setting and call them "arc".
High school Arc (episodes 1-7) - This is the part which is most annoying and it’s also part where most of the people drops the show. Honestly, I cannot blame them because the start is really hard to endure if you’re not hardcore shoujo fan. Whole plot revolves around Kotoko and her one-sided pursuit of a boy who doesn’t even deserves it which is not credible. There are two main love triangles which were never even an option because of either Kotoko’s obssesive or Irie’s cold personality. You can predict almost everything what is going to happen. Thing is it’s hard to warm up to the show thanks to way it establishes main romance and it’s annoying main characters, you need to fully commit to it. There isn’t almost any evolve in their relationship if you won’t count one kiss as some major part of it which felt extremely random and spontaneous. Still there are a lot of fun interactions between Kotoko and Irie family or Kotoko’s friends.
University Arc (episodes 8-19) - This part should be most major in terms of relationship development. There are few hints of Naoki starting to feel something to Kotoko as well, tho all that harsh treating continues. This is thanks to Kotoko’s perseverance which escalated either in saving Yuuki, helping Naoki finding his goals, gaining Naoki’s trust and overall getting closer to him step by step. Kin-chan marriage proposal played major role as well, as it forced Naoki to finally act and confess to Kotoko in his own bizzare way as usual. His behaviour toward Kotoko during arranged marriage meetings with Chris were awful and I liked that he finally mans up and "took his balls to his hand". Second part preserves it’s humour with all that side interactions mainly thanks to Irie’s mom which is main powerhouse of the humour alongside with Kotoko.
Workplace arc (episodes 20-24) - Easily most enjoyable of all of them. Every relationship and love "triangle" was already solved and plot mainly focuses on strugles of main couple. Last 6 episodes felt more like slice-of-life than shoujo romance. Hospital workplace was great choice and fits perfectly to show. It adds some spice and drama to the story as illnes of Yuuko, comeback of Nobuhiro or random case of 5 year old boy. Couple is dealing with everyday marital struggles like combining of love life and work, pregnancy, child raising, interactions with friends etc. It would be great to have more episodes of anime as this without all that love quarles and triangles in one same way.
CHARACTERS: 6/10
Main characters are major flaw in ItaKiss.
Kotko is main heroine of ItaKiss. Most of the humour stands on Kotoko’s clumsiness which doesn’t need to be enjoyable if you don’t like to laugh at someone who is pretty much useless, I don’t mind. On the other hand she is devoted, kind, hard working and cute.
Girl which is definition of word beta and low-key masochistic is probably a good match for Irie manipulativ and cold personality.
This kind of relationship couldn’t work in real world, but we are talking about show where girl who is despised for no aparent reason manages to pursuit guy for 5-6 years. Her character grows a little in the end as she gets more assertive and confident, but her clumsiness with her dimwittedness remains. Kotoko is not an character to be taken too seriously and it’s not even possible to do so. Still her role is fulfilled on point, but I wouldn’t dare to say she is of good quality.
Irie Naoki is main hero of ItaKiss. He has cold rather even cruel personality which comes hand in hand with his rationality and intellect. In consequence of this he tends to put himself higher on pedestal and look down on other people which are not smart enough.
As story progress this behaviour of his will ease a bit, but it’s still there. His harsh acting in front of others comes out of his extraordinary intellect as well as he has problems to connect with people and find himself or his ambitions. This argument doesn’t apologize his actions, but it is understandable where it’s coming from. Still his character traits were over the line and it would be much more credible if authors take off the gas and made his traits not so extreme with changes in his character more distinct.
People often tends to say that Irie didn’t grow as a character, but I don’t think it’s true. Audience can capture changes and development mainly in last few episodes. Irie is still far from being good character, but he opens up much more and don’t treat Kotoko as harshly. Is it something to be praised for, that you don’t treat your wife as an annoying mosquito rather like a normal human now? Well I think not, but some progress is obvious.
Kin-chan is best friend of Kotoko which is his crush. There are multiple speculations how he was a better choice for Kotoko. Honestly I’ve never seen them as an option. He would be only Irie’s replacement and it would make miserable both him and Kotoko. She never cared for him in way lovers should in first place and that resulted in zero chemistry. Anybody can think what they want, but this is one of the most important things in order to relationship working properly except of good traits and match in personalities.
Healthy relationships is standing not only on trust, communication and honesty, but on some kind of intimacy as well. I felt kinda
sorry for Kin-chan especially because of Kotoko which was so vague and indecisive which only hurted him, friendzone is a bitch.
On the other hand Kin is little bit of an hypocrite, because he was mocking Irie that his misstreated Kotoko all day long and in the end he wasn’t much better in terms of treating Chris at the beginning. As story progressed he finally matures a bit and finds himself much better wife than Kotoko would ever be to him. Honestly he wasn’t enjoyable for me as well.
Other side characters were well done especially Irie family. Irie mother was one of the most enjoyable characters and I loved everything about her. Also small interactions between two fathers makes you laugh. There are few romances of side characters which are interesting addition, but as I said they tend to be of similar type coming from obsession and perseverance.
ART: 6/10
Art style is nothing special maybe even average. I liked how authors worked with some outfits, but yeah in terms of charcter faces designs medicore and surroundings are also nothing which would put you down on your ass.
MUSIC: 6/10
Opening was easy-going chill song which fit humorous atmosphere of the show although it doesn’t fit my taste. Ending was similar type of music but instead of male vocalist there was a female vocalist. I’m not sure if it’s singed by voice actors of MCs and I didn’t do my research on it, but it sounds familiar. Voice acting throughout the show is allright.
ENJOYMENT: 7/10
Despite my reservations I was able to enjoy the show to some point and I’m not classical shoujo enjoyer if you look on my statistics. On the other hand I didn’t take it seriously in any moment, because my expectations were quite low from the start. Consequently ItaKiss could only surprise me and it did. Still I’m not gonna watch shoujo of this type for some time, although it’s interesting to see something different from my usual type of anime from time to time.
OVERALL: 7/10
Part of audience which look for "real romance" rather than exaggeration of romance in the form of comedy won’t enjoy it. If you decide to give it a chance and you won’t look for deeper meanings at any cost in this piece, it will reward you with good comedy, unconventional romance, funny side characters and satisfying ending with little "after" story.
