I get this guy's point
I've read a bit of Ai Yori Aoshi, and this review of the final volume of the DVD hit for me. I've actually read a bit of the manga, but stopped around Volume 4 or so when there's a big bath house scene complete with girls grabbing each others boobs.
It wasn't the nudity that bothered me (though the fact that I turned the page and found it right there while I was in the middle seat on an airplane was disconcerting - but hey, they *were* very nicely drawn giant breasts). It was the pointlessness. The story should be about Ai and Kaoru, not about big boobed girl X or big boobed girl Y who just happens to be around Kaoru and might/might not have a crush on him. A little bit of that is fine - it's something that I would expect them to deal with when they can't discuss their relationship openly. But the first volume of the manga caught me with a really interesting hook: can two people love each other in spite of their family's terrible actions? Can a person who was abused, who turned away from his family still fulfill what they wanted him to do but not for duty, but for love? Can a girl be the epitome of a "proper" Japanese girl not because she is forced into it, but because she chooses to be, and still claim her independence?
*That* was the story that brought me in. But by the time they introduced the third potential love interest, I was done. Maybe I'll get back into it later, but I have things that are more interesting for me right now.
It wasn't the nudity that bothered me (though the fact that I turned the page and found it right there while I was in the middle seat on an airplane was disconcerting - but hey, they *were* very nicely drawn giant breasts). It was the pointlessness. The story should be about Ai and Kaoru, not about big boobed girl X or big boobed girl Y who just happens to be around Kaoru and might/might not have a crush on him. A little bit of that is fine - it's something that I would expect them to deal with when they can't discuss their relationship openly. But the first volume of the manga caught me with a really interesting hook: can two people love each other in spite of their family's terrible actions? Can a person who was abused, who turned away from his family still fulfill what they wanted him to do but not for duty, but for love? Can a girl be the epitome of a "proper" Japanese girl not because she is forced into it, but because she chooses to be, and still claim her independence?
*That* was the story that brought me in. But by the time they introduced the third potential love interest, I was done. Maybe I'll get back into it later, but I have things that are more interesting for me right now.