wat u say

No, it’s not a sequel to pure rouge, it’s just what I felt like the entire thing was. I’m not going to take back what I said about the early parts of the anime. It was bad. It was hard to watch really. If I were watching this as it aired, I probably would’ve dropped it around episode 5 or 6.

It seems like around episode 14 or so they started taking me up on my advice. It started to feel more like True Tears, people started overhearing and seeing things that caused some rather nice drama bombs. I’m not sure what I really expected from Kimi Kiss going in, but by the end I was kinda craving drama, and it sure delivered.

If you read my first impressions post, you might be able to tell, I’m getting rather tired of the childhood female friend moving in with the childhood male friend and both of them getting all flustered. At first, I was glad to see that Mao actually acted like an older sister, rather than falling prey to the usual stereotype of starting to fall for the guy she’s staying with. Now, that was all well and good, but then I found out what a fucking wimp both Kouichi and Hoshino were. I’m ever so tired of the blushing, barely able to talk to the opposite sex type of male lead, but I’m even more tired of the ‘oh I’m no good at all, oh if you’re ok with me, I guess I’ll come’ type of female love interest.

So, after all of that, and seeing more of Mao’s character, I actually started preferring Mao over Hoshino. Which was completely the opposite of what I was thinking when this anime first started. I was literally /facepalming multiple times per episode for those first 5 or 6 episodes, possibly even longer. But finally, things started to heat up, drama was happening.

I’m still pretty pissed that “I’m transferring schools” was the big secret of Hoshino’s. That was so freaking lame, but the way she said it, it sounded like she was going to die at the end of the month or something.

Oh well, at least the flip side to the story, Kazuki’s side, went a little better than I expected. I still was kinda ever so slightly hoping against the inevitable pairing with Futami, but in the end it did win out. At least Sakino got her kiss and got to stand proud instead of being burned and being sad.

Speaking of getting burned, I felt pretty bad for Kai. He really got the raw end of the deal there. Poor guy, Mao never really trusted him with anything and then she tells him that she’s breaking up with him. Ah well, at least he isn’t retarded like most of the rest of the cast.

So, Hoshino triggers her “I’m going to get dumped” flag inadvertently, by saying that she’s able to be more outgoing thanks to meeting everyone. Too bad Hoshino. I was actually still kinda guessing up until Kai finally talked to Kouichi. I figured it was going to be a Mao end, based on the fact that the second opening sequence (still the same song, but different visuals) changed to a lot more focus on Mao, but I still wasn’t entirely sold until Kai and Kouichi have their little talk.

Ah, yes, at least there was a bit of tsundere to reward my watching until the bitter end.

Ah well, overall, the series wasn’t too bad. But, it wasn’t really all that good either. It at least took a different spin on the ‘oh we’re living together and call each other brother/sister, but we’re really not,’ but in the end it was about those two getting together. It started out in a crawl, almost in reverse really, but it finally picked up speed around the middle. And then it started dropping drama bombs finally around the last quarter of the show. If it had started off dropping the drama bombs from the start, it might’ve been a bit better. Unfortunately, this is really just an overall average romance/drama anime. It didn’t really get me to feel for any of the characters, except for Sakino, and even then, it was just feeling bad, instead of feeling what she was feeling.

Really, it’s too bad, the anime had great animation, so much moe that I was overwhelmed just from the opening sequence, but in the end, it couldn’t really connect. The characters felt a bit flat and boring, it all seemed rather simple in the end. Even though I got the end I really wanted, it didn’t really feel all that great, it was more of just a relief that it’s over. I guess the search for more good romance/drama anime will have to continue.

EDIT: After cooling off for a bit, I think my problem with this show was really that it was too long. I’m used to my romance/drama shows being 12-13 episodes, so one that’s double the length just feels like it absolutely crawls. It really wasn’t that there was all that much filler, it’s just that it took forever for anything dramatic or interesting to happen. It wasn’t until episode 18 or 19 that things finally started hitting the fan. By then, I was tired of actually trying to care about the show and just wanted some juicy drama.

Also, naturally, the ending was too sudden and felt out of place. If Kimi Kiss had started out with more of a focus on Mao, it might’ve been better. In other words, if he had considered Mao a love interest for more than just the first episode, or if they had had some awkward confrontations in the house or something for a few episodes before moving on to Hoshino. I was facepalming anyway, at the awkwardness, may as well get some Mao progress in while they’re at it. The other option would be for Kouichi to have confessed an episode or two earlier, and then for them to have had to fight through their emotions a bit more until finally they got together. I mean, they sorta kinda did confess during the movie filming, but it was still just a bit off.

In the end, I still don’t think much better of the show. Even though Kouichi ended up with Mao, it’s not really all that satisfying. I just didn’t like Hoshino, so I didn’t want him to end up with her. But the way it progressed to the ending with Mao just didn’t work, as I said above.

The Kazuki side of the story also left me with a bittersweet taste, because really, the two girls in the show I liked the most were in the same love triangle, against each other.