Kimagure Orange Road

Some time ago, a friend of mine gave me a novel he had written, a love story based on himself and his girlfriend. (Not to be mean, but … ugh. More often than not, these are usually not very good, sorry to say.) After avoiding it for a while, I got tired of his asking me what I thought of it, so I finally read it. And it was predictably terrible: your average teenage crap where you are simply told that the couple is deeply crazy in loooove, but you just don’t feel it. The story ended with the boy and girl each hurling themselves off a cliff, simultaneously, but unbeknownst to each other and in different locations. WHY? Because they looooved each other so frigging much they couldn’t frigging stand it. Er … I think that was the reason. Anyway, it was supposed to be obvious (or so the author informed me later) but I just … didn’t feel it.

Anyway, I tried to tell him that I liked his story. But I’m not a very good liar, so I kind of had to fudge it and focus on the mundane details. But he kept telling me how his other friends were moved to tears and asked me point-blank if I cried, too. And I had to tell him that I did not. Well, he got really upset. REALLY upset. And accused me of “having no heart … no soul.” Hrm. (There’s a point to this story. So keep this in mind: I have no heart, and no soul.)

I’m all for tragic love stories. They really hit the spot for me when I’m in one of my lovelorn melancholy moods. But they have to earn it, don’t you agree? Don’t just tell me they’re in loooove, make me believe it! Otherwise, it might as well have Fabio on the cover.

Oh yeah, a little background on my anime experience: I’ve seen Bubblegum Crisis/Crash, Ranma 1/2, Maison Ikkoku, Cowboy Bebop, and a few other series … pretty standard stuff; I have little to no experience with more obscure series. These series are pretty popular outside of Japan, and seem to be considered "classics” by its fans. Kimagure Orange Road is in the same category, too – anyone who is even a minor anime fan (like me) has probably heard of it. I’ve watched the Kimagure Orange Road series over several years, and remember enjoying it a lot.

What I really liked about Kimagure Orange Road was that it somehow perfectly captured the feeling of being 15-years-old. The opening and closing theme of the first season were respectively called “Take me to Summer Side” and “Summer Mirage,” which was very appropriate, because the series truly evoked a summery mood. Kimagure means "capricious” or “whimsical,” and this is a breezy daydream of a series.

The Movie

I was particularly looking forward to being able to watch the Kimagure Orange Road movie titled, “I Want to Return to That Day,” which is supposed to be finale to the series. After having watched the entire series piecemeal over the years, it was natural to want to watch the final movie. And I’ve heard about how "amazing” and “heartbreaking” it is. I’ve tried looking for the movie online, but it didn’t seem to be available at any of my usual shopping haunts, so I decided to just wait.

So, now that I’ve finally watched it, my reaction is … Huh?

For such a lighthearted series, the end is surprisingly dolorous. Hearts are broken, and tears are shed. "Depressing” doesn’t begin to describe it, it just seems needlessly cruel.

The main story of Kimagure Orange Road involves a love triangle, between Kyosuke (guy), Madoka (girl), and Hikaru (girl). It is clear from the beginning that Kyosuke and Madoka are meant to be together, but Hikaru has a wild crush on Kyosuke, too. What complicates the situation is that Madoka and Hikaru are best friends since childhood, and the three of them are very good friends throughout the series.

Hikaru is two years younger than both of them, however, and pretty immature. Although I recognized her purpose in the series, there were times she was terribly whiny and I got sick of her sing-song baby voice. But although I found Hikaru annoying, she is a genuinely sweet, well-meaning person so I couldn’t help liking her anyway.

In addition to the love triangle, Kyosuke and his sisters have ESP. It’s not actually just ESP, per se – Kyosuke himself has some phenomenal powers that he’s not even aware of, or has full control over, like the ability to stop time, or even travel through time – basically, whatever is convenient for an interesting plot line. While that’s pretty incredible, I liked that they took a very low-key approach to it, instead of it becoming the focus of every episode.

The movie “I Want to Return to That Day” is about the resolution of the love triangle, which was already resolved by the end of the series. I don’t think it’s much of a spoiler to reveal that Kyosuke and Madoka are fated lovers – the signs are clear from the very beginning of the series. The movie deals with the aftermath of this love triangle – after Kyosuke and Madoka get together, the messy and unpleasant task of telling Hikaru is the only thing that’s left. And that’s what this movie ultimately is: messy and unpleasant. There isn’t much subtlety to Kyosuke’s actions. He basically tells Hikaru that it’s over, and she won’t let go. So he keeps on pushing her away cruelly until she finally gets the message.

That’s a satisfying resolution … I guess. But as much as I found Hikaru annoying from time to time, it’s not her fault for believing that Kyosuke really liked her, because he totally led her on throughout the series: Kyosuke accepted gifts from her, let her do all kinds of stuff for him, and even kissed her back at the beginning of this very movie!!! And all the while, he is fully aware that she’s in love with him. And then all of a sudden he’s pushing her away, when he couldn’t do it all those years?

It was always obvious that Kyosuke and Madoka will end up together, but the movie completely ignores the fact that the three of them were very good friends. I don’t understand why after Kyosuke dumps Hikaru, Kyosuke and Madoka both completely cut her out of their lives. I am not demanding a neater ending – this ending is as neat as it gets. But seeing Kimagure Orange Road after such a long time, I realized that perhaps the series doesn’t really live up to the test of time like other anime series has for me.

During the series, there were multiple explanations for Kyosuke’s spineless behavior, and why he couldn’t make up his mind between Madoka and Hikaru: he was young, immature, and confused by lust. But the one thing that saved him from being a total jerk was his kindness: he cared about Hikaru’s well-being, and wanted to be like a big brother to her, much like Madoka was like her big sister. So that was supposedly why he couldn’t hurt her feelings and tell her the truth. His abuse of Hikaru in this movie completely shatters the one excuse that redeemed his sorry behavior.

It’s not that I’m upset about Kyosuke being a jerk, though. It’s just that it’s so out of character. Aside from his ESP abilities, which are pretty contrived anyway, Kyosuke is not a very interesting person. But the one constant thing about him was that he was a nice guy. And now, he’s … like an alien. You know how a TV show sometimes “jumps the shark,” and then morphs into something completely different and weird and lame? That’s how this movie felt for me.

Not to sound too disgruntled, but I had high hopes for this movie after hearing so much praise for it: its great emotional impact, its heart-wrenching climax … blah blah. In the end, it was just sadistic and unnecessary.

While I generally enjoyed the Kimagure Orange Road series, I found parts of it dissonant and weird. In the beginning of the movie, Madoka is supposedly a "bad girl” who smokes, drinks, and can beat up a gang of thugs. But when she meets goody-goody Kyosuke, she changes immediately into a model citizen. I never understood this, because Madoka was already a good person, she didn’t need anyone to show her the way. And it was hard to see how Kyosuke could have such a positive influence on anyone, being such a blank personality himself. And ultimately, being a part-time bad-ass was part of what made Madoka so interesting. Although there are a couple episodes where Madoka revisits her outlaw past, I wish I saw more of that side of her, and more of an explanation of how she became that way, and why she changed. Instead, it’s all just a contrivance to try and show what a good guy Kyosuke is.

The same goes for Hikaru. In the beginning of the series, she’s a reckless bad girl, too. Although it might be considered prissy to label a character as "bad" by showing her smoking and drinking, Hikaru is only 13 at the beginning of the series, so it's definitely shocking. And she too, immediately changes into Sandra Dee at the mere sight of Kyosuke. There's such an after-school-special vibe about the whole thing, and it's just not believable.

Ultimately, the movie "I Want to Return to That Day" is a failure for me because I just didn't believe in Madoka and Kyosuke's love for each other. Much like with the silly novel written by my friend, it's something we are told is true, but not so much felt. Part of the contrivance of Kyosuke-Madoka-love is about the moment they met: they met counting steps at a stairway and Kyosuke catches Madoka's windblown hat. Throughout the series and in this movie, they keep going back to this motif: those "magical" steps and that "magical" red hat. And they just don't hold any magic for me. It might have to do with the fact that Kyosuke's primary expression of "love" for Madoka consists mainly of staring at her boobs and trying to guess the color of her panties. And maybe the fact that he keeps on kissing other girls.

I do find it a bit strange that I don't like the movie, but remember enjoying the series. Is it me who has changed? Would I enjoy the series if I saw it now? I did find that the other OAV's in this box set did evoke the summery mood of the series itself, and I was reminded why I ever liked Kimagure Orange Road in the first place.

The OAV's

The Kimagure Orange Road boxset has three discs. The first OAV feels very much like an episode from the series. Kyosuke gets into a snafu from misuse of The Power, and veers back-n-forth between Hikaru and Madoka. The second OAV introduces Akane, who was not in the series. She's Kyosuke's cousin, who also has The Power, and falls in love with Madoka. And that's sort of cute. In "White Lovers" & "Hawaiian Suspense" the gang goes skiing, and then goes to Hawaii. And then the usual love-triangle stuff transpires.

Stage of Love = Heart on Fire: Spring is for Idols Stage of Love = Heart on Fire: Birth of a Star *Unexpected Situation" Message in Rouge

These OAV's in particular are very representative of the kind of cheesy melodrama that KOR does so well. I mean, these plots are totally cliché and their conclusions are predictable, but it still ends up being sweet and watchable, anyway.

Conclusion:

In the end, I recommend the movie to the fans of the KOR series, partly because my revulsion was so strong it made me feel something instead of total indifference. At the very least, I wasn't bored. And it's also been unanimously praised, or so I've heard, so I'm fully prepared to accept that maybe I just missed something. It's like when I watched Titanic, and everyone was crying and moved and blown away and I walked out thinking, "Wow, that was boring." I think my friend's accusation may be true: I have "no heart and no soul." So don't just take my word for it, check it out for yourselves. And for those who haven't seen the series, the OAV's could be a good introduction.

And I recommend the entire series itself for the very same reason I recommend the box set, and even the movie: Madoka is an awesome girl. She is a bit unbelievable she is an ace at everything from tennis to wrestling to music to school did I also mention that on top of being super-girl, she's also a tough biker chick who drinks, smokes, and can flatten five burly thugs with only a guitar pick as her weapon? Kind of schizo, huh? But despite it all, she is a very likeable character and the one reason to watch the series. I do find it creepy how she has become objectified, though: all the artwork involving Kimagure Orange Road shows Madoka in soft-core-porn poses. It's not that I'm offended, but it just contradicts her personality in the series. But who knows. Maybe she's also a porn actress, too. She is good at just about everything else.