Anime Hajime Review: Itazura na Kiss

Series Synopsis

Since the first day of high school, Kotoko Aihara (voiced by Nana Mizuki) has been in love with Naoki Irie (voiced by Daisuke Hirakawa). In her senior year, she finally finds the courage to confess. Sadly, things don't go as planned. Kotoko is devastated when she is immediately rejected. Naoki’s reasoning, he doesn’t like dumb girls.

Hoping to forget her humiliation, the unthinkable happens. After a small earthquake, Kotoko’s house collapses. Luckily a close friend of her father’s offers up his home.

In yet another twist of fate, this friend also happens to be the father of Naoki. Suddenly Kotoko finds herself living with the very person she has had a crush on for so long, as well as the jerk that thoroughly crushed her heart.

The first time Kotoko saw Naoki was during their Freshman Opening Ceremony. Since then she has wanted to be as close to him as possible. However, Naoki is the smartest student in their high school, and rumor has it he is also one of the smartest people in all of Japan.

Kotoko on the other hand is a below average student that finds difficulty in the most basic of tasks. Even though she is a klutz, an airhead, and gets terrible grades, it's never out of laziness. Kotoko tries harder than most, fully aware of her short comings. Lovable and caring, rarely does anyone dislike her and those who do don’t hold that opinion for long. She is nothing if not persistent; as evident by her countless efforts to win Naoki’s heart.

Naoki’s initial impression of Kotoko was one of dissatisfaction, but that is not a reaction specifically for her. Due to his level of intelligence, there is nothing that Naoki is incapable of mastering. This has made his life boring and stale. He has never been challenged or tested in any meaningful way. This all changes when Kotoko beings living with his family. For the first time Naoki must confront annoyance, embarrassment, and hardship. Naoki is cold and finds great enjoyment in teasing Kotoko, but she is the only one who seems capable of bring out his emotions and it doesn’t take long for her to begin breaking into his heart.

Kotoko

Series Positives

When starting Itazura na Kiss, I thought I knew what I was getting into; a generic romantic comedy with a predictable story about two characters that by the end would come to love each other and live a happy high school life. Thank god I was wrong.

Naoki

I don’t keep it a secret that I have a soft spot for romance stories; it’s a guilty pleasure of mine. It's true that Itazura na Kiss does follow the basic romantic comedy formula, but it is able to take it far beyond what other anime seem willing to do.

Character Growth

A good romance story only works if the two main characters are worth caring about. Does the pairing work? Are you able to get behind and support both parties when things are going well, and especially when things are going bad? It's boring to watch love blossom easily, so does a series show a hard fought and well deserved relationship? In the case of Itazura na Kiss, it does all that.

I don’t want to think that I am ruining anything by saying that Kotoko and Naoki do end up getting together. But if you didn't see that coming…spoilers they get together. Luckily for us, the story is not centered on how the two first fell in love; it's about how they grew as a couple.

By the end of the show it's amazing to see just how far Kotoko and Naoki have come. At first you saw them as a mismatched pair that might just work, but eventually you can’t even imagine the two apart.

While Kotoko for the most part stays the same throughout the entire show, you always find yourself adoring her. She is the necessary anchor of the series and brings out the best in every other character. One of my favorite descriptions of her came from Naoki. He said that Kotoko is incapable of doing ninety percent of the things he can do, but the ten percent he can’t no one can do better than her.

In comparison, the character with the most growth was Naoki. When you first met him, he was a cold hearted jerk. By the end he was a caring and loving person with the outward appearance of a cold hearted jerk. You could see him slowly starting to fall for Kotoko. Once that happened, his affection turned to genuine love for her. By the final episode, Naoki had transformed drastically from the person he once was.

A True Slice of Life

I find great enjoyment out of slice of life anime. For those who don’t know what that means, it's basically what the name suggests. Slice of life anime follows the daily lives of its characters. More often than not, most of these kinds of shows only explore high school life and there are a lot of outstanding series that only focus on this.

Itazura na Kiss is what I like to call a true slice of life anime because it actually shows character’s lives. The series does start in high school, but it goes on into college and even further into working life. Very few shows do this and I wish there were more of them.

Most of the fun in a slice of life anime that centers on romance is seeing people fall in love with one another. This then leads to the big climax of a series with the two characters finally becoming a couple. Again this is fine, but it becomes a problem particularly if the show has the misfortune of being good because you are left wanting more.

It's great when two characters that you have come to know and have been cheering for finally get together, but now what? You spent an entire series getting to know everyone individually, so what are the same characters like when they are finally a couple? Itazura na Kiss gives you what comes next. You get to experience the pay off and witness if the all the buildup was actually worth it.

Series Negatives

I am not a fan of writing this section when I actually do like a series. But no show is perfect and usually when one is good, any negatives become painfully obvious when compared to all the positives. Such is the case with Itazura na Kiss.

The Supporting Cast

I can’t think of any character that I disliked and therein lies the problem. The supporting cast were all really interesting in their own way, but for a few characters the show didn’t seem to know what to do with them.

Along with the two main protagonists, Naoki’s family and Kotoko's father make up the bulk of the remaining cast. Throughout the show you get to see how they interact and influence the building romance. The issue I have arises with everyone else in the show.

As it so happens, all the other people you meet are friends of Kotoko and therefore become acquaintances of Naoki. These characters can be separated into two groups. One being Kotoko’s friends from high school and college, and the other being her friends from her professional life. While they do represent different periods for Kotoko, they weren’t replacements for each other.

The show had a tendency to drop characters into obscurity. This was most noticeable with Kotoko’s high school friends. They all just seemed to disappear and at first I thought they had fallen out of touch. However, this was not the case because near the end of the series it showed everyone together as if they were all a big part of each other’s lives.

The series didn’t have to go into great detail on what everyone was doing all the time, but the least it could have done was indicate that everyone was still relevant.

Slow Bits

The biggest downside to Itazura na Kiss was that by the end you realized the show didin’t need to be twenty-five episodes long.

The story was great, don’t get me wrong, but there were definitely moments were things started to slow down. It got frustrating at parts because you knew any problem could be solved at any time. Sadly, events were dragged out for as long as they could be. Then when things were eventual sorted out, you did feel a sense of relief. One because everything was going to turn out fine and two because we could finally move on with the story.

Final Thoughts

Itazura na Kiss is easily in my top five romance series of all time. It really was that good. Being one of the few examples of a true slice of life anime, it's more than your average high school love tale.

Built around a strong story and a memorable cast of characters, Itazura na Kiss was just so much fun from beginning to end.

With only a few minor complaints, there’s a lot to like about the show. If this is the kind of thing that perks your interest, you would be doing yourself a disservice the longer you hold off watching this series.

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