Comments on: Manga Before Flowers — Itazura na Kiss & Contemporary Shojo

By: Picks for Right Stuf’s DMP Sale! | Manga Bookshelf

Picks for Right Stuf’s DMP Sale! | Manga Bookshelf — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:13:43 +0000

[...] grow as an artist and a storyteller.” As for Itazura na Kiss, I think Danielle Leigh’s fantastic write-up of the anime series says it all. Though, as I’ve said, these are titles I can’t yet [...]

By: Mick

Mick — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 15:35:18 +0000

It seems quite interesting

By: MangaBlog » Blog Archive » PR: Digital snares Itazura na Kiss

MangaBlog » Blog Archive » PR: Digital snares Itazura na Kiss — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 03:07:02 +0000

[...] Itazura na Kiss, a classic 1990s shoujo manga that has quite a following; both Lianne Sentar and Danielle Leigh have sung the praises of the anime. The first volume will be out in November, the second in March [...]

By: karen

karen — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 07:06:12 +0000

where can we buy the manga comicbook version (in English)? there aren’t any in amazon and ebay. your reply would be valuable

By: Back to the blog! · Manga News

Back to the blog! · Manga News — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 07:53:15 +0000

[...] of shoujo, Danielle Leigh discusses Itazura na Kiss, both the manga and the anime based on it, and explains how the manga introduced [...]

By: MangaBlog » Blog Archive » Back to the blog!

MangaBlog » Blog Archive » Back to the blog! — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 11:53:54 +0000

[...] of shoujo, Danielle Leigh discusses Itazura na Kiss, both the manga and the anime based on it, and explains how the manga introduced [...]

By: anime and manga « Cynjo’s TechNook

anime and manga « Cynjo’s TechNook — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 01:09:26 +0000

[...] Manga Before Flowers – Itazura na Kiss & Contemporary Shojo [...]

By: thirstygirl

thirstygirl — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 19:35:17 +0000

I was introduced to Itazura via the Taiwanese tv series It Started With A Kiss, which is one of the [few] very very good* Taiwanese dramas I have seen, the other one being Mars, starting Vic Zhou. This is one of the shoujo anime series that hasn’t let me down this season- as I find both Vampire Knight and Special A utterly cringe-worthy and wasn’t able to bear watching more than two episodes**.

What I like about it is Irie’s desire to do something other than what his family wants and I think it’s party of the reason he pushes Kotoko away-> she’s just falling into the expected path and not really choosing him. Plus she really is very stupid – which I feel is a legitimate concern- and very very ordinary. I Liked the fact that he didn’t get instantly smitten.

*normally they have very good stories and then ruin them through the combination of hideous production values, rampant plot-holing and or extremely broad slapstick humour inserted at inappropriate moments.
** The second episode to see whether I had been over-reacting and maybe it was ok after all- Nope, still dreadful.

By: Danielle Leigh

Danielle Leigh — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 20:05:13 +0000

hi Grico — I can’t claim that the “forced to live to together” trope hadn’t been used before but I suspect Itazura na Kiss probably popularized it greatly.

By: Grico

Grico — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 18:35:57 +0000

Does this series originate the “boy and girl love interests are forced to live in the same house for a contrived reason” shojo cliche? Marmalade Boy had that basis as well but started in 1992, 2 years after it. The anime Seraphim Call has a great episode on that plot element cliche.