Does anyone else think Kimagure Orange Road is a mediocre and terrible anime?
1. Kyosuke is unbearable; indecisive and a wanker. Although his "friends" are even worse... And I don't even know if I can call those guys friends.
2. Yusaku: the guy who doesn't understand that Hikaru doesn't like him. Although, given that Kyosuke likes Madoka and plays with her, he deserves to get hit.
3. And Madoka: Are they really portraying her as the most mature? She was literally betraying her best friend.
Even the movie "I Want to Go Back to That Summer" didn't move me, and I had high expectations for it because of what I'd heard about it. But no.
I heard it was very realistic, but it seemed like an unnecessary and totally avoidable situation. I mean, why did they behave that way? They could have continued being friends; it was totally immature.
And for comparison, I've read the last 2 or 3 chapters of the manga: there you can see that the ties between Hikaru, Madoka, and Kyosuke haven't been definitively severed. In fact, Hikaru accepts that Kyosuke and Madoka love each other. I would have preferred an ending like that. Really.
Come on... Why did they suddenly treat Hikaru like that? All I can think is "poor thing." It reminded me of poor Noe Isurugi from the anime True Tears (although she was a character I really liked, unlike Hikaru).
Madoka abandoning Hikaru like that doesn't make sense. They can't sell this as realistic and as a "deconstruction" of the movie towards canon (I read this in a Reddit post).
Anyway, going with the manga's ending... This series feels like it's stuck in limbo, never moving forward. Maybe it's different in the manga... I don't know. You tell me. But if it's the same as the anime, then my opinion is the same.
On the other hand, I started watching this anime when I was 15 or 16 and dropped it after a few episodes... because I couldn't stand the characters. Now I'm 26 and I wanted to give it another chance: it's the first anime I've watched just because I want to see how everything unfolds, period. I was also waiting for the moment when Kyosuke admits he loves Madoka in front of Hikaru... which didn't happen until the movie. And this didn't satisfy my expectations.
So... I'm sorry if this is your favorite romantic comedy anime. But this anime doesn't deserve the fame it has.
Imagine you love an anime like Maison Ikkoku where Godai grows up throughout the series... And then they compare it to this piece of garbage. I know... You might say, "But they're teenagers and Godai was an adult"... Okay, but... The situations weren't funny either, you know? I found the characters completely unbearable. There's not much I can salvage. Not even Kyosuke's sisters. Maybe... The cafe-bar owner and Kyosuke's father... But nobody else.
There are some funny and indecisive characters... Godai, for example.
Maybe I'll watch it again someday. But it's not an anime I want to show or watch with anyone... With my girlfriend, for example, who I'm currently watching Maison Ikkoku with.
2. Yusaku: the guy who doesn't understand that Hikaru doesn't like him. Although, given that Kyosuke likes Madoka and plays with her, he deserves to get hit.
3. And Madoka: Are they really portraying her as the most mature? She was literally betraying her best friend.
Even the movie "I Want to Go Back to That Summer" didn't move me, and I had high expectations for it because of what I'd heard about it. But no.
I heard it was very realistic, but it seemed like an unnecessary and totally avoidable situation. I mean, why did they behave that way? They could have continued being friends; it was totally immature.
And for comparison, I've read the last 2 or 3 chapters of the manga: there you can see that the ties between Hikaru, Madoka, and Kyosuke haven't been definitively severed. In fact, Hikaru accepts that Kyosuke and Madoka love each other. I would have preferred an ending like that. Really.
Come on... Why did they suddenly treat Hikaru like that? All I can think is "poor thing." It reminded me of poor Noe Isurugi from the anime True Tears (although she was a character I really liked, unlike Hikaru).
Madoka abandoning Hikaru like that doesn't make sense. They can't sell this as realistic and as a "deconstruction" of the movie towards canon (I read this in a Reddit post).
Anyway, going with the manga's ending... This series feels like it's stuck in limbo, never moving forward. Maybe it's different in the manga... I don't know. You tell me. But if it's the same as the anime, then my opinion is the same.
On the other hand, I started watching this anime when I was 15 or 16 and dropped it after a few episodes... because I couldn't stand the characters. Now I'm 26 and I wanted to give it another chance: it's the first anime I've watched just because I want to see how everything unfolds, period. I was also waiting for the moment when Kyosuke admits he loves Madoka in front of Hikaru... which didn't happen until the movie. And this didn't satisfy my expectations.
So... I'm sorry if this is your favorite romantic comedy anime. But this anime doesn't deserve the fame it has.
Imagine you love an anime like Maison Ikkoku where Godai grows up throughout the series... And then they compare it to this piece of garbage. I know... You might say, "But they're teenagers and Godai was an adult"... Okay, but... The situations weren't funny either, you know? I found the characters completely unbearable. There's not much I can salvage. Not even Kyosuke's sisters. Maybe... The cafe-bar owner and Kyosuke's father... But nobody else.
There are some funny and indecisive characters... Godai, for example.
Maybe I'll watch it again someday. But it's not an anime I want to show or watch with anyone... With my girlfriend, for example, who I'm currently watching Maison Ikkoku with.
Commentaires
The situations are very silly. And yes, I thought all that stuff about superpowers was very stupid. I don't understand the reason (is the reason to serve as a Deus Ex Machina? - I hope I'm using this term correctly - It's just not even funny).
Now then, I haven't seen the OVAs. I'll probably watch them. I haven't seen them because I read that you can basically watch them at the same time as the anime. The ending is, well, in the movie.
The thing is, I only saw that Reddit thread when I was finishing the anime. If I hadn't seen it, I would have definitely watched all the OVAs first and then the movie.
Why did Kyosuke and Madoka suddenly stop speaking to Hikaru? Come on...
Regarding the "eternal indecision," the point that matters most to me is that the situation isn't funny; Ranma ½ is also based on eternal indecision, but it's funny. I know, it's not 100% romantic comedy... but, you know what I mean, it also plays out in episodic situations, just like Kimagure Orange Road. Even the ending, which feels rushed, is fine (I'm talking about the manga's ending). Even Maison Ikkoku itself was quite good even before it emerged from its episodic limbo.
Besides, absolutely nothing happens until the very end. I would have preferred that Hikaru find out that Kyosuke and Madoka love each other much earlier and that the author develop the consequences better... because even the manga doesn't address this (it happens in the last chapter). In other words, everyone is in limbo until the very end.
But anyway, the main point for me is that I didn't like how everything was handled. I only finished watching this anime because I wanted to see the ending.
But the esper bit is there to help carry the show with esper exploits. It is episodic, which has not been the vogue for a long time, but was much the standard then. People tuned in weekly for the hijinks not for a strong overarching story and character development. It's simply not that type of show. If you go in expecting that, it's going be horrible.
The other part of the triangle is that Madoka, even though she's presented as mature and secure, is not. She's also just a kid. She doesn't want to hurt her best friend's feelings and so she sits back to wait for the gutless Kyosuke to do the breaking. And he's even less equipped to do that. She's not mature enough to realize that in doing this she's ultimately going to hurt Hikaru more. Because she's a kid, she doesn't have a lot of actual experience despite her demeanor. But, this is early in shonen romcoms, and she's naturally put up as perfect-in-every-way (far too good for the everyman loser main character). But there is some depth and insecurity to make her more than empty idol.
And so we get a realistic portrayal of kids fumbling in love in the 80s. The side characters are there for comic relief and spur stories for the occasional episode (you could call it filler... but no one watching decades ago would think that, its episodic, so its all like filler, like most shows). The best way I find to watch the series is one episode a week on the day it originally aired. There is one on Feb 29 (it's the second last)... so to do it exactly the next time is to start in 2027. The episodes take place over a year and the seasons change through them... it really fits if you have the same seasons. Tune in for your episodic weekly esper hijinks with romance in the background.
Maison is a series built around adults. They've all had/have relationships. Godai is insecure and inept... but he has experience and handles things much better. There are lots of times where Godai completely avoids mistakes that Kyosuke would slam into. But he still makes some, that keeps things interesting. Also, Maison Ikkoku is less episodic... it comes more in arcs. There's also no big conceit like "espers" to fall back on. Godai progresses along with his life, things change (other than the side characters of MI providing their usual trouble), relationships and characters progress. It's a more mature show that's different in structure than KOR.
And analyzing the fact that the protagonists are teenagers seems pointless to me, since what's important (I think) is how the author portrays them. True Tears is another romance anime (albeit a sad one) with teenagers and I like it (even though I hate the protagonist). I was even more hooked by School Days... Aku no Hana is another one.
Come on... Even Shinji from Evangelion seemed less insufferable to me than Kyosuke... And I'm not even an Evangelion fan.
And other romantic comedy anime I'm watching are Marmalade Boy, Hiatari Ryoko, and Kimi ni Todoke, where the protagonists are teenagers, and I like them too. The main point here is that I think Kimagure Orange Road is terrible... There's not much more to it...
And the fact that it's kids in the 80s is very relevant. You list a bunch of shows from this century. Kids had changed... kids in the 80s had no internet, they were more sheltered, significantly less mature. Writing teens that way in a story set after 2k would not seem realistic. At the time, it was perfectly realistic. So you can't really compare any of these that your comparing. As I said, the shonen romcom was different, it still beign developed. If you're going in expecting romantic development... it's not there, because they clearly felt it wouldn't sell. Romance more sellable, things changed. Substantially. Shojo lead the way with things like Marmalade Boy in the 90s.
You just have to face it... KOR isn't for you, because the mindset it was created in and for is not matching yours. It's hard to set your mindset into shows of the past. "Seinfield is not funny" syndrome is very much a thing. Because it was early and set trends, it can get lost on new viewers how it was ever important... because it's seminal part of what changed the game. Things that came after built on it, and you saw the results of that first. So it doesn't look special at all, and you just see things you don't like. It's not easy to shake the mindset and put yourself in the mindset of a past you didn't experience. The reason people love KOR is typically because they saw it closer to its original context. It is a fun show with fun epsiodes. Kyosuke is bumbler, but he's really not horrible. He's just a kid from a time when kids were much more innocent. And, besides, who cares for the main character anyways. There's very few shows where the main character is my favourite or a character I relate to or respect. I don't ask that of anything, but a lot of people seem to do now. Changing mindsets. It's harder to watch things made in a completely different time for a completely different audience than yourself.
And I think you don't understand me... You're trying to justify the anime when I already finished watching it, period. What expectations? When I watch an anime, I watch it, period. I don't have expectations. I'm a simple person: if I like it, it's because I like it; if I don't like it, it's because I don't like it.
This anime, as I already said, I started watching when I was 15, when I had never seen a romantic comedy: I thought it was garbage. The protagonist was an idiot. And now that I've watched it again, I still think the same. So what expectations are you talking about? An anime either entertains, or it's a total failure.
There are teenage characters I like!!! So... what does it matter that they're teenagers? And are there a lot of idiot characters? Forks!!! Godai was one... But he redeemed himself!!! Shinji Ikari was the god of idiots!!! Shinichiro from True Tears was also an idiot. SO WHAT? You're ignoring the main point, which is that I didn't like the author's style or the situations he put them in. Don't you get it? Shinji Ikari never made me think, "Wow! What a great character!" But the story isn't bad. However, I'm indifferent to Serial Experiments Lain; on the other hand, I love Boogiepop Phantom.
In the end, you don't understand anything I'm saying. I never said the problem was the lack of romance because that wasn't what I was looking for, I wasn't looking for anything really... Just a good plot, or good moments... Like in Maison Ikkoku... Dude, when I watched Maison Ikkoku it was after InuYasha (I watched it when I was 9) and Ranma ½, which I watched a couple of years ago: did I expect anything? No! I watched the anime, period, because it was another Rumiko Takahashi anime. There were episodes where I thought, "Meh!" But I got hooked. Simple. That's all I asked for... That the anime would hook me... That there would be something (I DON'T KNOW WHAT) that this anime possesses that made me say "I LIKE IT"...
Everything I mentioned about this anime, seen together, helps me better understand why I didn't like it. There are anime where similar things happen, but they end up being enjoyable because of the overall storyline.
On the other hand, Aku no Hana isn't even a romance; it's a psychological seinen, with a twisted romance in the background, like in Kuzi no Honkai. And True Tears, which I mentioned, isn't a romantic comedy either, so the romance is almost nonexistent. However, there is romance, a sad romance. So you don't understand anything, dude. You're trying to justify why I didn't like this anime when the reality is simple.
And I already mentioned series that predate Kimagure Orange Road. Lupin III predates it, it's episodic but fun; Kimagure doesn't entertain me. Hiatari Ryoko is contemporary, and I like it. Come on!... I even like Urusei Yatsura.
It's not like I've seen hundreds of romance anime, and that's what you're misunderstanding. "Judging a work within its context." Like I said, I haven't seen many romance anime, but I have seen anime from the past and present... And I liked them! So! I even like an anime like Hokuto no Ken, which is VERY SIMPLE! You know? I wish more people would "judge a work within its context," exponentially increasing the audience for anime like Ashita no Joe... that anime really deserves it. A manga from before 1970.
You're relentlessly trying to tell me that my problem with this anime is that it's from the '80s, when that's not the issue, as I've said countless times. I have no problem watching anime from the '80s; in fact, I'd like to see more romantic comedy anime from the '70s and '80s... So if you have something to recommend, I'd gladly watch it, because the fact that it's from the '80s and features silly teenagers doesn't mean anything to me... I love Hiatari Ryoko (I haven't finished it yet, though, but that's enough for me to know I'm going to like it). And if you want, we're talking about an anime with much lower artistic quality compared to KOR... In case you think that also influenced me.
Finally (and I'll say it again)... romance isn't the only style of anime I watch... I like anime like Ashita no Joe, Fullmetal Alchemist, Monster, and Dragon Ball! So, stop trying to justify it.