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Fun premise with some genuinely humorous and touching moments, but tries to cram too much story into too few episodes, severely undermining the character development and romance that should be two of the show's star attractions. Irie's characterization suffers most from the compression -- every show of affection comes off as random and perfunctory, seeming less like the result of his feelings for Kotoko than the show meeting a necessary benchmark so it can move on to the next phase of the Irie/Kotoko relationship. (Not surprisingly, Kotoko herself comes off as a bit of a doormat early on, given that she suffers so ... much abuse with so few rewards.) When your main couple is two people with opposite personalities who don't get along well at first, putting their relationship on fast forward is just a bad idea.

Still, there are good reasons to hang on till the end of Itakiss: the supporting cast is full of entertaining characters, the show has a great sense of humor when it's not being warped out of shape by time constraints, the art scheme manages to be old-fashioned without looking dated, and perhaps most importantly, the pacing and character development become much better around the halfway mark. That's crucial, because whenever Itakiss gets a little breathing room, it becomes more rich, more fun -- becomes, in effect, the charming romantic comedy it always had it in it to be. (Rather awkwardly, the show's potential is most apparent in the final episode, an amusing side story told in flashback that does nothing to advance the romantic plot.)

There are worse ways to fail than from an excess of ambition, and I find the second half of Itazura na Kiss more or less redeems its shaky start. It isn't always great, but it's never truly bad, and it gets better as it goes. If you like shoujo romance and can give a show the benefit of the doubt, give Itakiss a shot.

Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A's comes up a bit lacking compared to its predecessor, but is a solid continuation. Like the first Lyrical Nanoha series, A's boils down a fairly conventional mahou shoujo story arc (the heroines battle determined foes with sympathetic motivations but an ultimately destructive goal) into a single 13-episode season, while somehow leaving intact all the drama and character development one would expect to see in a series two or three times its length. (It's like mahou shoujo for people who don't have time for mahou shoujo.)

Nanoha and Fate work side-by-side in A's, but those who come in expecting the ... sequel to dwell on them may be slightly disappointed. The dramatic core of the series is a group of new characters, Hayate and the Velka Knights, and so much time is needed to develop their relationships and storyline that they sometimes take over the show. It doesn't make the series a whit less enjoyable because they ARE a legitimately interesting bunch (I especially like Vita and Signum). And even though the focus is on them, it doesn't mean other characters are totally on the back burner. Fate i particular has a nice moment late in the series dealing with her past, and her "warrior's camaraderie" with Signum is an agreeable development. Even though I was looking forward to more Nanoha in particular, I found I didn't mind the shift in focus that much.

What I DID mind -- though, the one thing that really bothered me about A's -- is that it just doesn't look as handsome as the first series. Not every episode of Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha was as smoothly animated as the first, but they were always well drawn and directed. There were small details that made the everyday sections feel authentic, and the battles always gave a sense of how devastatingly powerful Nanoha and Fate were, especially after the halfway mark. But I only rarely had the same sense in A's. Rest assured, the producers haven't resorted to stock animation attacks a la Sailormoon, but rarely is there the same sense of impact and urgency, or anything quite as awesome as Nanoha using Starlight Breaker for the first time. Still, the quality is consistently high, which means it looks better than a great many series out there. I don't know if the relative brevity of the series is a way of ensuring quality control (i.e., the budget isn't stretched thin by having to produce too many episodes), but there does still seem to be a commitment to putting out a good-looking show. (On a side note, though, do all the adult women seem to have smaller busts than in the first series?)

Overall, even if A's isn't as jaw-dropping as its predecessor, I'd still give it a hearty recommendation. With the third series -- Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS -- starting soon, now is an excellent time to watch A's if you haven't already. StrikerS will again introduce a number of new characters, which means that Supremely Competent Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha may once again not get as much time in front of the camera as one would expect. But that didn't make A's unwatchable by any means, so I suspect that even if that is the case, StrikerS will be worth a watch.