In a strange turn of events, mostly because Kiki is still embroiled in her own madness, I, Mr. Bones will be writing about a romantic comedy anime from the 80’s. Ladies and gentleman I watched the hilarious train wreck that is Kimagure Orange Road (KOR). I picked up KOR on a whim last summer from Half-Price Books. This giant box set of ultimate destiny sat in my “to watch” pile until January of this year when after graduating from college I had the time to sit down and start watching it. So, how do the Japanese throw a twist into the standard one male protagonist and 2 female love interest triangle story? EASY, it’s called making him and his entire family a bunch of psychics with assorted powers! Needless to say hijinks ensue.
The show is centered on Kyosuke Kasuga, a 15 year old goofball who has just moved to a new city. While climbing the steps in the park near his house he comes across the first of his romantic interests, bad girl Madoka Ayukawa, this girl is the very image of pretty and demure. This one off event ends up being the opening shots of the 48 episode storyline that sees Kyosuke coming to his new middle school and meeting up with Madoka again, who introduces him to love interest number two Hikaru Hiyama, A spunky blonde who falls for captain goofball when she happens upon him in the school gym and catches him make an amazing basketball shot unseen. This is when the train begins to go off the rails, I can’t be sure if it is a good or bad thing as this point but I kept watching.
Now it is important to reiterate the part about the family psychics at this point. Kyosuke’s dad married in, and his mother has died at some point in the past. We don’t hear much about mom until 2/3 of the way through when we find out that she was a kind and gentle soul, surprise. Now Kyosuke lives with his Father, the family cat Jingoro, who basically exists as comic relief, and lastly his twin sisters Kurumi, and Manami. These sisters are nothing but trouble. Kurumi is the spunky one that likes to eat and take advantage of boys pining after her. Manami is the reserved bookworm, with a hidden party girl side that we find out about later. One of the things that had me groaning throughout the series was the slow reveal of more and more of the Kasuga family. Eventually the series introduces spitting image little cousin of Kyosuke’s Kazuya. This little snot is everything you would expect of an arrogant little psychic prodigy, he is pretty much a psychic Swiss army knife already proficient in most of the multitude of powers that are unique to each member of his family line. Finally rounding out the regular cast are Kyosuke’s two buddies Hatta and Komatsu, couple of nerdy horndogs who are chasing after Kyosuke’s little sisters. All of these actors basically keep the flow of shenanigans flowing until the very end.
The basic premise of the show is that Kyosuke is trying to win over Madoka, while also dating Hikaru on the side. This leads to a metric butt-ton of hurt feelings from both of the girls and many angry scoffs followed by storming off. OH…and hiding the fact that he is a major psychic powerhouse from them.
Let’s talk about my actual experience with watching the show. My god, look at this thing, 12 dvds at 4 episodes a dvd. This show took me over a month to watch, and I was watching an hour every other day on average. This show is a goodly length at 48 episodes, and that means there is some overlap in the themes of the episodes but I already laid out the premise so there isn't much to say about it. The writing is good and the characters seem realistic and likable Despite being a huge dork Kyosuke is actually a good guy, and his crush on hot, tough as nails Madoka is awesome as she is the major butt-kicker in the show. The love triangle is fun in that for most of the show Madoka is not showy with her growing feelings for Kyosuke, and it shows that she does when he chooses Hikaru over her. When the triangle gets real after confessions of love are spilled its fun to watch the girls try to win Kyosuke's heart in return.
So what are my final thoughts on KOR? It is a fun series with a lot to love, the show is a basic romcom with a fun twist and if not for its rareness I would suggest snapping up a copy, unfortunately it goes for over $600 on the open market.With that said I am glad to have spent the $200 for it, and I look forward to watching the movies and OVAs, so in the future you can all look forward to a part two to this review.
Well boys and girls of all ages, that's all for this week, check back next week for my next installment where I plan to cover the whole of the Tenchi Muyo universe magical girl series, Magical Project S: Pretty Sammy.
Mr. Bones wishing you all the best, see you next time space cowboy.
The show is centered on Kyosuke Kasuga, a 15 year old goofball who has just moved to a new city. While climbing the steps in the park near his house he comes across the first of his romantic interests, bad girl Madoka Ayukawa, this girl is the very image of pretty and demure. This one off event ends up being the opening shots of the 48 episode storyline that sees Kyosuke coming to his new middle school and meeting up with Madoka again, who introduces him to love interest number two Hikaru Hiyama, A spunky blonde who falls for captain goofball when she happens upon him in the school gym and catches him make an amazing basketball shot unseen. This is when the train begins to go off the rails, I can’t be sure if it is a good or bad thing as this point but I kept watching.Now it is important to reiterate the part about the family psychics at this point. Kyosuke’s dad married in, and his mother has died at some point in the past. We don’t hear much about mom until 2/3 of the way through when we find out that she was a kind and gentle soul, surprise. Now Kyosuke lives with his Father, the family cat Jingoro, who basically exists as comic relief, and lastly his twin sisters Kurumi, and Manami. These sisters are nothing but trouble. Kurumi is the spunky one that likes to eat and take advantage of boys pining after her. Manami is the reserved bookworm, with a hidden party girl side that we find out about later. One of the things that had me groaning throughout the series was the slow reveal of more and more of the Kasuga family. Eventually the series introduces spitting image little cousin of Kyosuke’s Kazuya. This little snot is everything you would expect of an arrogant little psychic prodigy, he is pretty much a psychic Swiss army knife already proficient in most of the multitude of powers that are unique to each member of his family line. Finally rounding out the regular cast are Kyosuke’s two buddies Hatta and Komatsu, couple of nerdy horndogs who are chasing after Kyosuke’s little sisters. All of these actors basically keep the flow of shenanigans flowing until the very end.
The basic premise of the show is that Kyosuke is trying to win over Madoka, while also dating Hikaru on the side. This leads to a metric butt-ton of hurt feelings from both of the girls and many angry scoffs followed by storming off. OH…and hiding the fact that he is a major psychic powerhouse from them.
Let’s talk about my actual experience with watching the show. My god, look at this thing, 12 dvds at 4 episodes a dvd. This show took me over a month to watch, and I was watching an hour every other day on average. This show is a goodly length at 48 episodes, and that means there is some overlap in the themes of the episodes but I already laid out the premise so there isn't much to say about it. The writing is good and the characters seem realistic and likable Despite being a huge dork Kyosuke is actually a good guy, and his crush on hot, tough as nails Madoka is awesome as she is the major butt-kicker in the show. The love triangle is fun in that for most of the show Madoka is not showy with her growing feelings for Kyosuke, and it shows that she does when he chooses Hikaru over her. When the triangle gets real after confessions of love are spilled its fun to watch the girls try to win Kyosuke's heart in return.So what are my final thoughts on KOR? It is a fun series with a lot to love, the show is a basic romcom with a fun twist and if not for its rareness I would suggest snapping up a copy, unfortunately it goes for over $600 on the open market.With that said I am glad to have spent the $200 for it, and I look forward to watching the movies and OVAs, so in the future you can all look forward to a part two to this review.
Well boys and girls of all ages, that's all for this week, check back next week for my next installment where I plan to cover the whole of the Tenchi Muyo universe magical girl series, Magical Project S: Pretty Sammy.
Mr. Bones wishing you all the best, see you next time space cowboy.
Comments
Post a Comment