Prologue
Being able to get me to not like something to the point of being disgusted with it is something that can arguably be an achievement, even if that achievement isn't exactly a good one, because it usually takes a lot for me to get to that point. Itazura na Kiss is one of those things, and I'm afraid my disgust for this particular anime, in my opinion, was well earned. Sure, there are things that naturally earn their status due to just how terrible they are, such as Chargeman Ken, but there are other shows that earn their status over time once people have had time to consume the material off of it's hype, such as The Legend of Korra. Itazura na Kiss slightly falls more into the latter of this medium, but that's mainly due to the credit of the animators that did a decent job on the anime adaptation in 2008.
Defining & Disclaimers
For those unfamiliar with it, Itazura na Kiss is a Japanese shojo anime series written and illustrated by Kaoru Tada in 1990, which got an anime adaptation in 2008. It goes by other names as well, such as Playful Kiss or Mischievous Kiss - for the sake of consistency, I'm going to stick to the original name.
Allow me to preface that, at time of writing, I will only be covering the manga and the anime adaptation. Please don't ask me to cover the other adaptations, as how terrible both of these versions were has turned me off from ever picking up this series again except maybe to tear it apart a bit more.
Being able to get me to not like something to the point of being disgusted with it is something that can arguably be an achievement, even if that achievement isn't exactly a good one, because it usually takes a lot for me to get to that point. Itazura na Kiss is one of those things, and I'm afraid my disgust for this particular anime, in my opinion, was well earned. Sure, there are things that naturally earn their status due to just how terrible they are, such as Chargeman Ken, but there are other shows that earn their status over time once people have had time to consume the material off of it's hype, such as The Legend of Korra. Itazura na Kiss slightly falls more into the latter of this medium, but that's mainly due to the credit of the animators that did a decent job on the anime adaptation in 2008.
Defining & Disclaimers
For those unfamiliar with it, Itazura na Kiss is a Japanese shojo anime series written and illustrated by Kaoru Tada in 1990, which got an anime adaptation in 2008. It goes by other names as well, such as Playful Kiss or Mischievous Kiss - for the sake of consistency, I'm going to stick to the original name.
Allow me to preface that, at time of writing, I will only be covering the manga and the anime adaptation. Please don't ask me to cover the other adaptations, as how terrible both of these versions were has turned me off from ever picking up this series again except maybe to tear it apart a bit more.
What I Liked
Let me make something clear - there were a few things that I liked, but I'm afraid that as time has gone on, it's tolerant at best for some of these things.
For starters, the animation: the anime was fine, and my untrained eye didn't see any blatant errors like I saw in Sailor Moon Crystal. However, I cannot say the same for the manga: the manga was so ugly that I'm surprised it got an adaptation, much less multiple. To be fair, if One Punch Man could get out of this manga-ugly-rut and become the popular anime that it did, surely it's not the biggest deal breaker in the world. Design complains mainly go to the main character, but that's for another time.
I'm also willing to give the music some leeway here. I don't care for the starting song, but the end credits song is pretty. Seriously, what is up with shitty anime getting the prettier songs in some cases?
For starters, the animation: the anime was fine, and my untrained eye didn't see any blatant errors like I saw in Sailor Moon Crystal. However, I cannot say the same for the manga: the manga was so ugly that I'm surprised it got an adaptation, much less multiple. To be fair, if One Punch Man could get out of this manga-ugly-rut and become the popular anime that it did, surely it's not the biggest deal breaker in the world. Design complains mainly go to the main character, but that's for another time.
I'm also willing to give the music some leeway here. I don't care for the starting song, but the end credits song is pretty. Seriously, what is up with shitty anime getting the prettier songs in some cases?
The only other thing I can think of fondly to any extent is the relationship between Kinnosuke and Chris. While I don't like how they got together, their shown to be a healthier couple than the leading couple we see more on screen, which sucks as far as storytelling goes.
Sooo... what exactly about it makes it garbage? Another time, my dear, another time.
