Itazura na Kiss

Itazura na Kiss has a very interesting premise where the story does not end once the main couple gets together, but continues throughout their lives together for a decade or so. Unfortunately, the idea of a good story ends there. The execution and the characters are terrible.

First of all, Kotoko and Irie are completely mismatched. She is a klutzy idiot, he is a stoic and cold genius completely devoid of all emotion. Kotoko reminded me too much of the Sailor Moon character and it made me dislike her even more. After they finish college and begin working, Irie becomes even less likable in his treatment of Kotoko. The writers try to excuse his behavior by him always being perfect in the past, which prevented him from feeling jealousy. Um, despite his personality, isn't he human too? But nevertheless, no matter how badly he treats her, she still forgives him and at the end they live happily ever after.

The little incidents during their married life, starting with their honey moon where a random woman tried to break them apart, do not fit into the story at all. They are episodic and have no impact on any of the major characters. None of them learn from those experiences and they continue behaving like nothing happened.

Overall, I found the series superficial, boring, and too cliche. There is no natural romance here, just a couple of mismatched characters who were forced to fall in love because the writers decided so.

Hana Yori Dango (live action)

I didn't find anything likable about the live action version of Hana Yori Dango. I didn't like the acting at all. The actors tried to act like anime characters with exaggerated mannerisms and conversations. It looked really stupid for normal people to behave that way.

The love story is extremely superficial and uninspiring. There is no chemistry between Tsukasa and Makino. It seems that they fell in love because the scrip said so. What happened to the passion and heart wrenching confessions? Even their bickering doesn't look convincing. Tsukasa's and Rui's characters are almost completely switched around. It wasn't Tsukasa who comes to Makino's rescue anymore, but Rui. And instead of being emotionally unavailable, he is turned into a warm and caring guy.

A lot of important parts of the story are taken out, most of which are where Tsukasa comes to Makino's rescue. There are only two scenes where he actually helps her. The first was combined with Sakurako's and Junpei's incident. And the snowstorm rescue is absolutely ridiculous. The writers suddenly decide to create their own plot where Tsukasa loses his memory of Makino (only) and throw in the annoying character of Umi for a few episodes who suddenly falls in love with Tsukasa after knowing him for what...one day? She sends Makino to look for Yuki in the snow storm. Tsukasa rushes to her rescue while still having amnesia, because their bond is supposedly that strong. Talk about the overdose of cheese and cliches. The ridiculous character of Umi has absolutely no place in the series, why didn't the writers stick to the original idea that made a whole more sense?

The girls getting slapped around is beyond disgusting. It didn't look good in the anime, it looked even dumber in the live action. Tsukasa constantly slaps and pushes everyone around him. He was noticeably violent in the anime, here he is just disgustingly annoying. I was actually hoping that Makino would dump him and go with Rui.

Hana Yori Dango (anime)

To me the best thing about Hana Yori Dango is the love story. There is a great chemistry between Makino and Doumyoji (Tsukasa) and their personalities seem to mesh well. But I didn't fully like any of the major characters.

My biggest problem with shojou genre is the lack of strong female leads, but Makino showed great promise at the beginning. She is not needy, winy and clingy like many of the other shojou girls. She is strong, she fights back the bullies and stands up to the F4. But as the story progresses she shows a different side of her personality. I found her to be generally flaky and ungrateful. Even though she acknowledges everything that Tsukasa has done for her, she doesn't seem to ever appreciate it. She continues chasing after Rui for half of the show, and leading Tsukasa on. It only takes the entire series for her to finally realize whom she is in love with, and she doesn't even confess it at the end. Her reasoning is immature for the most part and it's really unclear why she would not accept her feelings for Tsukasa, even though it is pretty obvious that she is in love with him. It seems like the writers needed a reason to keep them apart, which made their actions seem forced.

I don't really know why Rui and Tsukasa ever became friends. They are absolutely different and the writers never really gave them any balance. Rui is too cold and emotionally detached. His mind always wanders and I cannot think of one reason why Makino would ever like him. Tsukasa is too easily excitable, violent and boorish. But I like Tsukasa. He is the only one who matured in the series. Even though he starts out as a jerk, he learns love and acts genuine and generous towards Makino. Later on he changes from a jerk to literally a life savior.

My biggest problem with the show is the continuous violence against women. Girls at school constantly get slapped for every little thing. When Tsukasa's older sister slaps him around it looks funny, but when Tsukasa does the same to girls, it looks ugly. The writers overdid it to such an extent that it just became disgusting.

Bokura ga Ita

Bokura ga Ita has one of the best dramatic story lines I've seen among the shoujo genre. The conversations between the characters and their inner thoughts are a great combination to make the story line unfold naturally. The characters are extremely well developed and realistic. I think they are a bit too realistic for the high school theme and the drama part is a bit too mature, but nevertheless, it is still very enjoyable.

Perhaps I am biased when it comes to these types of stories, but I usually do not like the female characters in them. And I wasn't very impressed with the character of Takahashi. She is too needy, clingy, and insecure. But as the story develops, I get to understand her flaws more and I actually sympathize with her, because she is trying to deal with Yano's past and his emotional baggage. Their romance is a bit of a cliche, where a clumsy and awkward girl falls in love with a popular guy, but the story of his past brings new twist to it.

Takeuchi is my favorite character. But I feel like his presence is generally irrelevant to the entire series. The writers attempted to created a love triangle, but it never really became one. I wish his relationship with Takahashi would've been more complex. Since the series took on a more serious and lifelike approach, I think it would've been better for Takahashi to stay with him at the end. Yano is too complex of a character and as Take said, a relationship that is full of emotional hardships needs to be ended. And that is how I felt about Yano and Nana. If feels that no matter how much that tried, they never really meant to be together.

The ending itself leaves a lot to the imagination. Almost every character's future is unclear. I wish there would've been more closure and certainty. But perhaps, there will be a sequel to clarify all of that. At least I hope for one.

Lovely Complex

I don't usually watch anime about high school romance, but I really liked the premise of Lovely Complex. There is nothing special about it - a boy and a girl are high school friends who always argue but later realize they like each other. Seems generic enough, doesn't it? Except for the fact that she is 14 centimeters taller than him. A love affair between a "midget" and an "amazon. *gasp*

I liked the fact that the writers really gave them a reason to be friends. Even though they constantly bicker, they like all the same things and enjoy doing them together. The first half was fun and interesting as Raza was slowly realizing that she had the hots for Otani. And Otani was blisfully oblivious, but not completely emotionally detached.

Unfortunatelly, after Raza confessed her feelings, the story started spiraling down. She turned into a love obsessed puppy chasing after Otani and crying in every episode that he was not returning her feelings. Otani turned into somewhat of a jerk who couldn't make up his mind about Raza. Even after he realized he liked her and they became a couple, they didn't even act like one. He seemed to be much nicer to Raza before the whole romantic drama started. I didn't like the fact that he was constantly smacking her and telling her that she has to work hard to make him love her. I didn't know whether to feel sorry for Raza or to be mad at her for acting so pathetic towards a guy who didn't even seem like he cared much about her.

Some of the characters I found pointless, like Haruka, who would have been much more likable if he created a love triangle between him Raza and Otani and made Otani sweat. The little cute girl who ended up to be a boy was a bit of an overkill.

Full Metal Alchemist

After reading so many positive reviews about Full Metal Alchemist, I did not see what the big deal was at the very beginning. It starts out a bit slow and follows the same routine just like any other anime of the genre. Ed and Al are two brothers who search for a mysterious Philosopher's Stone and help other folks along the way. At the very beginning there is plenty of action and humor, but the story starts to really develop after about 15-20 episodes. What starts out as a generic action/comedy, turns into something a lot bigger than that.

Every episode develops the story further on. Every single character is significant to the plot, even the ones from the very first episode. The story is a lot more than just searching for the powerful artifact, it tests human character and resolve to survive. And most of those characters change and grow as the story progresses. Full Metal Alchemist is so craftily put together, that I didn't even feel like I was watching a cartoon, but someone's life unfold. It is wonderful story, characters, setting, plot twists. I cannot think of any faults, maybe except for a bit of a slow start.

The story of Ed and Al is one of the most tragic ones I've ever seen. The relationship between the brothers is both comical and endearing, and the song "Brothers" (which is sung in Russian) made their story so much more heartbreaking. For them it wasn't just a journey to reclaim their bodies, but also the loss of innocence and childhood, and "Brothers" hits it right on the nail.

Trinity Blood

I have a lot of mixed feelings about Trinity Blood. Even though there are a lot of very visible flaws, I still liked the series. The story takes place in a futuristic, post-apocalyptic world were the Vatican rages a war against the vampires. It is a combination of mecha mixed with a Gothic fantasy. Such variety should've produced a fairly interesting plot, but unfortunately, Trinity Blood borrows too much from other anime with the same overused characters as everywhere else.

Abel is almost identical to Vash from Trigun - a gentle blubber mouth, who hides a dark side below a friendly exterior. He is always broke, tends to act silly, but then he turns into a terrifying monster with god-like powers. And just like Vash, he has the polar opposite brother-like nemesis, who is conveniently named Cain.

Besides coping from other anime series, Trinity Blood lacks a well developed story line. Is it about vampires and humans trying to co-exist, or Abel's personal struggles? The series doesn't seem to be episodic on purpose, but there is very little focus and it jumps between the characters without any visible purpose. The ending takes the series a full circle. It seems like Trinity Blood didn't really accomplish anything, because it ends right where it begins. There is absolutely no plot progression of any kind. It's full 24 episodes of none stop action, nuns with big racks and space ships, very flashy animation and very little story line. It's not that the writers didn't know how to write a good story, I really liked the development between Esther and Ion and many of the real historical references gave it an edge, they just seemed to have problems with focus and closure.

After listing to so many negative aspects of the show, one would ask: why do I still like it? Simple, I found the premise and characters very interesting despite the lack of development and copycat ideas. With better writing, Trinity Blood could have been turned into a fully blown saga of apocalyptic proportions. And so many plot twists should've been made into a lot more than just a mere 24 episodes with a huge window for a sequel. The only possible redemption for the series is a long sequel with a more centralized story line. It looks more like a clumsily put-together prologue to something bigger, than anything else.