Marmalade Boy

When Miki Koishikawa welcomes her parents home from their trip to Hawaii, the last thing she expects is for them to gleefully announce that they are getting a divorce. To her shock, they plan to switch partners with another couple they met on vacation. Barely able to keep her emotions in check, Miki begrudgingly attends dinner to meet the other couple and their strikingly handsome son, Yuu Matsuura.

After moving into a spacious house with her newly blended family, Miki struggles to adjust to her new lifestyle and her blooming feelings for Yuu. She attempts to navigate the coming school year with the help of her best friend, Meiko Akizuki, who is hiding a scandalous relationship of her own. However, the road ahead is not simple, as both Miki and Yuu have other potential suitors and emotional baggage from their pasts they are reluctant to reveal.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Koishikawa, Miki Main

Kouda, Mariko Japanese

Matsuura, Yuu Main

Okiayu, Ryoutarou Japanese

Akizuki, Meiko Supporting

Yamazaki, Wakana Japanese

Miwa, Satoshi Supporting

Oota, Shinichirou Japanese

Tsuchiya, Kei Supporting

Ishida, Akira Japanese

Suzuki, Arimi Supporting

Hisakawa, Aya Japanese

Suou, Ginta Supporting

Kanemaru, Junichi Japanese

Namura, Shinichi Supporting

Furuya, Toru Japanese

Grant, Michael Supporting

Midorikawa, Hikaru Japanese

Rokutanda, Tsutomu Supporting

Tanaka, Kazunari Japanese

Yabe, Akinori Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Watanabe, Kenichirou Episode Director

Yamayoshi, Yasuo Episode Director, Storyboard

Umezawa, Atsutoshi Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Oct 13, 2010

Hias

Recommended

Shoujo stories honestly are very hit or miss with me, and not just because I'm a guy! But they tend to be much too sweet, too fluffy and indulgent for it's own good. Catering to the daydream love fantasies of both young girls and middle aged women alike, I heard the name Marmalade Boy for a few years, and even considered picking it up at one point when I read an article about the series on another site. But a critical opinion of the show, given to me by a friend made me lose any interest in pursuing this one.

About 2 years later, I took ... the plunge and decided to give an actual try...and I think it's safe to say that I'm glad I did. Marmalade Boy is a classic shoujo series from the 90's, and it's influence is probably seen in just about every other shoujo manga ever since. There are love triangles galore, angst, hormones, crying, everything you'd expect from a show like this! But what makes MB stand out is the fact that it plays out like a Soap-Opera-- In that it's twist come at such fierce speed that you can't help but go"Wait...what?", and boy is like crack. MB turned out to be one of the most addicting animes that I've seen in quite some time, you can never really comprehend how or why the melodramatic 'drama' entices you so to keep on going.

Miki Koishikawa is your average highschool girl, aside from being rather at first embarrassed by her parents' eccentric and illogical behavior by switching spouses from another couple, then all together moving into one big house, bringing daughter Miki and son(from the second couple of course) Yuu with them. Miki and Yuu soon fall in love together though, and their relationship is challenged and manipulated many times by jealous ex's. There will not be a single moment where you don't think"Why are some of these kids so damn selfish?", but then you realize that that's the point of MB in the first place. It's about young men and women falling in love for the first time, and acting on their emotions, not logic. What makes MB work is that it's so addicting in it's own indulgent little way, but at the same time it shows an innocent and honest side to the human heart.

The animation and art can be an acquired taste-- this is an anime from 1994, and it shows by rearing it's low budget head pretty often, but it's quite manageable once you get used to it. The ost also fares well, my only complaint regarding it is that they use/reuse/remix the main theme way too many times, making the song too tedious to listen to outside of watching. Regardless, I have to say that the final ending theme("Yoake no Etude") really complimented on the events of the final half.

While I may have have enjoyed it quite a bit, like all shoujo-- It's probably not for everyone, especially people who nitpick and complain about as many illogical fallacies they can find in a show. Because frankly, there will be too many to really even count. The best example would have to be the New York City arc that pops up during the 3rd quater of the anime. These kids will infuriate you, baffle you and annoy you at how stupid they can act by being so self-absorbed. But like I said earlier, MB continued to hold a charm that kept me from losing my composure. It may sound like it's not even worth a shot, but in an odd way, it's still worth plowing through.

MB really was a wild ride in the end, so much that after the final episode was complete, and the final credits rolled, I couldn't help myself but feel saddened that I had to say goodbye to this cast of folk that I soon found myself attached to. And I'm confident to tell you guys that I thought the ending tightened up all the loose ends we wanted tightened by the end, so no annoying cliffhangers.

While the final arc can get pretty twisted, and the irrational behavior will baffle some people. I also believe that it's fantastic as it still provides a lovable cast, and shows us a very sweet and sincere look at growing, learning and falling in love with someone you want to spend the rest of your life with. With an open mind, and despite some of it's issues with the wonky mindsets, MB is a very enjoyable watch for both women and men.

And certainly one that'll go down in my books as one of my personal favorites.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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May 24, 2010

LolaStarr

Mixed Feelings

I enjoyed this anime for the first 20-30 episodes, however after that I felt it went downhill. The story line was repetitive and unimaginative, the silly twist at the end, which turns out not to be a twist, seemed like a pointless desperate attempt to salvage what was left of the plot. The characters experience that same problems over and over again, without any change or development. At first I found the characters lovable and amusing, but as the anime progresses, they become more and more tired and frustrating. I unfortunately couldn't find many subbed episodes, and I'm not a massive fan of Michelle Ruff's ... voice acting, so that was off putting. The art work wasn't the style I'm interested in, however I loved the tennis scenes, and thought the art in those moments was superb. I only finished this anime, because after all that time spent watching it, I didn't want to leave it up in the air. However it is predictable and boring. I had hoped for a little more energy and variation.

Overall, not an anime I would recommend.

Edit: I wasn't a huge fan of the soundtrack, it sounded like the jingly tunes you hear in the background of a childrens tv show... saying that however, there were 3 songs, I absolutely adored and now have on my ipod. So I did gain something from this anime.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Aug 24, 2009

Bishounen_Hunter

Not Recommended

For a lot of people when they think “shoujo” they think of Full Moon wo Sagashite, Boys Over Flowers, Fruits Basket and of course, Marmalade Boy. That's why I picked the title.....Buuuuuuuuut while I DO love shoujo but I could barely tolerate Marmalade Boy mainly there is too much unnecessary angst and most of the drama is self-inflicted. This show did not touch me neither on an emotional nor intellectual level.
It has a very dated look, very 80's with flat coloring as well as stiff unnatural movements that's predictably associated with anime from that era.
Out of the whole series I the song I loved most ... was MOMENT, even though it's completely overused in the series. I dunno, something about the xylophone and that 80's base beat really worked for me. I include it on every anime playlist I make for my iPOD. The SAYONARA song was a little too melodramatic for me, sorry.
The whole series is melodramatic, with all the terrible music and dramatic lighting, exaggerated posings, let's not forget the constant crying and running down endless flights of stairs....EGAD! For me this show is too much like a daytime soap opera they could call it “As Miki Turns” seriously someone give that girl some Klonopin or Lexapro because she is just too anxious it's kind of annoying. The story has no real plot just people falling in love with each other, over and over again and thenmore people show up to form love triangles, love squares and love polygons...after a while it all becomes a bit tedious. The only really interesting story would be Mako and Nao-Chan, the student-teacher relationship.
The character design is terrible, the faces are OK but body-wise they're a hot mess....A HOT MESS!!! It's like they took silhouettes intended for high fashion design and tried to make it work for anime. Um, can we say FAIL boys and girls? Everyone's hips were too narrow and combined with those matchstick-like legs that moved awkwardly a lot of the time they walked and posed like their thighs were fused together. The girls' torsos seemed fine and acceptable by anime standards but the boys' shoulders and torsos on the other hand were very broad [sometimes the width of about 3 heads] and yet there is no muscle mass or even any kind of definition they are just abnormally larger “skeletally” than the girls. Things get worse when you look at an actual adult male in the series, they look even more freakishly larger and disproportionate in relation to the school kids.
I own it but I can't re-watch it. Miki brings too much unnecessary anxiety upon herself, every minute the guy is gone she thinks he's cheating on her or forgotten about her or dead....it's annoying. She's the kind of person that could potentially become a stalker. Personally, I would recommend Boys over Flowers or Full Moon wo Sagashite over Marmalade Boy any day.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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