Review: KIMAGURE ORANGE ROAD

Of course, Weekly Shonen Jump has always had more than gag series and straightforward adventures.  It's been home to more than a few romance stories over the years.  It's just debatable how well they have aged (or even if they were any good to begin with).

KIMAGURE ORANGE ROAD (Kimagure Orenji Rodo), by Izumi Matsumoto.  First published in 1984 and first published in North America in 2014.

PLOT:

Kyosuke was just wandering around the park in his new hometown when he met with Madoka.  He was instantly smitten with her, but has a hard time believing that the same sweet girl he met in the park could be a standoffish deliquent at school.  That doesn't stop him from crushing hard on her, something that only becomes more complicated when he ends up stumbling into a relationship with Madoka's spunky best friend Hikaru.  Can Kyosuke sort out his relationship problems and keep his family's psychic powers a secret?

STORY:

I feel a little bad for what I'm about to say, since this story (or more accurately, its animated adaptation) was a major landmark for a lot of older weebs and is still regarded with some fondness to this day.  I have to be honest as I've ever been, though, and my honest opinion of Kimagure Orange Road is that.... I couldn't stand it.

The biggest problem is, as always, the protagonist.  Kyosuke isn't as bland as many of his later counterparts.  He's actually a fairly upstanding, responsible kid.  If anything, he might be a bit too upstanding, as Kyosuke has a sanctimonious streak that makes him come off as a prudish goody-goody at times.  I'll certainly take it over him being an obnoxiously horny weirdo like his standard-issue best friend, but it certainly soured me on him even before all the love triangle nonsense started.  Then there's the whole psychic angle, something which almost certainly was added because of media trends of the time and editorial insistence.  It exists for the same reason that Kyosuke's younger sisters do: as a plot device.  His sisters serve to create conflict through their thoughtless actions, while his powers are there to solve them quickly so we can get back to the romantic shenanigans.

Meanwhile, our love interests Madoka and Hikaru are way more compelling than Kyosuke could ever hope to be.  Madoka can be a little frustrating at times with her hot-and-cold personality, but she's got a no-nonsense attitude and a keen sense of justice that makes her easy to admire.  Meanwhile,  Hikaru is a spunky spitfire of a girl who's not afraid to take the initiative in love or a fight.  They're loyal friends to one another and just great characters in general, and frankly they are so far out of Kyosuke's league that it's almost laughable.

That's why I found it so frustrating to see them stuck in such a hopeless love triangle.  The entire story revolves around Kyosuke being an indecisive drip, forever wavering between the girl he's got and the girl he wants.  It's the sort of conflict that could be solved with either an honest five-minute conversation or Kyosuke just learning to say "no" to a pretty girl, but of course nothing so sensible will ever happen.  Worse still, the longer it goes on the more this romantic dithering starts to shave down Madoka and Hikaru's harder edges.  It's meant to demonstrate how much they're falling for Kyosuke, but it feels more like Matsumoto trying to make them more demure and palatable to his audience.  It all comes together to create a story that already feels like a drag.  I can't imagine how tedious eighteen volumes of this would be.

ART:

Matsumoto's art here is pleasant enough, even if his character style owes a lot to Rumiko Takahashi.  There's a refreshing, breezy quality to the art that makes it charming.  That being said, it's clear that he puts more effort into the girls and Madoka in particular.  It's really uncomfortable how often we (through Kyosuke) are meant to ogle her and admire her sexiness while being reminded that she's a middle-schooler.  While the fanservice we get is positively tame compared to modern standards, it still feels both creepy and a little hypocritical on the mangaka's part.

PRESENTATION:

This series was originally released digitally through DMP's ill-fated Digital Manga Guild, and as such the original release had poor quality images and a lackluster, amateurish translation.  The good news is that the omnibus release, produced as part of a Kickstarter campaign for this series, solves both of those problems.  The book itself is handsome and Steven LeCroy's translation fits it to a T.  The bad news is that because this was produced as part of a DMP Kickstarter campaign, physical copies are near impossible to get outside of their website.  Luckily, the digital release of the omnibus is just as good quality-wise.

RATING:

Kimagure Orange Road might be a nostalgic favorite for some, but its wishy-washy lead, awkward fanservice, and tedious premise left me cold.  If this was the trendsetter for so many future shonen romances, no wonder the genre tends to leave me so cold.

This series is published by Digital Manga Publishing.  This series is complete in Japan with 18 volumes available.  All 18 have been published as 3-in-1 omnibuses and are currently in print.