Itazura na Kiss (イタズラな) is a 25 episode slice of life romance anime based on the manga of the same name by Tada Kaoru. The anime originally aired during the Spring and Summer of 2006.
The story begins with the senior year of high school for Aihara Kotoko. Kotoko lives alone with her father, a restaurant owner, her mother died when she was young. She isn’t the brightest bulb in the pack but she is kind hearted and honest. Since entering high school she has been madly in love with the top student of her class, the venerable Irie Naoki. She instantly fell in love with him while he was giving the speech for their class during the opening ceremonies and has only been drawn to him since. In the beginning of her senior year she finally gathers up enough courage to confess to him with a love letter. He outright refuses the letter and tells her he has absolutely no interest in stupid girls. Heart broken, and in despair, her friends decide to cheer her up and have a party at her new house, which her father built by hand. One of her friends at the party, Kinnosuke, has been vocally in love with Kotoko since the beginning of school; almost to the point were some people think they are actually dating. In a fit of love fueled rage he goes off about his love for her and how wretched of a person Irie is. He begins to bang his head against a support beam in frustration and the house begins to shake. Everyone escapes to the street before the entire thing comes down due to an earthquake, everyone except for Kotoko’s father. As they scramble to find him in the rubble they discover that Kotoko’s mothers alter saved him from certain doom. They are safe, but homeless, due to the shoddy construction.
At school everyone hears about how the girl from the remedial class lost her home the previous night during the low grade earth quake, one which barely disturbed anyone else in town. Her friends start a fund drive to help her and her dad out. When Naoki offers some cash in a snide manner. Kotoko rejects his money and tells him off, saying she doesn’t need his charity. That evening her father tells her that he ran into his childhood friend and they will be staying with them until they find a place to live. They head off to their new temporary home with her fathers childhood friend, who lives in a high end part of town. Her fathers friend and his wife greet them enthusiastically and welcome them into their home. They introduce the first of their two children, the young Yuki. When they introduce their other son Kotoko’s jaw hits the floor, it is none other than Naoki, the man who she was rejected by and who’s help she outright rejected. Now, faced with no other option, she must live under the same room as the man she both desires and despises.
Normally, you would think this would be the end of the story progression and the rest of the series would be her adjusting to living with Naoki ,while trying to win his heart. That is actually not true, we follow the characters through many years of life, high school, college and beyond.
High school ends and Kotoko finds herself still under the same roof as Naoki. Not only is he cold and mean to her but his younger brother is as well. Her parents, on the other hand, absolutely adore her and Mrs. Irie is trying her hardest to make sure that Kotoko and Naoki get married. In an attempt to prove Irie wrong about her intelligence, Kotoko studies her brains out in order to get accepted into a community college. As Kotoko makes it into college Irie announces, to every ones surprise that he will be attending the same college. Meanwhile Kinnosuke has vowed to become the man Kotoko needs and begins training under her father, with the hopes of taking over the restaurant for him.
In college Naoki begins to show uncertainty, he has no idea what he wants to do with his life. His father wants him to take over his company, but he isn't sold on the idea. During this time Yuki ends up in the hospital and while the family visits him they meet a young boy who is chronically ill named Nobuhiro. One night while heading home from the hospital, Kotoko convinces Naoki that he should become a doctor, because she knows he is smart enough to find a cure for children like Nobuhiro. In a surprising move Naoki follows her advice and chooses to become a doctor, much to his fathers’ dismay. Mr. Naoki suffers a heart attack from the shocking news and during his hospital stay his employers try to set up an arranged marriage between Naoki and the daughter of one of the companies European partners. Naoki agrees to the meeting and soon jealousy and rivalries flare. Kinnosuke sees this as his golden opportunity. Kotoko, believing that Naoki is truly lost to the English girl Chris, decides to go out with Kinnosuke. In a whirlwind of emotions between Naoki, Kotoko, Kinnosuke and Chris everyone’s true feelings come out, will Kotoko ever get her happily ever after?
Ok, so I went through a good chunk of the story, which is fine, there is so much more than this overview I have provided and I didn’t really spoil anything, plus this stuff takes up the first half of the series. The series is 25 episodes, but the final episode, that wraps everything up and puts a nice tidy bow on is episode 24, 25 is just a nice, last chance, to spend time with these characters.
When I first began watching this series I was over joyed, it seemed like a return to the classic romantic comedies of the late 80’s and early 90’s. It was nice to see that these kinds of stories were still being made, and then I found out the reason for the resemblance was that the manga began in the early 90’s. The character design and back ground art is nothing to write home about, but it doesn’t need to be. The characters were modernized compared to the look in the original source material. You can see that style in the eye catch but it was nice that they updated it. They also updated some of the elements of the story as well, such as cell phones. The art isn’t what this anime is about, it’s the story. While the story is rushed at times, the manga ran for a decade or so, the story is still well written and easy to follow. This is a prime example of the classic romantic comedy. Yet unlike most, this one actually progresses time and show more than most.
While the typical romantic story which follows the chase for the love of another and ends with the love being captured is all nice, it is much nicer to show beyond that, to show resolution and continuation. I especially enjoyed that with the manga for Suzuka. This anime continues with that kind of idea as well, following the characters through close to 10 years of their lives as they grow, change and live. Some of the characters get pushed off to the side as time progresses, like Kotoko’s childhood friends, only to pop up in short cameos later, but that is fine, the real story is about Kotoko and Naoki. It was only slightly bitter sweet to say good bye to these characters but not due to not caring for them, it was more due to the end of the story being very satisfying. It will be sad to not spend time with them anymore, but I couldn’t ask for more from the anime, it did what it had to do and it did it well. Know I will begin reading more of the manga so I can see what was skipped and glossed over with the rapid story telling of the anime. It would have been nice to have this series be stretched out to at least three or four seasons, but they did a good job with just two seasons. So, if you are a fan of romantic comedies or just plain romances, this is a great series that isn’t filled with all the high school stupidity. It’s pretty realistic in it’s representation of relationship woes and troubles but sometimes you do just want to yell and smack the characters and tell them to wake up.
UPDATE: As of September 2023 this anime has been made commercially available in English. It is currently streaming on Hulu in North America The 2013/2014 live action series' are available on Crunchyroll. The manga is also available in English.
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