Marmalade Boy - A bittersweet experience

After watching Kodomo no Omocha (aka Kodocha) I did a little research into the series and I found out that it was originally called 'Marmalade Boy on crack'. Of course, being a 1990s baby I was just about old enough to have heard of Marmalade Boy' as a TV series and to know that 'on crack' meant something hyperactive. So seeing as I had absolutely loved Kodocha (despite the fact that Sana's hyperactiveness pissed me off sometimes), I decided that I'd watch Marmalade Boy to see if it provided slightly more docile viewing. I am happy to say that it did.

While with Kodocha I spent most of the time frantically trying to turn down the volume whenever Sana had one of her fits, I found that I didn't need to do that with the protagonist of MB. As I first started watching MB in its English Dubbed form, I found that the character of Miki reminded me of someone. She was whiny, dependent, easily tricked and prone to slapping her love interest... This particular character mould reminded me of one of the series I have already reviewed and I found that she, like the protagonist of that series, was very much a marmite character. Yes, she reminded me of Himeno of Pretear.

Now, for those of you who are big fans of Miki, I apologise in advance. While I didn't mind Himeno, I found that Miki was almost unbearable. I have never heard a girl whine so much in my life; and I whine quite a lot myself. Not only that, but her constant paranoia pissed me off. You'd think that after all the times Yuu had proven himself to her she would have gotten it through her thick tomboyish skull that he was not going to end up cheating on her. However, I have to give kudos to the mangaka of the manga, she made a very believable character. While she was annoying and pathetic, I felt that she was truly realistic and I could tolerate her because of that.

As for the rest of the characters, I think my three favourites were Ginta, Arimi and Meiko. I liked Ginta because he's exactly the sort of boyfriend I'd like to have (screw Yuu, I can't deal with complicated guys), and I liked Arimi after she stopped being all sneaky and coniving. I most of all liked Meiko because she reminded me of myself. I won't go into why. But yeah, those three were my favourite characters by far; the rest just pissed me off most of the time. Sure, they're necessary for character development, but after a while it just started to annoy me. How many people want to get in the way of one couple?! It's flipping ridiculous.

The general story was quite repetitive and irritating after the first 50 or so episodes. The relationship between Yuu and Miki always seemed so precarious and after I while I just wanted to fast forward the episodes because of how tiresome it became. However, in general, the character developement was quite well done and the relationships between the main characters were complex enough for me to stay interested for the whole 76 episodes. I just wish they'd not put the whole America thing in there and just ended the series with the brother/sister thing in Japan, not America.

The art itself was kinda... well... crappy. The manga isn't bad, but the anime was terrible. Their figures reminded me of stick men and I thought that their legs would snap in half before of how ridiculously skinny they all looked. That and the clothes were like those of the 1980s, not the 1990s. The drawings were alright, but it was obvious that showing character emotions was a difficulty for the anime staff. There were only ever four expressions they could pull: blank, sad, happy or shocked. There was no inbetween. But, I guessed that I should expect that from an early 1990s anime.

The soundtrack was quite bland and generic, using the same songs over and over again. While it's okay some of the time, they should have maybe given things a bit more variety and not used the same two of three songs for every cliffhanger moment. And... oh god, I've got one of those fucking songs stuck in my head now.

Anyway, that's pretty much it for Marmalade boy. It's not bad, but it's not great. It had its uber-sweet moments, but it had its seriously low points that made me want to bash my head in. It's not that bad to watch just for japes, but it's not something I'd seriously recommend watching.

Sayonara for now!