the revenge of shoujo, part 1: itazura na kiss episode 01
I have to confess. WHEN I WAS a young girl I did not really like anime, because I thought anime was either A) Dragon Ball (shounen), B) Sailor Moon (shoujo), C) Pokemon (...Pokemon), or D) hentai. I did not like A) Dragon Ball because I thought the gigantic muscular men were kind of creepy and ugly. I did not like B) Sailor Moon because it was unforgivably sappy and girly, and I swore to myself that I wouldn't be like all the other girls. I did like C) Pokemon, though, and thanks to that I was the only girl sitting with the guys during lunchtime playing Pokemon on their GameBoys--see? I wasn't like all the other girls. And I don't think I have to explain why I don't like D) hentai...
Then my friend pretty much held me hostage over one weekend and forced me to marathon Shaman King. Shaman King sort of falls under category A because it is unforgivably shounen, but it wasn't HUUUEEEEERRRRGHHH POWER LEVELS OVER NINE THOUSAND shounen. There was much less OVER 9000!!!! and much more.... pretty boys and kickass girls and comedy. And I liked that! I gave anime another chance, and turned to my good friend the internet for more stuff to watch. And I realized that not all anime fell into categories A, B, C, and D. I needed to create categories E, F, G... and so on. And I was intrigued by categories E, F, and G. I still didn't much like categories A B and D, but I was definitely more open-minded about anime at that point.
But I continued to learn. I realized there was more to category A than Dragon Ball. There was more to category B than just Sailor Moon. I still won't touch category D with a thity-nine-and-a-half-foot pole, but I'll give most anything a try nowadays.
Itazura na Kiss is definitely category B. A few years ago, I would have been EW SHOUJO KEEP IT AWAY. Now, I'm more... okay, sure, shoujo, I'll try it. And since this season seems to have a lot more shoujo than usual, I think it's time I start watching a little more of it.
The story's pretty simple! Girl meets boy. Girl falls in love. Girl confesses, boy rejects. Girl's house is destroyed, girl has to move in with boy. What makes this a little different from the other shoujo I've seen is that instead of focusing on just a year or two of the protagonists' lives, this one is supposed to span over ten years. Which makes for a far more developed relationship.
I am liking it so far! Unless the plot or the art quality takes a turn towards the catastrophically bad, I'm probably going to follow it to the end.
I have to say something, though: When Kotoko's friends were trying to console her after Naoki rejected her, I was fully expecting them to say something like 'He's probably gay, anyway!', but they didn't. Come on, that's totally what I would have done in the same situation.
Then my friend pretty much held me hostage over one weekend and forced me to marathon Shaman King. Shaman King sort of falls under category A because it is unforgivably shounen, but it wasn't HUUUEEEEERRRRGHHH POWER LEVELS OVER NINE THOUSAND shounen. There was much less OVER 9000!!!! and much more.... pretty boys and kickass girls and comedy. And I liked that! I gave anime another chance, and turned to my good friend the internet for more stuff to watch. And I realized that not all anime fell into categories A, B, C, and D. I needed to create categories E, F, G... and so on. And I was intrigued by categories E, F, and G. I still didn't much like categories A B and D, but I was definitely more open-minded about anime at that point.
But I continued to learn. I realized there was more to category A than Dragon Ball. There was more to category B than just Sailor Moon. I still won't touch category D with a thity-nine-and-a-half-foot pole, but I'll give most anything a try nowadays.
Itazura na Kiss is definitely category B. A few years ago, I would have been EW SHOUJO KEEP IT AWAY. Now, I'm more... okay, sure, shoujo, I'll try it. And since this season seems to have a lot more shoujo than usual, I think it's time I start watching a little more of it.
The story's pretty simple! Girl meets boy. Girl falls in love. Girl confesses, boy rejects. Girl's house is destroyed, girl has to move in with boy. What makes this a little different from the other shoujo I've seen is that instead of focusing on just a year or two of the protagonists' lives, this one is supposed to span over ten years. Which makes for a far more developed relationship.
I am liking it so far! Unless the plot or the art quality takes a turn towards the catastrophically bad, I'm probably going to follow it to the end.
I have to say something, though: When Kotoko's friends were trying to console her after Naoki rejected her, I was fully expecting them to say something like 'He's probably gay, anyway!', but they didn't. Come on, that's totally what I would have done in the same situation.