After the shock of being rejected by Irie, seeing her new house collapse and then having to move in with Irie and his family, Kotoko finally gets some sweet revenge for at least part of this episode, finding a secret weapon to both get some attention from Irie and improve herself in the process, even if it backfires rather in the end.Sure, it's all pretty traditional fare, and it's all been done before, but judging by this episode Itazura no Kiss has what it takes to be rather a likeable series. Kotoko's enthusiasm is rather infectious, and even though her friends are somewhat irritating they don't have enough screen time to spoil things, on this occasion at least. Even Irie proves not to be completely unbearable, showing a softer side on a couple of occasions that at least lends some believability to the fact that Kotoko is still interesting in him despite his largely cold and arrogant attitude.
All in all then, this series is looking like a keeper if it can keep things up to this extent. As long as you don't expect anything ground-breaking from the series, then it's shaping up to be an enjoyable watch.
As so often happens, I can only agree with you here! The first ep suggested something akin to what you'd end up with if you skimmed the fluffy comedic bits off Kare Kano and threw the serious stuff away; the second ep did give me more of a reason to watch beyond my opinion that Kotoko is a great lead character though.
ReplyDeleteAs engaging as Kotoko is, her friends and especially Naoki are universally unlikable - if he didn't show those isolated moments of decency, I probably would have dropped it there. As it is, I'll be tuning in for ep #3.
Sadly it appears that the manga-ka tragically died a number of years ago so I'm not sure if this is going to be an adaptation of an unfinished story.