Ai Yori Aoshi

Director
Masami Shimoda
Production
Fuji TV, J.C.Staff
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Series
Running time
24+13/24 min each
Year
2002

Ai Yori Aoshi

By KRis
25th Aug 04

It seems creators don't get tired of using the classic five girls, one guy scheme. You have to wonder why that is. Is it because people just like to see all the girls chase after one guy? Doesn't it get old? Why can't they put a few more guys in to even it up? None-the-less, it's getting old, and fast. Why do all these girls have such a strong attraction to this run-of-the-mill guy? Maybe us guys like to watch these series and envision ourselves as that guy. Ai Yori Aoshi is one of those instances.

Kaoru is a young man in college. He lives alone, has little friends and well, is a dork to boot. One day at a train station he meets a young girl. She is having trouble finding her way around Tokyo. So being the nice guy he is, Kaoru decides to help this girl, (named Aoi). So Aoi has come to find her childhood crush who now resides in Tokyo. When they finally get to the address, there isn't even a house there. So Kaoru decides to take Aoi back to his apartment. After exchanging of some information, Kaoru turns out to be the guy Aoi has been looking for, (surprise, surprise). Aoi has been living her life to be the perfect wife for Kaoru, as it was set to be that they become married in the past. So they start living together, later on they move into a house, Kaoru picks up a bunch of girls on the way, crap like that.

Series like these scream out filler. How do you separate filler from um, unfiller episodes? You don't, as Ai Yori Aoshi doesn't make any progress throughout the series. Yea, some stuff happens, but the characters don't change, relationships hardly grow, you're just sitting here watching these people's everyday life. Of coarse every episode consists of it's timely over dramatic relationship stunt between Kaoru and Aoi. "Oh, I'm feeling sick today! I'm such a burden, why do you put up with me? I have let you down so much...". Like come on, this girl is so obsessed with making Kaoru happy that it makes me sick. If she doesn't do EVERYTHING perfect she'll start to cry, and even at that she finds something wrong with every situation. Why they keep their relationship a secret from everyone makes no sense either. I know Japanese people add chan and sama and that onto people's names when they talk to them, but that Kaoru sounds amazingly annoying when he keeps on repeating, "Aoi-chan, Aoi-chan". I guess you'll have to hear it enough times to understand.

I have never disliked main characters as much as I dislike Kaoru and Aoi. The lesser characters are a little more tolerable though, but what ruins them is that they all love Kaoru. Gimmie a break, he's such a moron. I've heard a lot of talk about Ai Yori Aoshi being similar to Love Hina... it's not true. Apart from the characters looking similar, it shares hardly anything in comparison. Ai Yori Aoshi Enishi is pretty much 13 more episodes of the same thing. Although it's done a bit better, and ends more to my liking, it doesn't save the series. Decent artwork, character designs, ect, and a fairly good soundtrack. If you're looking for a romantic comedy, go for something else.

If you liked this, try out Love Hina or Tenchi Muyo!.

-- KRis 25th Aug 04

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