KimiKiss Pure Rouge Episode 1 – Meet Again

KimiKiss finally makes its premiere, and as an avid reader of the manga (ever since, a few weeks ago), I was looking forward to how this dating sim will be brought to life by J.C.Staff. All I can say after watching this first episode, is that I AM HOOKED. If you love Boys Be and Honey and Clover, I’m pretty sure you’ll love this as well~ I know it sounds too early to sound for me to say all these, but seeing this episode, how it was well written and directed, and how much it fared better compared to the manga and the novel (and well, the game overall), I am confident that this will turn out to be a great tale of romance (and memories? :P). Generic and boring as others might see it compared to Honey and Clover, I still have high hopes for this show

Opening

Opening Song: “aozora loop” by marble. A somewhat slow paced and mildly catchy song. It puts you in a happy and a little bouncy mood, with its pace, melody, and the lyrics “Kiss kiss kiss~” “run run run~ (happy / bouncy)” I just noticed that all the screenshots featured in the opening are those in episode 1. I’ll be quite amazed if they’re going to change each of these in every episode :p

Screenshots

Kouichi Sana and Kazuki Aihara’s childhood friend Mao Mizusawa comes back from France after two years, lodging in Kouchi’s house in a separate room as she transfers to their school. Kazuki, another childhood friend, was first to recognize Mao-neechan, after mistaking her for Kouichi’s girl at first. With the group of friends reunited, the two boys notice how much Mao has changed, from her geek self to a pretty and outgoing girl. The new semester begins, bringing with it yet another chance for encounters, as Kouichi finds himself in the same class as Yuumi Hoshino once again.

Mao also finds herself in not-so-good terms with the mysterious Eiji Kai, who seems to be the only person in class who acts all cold towards her. Kazuki on the other hand continues to become the soccer practice partner of Asuka, and who knows if something else will come about this “friendship”. Before anything can be said about their relationship however, Kazuki already gets drawn to the genius yet cold Eriko Futami after a “paper-plane” encounter, as he experiences his first kiss and the springtime of romance…

Ending

Ending Song: “Negai Boshi” by Snow. a semi-slow paced song yet again, which isn’t quite as catchy as the opening song. The mood of the song is quite bitter sweet and not as fun as the OP, but the lyrics has more depth than the opening song.

Thoughts

Wow. This show certainly blew me away, as expected of J.C.Staff. At first I didn’t really know how the show is going to turn out, with the rather pathetic-sounding “plot” of a guy aiming for a kiss from a girl. I had better hopes for the anime when I saw the manga and the novel, as I see it as a story of a blooming love between a young guy and a set of girls, with each having its own “route”. Before the anime started, I read the story of the heroines Mao, Asuka, and Mitsuki, and also saw a glimpse of the story of Hoshino. Asuka won my heart LOL. But then, I also adored Mao. I found Hoshino’s story rather, lacking in development at that time, because of some stuff I saw in the novel.

Seeing all these characters, I was bothered as to how they’re going to fit in the story of the girls with only one guy, in the person of Kouichi Aihara. Are they going to take the same path as the manga, where they have “arcs” of some sort, for each of the girls? Or will they intertwine all these characters and give us an amazing and touching love story as the guy gets to learn things from each of these girls? But then comes the problem of it turning out into a harem anime because, once again, there’s just one lucky guy leading the harem.

The KimiKiss anime, certainly exceeded that expectation of mine. With the tons of girls in the series, they took the liberty of giving the simple solution to this dilemma, to add testosterone goodness into the show. I am really surprised, though at the back of my mind I was hoping they will do this. Now we have a variety of guys, each having their own unique personalities, with each of them eventually experiencing how it is to truly love someone. Oh the springtime of youth~ In the Asuka and Hoshino arcs especially, it was obvious that two types of guys are needed, the athletic type, and the super shy yet bookish type, two distinct personalities no single man could have at least in the stereotypical point of view.

The guys are also stereotypical as I might see it. Kouichi, the kind and shy guy who’s afraid to approach the girl he likes. And he’s cute by the way. Kazuki, the tsundere athletic guy, the type who easily blushes because of being naive and innocent (somewhat). There’s also Hiiragi, the playboy smooth talker, and Eiji, the mysterious guy who is hawt whose real personality is still hidden behind his veil of coldness and being distant. Stereotypical as it might be, I’m a sucker for a good ol’ romance story so I don’t really care about that.

The more I watch the episode, the more I see it as reminiscent of Boys be and Honey and Clover. J.C.Staff seemed to have adapted the same animation style as what they did to H&C, with the soft and pastel-like backgrounds and animation, which is but perfect to portray the subtleness of the characters’ feelings throughout the show. Kouichi reminds me of H&C’s Takemoto for some reason, with a little of Kyouichi of Boys be as well. Compared to Boys Be however, KimiKiss is far superior, not only because of the aforementioned reasons, but also because I’m sure there won’t be a Barbaric Chiharu Nitta character here, and no maniac Makoto Kurumizawa either (though I’d admit the perv guy’s “ending” turned out to be the sweetest of all in that series).

I’m really delighted that they toned down the ecchiness and overall fanservice in the manga, and I certainly hope they’ll keep it that way. This show will be better off left as innocent and un-ecchi as it is. They’ve also included some rather humorous scenes and really cute SD faces, which I found amusing. I found myself laughing at the lame gorilla vs bear of justice acting in the episode

I still have lots of things to say with regards to the changes they made, and what direction the anime seems to be taking, but I guess I’ll leave that to my Deep Frying aka “Love Prediction” corner Spoilers abound here, since I’ll be adding some details I’ve read from the manga and novels.

As for the next episode, it seems that Mao will start her mission as the love cupid for Kouichi and Hoshino. I’m also pretty intrigued with the events that will happen after the Kazuki x Eriko kiss scene, and how this will affect his relationship with Asuka. And of course, there’s the Mao x Eiji moments I am so looking forward to as well~

Kazuki: Whoa! My long lost twin!

Oh, before I sort of “end” this… did you guys notice how oddly similar Kazuki is to Ragnarok The Animation’s Roan? Well, I think the pic above explains it all :p

P.S. The other chefs are cooking up some more comments on this one, so watch out for it~!