Ai Yori Aoshi

Plot

Kaoru Hanabishi, a university student, is the eldest son of Yūji Hanabishi, the head of the Hanabishi Zaibatsu, and was set to take over the zaibatsu after his father retired. His mother, Kumi Honjō, and his father never married, making life difficult for both him and his mother. Kaoru's father died when he was five years old. Since then, Yūji's father, Gen'ichiro Hanabishi, took Kaoru under his wing and began educating him for the eventual succession. However, Kaoru never felt at home in the Hanabishi family and exiled himself after his mother's death. Day by day he felt alone, thinking that he was living life with no reason pushing him on.

There was, however, a person who loved Kaoru so much that she had to do whatever was necessary to be with him. Her name is Aoi Sakuraba. Aoi is the only daughter of the owner of the Sakuraba Dry Goods Store (later renamed to Sakuraba Department Store). Kaoru's family and Aoi's family had expected for Kaoru to marry Aoi, but after Kaoru left, the marriage was canceled. Both families had a friendly relationship and Aoi had been in love with Kaoru from the start, which Kaoru was unaware of. The Sakuraba family had already been searching for someone suitable, but Aoi was unwilling to marry someone else and walked out, chasing Kaoru.

Both were freed from their families' affairs but did not know how to make their living. Miyabi Kagurazaki, Aoi's caretaker, has Aoi live together in a grand western style summer mansion owned by the Sakuraba family and Kaoru would live in a house for servants next to it to prevent a scandal as with the previous. They are soon joined by Tina Foster, an American expatriate; Taeko Minazuki, a clumsy housekeeper; Mayu Miyuki, Kaoru's childhood friend; and Chika Minazuki, Taeko's cousin. The house is eventually converted to a dormitory and Aoi becomes its landlady.

Eventually, Miyabi helps Kaoru reconcile with the Hanabishis and patch up the original engagement. However, Kaoru's half brother attempts to gain control of the Hanabishi Zaibatsu by proposing to Aoi. After Kaoru foils the proposal, Aoi abandons her family name and Kaoru gives the ownership of Hanabishi Zaibatsu to his half-brother. Five years later, Kaoru and Aoi are married.

Manga

Written and illustrated by Kou Fumizuki, the manga was originally serialized in 1998 in Hakusensha's Young Animal magazine. The first volume was published and released in Japan by Hakusensha on May 28, 1999, with 17 volumes the last was released on December 20, 2005. In English the series was released by Tokyopop. Book one was released in January 2004 with the last book being released in October 2007.

The series has also been licensed in Europe (Non English Releases), Asia, and Middle America. In Europe, the series was licensed in French by Pika Édition, in German by EMA, and in Spanish by Norma Editorial. For Asia the series was licensed in Chinese by Jonesky, in Korean by Daiwon CI, and in Russian by Sakura Press. In North America the series has been published in Mexico by Grupo Editorial Vid.

Anime

An anime adaptation of the manga was produced by J.C.Staff and directed by Masami Shimoda. Broadcast on Fuji TV, it premiered on April 10, 2002, and aired weekly until its conclusion on September 25, 2002, spanning twenty-four episodes. Most of the music for the series was composed by Toshio Masuda. Three pieces of theme music were used in the anime series. "Towa no Hana" (永遠の花, lit. Eternal Flower) performed by Yoko Ishida is the opening theme. "Na mo Shirenu Hana" (名も知れぬ花, lit. Unknown Flower) performed by The Indigo is the ending theme used for all the episodes except one; "I'll Be Home" performed by Satsuki Yukino is the ending theme for eighteenth episode. In Japan, it was released across eight Region 2 DVD compilation volumes. Geneon Entertainment also licensed the series for English-language dubbed release.

J.C. Staff produced a second season titled Ai Yori Aoshi: Enishi (藍より青し ～縁～), directed by Masami Shimoda. Broadcast on independent UHF stations, it premiered on October 2003 and ran weekly until its conclusion on December 28, 2003, spanning twelve episodes. The second season of anime adaptation uses three pieces of theme music. "Takaramono" (たからもの, lit. Treasure) performed by Yoko Ishida is the opening theme. "I Do!" is the first ending theme performed by The Indigo. "Presence" performed by The Indigo is the second ending theme. The series was released across three Region 2 DVD compilations in Japan. Geneon also licensed the series for English-language dubbed release.

A sixteen-minute special known as "Episode 00", "Beautiful Snow", or "Enishi Christmas Special" was also made. It includes all of the main characters, but it treats them as having never having met before (save Kaoru and Tina) and is a very fantasy-based episode. The episode appears to be set at Christmas a year or two before the first episode of Ai Yori Aoshi. The special was dubbed in English and on the First Enishi DVD release.

At Anime Expo 2010, North American anime distributor Funimation announce that they have rescued both Ai Yori Aoshi and Enishi along with other former Geneon releases and will be re-released in 2011. Funimation will release the completes series under the Anime Classics label on July

Video games

KID Corp. published a PlayStation 2 video game based on the series in 2003, and was released in English for Windows PCs by Hirameki International. That game was re-released in 2005 by SUCCESS Corporation with bonus footage and mini-games.

Reception

Ai Yori Aoshi did well with its English manga release, with book one ranking number 45 on the top 50 Manga's sold of that month. With an estimated 3,329 books sold, the series peaked at number 18 of 100 with Volume 6 but soon fell out of the top 100 list for the other releases. The last volume ended at number 66 out of 100 on the sales list.

As for reviews the manga has been described as "fun to read" and a "good solid romance story". Adam Beck of Advanced media Network anime pointed out however that some volumes lack dialogue but a good dialogue translation was done by tokyopop.

The first anime season had mixed reviews from people. It has also been described however as a "split personality" anime as half of it wants to be a serious, dramatic romance with a dash of comedy and the other half wants to be a One Guy/Lots of Girls slapstick harem show. Despite that the artwork has been labeled as "stunning" with its artwork and the theme music got a good review.