Kimagure Orange Road (TV)

In my quest to continue to expand my classic anime knowledge, I pushed KOR up and watched the series. I enjoy romantic comedy series, especially if the romance part of the story is advanced. Fortunately this mostly succeeds on that front.

Unlike a title like Maison Ikkoku with its multiple love-triangles, KOR has only one between Kasuga (Kyosuke), Hikaru-chan, and Madoka ("Ayukawa" as Kasuga calls her). Kasuga and his family have "power," which basically means they have psychic abilities. Kasuga can teleport and use telekenisis. I wasn't sure that I'd like this aspect of the show, but for the most part it was used pretty well. I'll go more into that later.

Madoka is a delinquent, though an attractive one and a smart one. However when Kasuga (and thus us) meets her for the first time, this element of her is unknown. She looks and acts completely normal and it is a suprise when Kasuga learns her true nature. But while most everyone else is either afraid of her or shun her, Kasuga is not and when he finds her smoking, he puts a stop to it. Thus he makes a strong mark upon Madoka and why she becomes interested in him.

Hikaru-chan is a year or so younger than Madoka and Kasuga, which is why when she isn't calling Kasuga, "Darling," she calls him "Senpai." Her interest in Kasuga results solely from witnessing him use his power to shoot a basket in an empty gym will sitting on the floor. Obviously for her, this means he is cool and manly, thus worthy of being her boyfriend.

The love-triangle is understandable early on in the series. Madoka is sometimes warm and friendly to Kasuga, as she was at their initial meeting, and obviously he likes this part of her. However at other times, she will be cold to him, almost becoming a totally different person. So when the cute Hikaru-chan suddenly pours affection upon Kasuga and begins to call him "Darling" (because she has declared him to be her boyfriend), it is understandable that he'd go out with her.

As time goes on, Madoka becomes friendly most of the time to Kasuga. He clearly appreciates this and at this point, it is clear that he prefers Madoka to Hikaru-chan. He becomes less comfortable of Hikaru-chan's public displays of affection to him, especially when Madoka is around. However, the love-triangle still works because Kasuga isn't completely sure of Madoka (IMO) and thus Hikaru-chan is a "sure" backup in case things don't go well with Madoka. Still, I don't think I could have done this because Hikaru-chan's voice just grated on my nerves!

The series does waste a lot of time not working on the love-triangle, something Devil Doll noted. For example, episode 29 is dedicated to the cat Jingoro. While I love old Jingoro-chan, did we really need an entire episode devoted to him? Even as the show is winding down, there were a lot of dumb "fast-forward" episodes which I found more offensive due to the lack of work on a resolution of the love-triangle. By this point, Kasuga is clearly in love with Madoka and she with him. However, even when presented with an opportunity to break things with Hikaru-chan, he never does. In fact, he'll leave Madoka standing there to run off after her. What the smeg is that about? No sooner than he patches things up with her, he immediately shows signs of disliking her clinging to him especially in front of Madoko. So why chase after her? To spare her feelings? I suppose that's the answer since Hikaru-chan is dumber than a stump and will believe anything given to her as an explaination. That aside, it still doesn't feel very "real" and is a major weakness of the series.

The final two episodes give a resolution to things, though not as straight-forward as I would have liked. While these two episodes a stretch as far as everything that happened, I decided I liked them for the, "We have something to tell our kids and grandkids" aspect.

The supporting cast is rather weak. Yuusuke (voiced by Tenchi seiyuu KIKUCHI Masami) was annoying with his constant rage and chasing after Hikaru-chan. Komasu & Hatta were annoying because even though they were supposedly Kasuga's friend, they never had his back. They only are around because of Kasuga's younger twin-sisters Manami-chan & Kurumi-chan. Kurumi-chan annoyed me with her constant, "Datte! Datte!" spoiled-brat routine when being scolded for blatently using her powers. Ushiko-san and Umao-san, who constantly quote the famous Romeo and Juliet lines in Japanese, show up in nearly every episode. At first it was neat, but then it began to grate on my nerves. They only serve to say the same lines over and over, but in different situations. Kasuga's little cousin Kazuya annoyed me whenever he appeared on screen. The only supporting character worth anything was Master (term used for one behind the bar serving the drinks). He was like a mentor to both Kasuga and Madoka, and I wouldn't have minded to have learned more about him.

Art, animation, and music are good for the time-period this was created. The music is pure 80's pop, and even though it is J-Pop, I felt like I was in high school again listening to some new tunes. ^_^ The director of the series gave the animators a cheap, effective way to save costs. Rather than the normal still pan-and-scan shots that we might see in a TV series, still-shots are matted to provide focus for Kasuga to narrate over. This was very clever as it allowed the animation budget to be spent wiser.

As to the DVD release, there is NO English dub. The subtitles are pretty good though. While AnimEigo won't use the normal honorifics in the subtitles, fortunately they did use "senpai" and various forms of "older brother" & "older sister"(-niichan, oniichan, oneesama, etc.).

Bottom line: Overall, this was a fun ride. There are a lot of weaknesses, but Madoka is a great character and watching her fall in love with Kasuga-kun made it worth while. As such, I give this a rent.

Last updated Saturday, March 18 2006. Created Wednesday, December 21 2005.

• Kyosuke's isn't just the ignorant male lead of many similar stories, he's quite aware of his flaws and able to take responsibility if necessary, and has a good sense of finding out how to make up for his mistakes without even asking the victim. His downside is the handling of the "power" which he sometimes uses to get some advantage and sometimes is afraid of (as revealing his power to society would cost him and his family everything). What's more, he's embarrassingly naive, taken in by each and every trick being played on him, which often provides the only explanation for an episode story to be possible at all; somehow I can't ease into this trait of his.
• Hikaru ("glittering"), Kyosuke's self-proclaimed official steady girlfriend, is little more than an annoying brat, possessive and sticking like a limpet, suffocating her "darling" with permanent display of affection in public, and always willing to accept whatever excuse she might be given for Kyosuke's awkward behavior. IMHO the weakest aspect of the story is how Kyosuke can credibly like her as much as her rival.
• Madoka ("tranquil"), on the other hand, was to be considered a freak at first but soon turned out to be a reasonable, calm, sincere, compassionate girl; at the same time she is neither a whimp nor boring - she is self-confident, playful and teasing, able to beat up a whole gang of bad guys alone if necessary, but also acting a lot more mature than Kyosuke in many scenes (which is another of the boy's main problems).
• Yuusuke, childhood friend of both girls, is desperately in love with Hikaru but completely off her radar screen. He's acting jealously whenever anyone comes close to his love, threatening to beat up his rival every now and then, while being bossed around by Hikaru at the same time, and thus acting as comical relief. He completes the second triangle.
• Manami & Kurumi (Kyosuke's cute and funny twin sisters) are a refreshing ingredient to the recipe; Manami saved the day in more than one one episode whereas Kurumi almost spilled the beans a number of times.
• Komasu & Hatta (Kyosuke's perverted classmates) complete the main staff; they're too ecchi and too unreliable for being true friends, and thus it remains irreproducible that they're treated as such despite having caused so much damage to Kyosuke in many episodes (most notably episodes 36 and 42).
• Of the side characters, the most interesting one is "Master" who runs the Abcb shop (read: "Abacab", a tribute to the Genesis album) where Kyosuke and Madoka are working part-time - he's some relative of Madoka's, thus supporting her if necessary, and his comments on the situation are always interesting. Most other side characters, especially Kyosuke's relatives, are much less of my liking: Cousin Kazuya can easily kill each episode with his supernatural abilities and turn it into a nightmare of embarrassment for Kyosuke, and grandfather's influence on the story is similarly awkward. But watch out for the marvellous couple of Ushiko-san and Umao-san, the running gag of the show, repeating the same Shakespearian lines in ever new situations of each episode.

• Episodes 01-12 are setting up the scenario: Kyosuke and Madoka meet and get to know each other; Hikaru intervenes (due to some accident), claiming Kyosuke as her "darling" in public, which Kyosuke hesitatingly accepts (despite his embarrassment). Episode 12 almost provides a possible solution to the problem - then again, not really. Consequently,
• Episodes 13-23 develop the triangle. Hikaru is in tunnel vision, clinging to her darling; Madoka slowly develops feelings for Kyosuke but is kept on hold due to her "older sister" relation with her childhood friend Hikaru. At times she cautiously approaches Kyosuke, but every time when Hikaru is in trouble Maduka withdraws from the scene. Kyosuke begins to like Madoka more and more, approaching her and even dating both girls at the same time, but strangely never takes breaking up with Hikaru into consideration. Even though Kyosuke gets into serious trouble every now and then, this part of the series is focussing on the development of the romance, providing a lot more drama than, say, Ai Yori Aoshi or most parts of Love Hina while at the same time providing nice comedy elements (mainly through the side characters providing enough catalytic effect for the leads to get into ever new interesting situations). The psychics elements are used sparingly and mostly reasonably in this section, just as to show that real problems can't be solved just by magic. There's not a single filler episode during the first half of the series, until
• Episodes 24-32 allow the comical relief element to take control of the series. From this point on the importance of the "power" for the course of episodes increases dramatically, and plausibility suffers a lot because of that, putting the focus more on the comedy and neglecting the drama. We get a number of filler episodes there, introducing more guest characters (such as Kyosuke's telepathic cousin Kasuga) and providing several side stories (such as the first love experiences for each of Kyosuke's younger twin sisters). The lead characters' development almost comes to a standstill; consequently these episodes were basically a waste of time for me. Fortunately,
• Episodes 33-41 lead us back to the drama. Every episode now walks the thin line of destroying either the unstable balance between the girls or the secret of the "power", or both - but providing a surprising yet plausible turnaround at the end. Madoka doesn't get that much screen time but she continues to do the right things whenever possible - and she's no longer protecting Hikaru at all cost now. No sooner than in episode 41 we get to know her thoughts and feelings for the first time in this series! And Kyosuke is trying to avoid the inevitable - to make one of the two girls feel lonely and desperate. And finally,
• Episodes 42-48 provide the fantasy section of the series, including answers to questions that were open since episode 1. Now the relation between Kyosuke and Hikaru is called into question every time without bringing Kyosuke and Madoka any closer together - it becomes irksome to see the inevitable being delayed by ever changing and ever less plausible scenarios, as the influence of supernatural effects is sky-rocketing. Several of these episodes I'd consider fillers; episode 45 is the weakest one of the whole series, completely depending on the "power", and so unrealistic that Kyosuke (who's aware of the "power" himself after all!) should have seen it coming in time. The circle is being closed in the fantasy-heavy final double episode's wild ride, but I consider the development overly forced here. Too many things just get out of hand.

I started this series with some misgivings. I hadn't watched much anime from the 1980s before, and I don't usually like love triangle stories. But KOR won me over with its characters, charm, and its wonderful mix of humor and drama.

At first, the artwork looked dated to me, but a low-key series like this doesn't require a lot of razzle-dazzle. Kyosuke's family is very funny and the situations they get into are amusing. It's really the characters that drive a story like this, and I found that I quickly developed affection for them.

I'm giving this a "buy." I recommend at least renting it, even if you don't usually like older anime or romantic anime. It just may surprise you.