Synopsis: Kaoru Hanabishi, a college student who living alone, meets a beautiful but bewildered girl dressed in kimono at a train station. He volunteers to guide her to the address she is looking for, which is near his apartment. However, it turns out to be an empty lot. Not knowing what to do next, Kaoru invites the devastated girl to his apartment and asks for any additional clue -- a photo with two children whom Kaoru immediately identifies as himself and "Aoi-chan", his childhood friend. It turns out that the girl in front of him is Aoi Sakuraba herself, his betrothed fiancée who came all the way to Tokyo to marry him. Her revelation is not only surprising but also reminds the deepest part of Kaoru of the reason he left the Hanabishi house in the first place.
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When I first started watching Ai Yori Aoshi, I got into it really quickly. I loved the characters! I often find myself cringing at how cheesy and barf-worthy romance genres can be, but this anime had me literally squealing like a little girl over how cute and sweet the characters were. However, it soon began to fade into boring plot filler, aforementioned cheesy romance, and generic harem-style characters. Things started to pick up again in episode 12, though, and better character development and romance returned. The anime occasionally faded back and forth from good to boring filler throughout the entire season, but I was satisfied with the ending and found myself hoping that the second season, Ai Yori Aoshi: Enishi, would live up to the standard set by the first season. (Let's not get ahead of ourselves, though.) To be fair, I think most of my boredom while watching this series stemmed from the fact that it fits into the same genre category as Ah! My Goddess, which I just finished watching and reviewing.
As far as art goes, this series is sufficiently aesthetically pleasing, but nothing special. Also, seeing how Aoi's family is in the kimono business, I really wish they would have changed her kimono up instead of just the pattern on the obi. How boring to always see her wearing the same color with no pattern on it! The animation was nice and smooth; it did not seem sub par at all to me.
Now, I shall move on to sound. The opening theme is pretty. I love the piano and vocals! At first, the ending theme seemed pretty average to me, and it struck me as sounding a bit like lounge music. It did grow on me a bit, though. I was kind of disappointed when it changed in episode 15 to a more mellow not-as-pretty song. Luckily, the ending theme changed back to the original one for the remaining episodes. The background music is often quite lovely, with a bit of a traditional Japanese sound to it, using instruments such as the koto. Even sound effects were nicely done! Voice acting is all good, except for Tina. Her voice annoyed me, which is to be expected, since she is supposed to be an American, but still...there was just something about her voice itself that I did not like. (Speaking of Tina being an American and voice acting, I might as well note that it is quite humorous to hear the Japanese voice actors who are supposed to be American or supposed to have spent time in England say phrases in English. Without the subtitles, it still would have been kind of hard to make out what they said at times!) As far as the dub goes, avoid it like the plague! I had to watch the dub for a couple episodes because I could not find the subtitled ones, and it was so bad that at first I honestly thought it was a terrible fandub. Then I watched the ending credits, and it appeared to be a legit Pioneer English release. What were you thinking, Pioneer? And what is with translating some suffixes to "Miss" or "Lady" or "Sir" prefixes while leaving others as Japanese suffixes? Strange. Also, Tina's voice is even more irritating in the English dub!
I have already said a bit about the story. I will go on to say that it is a pretty usual strange-girl-randomly-shows-up-in-ordinary-and-shy-boy's-life-then-tons-of-girls-also-wind-up-falling-for-him harem plot, though it is different enough to keep things interesting and set it apart a little. Some viewers may be offended at how the main female character, Aoi, is portrayed. She is very submissive to the main male character, Kaoru, but one must keep in mind that she was raised in a very wealthy traditional Japanese household. Also, she seems to be happy, and the two seem to truly love each other. This anime is one of the sexier romance/harem series I have seen, but I say that in a classy way (remember, Aoi is very traditional, and Kaoru is rather shy and has a lot of respect for Aoi). Classy, of course, with the exception of Tina's annoying breast-squeezing greeting and occasional fan service type humor that is to be expected in anime. Make sure you do not miss the adorable flashback at the very end of the last episode, after the ending theme song! It is way too cute to miss.
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Ai Yori Aoshi: Enishi
Synopsis: Two whole years after Kaoru & Aoi reunited, they are still in love with each other. Although they are still in love with each other, their relationship still must be kept a secret, despite getting the approval from Aoi’s parents, for fear it would cause controvert with the rest of the Sakurabas and the Hanabishis.
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As for the second season, Enishi, I will not go too in depth. Not much is different from the first season, and I do believe it lived up to the standard that the first season set.
The opening theme song was bland, for lack of a better term. The ending theme was just bad. It was annoying. It changed for the better to a more soft rock and almost R&B sounding song (still not great, but better) in episode 9. However, once again, this ending theme change did not stick. I did not even pay enough attention to the background music to take any notes on it; I suppose that means it was just average background music.
There were a few odd moments in the animation. The one that comes to mind is a moment in episode 1 when Kaoru's voice is really flustered-sounding, but his facial expression stayed exactly the same.
Character development for Tina was really excellent toward the end of the season. It almost completely changed my opinion of her during the last few episodes. I actually grew to like a character that I previously could not stand.
I want to give this anime some props for being the only series I know of that has a ferret as the token cute animal. Uzume's ferret mannerisms and movements were dead-on, too! I know from having experienced practically living with someone who had a ferret. I have to give the animators credit for that.
The ending was a happy one. It left a lot up to the imagination, but did give a good glimpse into everyone's near future.
There is a Christmas special for Enishi, often called episode 0, but officially titled Miyuki. It seems to take place about two years before Ai Yori Aoshi (as in, season 1) starts. I suppose I should have watched it before the rest of Enishi, but the truth is that I did not plan to watch it at all. (I do not usually like Christmas specials.) I wound up watching it simply because I was procrastinating on writing this review. I am glad I did! This was actually a really cute special that gives a little bit of a magical, fantasy twist to the otherwise reality-based "fate" that this season is named for ("Enishi"). Watching it out of order did not make much difference, however, I would recommend that you do watch it before the rest of Enishi, so that you can keep the cute magical twist in mind for the rest of the show.
Overall, this series was pretty good! I will grant it a 7, as it was above average, but did seem a bit like previous works and had a few flaws.
Next up is AIka, which will be followed by AIka R-16 and AIka: Zero! Hooray for a genre change! Get ready for some ecchi, comedy, action/adventure, and sci-fi!
Feel free to leave a comment with any thoughts, questions, or just telling me you read this. You don't need an account to do so.
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