Kimagure Orange Road

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is a popular shōnen romantic comedy manga series from the late 1980s. Written by Izumi Matsumoto, it was later adapted into an anime series with character designs by Akemi Takada. In the mid-1990s it was novelized as well.  The series deals with a love triangle between the main character, an indecisive esper named Kyōsuke Kasuga, Madoka Ayukawa, a mercurial girl with a tough past, and Hikaru Hiyama, Madoka's ditzy best friend.  Kyōsuke falls in love with Madoka, and Madoka wants to return those feelings, but cannot because of Hikaru's involvement with Kyōsuke.

While the length of the series demands that certain elements are repeated, and a number of running gags abound, the series for the most part avoids falling into formula, and this has increased its popularity.

The series consist of 18 volumes of manga (when first printed), 48 TV anime episodes, 8 OVAs, 2 animated movies, and 3 novels published as Shin KOR (New Kimagure Orange Road). Translations of the manga and novels exist in several languages, including Chinese and French. The Shin KOR novels have not officially been translated into English although all three have fan translations at various websites. In the United States, the TV series, OVAs, and the first movie is licenced by AnimEigo, although AnimEigo's license is slated to end as of late July 2006, while the second movie, based on first Shin KOR novel, is licensed by ADV Films. In addition, there is a five volume "cinema" radio drama set on compact disc. It has a slightly different storyline than the anime or manga, but more closely resembles the anime. It is put out by Victor Entertainment.

Characters

Kyōsuke is the man in the love triangle. He and his siblings are all espers. They are forbidden to use their powers, for fear or discovery - whenever they are seen using their powers in public, they must move - so they have moved many times. His sister Kurumi is usually the one caught using her powers in public. Kyōsuke's esper powers include teleportation, telekinesis, and "time-slipping" while falling from heights such as stairs. Occasionally Kyōsuke can use his powers to temporarily amplify his speed and strength.

Kyōsuke is a pretty gentle person and a bit of a goody-goody - when he seems Madoka smoking, he scolds her in a very nerdy way (and then uses his power to destroy her cigarette). His kindness seems to be the reason why he has a hard time telling Hikaru the truth: that he is not in love with her, but in love with Madoka instead. But his kindness turns out to be wishy-washy, and perhaps even cruel.

The archetypical "kimagure" (whimsical) character, Madoka is secretly in love with Kyōsuke, and is best friends with Hikaru Hiyama (who is also in love with Kyōsuke). This character is alluring on several different levels.

When she first meets Kyōsuke, she appears to be a pretty and sweet girl. But when Kyōsuke meets her at school, he is shocked to learn that Madoka is an unpopular loner at school, ignored by the girls and shunned by the boys. Madoka consoles herself by playing enchantingly sad songs on the saxophone.

Her signature weapon in the anime is a guitar pick, which she wields like a shuriken. With it, she is able to beat five thugs at once while in her school uniform. In addition to having a "punk" past, Madoka turns out to be an incredible super-girl who excels at everything: gymnastics, wrestling, music, skateboarding, schoolwork ... all while she works part-time at a cafe called ABCB (pronounced "ahboo kahboo").

Her parents are professional musicians often touring outside Japan, so she lives alone in a large house. The story involves the eventual shedding of her tough exterior after she becomes Kyōsuke's friend, as evidenced by her giving up cigarettes upon his advice. Kyōsuke doesn't want to use his powers to win her love, though, because he thinks that would be cheating. Her given name refers to the moon.

Hikaru is initially presented as being more unpleasant a brawler, and a tougher talker, than Madoka. By accidentally seeing Kyōsuke using his powers, she falls for him and, besides always calling him by the English word, "Darling," reverts to a form of baby talk. She has unrequited love for Kyōsuke. Her name refers to the brightness of the sun, and of a sparkling personality. Hikaru is a year younger than Ayukawa and Kyōsuke.

One of Kyōsuke's younger sisters. Manami is very reserved. She is depicted as the homemaker of the house, cooking meals, vaccuming and doing laundry, but it is revealed in both the manga and anime that she has a wild side that occasionally needs release. Manami's esper powers include teleportation and telekinesis. Part of her reserved nature includes avoiding excessive use of The Power unless it's absolutely necessary. In the manga she is especially fond of Ayukawa and would like to see Kyosuke and her get together. However this important manga story never made it into the anime. As such the anime version shows no such preference.

Manami's (fraternal) twin sister. Kurumi is very energetic and argumentative. She's also able to bring these qualities out in Manami as well. She is known to use idioms of her own creation, which can sometimes be misconstrued by others. Kurumi is the most comfortable with using her powers, often doing so without thinking about the consequences. Kurumi used The Power to run the 100-meter dash in 3 seconds at her old school. This incident was responsible for the Kasugas moving to the town where the series took place. Kurumi's other esper powers include teleportation and telekinesis.

In the manga Kurumi wants Kasuga to end up with Hikaru. But, again, this storyline never made it into the anime, and the anime Kurumi shows no such preference. Kurumi possesses the ability to hypnotize Kyōsuke (and only Kyōsuke). Although Kurumi appeared to learn this from a book, her actual ability is probably derived from The Power.

Proprietor of the ABCB cafe located on Orange Road and, consequently, Ayukawa's boss. Is one of the few characters who realizes how Ayukawa and Kasuga feel about each other. He does everything in his power to smooth relations between the two. In the manga he shuts down ABCB after it is discovered that Ayukawa was working there. (At the time of the story, Japanese high school students couldn't hold jobs). In the novels it is revealed that he bounced back by opening one of the first cybercafes in Tokyo.

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Kyōsuke's two perverted friends. They're also potential boyfriends for the twins. But most likely the twins are using them as place-holders until someone better comes along. Kazuya Hatta is not to be confused with Kazuya Kasuga. Komatsu's first name has also been given as Masashi (most notably in the credits for "An Unexpected Situation").

Kyōsuke's younger cousin, Kazuya looks like a younger version of Kyōsuke. On several occasions people have mistaken Kazuya for Kyōsuke's son. Kazuya has The Power as well, but in the form of telepathy. In both the manga and the anime telepathy appears to be his only power. Kyōsuke and Kazuya can swap bodies by banging their heads together. On several occasions they've done this intentionally.

The older sister of Kazuya, and the same age as her cousin Kyōsuke. Akane can use The Power to make people see illusions. She has only been seen using this power to make herself appear as different people; it is unknown if she can create other types of illusions. The illusions appear to be both aural and visual. This power works only on the person it is directed towards, so is probably a mixture of telepathy and hypnosis (elements of The Power which have been demonstrated in other members of the Kasuga family.)

In the anime Akane has the same powers that Kasuga and the twins have, in addition to her illusion power. However, this is not true in the manga.

Akane is considered by many to be a lesbian, for her apparent obsession with Ayukawa and other female characters. Izumi Matsumoto has gone on record as saying that Akane's feelings towards other women are misinterpreted, and are nothing more than innocent hero worship. However, this is very difficult to accept for some readers of the manga, who consider Akane's feelings to be unambiguous.

Akane's appearance in the manga and anime are quite different. In the manga she looks like a cross between Kurumi and Manami. In the anime her hair is shorter and darker, her face is more stark, and she has violet eyes. Akane only appeared in two of the OVAs, and never in the series. She appeared considerably more often in the manga, almost being a regular.

Sayurai

Sayurai only appeared in the manga. Sayurai's sole purpose in life is to break men's hearts: a job she's quite good at. In the past, Sayurai was deeply hurt by her boyfriend's callous dismissal of her. After the break-up, she decided to take her anger out on the entire male gender.

She is unable to seduce Kyōsuke, and consquently becomes obsessed with him. She is the only character, aside from Master, who realizes how Kyōsuke and Madoka feel about each other. This makes her pivotal in the manga, as she is the one who tells Hikaru about it, forcing the events that occur at the end of the manga. Oddly enough, Sayurai's revelation to Hikaru was accidental (she assumed Hikaru already knew). Sayurai appeared to feel genuine remorse during the fallout.

Hiromi

Hiromi only appeared in the manga. She was Kyōsuke's classmate in his previous school, and transferred to Kōryō about halfway through the manga's run. Neither the reader or Kyōsuke is sure if Hiromi knows about The Power. Hiromi is fond of telling a story about Kyōsuke's antics at the previous school which involves him floating in the river clutching a statue of Colonel Sanders.

Trivia

• The cat Jingoro gets his name from the Edo-period wood sculptor Hidari Jingorou, who is thought to have carved the famous Sleeping Cat sculpture at the Nikko Toshogu.
• Narumi Kakinouchi, one of the creators of Vampire Princess Miyu, did design work on the anime, as well as the opening and ending credits for episodes 1-8.
• The manga was ended by cancellation. As such, Izumi had less than a volume to conclude the story. He was able to expand the ending when the series came out in wideban format.

External links

• [AnimEigo]: US distributor of KOR TV series, OVA, and original KOR movie
• [ADV Kimagure Orange Road page]
• [KOR Mailing List]
• [Rob's Super Kimagure Orange Road Page]: a fan site with comprehensive information on KOR
• [Peter Payne's Orange Road page]: Peter Payne is the translator of the first two KOR novels
• [The Kimagure Orange Road RPG]: A tongue-in-cheek paper-and-dice RPG
• [An amateur translation of the third novel]: Musician Chris Reed's translation of the third novel

 

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