Rating: 
Summary: Not my cup of tea.
Review: I've seen debates about harem comidies on message boards. An old favorite that often comes up is how the guys in shows like Ranma 1/2 or Love Hina always seem to fall for the violent, untalented, and unfeminine girl rather than that really cute one that just wants the main character to be happy? I can't answer the question, except to say that the "nice" girls wins out here, and it left me an empty feeling.
Karou is a standard college student who does the decent thing and helps a girl (Aoi) at a train station fix her sandal strap. It turns out they were betrothed as children, but her family called it off. Now she still loves him and is willing to ditch her family for that to happen. So far so good, then things crap out.
Instead of living the poor college student life she's never know, and friend steps in and provides a place to stay provided it is as landlord and tennant to the public. So any tension that might be caused by a difficult situation are out the window. Then in later volumes a few other girls talk their way into being tennants themselves, all of whom are making eyes at Karou. Again, this might have been good, but it's clear from the outset that they don't have a chance. Karou and Aoi are madly in love and nothing will break them apart, there isn't even the illusion that they might not have a happy ending.
The comedy is standart harem comedy fare with ackward situations, accidental nudity, and gimicky behaviour. While I'm a sucker for a good romance, happily ever ater came far to early. If you've never seen a harem comedy before you might appriciate this more than I did. Otherwise, this show is for people that think The Stepford Wives is a traing manual for women.
Rating: 
Summary: Not your average cutesy romance drama
Review: Okay, so this is another series where there are lots of cute girls surrounding a central 'doesn't quite know how to deal with girls' guy figure. Yes, that's a well-canvassed storyline. But don't let that basis for Ai Yori Aoshi fool you into thinking it's a same-old same-old. Far from it. Kaoru, our leading guy, has more depth than you may at first give him credit for. This becomes more apparent as the series progresses, and it's well worth looking out for. As for Aoi- she's quite unlike any anime heroine I've come across before. She has a strong but lighthearted devotion to Kaoru, and her mission in life is pretty much just to make him happy, thus securing her own happiness. Again, don't let that fool you. Her character has a sensitivity and maturity that the typical busty, stick-thin and crazily energetic anime girl lacks. I found myself growing increasingly attatched to her as a character as the series progressed. The humour is pretty comparable with the usual anime fare- a mix of slapstick and risque situations provide the laughs, and do surprisingly well at it, in fact. Voice acting is good, my only real complaint being that Kaoru and Aoi say each others names a little too often. I think the cuteness of it lets them off the hook most of the time though. Lighthearted and easy-going? Yes. Amusing and entertaining? Indeed so. Addictive? I found it very addictive myself. I guess it depends on whether romantic cliff-hangers get you intrigued or not. They work on me! And the animation is not to be laughed at: it's quite simply beautiful, flawless and fluid and full of gorgeous colours. A nice feature for any anime. All in all, a charming and adorable series with good character development, a welcome splash of depth, and a knack for knocking you out of complacency every now and then with a surprising reality-check. If you enjoy romantic dramas, and fancy something a little bit different from the norm, I advise you to give this one a go. You'd be hard pressed to do much better, and you could do a lot worse. Oh, and (importantly, I think) the ending is satisfying and cute. ^_^
Rating: 
Summary: it's sad and then it's funny...
Review: overlook the t&a and ignore Aoi-chan's constant apologizing (doormat is a really good description of her) and how useless Karou is. you will find a really funny story and also a very touching sad one too. the two of them have tons of issues, and if it were real life they'd be in therapy. and all the other characters all make for a complicated situation. well worth watching.
Rating:
Summary: Ai Yori Aoshi is NOT the n-th Love Hina/Oh My Goddess-clone!
Review: Really; it's not. I heard many people seeing the first 6 episodes, noticing Aoi's submissive nature and seeing Tina and Taeko entering the equation, and the end result of said people's equation is: "Oh, this is Love Hina with a twist, right?" or "I saw OMG and Aoi has less of a spine than Belldandy has!" Sorry guys, but I beg to differ.
First of all: Kaoru is nothing like Keitaro or Keichi: the only thing they have in common is the first letter of their given name. Kaorufs character has balls; he knows what he wants, lives on his own and had the courage to leave his family where he had a solid future as the sole inheritant of the Hanabishi Company and fortune. But he chose not to. Aoi is submissive, yes. She will do anything for her beloved Kaoru. But that has some reasons: she was raised that way, following the Japanese tradition of the arranged marriage, and the fact that they played together when they were little helped contribute to that. But Aoi isnft Belldandy; she knows what she wants, has the courage to get away from her powerful family to reach one of her goals and she knows how to play her guardian Miyabi to get what she wants. I have watched the whole series two times, and Ifm currently watching it for the third time off of DVD. The music is great and makes my heart melt, every time I listen to the soundtrack. On a side note; I refuse to listen to the English dub, so I donft know if they changed the music on the dub track. The reason for this is that Aoifs English voice doesnft fit her at all and when I tried it, I began to tremble in agony, reaching for the remote to reset the language to Japanese again. I know the English VAfs generally try their best to give the characters a good voice, but this one doesnft cut the mustard for me. About the episodes: True; the series start off with quite a serious tone, telling the initial stories of Kaoru and Aoi and why they lived their lives until the point where we start to watch the story and after 8 episodes, the story seems to go dependant of the fanservice. But not all is what it seems, and I urge everyone who turned it down because of that, to give the series a second try. The songs Towa no Hana (Eternal Flower; series OP) and Namo Shirenu Hana (Anonymous Flower; series ED) contribute perfectly to the series magic and I recommend this series to anyone who likes this genre of anime, because itfs just a great series. Technically; the release is great. Colours are clean and crisp, no cross-coloration or aliasing occurred while playing the discs on my region-free Philips DVD622 dvd-player.
The menus are responding quickly and switching to a sub-menu is done with animations short enough to keep them from being annoying. The menus themselves are made as photographs, with the options on the border of the photographs.
Audio tracks and subtitle tracks can be chosen independently of each other; you can decide if you want to see it in English or Japanese, either with or without subs covering all translations or just things as signs. If you're into romantic comedies; buy this one. You won't be sorry.
Rating:
Summary: Highest recommendation - very well done series!
Review: Right off the bat, I want to say that there is blatant trickery involved here. Many people bought this series expecting a certain type of show, only to find out that it wasn't like that at all. I was one of those people. And I couldn't be happier. The blessing and the curse of Ai Yori Aoshi is another series called "Love Hina". Many people buy AYA because of 'also recommended' links when they buy LH. The problem is that the synopsis is identical, but the two series are VERY different. Common storyline: When they were children, (male and female lead characters) promised to get together as adults and spend their lives together. They are separated for years, and meet again as college age adults who barely recognize each other. But due to strange circumstances, they end up in a huge house with four other women who also have an interest in (male character). Can (male character) resist all the distractions and get together with (childhood sweetheart) in the end? I imagine two copies of this synopsis being printed and one handed to a group of writers from Baywatch and one handed to the makers of a BBC period costume drama. Then after the scripts were written, a page or two got swapped out of each finished script. At first horrified, each group read the mixed up script and decided they liked it better that way, so they left the mismatched stuff in. So, Love Hina becomes a slapstick jigglefest with a wee bit of a love story. And Ai Yori Aoshi becomes a powerful, deeply moving romance. (...) And one last comparison and I'll let LH rest (because that's a review on its own)... in LH they make no great effort at backstory - we're barely into the first episode when they start introducing the 'other' female characters - but in AYA, they spend the first 4 episodes purely on developing the romantic relationship and (very important to the plot) history of the two lead characters. As a result, in LH, I found that I considered at least two of the other females to be a better match for the guy (in fact, found myself hoping that he would trade up in the sequel. [Shrug] no such luck...). But in AYA, there was never any doubt that there was only one romance, despite whatever else was going on. AYA is visually stunning - they often go the extra mile in making lush, scenic backgrounds and highly detailed artwork. The background music is consistently on cue with the action, actually enhancing rather than distracting from the story. As a certified large hairy guy, I am not often found having a strong emotional reaction to a movie, but at least twice watching this I had tears in my eyes. (...) As a final note, I have to point out that throughout the show, the directors most often went for simple and subtle rather than flashing-neon-sign-hey-lookee-here mode, and that was greatly to their benefit. I will remember the moment in the train station where Aoi first shyly rests one hand, then the other, on Karou's shoulder while he is fixing her sandal long, long after the clichéd lovers-gazing-into-each-other's-eyes-at-sunset thrust upon us by so many other movies. Pros:
Breaks most of the stereotypes of the genre and actually has a REAL romance - and doesn't insult the intelligence of the viewer while doing it. Amazingly, the other females in the story actually have well-explained reasons for falling for Karou, and instead of cluttering up the story, actually enhances the character development. Cons:
Well, folks, it's an anime. (...) On the other hand, every adult female (Other than Aoi's mother, who escapes jiggle duty due to her indeterminate advanced age) is definitely female in profile view...
Rating:
Summary: Cliche plot, but yet...
Review: The Story: In Tokyo, there are two very well respected families, the Hanabishi and the Sakuraba. And eight-year-old Sakuraba Aoi is destined to be married to eight-year-old Hanabishi Kaoru when they grow up. So, the two families decided that if they are to be married, they need to befriend each other first. Unfortunately, as they start to develop a liking for each other, something happened between the Hanabishi and the Sakuraba that both didn't want anything to do with each other. Aoi's parents thought that Aoi would easily forget Kaoru as any child forget things. They were wrong. Aoi loved Kaoru and she hoped that he will come back for her. After waiting ten years, Aoi ran away from home to live in Tokyo to search for Kaoru. After finding Kaoru by accident (Kaoru was actually helping her since she arrived ^_^), the two lovers reunite happily. Of course, Aoi's mother rejected the option that Aoi will marry Kaoru. But she tries to be nice to Aoi and let Aoi and Kaoru live in the Sakuraba summer home for a while... with her lifelong maid, Miyabi (who hates Kaoru). Unfortunately for the two lovers, three (yes, three) women wanted to live under the same roof as Kaoru (Tina, Taeko, and Mayu). Will Aoi convince Kaoru that they are destined to be married? Watch it to find out... The review: Yeah, I can see the words form in your head as the storyline ends, "How ... did the story changes from a romantic drama to another Love Hina storyline!?" Sure, the story is cliched, but Ai Yori Aoshi pulled it off beautifully. Great characters with good personalities to back them up. If you want romantic comedy (and have watched to death your Love Hina and Tenchi Muyo!s), Ai Yori Aoshi is a great choice to fill your needs. [NOTE: Ai Yori Aoshi contains some ecchi.] Recommended for people who enjoyed: Love Hina, Tenchi Muyo! and the billion other one-guy-five-girls anime titles.
Rating:
Summary: Love or Hate this movie
Review: This anime is very cute in my opinion! But if you don't like gushy love stories STEER CLEAR! It is driven by character lines not action, and in my opinion Tina Foster is THE WORST! I was watching my dvd earlier and wanted one of them to get her.... or I was gonna do it myself. Anyway, one other thing i didn't like about this anime was their focus on breasts. But for the girls Kaoru is very cute, and he's very funny. Again, if you like gushy romancey stuff, (i usually don't) don't get this anime, that's why there are some people that hate it, and some people who love it.
Rating:
Summary: Touching
Review: This anime was extremely touching. The romance between the two main characters does something to you and doesn't let go. Even though after about the fourth episode, it becomes clear that this is going to be an anime that is similar to Love Hina, I still like it a lot. It's entertaining watching the other girls show up and its also quite obvious that the main guy character isn't going to fall for any of them. The one gripe I do have is with the american girl who is constantly grabbing other girl's chest. who is their right mind would do that? No one!! This is obviously thrown in for the sake of fanboy eye candy but like I said, this does little to take away from the main storyline. The characters of this show are extremly compelling and I, someone who greatly dislikes romances, found myself moved to tears and some points of the show. The two main characters Aoi and Kaoru show us what it means to be young and in love.
Rating:
Summary: Good Story, Excessive Fanservice
Review: This DVD contains the first five episodes of the popular series "Ai Yori Aoshi". Pioneer has actually done a DVD right, but more on that in a bit. The story is about Aoi and Kaoru and their love. Both come from powerful Japanese families and were engaged as children in an arranged marriage. However, Kaoru leaves his family to attend college in Tokyo against their wishes. They call off the engagement much to Aoi's dismay. Despite not having seen him since childhood, she's been raised to be Kaoru's wife, so she goes to Tokyo to find out what went wrong. The love story between Aoi and Kaoru is sweet and touching. Some American's may not understand why Aoi would want to be the perfect housewife for Kaoru, and so may hate this title for that reason alone. But for her, this is what she wants -- a traditional household. That aside, the first four episodes cover about 48 hours of the young couple's reunion. The fifth episode has the couple getting a greenlight to live together with a HUGE caveat. You'll have to watch to see what that is. While there is some fanservice in the first four episodes, it goes to the extreme when the character of Tina is added to the cast. The fanservice (gratuitous shots of girls in their panties, revealing outfits, nudity, jiggling breasts, etc.) is the only negative to this series. If you thought "Hand Maid May" has a lot of fanservice, this series has TONS more! It is all uncalled for and screws with what otherwise would be a perfect romantic-comedy. As to the DVD, Pioneer actually does this one right! Usually I complain about how they subtitle their titles. This time, they use ALL Japanese honorifix in the subtitles which is great. I know some people don't like this, but honorifix don't translate well into English. The honorifix are needed because it helps you to understand how the characters relate to each other. Japanese are big on a hierarchy system in their society and since this is a Japanese title, keeping this helps the viewer get a better understanding of the Japanese in general as well as the characters in the story. The English dub is also well done, though there are a few rough spots, especially with Tina. Some of the honorifix survive in the English dub including "sempai". The "-dono" honorific gets translated as "Sir" which didn't really fit. At times "-sama" is translated (for Aoi when her keeper calls her "Lady Aoi") and at times it isn't (when Aoi calls Kaoru "Kaoru-sama"). The "-kun" suffix is dropped totally from the English dub but I don't mind since I appreciate the attempt on Pioneer's part. Bottom line: Great romance story to beat "Oh My Goddess" but the excessive fanservice will be a turnoff for some folks. Those who watch subtitles should really appreciate the job done here to include the honorifix, and the Engish dub is good too. Recommended for most anime fans, especially those who like harem romantic-comedy titles.
Rating:
Summary: Good show, but....
Review: This is a beautifully done series with great voice acting, but it failed to grab my interest completely. I have read the first few manga books, and the anime is close enough (if not word for word) that it got boring after a while. Towards the end of the dvd I found myself watching it for the gorgeous animation, and not for the story. I hadn't even been paying attention to the dialogue at this point. Now don't get me wrong-this is a good series, otherwise I wouldn't be reading the manga. Don't let the fact that it bored me stop you from watching it if you are really interested. I was given this dvd as a gift, and the giver just didn't know exactly what kind of anime I like. And I did give it four stars.
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