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Itazura na Kiss Shōjo Manga Gets TV Anime in April
posted on by Egan Loo
An official website has opened for the anime adaptation of Itazura na Kiss, Kaoru Tada's shōjo manga classic from the 1990s. The anime will premiere on Japanese television in April. In the romantic comedy story, a high school girl named Kotoko finally tells a fellow senior named Naoki that she has loved him from afar since she saw him on their first day of high school. However, Naoki, a haughty "super-ikemen" (handsome male) with smarts and sports talent, rejects her offhand. Fate intervenes when a mild earthquake ruins Kotoko's family house. While the house gets rebuilt, Kotoko and her dad stay at the home of her dad's childhood friend...whose son is Naoki.
The story follows Naoki and Kotoko through high school and beyond, but it never ended because Tada lost her life in an accident in 1999. The producers of the anime adaptation call the original manga "the bible of romance" for its influence on later manga such as Marmalade Boy and Fruits Basket. The 23-volume manga has already been adapted as a television drama series in Japan (1996) and another drama series in Taiwan under the name It Started with a Kiss (2005). The 2005 Taiwanese version was popular enough that it was later reversed imported onto Japanese television and continued in a sequel series that premiered in Taiwan just last month.
Source: Ultimatum
