This Week in Anime

Kimagure Old Town Road

Jean-Karlo
Don't forget the public service announcements! It's not the 80s without public service announcements.

Anyway, this week we are pleased to introduce our readers to Kimagure Orange Road, a veritable classic of the romantic comedy genre. This is a pillar of the industry, and longtime fans no doubt have fond memories of trying to track down fansubbed VHS tapes of this series way back in the day.

I mostly know of this because my taste-makers in anime all skewed older (thanks Grumpy Jii-San, rest in peace), but I likewise know very little about Orange Road other than the fact that between the leotards, ESPers and Akemi Takada artwork it's basically "1980s: The Anime". Lots of newer fans seem to think 1990s anime all looked like the batch of episodes Ikuko Itoh worked on in Sailor Moon when in reality anime in the 1990s looked like Saber Marionette J or Lost Universe or Fatal Fury. But Kimagure Orange Road? No, man. That was 1980s anime design 101. Just look at that fashion!

The story goes that our protagonist Kyosuke Kasuga moves into a new town with his two sisters, father, and big chungus-sized cat. They're a family of ESPers (psychics) and they constantly have to move around because nobody in the family can keep from using their powers in public and causing a commotion. So one day, Kyosuke has a meet-cute with a mysterious girl who lets him keep her hat...

Aw crap, where's Lynne Thigpen when you need her...

Watching this show made me feel uncomfortably like I was watching Doug on Nickelodeon. I know a lot of romantic comedies from the '00s made their bread and butter by competing to have the most irredeemably-unwatchable male lead, but Kyosuke is just pathetic. Just a bundle of learned helplessness and noncommittal attitudes. Every time he gets dunked on, it feels massively deserved. Every time he gets an olive branch, it feels way too generous.

Anyway, this girl's name is Madoka, alias "Madoka The Pick". She's got a reputation for being the baddest delinquent at school, plays a mean alto saxophone, and earned her name by being able to use a guitar pick as a deadly weapon against hooligans five times her size.

You'd think her reputation would start to spread in such a small town and everyone would just avoid girls with long black hair on principle...

This is a good moment to point out Madoka's friend Hikaru, standing right next to her. She's the other part to this show's formula. See, Hikaru is Madoka's friend and somehow gets it into her head that Kyosuke is trying to date her. Kyosuke doesn't tell her he's not trying to date her, but he did set his eyes on Madoka from the get-go. The following is a comedy of errors where Hikaru drags Kyosuke on a leash while he tries to appeal to Madoka.

Gotta be honest, it frustrates me that the crux of this show is that Kyosuke doesn't have the heart to tell Hikaru he's into her friend and not her. Even as a kid, I'd look at Tenchi Muyo and think, "I don't get it, all he has to say is he doesn't wanna marry anyone, how do you get a whole show out of this?".

Hikaru's worst sin is being kinda loud and not very bright, it makes Kyosuke look a lot worse for not being on the up-and-up with her.

Kyosuke at least tries to do right by her, like going on a date with her when she invites him or helping her study for exams. But his efforts ultimately get sabotaged by him getting distracted by Madoka. In the first example, he spends the afternoon with her and forgot all about his date with Hikaru. In the latter, he resorts to repeating what he learned from tutoring with Madoka to Hikaru. Also, his little sisters keep messing everything up.

If Kyosuke is Doug and Madoka is Pattie Mayonnaise, these guys are weird fragments of Skeeter with all the good parts cut out.

I really don't wanna come off as harsh against Orange Road because the 1980s vibes are just lovely, but man does Kyosuke make it hard. Like I said, his failures make it so that every time Madoka does something nice for him it feels undeserved. Kyosuke makes a bad first impression with Madoka when he scolds her for smoking (although she later tones down on the cigs when she remembers how he acted). But when she finds out that he messed up dating Hikaru, I honestly wondered how she let it slide. The guy is dating your best friend, ditches her for you, and you deign it worthwhile to give him the time of day afterwards...? Even Madoka can't explain why she's so generous with the guy.

If my best friend's date was such a flake, I probably wouldn't be in a hurry to work at the same café as them or tutor them for exams.

It still feels like a lot of slack to give a guy with no outward merits. Provided, Kyosuke does have good intentions, but through one way or another shows his worst side. One of my favorite character moments from him is when he has the chance to use his powers to show off and look cool in front of Madoka during a basketball game--and doesn't go through with it. Full credit for the guy wishing he did later (that felt quite humanizing), but it's a good glimpse at how principled Kyosuke is.

Yeah, the psychic powers are a weird addition here. For those too young to remember: similarly to how isekai and slavery apologia are popular trends in anime today, and a few years back we had monster girls, "little sisters", and maids as popular all-encompassing trends, the 1980s had psychics as a trend. They called them "ESPers" and they were everywhere (notable examples include Mai the Psychic Girl). This feels a little like how every anime in the mid-00s had maids in there, even if it was the most-forced inclusion ever. They just needed to have a maid in there, or face ridicule.

Damn, that's a good cat. 10/10. What an absolute unit of a lad.

I had only just managed to wipe that scene from my memory.

But now while I'm traumatized, I would also like to point out to the JoJo fans in our audience: our boy Kyosuke has you covered.

Madoka definitely stands head-and-shoulders above many of the other Premium Girls of anime by virtue of having, um... a well-rounded personality. It's not that she's just arbitrarily hot-and-cold, like Naru Narusegawa, or is a tough girl who's just soft on someone like Lum. Madoka is gentle and sweet, but doesn't have patience for boorish oafs or people who waste her time. Small wonder people think she's a delinquent, she doesn't bother playing the Jr High social game. She's ahead of the curve.

Don't worry, Kimagure Orange Road. I won't hold it against you if you don't give Kyosuke nipples. That said, I think Madoka being more mature than her years or the standards of the genre would normally find is why I have such a bizarre reaction to this series. I'm more used to either everyone in a romance being fairly dense, or everyone being fairly smart (albeit emotional). Here, our hapless protagonist is finding himself having to deal with a paramour who laps him in maturity.

Many fans of harem romances make the argument that the protagonist "gets better". And I know a lot of people who really wave the banner on Rent-A-Girlfriend--they like the protag being as pathetic as he is because they appreciate the growth he makes. (I've had more than a few pleasant conversations with those people, more power to 'em.) Gripes aside, Kimagure Orange Road ultimately gets my nod because Kyosuke isn't a horribly irredeemable lout (although our first glimpse is that Madoka can do way better). Kyosuke's progress may be "two steps forward, one step back", but clearly there's something about him that Madoka likes and appreciates enough to give him the time of day.

Kimagure Orange Road is a pillar of the romantic genre for a reason, and it's not all on just nostalgia for 80s imagery. There's some genuine emotion here, and the series is a genuine wistful summer romance.

Same here. I don't feel good saying that Kimagure Orange Road is a little too slow for me, because this series is a classic. But I guess the same way it's easier to just emulate a FM Synthesizer with a 2020 Korg keyboard, there's no shame in preferring one of KOR's subsequent offspring for pacing alone. I wholeheartedly recommend this to older fans and folks who are curious, it's such a gift that KOR is available on Retrocrush. But there's no shame in preferring to watch ToraDora or Waiting in the Summer after a few episodes.

At the very least, look up the intros for Kimagure Orange Road, because they are peak 1980s vibes and they slap.

You take that fashion dissing back or so help me God, you'll be wearing this saxophone for a hat.