Ai Shite Knight
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"Ai Shite Knight", or "Night" (original title: 愛してナイト) is a shōjo manga created in the early 1980's by the late Kaoru Tada. An anime version of the story in 42 episodes was also produced in 1983-1984 by Toei Animation, and features episodes supervised by Shingo Araki. The anime also became extremely popular in Europe with the title "Rock'n'roll kids" in Germany, "Embrasse-moi, Lucile" in France, and "Kiss me Licia" in Italy, as well as "Bésame Licia" in Spanish. In fact, the anime series was so popular in Italy that it spawned a domestically-produced live-action teen soap opera, which ran for 145 episodes through four seasons ("Love me Licia," "Licia, dolce Licia," "Teneramente Licia," and "Balliamo e cantiamo con Licia") on Italian TV from 1986 to 1988. Pop singer/actress Cristina D'Avena, who performed the Italian theme song to the anime series, played Licia (Yakko) in the live-action version.
"Ai Shite Knight" is set in Osaka, and tells the story of Yaeko "Yakko" Mitamura ("Luciana" or "Licia" in the Italian and Spanish versions, "Lucile" in the French version of the anime), an 18 year old girl working in her father's Okonomiyaki restaurant. One day Yakko casually meets a little boy, Hashizo ("Andrea" in the Italian version, "Benjamin" in French, "Jorge" in Spanish), and his odd cat Juliano ("Romeo" in the French version, "Miko" in the Spanish one). Hashizo has lost both parents when still a baby and has been brought up by his elder brother. Hashizo's brother Go Kato ("Mirko" in Italy, "Joe" in Germany, "Mathias" in France, "Sergio" in Spanish) is the lead singer of the emerging rock band "Bee Hive". When Yakko meets Go and his friend and "Bee Hive" member Satomi Okawa ("Tristan" in French) an unexpected series of events unfolds.
Whereas the main narrative of "Ai Shite Knight" is essentially based on a love story, interesting and innovative elements were introduced by Kaoru Tada, most notably the portrayal of the Japanese music scene in the early '80s. In creating characters such as Go, Satomi and their band "Bee Hive", Tada was inspired by successful bands of the time such as "The Stalin", "Novela", "Primadonna" and "44 Magnum". Tada also plays with sexual provocation and ambiguity, mainly embodied by the character of "Kiss Relish" vocalist Katzuma Kataoka/Sheila, although these elements were considerably toned down in the anime version of the story.
The anime based on "Ai Shite Knight" also presents some changes in the storyline and modifications in the characters, and covers only one part of the story narrated by Tada in the manga. Famous voice actress and pop idol Mitsuko Horie provided the voice of Yakko in the anime. It is a widespread opinion that, although the quality of the animation is not thoroughly consistent, its quality is fairly high (reaching its peak in the episodes where Shingo Araki was involved), and it's effective in conveying to the viewer the timeframes and places in which events occur.
One notable difference between the manga and anime is in the characters' hair colors. The hair of both Yakko and Hashizou is frquently shown as blond in Tada's colorized manga artwork. In the anime, Hashizou has blue hair and Yakko has reddish-brown hair. However, Yakko was drawn as a blonde in the anime's opening sequence, which perhaps confused some European viewers who hadn't read or heard of the original manga.
Music
The main reason why the anime version of "Ai Shite Knight" is particularly famous is because it features, for the first time ever, original songs within the episodes, performed by "Bee Hive" and the rival band "Kiss Relish". The songs were so successful to be released in an album. Joe Hisaishi, who has composed the music for Hayao Miyazaki's movies, collaborated in writing and arranging the songs. The original songs featured in the anime are:
Performed by "Bee Hive"
- Rockin' all Night
- Fire
- Midnight Rock'n'Roll Star
- Lonely Boy
- Baby, I Love You
- Freeway
- Someday on Sunday
- Love Again
- Let Me Feel
- Boxer
External links
In English
In Italian- [Detailed and accurate information on both the manga and the anime, hosted by Neko BonBon]
- [A guide hosted by Shoujo Italia]
- [Noriko's pages on "Ai Shite Knight"]
- [The first Italian "Ai Shite Knight/Kiss Me Licia" fansite, includes MP3s of the songs]
- http://italiantf.altervista.org/licia.htm - an Italian site with information on "Love Me Licia," the live-action follow-up to the anime series
- ["Embrasse-moi Lucile" fansite]
- [From the French anime encyclopedia]
- [Another "Embrasse-moi Lucile" fansite]
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