Kotoko Aihara is a less then bright senior in high school. She has been helplessly in love with the schools top student, Naoki Irie since the beginning of high school. Kotoko finally musters up the courage to give him a letter confessing her feelings to Naoki but is instantly rejected in front of the school. That night her friends come to the brand new house her father built to celebrate the completion and to cheer her up after the rejection. The celebration comes to an abrupt end when a minor earthquake topples the home. On top of the embarasment of being publicly rejected by Naoki, Kotoko has to deal with the news that her house was the only one that collapsed in the earthquake. Her classmate and one sided love interest, Kinosuke Ikezawa tries to console and woo her, by starting a drive to raise money to help her and her dad. Naoki offers to pitch in but is refused out of frustration and pride by Kotoko. After school her dad informs her that they will be staying at her dads childhood friends house until they can rebuild. As fate would have it that childhood friend is Naoki Irie's father. Now she has no choice but to accept his charity and must deal with living under the same roof as the guy she has loved for so long now. Much to Naoki's irritation his mother instantly takes a liking to the hapless Kotoko and begins to plot them getting married. His younger brother Yuki shares his brothers disdain for the less than bright girl. Can Kotoko deal with living with the man who hates her and her own feelings for him? Will Kinosuke be able to persuade Kotoko to forget Naoki and marry him?
I originally watched the anime as it was airing in 2008 and really liked it. It's light hearted and reminded me of the other classic romantic comedies from the 80's; Maison Ikkoku, Touch, Ranma 1/2...etc. It was a welcomed change from the ever encroaching fan service laden love stories based on eroge. The anime also ended nicely and showed 8+ years of the characters lives. The manga, stated earlier, never ended due to the authors premature death. When the anime project was green lit the producers worked closely with Tada's husband to pen the ending that she was planning on. The manga, compiled into 12 tankoubon, is covered rather quickly in the first 15 episodes of the anime. The manga was OK...I actually prefer the anime adaptation better, not just because it was able to conclude the story. I was not a fan of the artwork and some story lines seemed to have been unnecessary and dragged on. The anime its self would have been better with being a bit longer though as it felt rushed. There are a few differences between both, but the anime was a relatively faithful reproduction of the manga...so since I wasn't treading on new territory or much in the way of expanded story much of the manga was boring to me. Don't get me wrong though, its still a really good story and I recommend it highly if you are a fan of romantic comedies. One thing that became starkly clear that didn't seem to be as impressive in the anime, was how much of an evil mother fucker Naoki is. He really is a bastard and treats Kotoko like shit through the entire thing...it's a wonder he was rated one of the worst boyfriend type characters by Anime News Network...the guy is nothing but condescending asshole.
Either way, pick it up if your are interested, or if you want to save time pick up the anime instead. If you read it, you can see the ending in the anime...plus about 9 more episodes of material after the fact, following the creators original intent. This is still a good series, nice an heart warming, funny and off beat with memorable characters...the character design is just a little odd, but I don't like to speak ill of the dead.
The manga has been released in North America by Digital Manga Publishing...I believe in its entirety...the anime has not sadly.
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