I enjoy contradictions; not only in my mind-bending anime that I watch but also in what kind of anime I watch.

I like to tout my love for the visual-novel conversions, a genre that is on the mild end, gender-neutral with cute girls and sad stories, and on the extreme ends, a fanservice free-for-all harem-fest with characters filled to the nines with appeal and moe.

But there’s an equally large and some might say equally awkward soft spot I hold for the other end of the so-called gender divide, the shoujo drama. These are the shows that could almost pass to be daytime American TV, so filled with relationships made and broken, hearts yearning and hearts weeping, and more characters than any typical harem lead could ever dream of snagging.

Of course, the appeal of them is not the chance to watch another hour of The Days of Our Lives, but rather the emotional power of these shows that so often can speak to souls. Typically, the content found in these shoujo stories are quite down-to-earth, and extremely pertinent to the teenage age group of which I am a part of. They have a sky-high relatability factor, something that makes it easy for anyone to take many of the life lessons that these shows emit, and make it personal, and thus make the anime great.

And equally such, the shows are not grounded in reality so hard as to be drab, either. Most inhabit a realistic-like setting with more than a fair bit of ridiculousness in the content itself. It may be a school life show, but when the school life features giant glass greenhouses, over-the-top competitions and rivalries, and overally highly unlikely circumstances, it’s likely to induce a smile.

This mix of heartwarming story spiced with a sprinkle of insanity is what endears this genre to me, and when I found that two shows of this type were coming down the pipeline for the spring season, I was quite excited in finding my two ‘must-watch’, or at least ‘must-try’ shows of the season. But how do they stack up now that the first three episodes of each have been viewed?

An impromptu part two of the “Spring Season Battles” feature follows. Do note that this one is lighter on the pictures and heavier on the text, due to time restraints, and, y’know, things to talk about.

The strange thing about shoujo shows, though, is that they do tend to cover a lot of what seem to be the same ground, even between subgenres such as Magical Girl, Elite Society, Girl Convinces Tsundere Guy To Fall In Love With Her, and Uber-Hax Magical Girl. Observe:

Lightning Round: Six Degrees to Shoujo

Shugo Chara - Queen of the World
In the vein of “COOL and SPICY~” Amu Hinamori, in Special A there are rabid fangirls idolizing Hikari, check. To be honest I find this really annoying and distracting, but to each their own.

Kare Kano - Anything You Can Do…
The war for #1 in the class is exponentially more fiery than any other competition in the school; Arima and Yukino constantly lead the charge in Kare Kano, while Kei and Hikari crank the bar up notches until it won’t go any more, and then some. ItaKiss gets into the fever too as Kotoko goes into overdrive to come within a couple miles of Naoki’s number one ranking.

Marmalade Boy - Two Goes Into One
Just like Miki and Yuu, or perhaps like a cheap premise to a sitcom, in ItaKiss, Kotoko and Naoki are quickly put into close contact as they are forced to live under the same house thanks to the forces of nature, luck, and stupidity.

Nodame Cantabile - No Prerequisites Required
Shoujo shows are spectacular in just how wild their casts can get, as designs that might be rejected by saner anime pass with flying colors here - the afro-wielding timpani-playing ambigiously-gendered
Masumi is the poster boy here. Special A whips out some interesting designs in its special seven, such as the mute Megumi or the constantly hungry guy, but ItaKiss takes the cake here, casting not only the insane (good-intentioned?) stalker, the crazy parents, the tsundere guy and his brother, but also a decidely - as they put it - ‘well-proportioned’ girl, something that vainer anime shy away from in droves.

Special A and ItaKiss - Competitive Academics
Wait, what? The two even overlap a bit with each other by having the same premise of classes separated by rank (grade, whatnot). I’m unclear on whether this is a Japanese Thing or just a massive coincidence, but either way, it’s a premise that’s new to me. The styles are different; in Special A it’s a cutthroat fight at the top, while at ItaKiss it’s a struggle for an unknown to reach out to the top-ranked man.

Advantage: To me, ItaKiss feels like it has a higher amount of ’seen before’ factor, perhaps because its premise is a bit more extraordinary. Special A has the advantage of leaning more towards the center of the spectrum with its comedy, while ItaKiss is decidedly more focused on the love-love, something that might make the former seem more creative in a field of romance stories.

Round 1: Promising Premises
Special A: Talented girl meets talented boy. Talented boy pwns talented girl. A time warp follows, revealing the two have been competing all their life for the number 1 position in everything. Add some main-slash-side characters, and hilarity ensues. And maybe some romance.

Itazura no Kiss: Ordinary girl meets talented boy. Talented boy shuts down ordinary girl and her love letter. Random house destruction follows, shoving the two of them under one roof, struggling to establish terms with each other. Add some main-slash-side characters, and romance ensues. And maybe some hilarity.

Advantage: In terms of freshness, following off the last round I would have to give the award to Special A, although ItaKiss has high potential. As mentioned, Special A is more well-rounded in terms of comedy and romance, and feels fresher than ItaKiss which smarts of Marmalade Boy except with a more annoying male lead. The competitive factor of Special A, while also perhaps lifted from Kare Kano, is one that I personally enjoy more, being highly competitive myself. Special A’s breed of insanity fits more with the lighthearted style of it, while ItaKiss’s random lapses into WTF-land tend to kill its sweeter moments.

Round 2: OMG BISHIES and other main characters
Itazura no Kiss: Female Lead: Kotoko, steadfast daydreamer. Bishie: Naoki, tsunderella. Irrelevants: Kin-chan, stalker; Large girl, plump; Parents, obsessive; Other girl, forgettable.

Special A: Female Lead: Hikari, enthusiastically competitive. Bishie: Kei, flirtacious. Irrelevants: Megumi, Kotomi-alike; Hungry guy, hungry; Hikari’s friend, helpful / violent; council president, hilarious.

Advantage:For the main two characters alone, Special A takes this category easily. Kotoko is a strong character and I like her morals and her romantic side, but Naoki is just frustrating, period. I don’t care if he’s supposed to be all love-love towards Kotoko later, ItaKiss is trying too hard to show the eventual change in Naoki’s personality. Even Yuu and Ikuto, to name some, started out slightly playful and flirtatious, or at least not so much of a jerk.

However, I might be coming down too hard on this character archetype; there was a similar backlash in the days of Makoto Itou and School Days still managed to be a standout show. (Then again, if Kotoko breaks out the boxcutters, that’s a bad sign.) Jerks do exist in real life and disliking shows that don’t fit the perfect word would be horribly escapist.

Still, Special A’s cast is strong, not just with the amusing delusions of the student council president and the comedy of the rest of the special seven, but also with the interaction between Hikari and Kei. Kei is wonderfully playful, riding that edge between the high-class king above it all, the knight-in-shining-armor romantic, and the plain fool in love. And Hikari is a character I can especially empathize with; her naivety when it comes to romantic is just plain adorable, and her drive to be number one in any challenge is one I’m far too familiar with. She’s a great character without even trying to tip the moe meter.

Round 3a: Can I Has a LOL?
Special A: Solid funny moments. The “ni-san (number two)” joke, while it landed with a dull thud for others, I found cute, perhaps because I enjoyed Tsuru Pettan (”Tsurupettan tte iu naa~”) and Da Capo (ni-san…or nii-san? The plot thickens). Additionally, there were other points of amusement, such as the rock-solid rice balls, Megumi’s voice, the antics of the student council president, and the physical representation of those bloody shoujo sparkles.

Itazura no Kiss: ItaKiss is more hit-and-miss. A lot of the gags I found either drawn out or kind of silly - Kotoko’s daydream about Naoki during the track race, for example, wasn’t too thrilling. Kin-chan’s stalker antics break the actual story too much to be amusing, and the parents are just annoying. There are some moments that made me smile, but not quite as much.

Round 3b: Awwww, not wwwwww
Itazura no Kiss: On the turnaround though, ItaKiss excels in the ‘mushy’ science of sweet or intriguing moments, compared to funny ones. Watching Kotoko in love, especially in her forlorn state, really stirs emotions, and her slap of Naoki in episode 3, while perhaps not as awe-inspiring as others have made it to be, was quite satisfying. As much as I hate Naoki I hope to smile a bit when he begins to finally admit his feelings for Kotoko. And hell, the summary says Show ▼

… now that’s something to look forward to.

Special A: Special A seems more episode-by-episode based, being more on the comedy side. While this can be said for ItaKiss too, where Naoki acts all tsuntsun at the beginning of the episode and by the end Kotoko has one-upped him, in Special A it’s even more apparent. Hikari and Kei face some challenge, and defeat it. If we’re lucky, we’ll get some vague form of relationship development, as shown in episode 3, but it’s not quite as quick moving as ItaKiss tries to be. Here, the burden lies on Hikari to possibly realize her feelings for Kei, as the one-way street is already moving in the opposite direction.

Advantage: Taking into terms both the sweet and the funny moments, it’s a lot harder to pick a clear winner. I’ll declare it a draw, mainly because each show specializes in one style and doesn’t do too shabbily in the other. ItaKiss has the potential to be incredible amounts of enjoyment as it’s got the touching moments lined up and ready to go, and if it can get its comedy in line to match it, it will be a great show. Likewise, if Special A can get serious without jumping off the edge into drama-land, it will be that much rewarding.

The roadblock for each show, I think, will be, like in most dramas or romances, how long they are willing to stall. I’m not talking fillers but I’m talking plain ol’ failed confessions. The manga Kare Kano jumped out of the gate quick, an advantage to it, while Cardcaptor Sakura hit one of its stumbling blocks by centering the main relationship around the story, relegating its conclusion to the very end of the anime.

I find romance anime more entertaining when they examine both sides of the relationship spectrum. There are many shows and there are great shows that examine the process of falling and being in love but seeing how two people interact when they are in an Actual Relationship is ten times as intriguing if done right. This is why I hope Special A and ItaKiss will not sit still for too long before kicking its romance story into gear; as nice as it is to see Kei and Kotoko go their lovestruck ways, it’s going to get old …
Lightning Round 2: Picking Only The Best Nits
Animation Quality
ItaKiss: Dated.
Special A: Skinny.
Advantage: Sorry, I just wanted to say what everyone else was thinking.

OP / ED Themes
ItaKiss: Solid opening and ending theme; the OP has nice animation while the ED just feels cheap. Watchable but not loop-worthy, overall.
Special A: On the meh-scale from 1 to 10 this gets a solid “ehhhhhhhhhh who cares”.
Advantage: ItaKiss, by a sizable amount. Special A knows what place it’s in. *giant rock falls from sky*

Glasses Girls
ItaKiss: None.
Special A: Nope.
Advantage: What is wrong with this picture!?

Overall:
Special A and ItaKiss is really a toss-up in terms of the best shoujo show this spring season (no, Junjou Romantica does not count, you fujoshi). It’s all about what you want to see in a show; like a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, Special A gets romance in its comedy and ItaKiss gets comedy in its romance.

ItaKiss, while very predictable - or at the least, dull - at the start with the annoying Naoki and the spacey Kotoko and miscellaneous story-breaking side characters, has a lot of potential to take off in the later episodes if it makes the right moves. From the sounds of the storyline it has the opportunity to explore what many anime don’t have the chance to explore, and that is the intrigue of a long-term relationship.

Meanwhile, Special A looks to be the more consistent if not static story, with solid humor and what hopes to be a semblance of plot and relationship. I doubt that much will happen overall in the show, but seeing the interactions between the characters - especially in what technically is the Kei-Hikari-Student Council triangle - should prove to be an enjoyable if not fluffy watch.

Since I like it more at the moment I’ll take Special A as my champion of the day, for more entertaining and empathetic characters and a more solid sense of comedy, however, as the VTEC plot kicks in yo, ItaKiss just might become the go-to show of the season.

Although, Special A already is a Goto show. Mi-mi-mirakuru-mikuru-run!

-CCY

(…no comment on that pun, although I have a strange urge to try to make a worse one now. Also, thanks Owen for fixing my blog.)

If you liked this post, try...

• May 10, 2008 -- Romantic Rematch! Toshokan Sensou challenges ItaKiss and Special A
• March 5, 2008 -- My Show Is Better Than Your Show, March Madness Edition
• February 2, 2008 -- Playing Catch-Up: The Alternate Universe Winter Season
• January 19, 2008 -- Looking Both Ways: The Fall Season Carryovers
• November 13, 2007 -- Gaze Into the Crystal Ball… (no, not the one with the stars on it)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 at 7:23 pm and is filed under Season Review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.