Ai Yori Aoshi #3: Hugs And Kisses (DVD)
APPROX. 120 MINS. - PROD. YEAR: 0 - MPA RATING: MA13
" Sometimes, I think this show was written by a committee that met about twice a month.
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According to Geneon´s own website, "Ai Yori Aoshi" translates to "True Blue Love," which is pretty much what this show is all about. There are five episodes on this disc, titled "Debutante", "Kiss", "Star Festival", "Servant", and "Feelings of the Heart".
The schizophrenic tendencies of this show continue to increase. I actually was thinking of not watching this entire disc, the first two episodes were that bad. They introduced the first fully-realized romantic rival, Mayu. It´s the young looking child from the opening credits with the long, purple hair. Despite the fact that she looks to be about 10 years old, she´s supposed to be 16. Well, alright then. She´s also attending the same university that everyone else in the show goes to, except for Aoi. In her very first scene she vaults into Kaoru´s arms and plants a kiss on him. She claims this is just how people in England greet each other, and everyone just accepts it. Man, if I had known that, I would have tried harder to be friends with every girl from England I ever met.
This drags on for two episodes. Ugh, why do these shows have to resort to the old, hackneyed device of introducing romantic rivals at random? Of course Aoi finds out, and of course everything is back to status quo by the end of the second episode. With another new character introduced, the chances for any of the other secondary characters receiving any development have been officially downgraded to "slim."
The next two episodes aren´t so bad, but they´re still just mediocre. I keep waiting for the story to focus back on the central relationship, but it feels like the plot has been in a holding pattern ever since they decided they would pretend to only be landlady and tenant. I could literally feel the film value score dropping from 6, and where it would stop, nobody knows.
And then, out of the blue, the last episode took me completely by surprise. It´s great. It´s brilliant. Good God Almighty, it´s what I´ve been waiting for since the episode two! A deep, revealing exposition of who Aoi and Kaoru really are and where they come from! The episode has no distractions, no rivals, nothing but Aoi and Kaoru on a private date. I would go so far as to say that it was even touching. I don´t know, maybe it was just because of the previous episodes. As though to signal that they know good and well how different this episode was, the studio made the closing animation and song different than on any other episode. I can only hope this trend will continue.
The one thing that the show consistently does right is add little nuggets of humor. There´s probably one moment per episode that forced me to laugh out loud. As low brow as it perhaps is, I can´t help but laugh whenever the characters try to speak English. Tina is so bad at it that Taeko questions whether or not Tina is really an American, and I can´t blame her. I talk way gooder than her.
