37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I've been tricked and happy about it..., August 26, 2003
This review is from: Ai Yori Aoshi, Volume 1: Faithfully Yours (Episodes 1-5) (DVD)
I got this DVD because I heard many people compare this series to Love Hina. But it is not. It seems to have a very serious story line within it. Aoi Sakuraba wants to marry her first love, Kaoru Hanabishi, who can't marry her WITHOUT going back to to the Hanabishi Clan - which he feels he can't do.
Many times I felt very sad for the main characters and even a tad lonely, missing my own first love. They really have touching scenes, very innocent and romantic, with scenes of silly humor and lots of fanservice. The serious story line justs gives these other scenes more impact.
I'm not going to call it the anime verison of Shakespeare but it stands alone and should not be compared to Love Hina or other such stories. It has its own power and its own message. I can tell you that, because the first DVD has 5 episodes, so you get a lot of the story.
Extras include a art gallery, trailer, reversible cover(which is starting to become a standard extra now), and even a music video.
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29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A romantic comedy that's both funny and pleasant, February 25, 2003
Ai Yori Aoshi needs a warning to open: if you find the idea of a woman wanting to be a traditional housewife to be somehow repulsive, you'll hate this show. This is all Aoi wants to be: the wife of Kaoru, to whom she was arranged to be married as a child. Kaoru left his family (for reasons made clear), but Aoi still loved him. Therein is the heart and warmth of this show: there is no doubt that Aoi and Kaoru will be together throughout once they meet again.
Only in the last episode on this disc (which has 5 episodes) does Ai Yori Aoshi reveal itself to be a "harem" show--Kaoru starts finding a lot of girls around him and ultimately, living in the same house. In its dynamics, though, Ai Yori Aoshi differs from many of the other harem shows that have been imported from Japan recently--in Love Hina, for example, one thing or another keeps interrupting Naru and Keitaro's romance. Here, that's not the issue.
The humor in this show depends on Aoi and Kaoru learning about each other. Because there's no real conflict between the two, Ai Yori Aoshi may not be quite as funny as a Love Hina or a few others, but it manages to hold its own in the laughs department. More importantly, it is simply pleasant to watch. Aoi, who in a lesser show might have come off as spineless, drives the story with her efforts to make her dream come true. Barring an ideological problem with her domesticity, Aoi is more than reason enough to want to see more of this show. It is when she is not on-screen (particularly when the decidedly unpleasant Tina is), that the show suffers. Fortunately, Aoi is (and hopefully will remain throughout) the focus.
One warning to close: there's a fair bit of fanservice here, and this release is based off the Japanese home video release, which added some nudity. It's all featureless (nothing's drawn in) and brief, but it's there, for those who want to avoid such things.
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23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Of Fate, Love & Tradition, March 13, 2003
I've read numerous average-to-good reviews of this series, but I took a chance buying it and was pleasantly surprised by what I found. A cliche "harem" series with surprising depth, subtlety and romance to go with the fan service and raunchy comedy.
Comparing "A.Y.A." to other "harem" series like "Love Hina" or "Tenchi" seems fair enough, but the writers are smart enough to play around with the conventions. Instead of using stock characters in lieu of real character development, they subvert the cliches by giving depth to the concept of the hapless, well-meaning hero, etc. It also manages a coup because they cast the traditional girl as the rebel... something vastly different than the violent, post-feminist anime heroine you find in most animes Pretty ingenious, actually.
Summarized plot: Kaoru and Aoi were both children of privilege promised to wed. Kaoru was physically and emotionally abused by his family, so he left to live on his own. Aoi, who has never forgotten her childhood crush, searches Kaoru out and meets him, accidentally, in a train station. While they obviously care about each other, marrying Aoi means returning to his family so Aoi's family hides them in a big mansion that quickly becomes populated by lots of hot chicks who all fall for Kaoru. Comedy ensues.
Kaoru is a college junior, not an awkward High School student and conducts himself with much more maturity than your typical anime hero. He's apparently shy, a loner and a bit of a geek (for reasons in his past that are explained logically), but when the pressure is on, he's reliable. He's also sweet and well-meaning, something that also seems logical given his rough past. Most anime heroes have trouble admitting their feelings openly and the beginning of the courtship takes the entire series to develop, but Kaoru and Aoi click quickly and by episode three they're both obviously in love, if a bit naive as to what comes next.
The heroine, Aoi, only appears to be a wallflower and the traditional stereotype of the Japanese woman. Rather than being spineless and servile, we can actually see her strength as she leaves everything she knows and sacrifices her place in her family just to cling to a dream. The charm of her character isn't her desire to please her man, it's the strength and focus she shows in chasing her dream of being the best wife possible. Having seen as much anime as I have, it's a surprise to see so much thought put into a light romantic comedy/drama that could have easily skated by on the stock characterizations.
As a viewer, I liked feeling like my intelligence wasn't being insulted. There are subtle moments of character building that they don't come right out and say, which I really appreciated. If this was an American movie, they would have beat us over the head with those moments. Moments like the first episode when Aoi lets one hands rest on Kaoru's shoulder... then the other, a sign of real trust to someone she knows only as a stranger at the time. Or seeing Aoi notice that the bawdy American Tina Foster shows affection to Kaoru the same way she shows affection to a cat... and, thus, doesn't get jealous of her clinging to Kaoru. I really appreciated not having that hammered into my head.
The downsides are relatively minor if you can get past the deceptively cliche nature of the show. The character of Aoi can (and apparently does) turn people off, but I looked at it more as a departure from convention than a glorified Japanese male fantasy, though both arguments have merit. After watching a series like "Love Hina" where the hapless male lead gets physically and emotionally pummeled for 20+ episodes with little or no payoff, "A.Y.A." can be a breath of fresh air so long as you don't take it seriously. (Frankly, "Love Hina's" Naru is as much a male fantasy as Aoi, just to the opposite extreme.) Additionally, the dialogue can get a little TOO frothy and the fan service feels tacked on... an attempt to please both sides of the gender divide. Even if the next couple volumes rely mostly on bawdy humor and "Tenchi"-ish misadventures, I still plan on sticking with it. To me, I like all of the characters enough that it'll be like visiting old friends, not watching some rote re-telling of the same ol' story. I've already watched this volume dubbed and subbed and I'll probably revisit it again in the near future.
Highly recommended for anime/Japan culture aficionados, but neophytes should probably start their collection elsewhere.
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