I’ve been taking a trip down memory lane these past few weeks, trawling through my DVD collection, title by title, revisiting old favorites. After finishing Onegai Twins last week, I moved on to I My Me! Strawberry Eggs, an always easy show to rewatch due to its short length and light subject matter (if you think cross-dressing teachers falling in love with their adolescent students is light, that is). Now, however, I’m digesting something a bit meatier (and with less cross-dressing), that being both seasons of Ai Yori Aoshi.
Now, Ai Yori Aoshi isn’t exactly high art, I’ll admit, but I’ve always been a big fan of the show and have long considered it to be one of the better entries in the harem genre to come out of Japan in recent years. And, yes, unlike some Ai Yori Aoshi fans, I’m willing to label the show as “harem”, even it does turn a lot of the standard conventions of the genre on their head. In my opinion, there are two camps of Ai Yori Aoshi fans: those who love the harem and those who hate it. Of course, there are those who fall squarely in the middle as well, but discussions about the show amongst fans inevitably dissolve to this particular point of contention. It’s kind of funny how the same argument plays out again and again…
And, of course, who am I to resist putting my two cents in?
Without a doubt, you can count me among those fans who love the harem. However, I’ll admit to being sympathetic to those who feel otherwise. Aoi and Kaoru make a fine couple, indeed, and I can definitely understand why a hardcore shipper would find the presence of Kaoru’s harem an annoyance. I’ve heard the, “If only the entire show was like the first four episodes [in which Aoi and Kaoru play house],” lament time and time again. It’s a legitimate complaint. After all, those first four episodes are quite lovely. They’d make for a great OAV series. Unfortunately, Ai Yori Aoshi is a 36 episode TV series, adapted from a long running manga. I don’t think I’d be able to put up with Aoi and Kaoru gazing passionately into each other’s eyes for that long.
Thus, enter the harem. Without it, there’d be no show. For that reason alone, I think it deserves some level of acceptance. And, thankfully, it’s a fairly passive harem as far as harems go. The girls don’t jump Kaoru’s bones at every opportunity. In fact, they almost seem to implicitly recognize that he’s off-limits (a woman’s intuition?), and instead keep watch from a safe distance. What’s more, it’s a friendly harem. Pissing matches between Tina and Mayu notwithstanding, the girls get on well with each other. There’s little competition for Kaoru’s attention, and Kaoru responds by treating each girl equally. He’s nice, they’re nice, everyone’s nice. They’re one big, happy family.
Which is, ultimately, the point of the entire show. Unfortunately, it’s a point that’s lost on a lot of fans, who can only see a harem for a harem, and not much else. And that’s odd, seeing as the theme of “family” is such a constant in the show. In fact, I’d go so far as to say it is the show’s primary theme… and, without the harem, it’s a theme that couldn’t have been explored.
Ai Yori Aoshi without the harem wouldn’t be Ai Yori Aoshi at all.
Ai yori Aoshi was one of the first anime I watched, and it has always ranked higher in my esteem than I thought it deserved. But maybe it does deserve it. Anyway, although the romantic first episodes were the highlight of the show for me, too, I liked pretty well all members of the harem, as well. It was only as I gradually learned various seiyuu by name that I realized there were reasons why the voices worked so well: Kawasumi Ayako, Yukino Satsuki, Mizuhashi Kaori, and Momoi Halko, to name four.
How is AiAo “recent’? It’s 5 years old now. To me it’s really a Love-Hina era show and is perhaps one of the better examples of the harem genre.
Harem shows have been around for awhile… I’d consider it “recent” in the grand scheme of things. Five years (three and a half, if you count from the second season) isn’t all that long ago, relatively speaking.
And, yeah, the show features some great seiyuu talent. I was going to say it was Momoi Halko’s first big role, but I guess her work on SoulTaker came first.
Remember the Ayako Doctrine.
AiAo is a pretty nice and enjoyable show, although I still couldn’t finish the second season, which was really boring and lame, and trust me, I have a high threshold for lameness.
Well, people either get the harem or not. For me, harem shows are pretty much a guilty pleasure for me, as I probably know all the cliches and possible plot devices already, yet still, it’s just fun to watch for the sake of laughs.
Ai Yori Aoshi was one of those shows that I picked up and marathoned very easily without really being able to say why. It’s slow and nothing really seems to stand out, but it’s just really fun/relaxing to watch :P. I guess it could be called a harem series, but I always considered it much more of a slice of life.
“Ai Yori Aoshi is a 36 episode TV series, adapted from a long running manga. I don’t think I’d be able to put up with Aoi and Kaoru gazing passionately into each other’s eyes for that long.”
I would ^^;
To each his own, I guess
One big happy family you say? Harem, slice of life, 36 episodes, friendly, nice.. Hmm, hard to see anything bad in that, so I’ll just háve to watch it. Is there some kind of romance in it perhaps? Or a little tension here and there? Are they all really shy etc…
To say the elast of all.
Jasper
I too get kind of annoyed by the “I loved the first four episodes” type of people. I guess they only liked the first two episodes of KimiNozo as well before that series finally took off in the direction it went. *shrugs*
I’m willing to label Ai Yori Aoshi as harem, myself, because it is one, but as you said, it is different in that there is basically never any doubt about who the male lead will choose. Also, Ai Yori Aoshi seems more romance driven than most harems (which seem to be comedy based. Not that Ai Yori Aoshi has any shortage of comedy either).
In a way, Ai Yori Aoshi is the anti-School Days (not that anything is wrong with that series either).
I’d never really thought of the “family” theme being as central as you laid it out to be here, but it certainly makes sense from how you wrote about it.
I rather hesitate to comment, since our tastes seem to have so few overlaps, and it really is a matter of taste.
I guess I’m a “it would have been a fine four-episode OAV” person. It could have gone beyond that to more episodes, but it would be a challenging series to make — ideally, you wouldn’t have 12-36 episodes of Aoi and Kaoru making goo-goo eyes, you’d have them struggling to make a life together — Aoi dealing with the reality of the poverty her choice has plunged her into, for example; Kaoru coming to terms with being able to trust and open up to another. This series was quite refreshing in the way its central couple recognized and acknowledged their feelings for one another from the start. So many series conclude with that recognition, but really, that’s when the relationship gets most…. interesting and challenging.
It would be a very different series, then, but I think it could have been a wonderful series, if done well. But I don’t want to criticize the series for not living up to my hopes for it.
The fang! Fear the fang!!!
I keep holding out for a third season; the second season was okay, but the series really needs some closure.
For the last couple weeks I’ve been debating rewatching either this or Card Captor Sakura (well, the debate is what to watch FIRST). CCS is my favorite series all-time, so I’m biased in that sense, but Ai Yori Aoshi was a lot of fun. It’s one of those series I can watch and really not think too hard about. It’s something I can watch pretty much any time in any mood, which really demonstrates how good it was.