Itazura na Kiss - Episode 19

To be honest, I'm surprised that this instalment of Itazura na Kiss wasn't subtitled "Battle of the Assholes", as it would have seemed like a pretty appropriate title - On the one hand we had Naoki, whose ability to be a disgusting excuse for a human being is already legendary, and on the other we had Keita, who thinks nothing of spending all his time trying to convince a married woman to leave her husband so that she can shack up with him. What great role models these guys are...


So, for most of this episode this is all we get to 'enjoy' really - Naoki ignoring Kotoko in that way he's perfected over nineteen episodes, while Keita uses every opportunity to try and snatch Kotoko away. Finally, it all comes to a head in some good old-fashioned domestic violence, with Kotoko throwing books at Naoki (note to Kotoko: Try an anvil or something next time) and Naoki slapping Kotoko. Again, not the kind of thing you'd particularly expect from a romantic comedy, but exactly what you'd come to expect from this series. It all ends up happily ever after of course, at least until next week when we'll probably be back to Naoki acting like an asshole again.

All of this is without Kinnosuke's sudden proposal to Chris after she is injured at work - Because this series simply hasn't had enough knee-jerk marriages, here's another one to up the tally.

It's probably obvious by now that any semblance of charity towards this series has now evaporated, and I find myself feeling quite frankly uncomfortable with every episode of the show that I watch, as we end up with a more and more depressing view of the relationships on show, complete with reprehensible morality on frequent occasions from virtually every character - It's the kind of thing that can't be undone with a simple saccharine moment at the end of an episode. Couple that with the worsening animation (which was truly terrible in this episode), and I shall be rather relieved when this particular series is finally over.