Review: Kimagure Orange Road TV & OVA
There are no spoilers in this review, since it’s intended for those who are interested in picking up this series. For my thoughts on the ending, check my “impressions” threads. This review covers the TV series and the OVA packages, and is written before I begin the final movies, so I am reviewing these solely on their own merit.
Kimagure Orange Road is often touted as one of the “classic romance duo”, the other being Maison Ikkoku (Edit: After watching Touch, I must say that Touch is the rightful counterpart to Maison Ikkoku in this regard). My other blog posts should indicate that Maison Ikkoku, despite having several flaws which were highly visible at times, became one of my favourite anime, and that was due mostly to a strong attachment to the characters, causing a very deep investment in their growth and development. That is one of the most important factors which affect whether I enjoy an anime of this genre or not – the other one is a lack of shallowness. I like to think that what I’m watching is meaningful.
So how does Kimagure Orange Road stack up on those two factors? First – the characters and character development. On that front, Kimagure Orange Road does well. I typically do not continue watching an anime if I don’t like or feel any attachment to the characters. This obviously is not the case for Kimagure Orange Road. The characters are likeable and you can sympathize with them, especially the lead pair. Remember that this is essentially a story about a love triangle, which usually bring to mind shallow soap operas, but KOR doesn’t descend to that level. The three main characters are all good friends, and it is the desire to not shatter that friendship which keeps the group in the limbo which takes up the entire series. With that being said, the main character, Kyosuke, isn’t perfect, and sometimes his behaviour feels a little too juvenile – expected, of course, considering the target audience. And what matters is that in the end, he didn’t cross any line to make me have any unforgivable distaste for the character. The most captivating character, however, is definitely Madoka, pictured above. Although at the beginning of the story, there are jarring divergences in her personality and behavior between scenes, the general image of who she is becomes solidified shortly, and we sympathize with the position she finds herself in.
As for character development, unfortunately, I must bring up a comparison to Maison Ikkoku. Maison Ikkoku was wonderful in this regard because it was so long – yet the character and story development felt very tight. There are several significant moments of growth, and the entire 96-episode series is like a long journey towards the final resolution because of that. KOR isn’t the same kind of series, which would be expected due to its length and scope, but the lack of character growth becomes frustrating. For long stretches of time there may be little relationship or character change at all. That’s not to say Maison Ikkoku wasn’t episodic at times, but it’s strong emphasis on gradual character development made it less noticeable. Kimagure Orange Road features a lot of episodes which are all basically drawn from a similar formula. In fact, some plot lines are even repeated in a very similar fashion throughout the series’ many episodes. It was a bit longer than it should have been.
However, you do find many dramatic, satisfying moments scattered throughout the series. I should mention, at this point, that there is another aspect to this story than the romantic plot – the main character and his family have psychic powers. Strangely, although I was expecting the worst, it never really detracts from the series’ realistic, human plot, and only a few times does it become excessive in its presence. And indeed, it also contributes quite positively to the ending, which, although it isn’t bells-and-whistles perfect is it’s execution, has the sincerity and charm that a finale should have. However, the plot is not resolved by the end of the television series – that is left, apparently, up to the final movies, and which will be covered in a later review, once I have finished them.
Now, apart from the television series, there is also a set of eight OVA episodes which were released after the show had ended, to provide more KOR content to hungry fans (as well as provide more money to the hungry producers). Unfortunately, in my opinion, this isn’t really a significant collection of episodes. Mostly it is a group of episodic side-stories involving the characters in various different situations involving a misuse of Kyosuke’s powers, or a side character. In other words, it’s meant for KOR fans who want to see more “adventures” with the cast, but it doesn’t really have any significant milestones for the plot or character development. The one exception, however, may be the final OVA episode, “Message in Rouge”. In this episode, Madoka has to confront the idea of her father being unfaithful. It is a subtle and poignant, though I would recommend that it be viewed before the final 2 episodes of the TV series, which round of the “TV” portion of the series very well in preparation for the concluding films.
As for the technical details….the background music is adequate, but not really as exemplary as Honey and Clover or certain parts of Maison Ikkoku. There were, though, several pieces which I enjoyed, such as Madoka’s saxophone-and-strings theme (which I posted on this blog). The songs – well, I didn’t grow as fond of any of the opening or closing themes as I did with Kanashimi yo Konnichiwa from Maison Ikkoku, but the first two opening songs were enjoyable and had a very youthful and nostalgic quality to them, very fitting for the show. The voice acting was quite good, all the characters were given a great sense of personality by their characters, and Madoka’s voice actor deserves credit for giving her such warmth and complexity. The animation is expectedly dated, as it is an old series, but, like in Maison Ikkoku, you really don’t notice it after a few episodes. It certainly doesn’t compromise the character designs – as in my earlier post, I still really like Madoka’s character design, which gives off a very gentle aura, and is relatively simple.
So what is my final opinion of this series? First, we have to look at it in context – this was a very early anime, and aired before most of the series in this genre that we are familiar with. A lot of people might say that it contains certain cliches or typical behaviours, but that isn’t really a fair statement when you evaluate it in context. But, of course, context only gets one so far in terms of enjoying a series. In the end I have to make an absolute statement of whether I think this is a good series, a worthwhile story to become involved with. My answer to that is “yes”. Despite the faults that I have harped on above, I am glad that I invested the time in this series.
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