When I watched this anime I also thought of two similar anime's Ah My Goddess (for the Belldandy's similarity to Aoi) and Love Hina (for the similarity of too many girls living with a single lucky? guy). I thought that Ai Yori Aoshi was a well blended medium between these two classic anime. Great review :)
Ai Yori Aoshi tv Review
The anime adaptation of Fumizuki Kou's manga features Kaoru Hanabishi, a normal every day college student. For years, he lived independently and alone. One day, his entire life gets turned upside down. He meets a young woman about his age one day at the train station. She appears lost and is searching for someone. In kindness, Kaoru lends a hand, without knowing that he was who she was searching for.
Aoi Sakuraba is the only daughter of a wealthy family. As such, her hand is well sought after. Unfortunately for her family, she already has her heart set on Kaoru, her betrothed. As a gesture of good faith, her parents allow them to live on the same property, with her acting as the landlady and her caretaker as the owner. Poor Kaoru has been reduced to playing the part of a tenant.
Of course, they don't know about all the other women who will be moving in with them...
How will Aoi and Kaoru explore their love with so many distractions? Will Aoi be able to cope with the number of love rivals?
Story & Characters
This is basically a love story...the setting however is quite close to that of love hine...whereby the main acor is surrounded by a bunch of gurls...some of them shy, some of them clumsy and some of them rough...the main charaters are kaoru and aoi. Both of them are supposed to be childhood friends and will eventually grow up to be married. However, they got seperated. kaoru was the son of a 2nd wife, thus when his father died, his mom left home and he was deserted wif his otherwise torturous family as he was the sole heir to his family's vast fortune. it was then when he was introduceed to aoi, the daughter of the affluent Sakuraba family. While he spends some happy times playing with aoi as a child, he was often abused bitterly. Therefore when he finally could not stand it, he left home to stay alone while studying in a university. In the unerversity, he had always led a solitary life with few friends from the photography club he had joined. His life remain dull untill he chanced upon aoi again-whom has ventured out of home in search of her childhood friend. Following that are a series of obstacles the pair are faced with on their road of being together...it ranges from jealously, descrimination from parents, responsibility and many more. This anime is very smmoth and soothing. A nice one to add to your collection if you are looking for one to calm your nerves. The pace of the anime is calm and somewhat slow...so dun expect BIG gags and laughter...
Rating:
Art
The drawings are bright and smooth to the eye...the characters are all brightly drawn and the settings are all very romantic. They gang of them actually change the setting very often whereby oyu get to see not onli the house the live in but also aoi's mansion, kaoru's mansion, the hostel, the beach, the university and even the streets. All the backgrounds are drawn in a way that it give u a comfortable feeling. The many gurls in the story are drawn absolutely beautifully and fans usually love all of them.
Rating:
Sound
The music of the anime are nice. They are all smooth to the ear. Sweet yet catchy...u can actually feel spring in the songs...The both the first and second series have nice tunes. The songs are all sang by a women and they all mostly are about love. I personally love the music and it doesn't hurt my ears when i listen to them. Also, the songs are easy to sing thus if oyu hav a chance to abtain the songs....listen to it a few time and then soon you will be able to sing the whole song with ease as it is very catchy.
Rating:
Presentation
As for originality...i would say that the structure of the plot is slightly overused in the anime kingdom with titles like love hina and ah my goddess...ai yori aoshi also involves plenty of girls, screaming and one lucky guy who gets to experience it all. Yes, it is the same old plot. But the ony thing i can say that makes this stand out is probably the animation whereby the scenes are mostly brightly coloured and this anime also has a proper ending which is also a happy ending. (YAY!!) The awkward moments in the series are also plenty. That is where the humour comes in. In the series, the main funnie character is Tina, a japanese born american (i think so??), thus the yellow/blonde coloured hair, whu is also slightly in love with Kaoru. Ai yori aoshi is not a very long anime but has a part 2 to it called Ai Yori Aoshi Enishi whichis basically abt the things that happen after the 2 of them got together...This anime would be quite enjoyable if you do not set your expectations too high...do not expect action and also view this anime as a kind of lightweight anime. Onli then will you sufficiently enjoy this immensely sweet and endearing anime...
Rating:
Final Verdict
7.3333 (above average)
Reviewed by animefreakzzz, Apr 05, 2005
Comments
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tishdon Jul 31, 2005
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