December 11th, 2012 
AstroNerdBoy Hi folks! Work pretty much makes getting anything blog-related a real chore these days, but I thought I’d get a bit of early Christmas spirit going by posting a couple of images of Aoi-chan from the awesome, romantic-comedy anime & manga series, Ai Yori Aoshi.
For those unfamiliar with this series, the story is about a young woman named SAKURABA Aoi, who was betrothed at a young age to a boy named HANABISHI Kaoru for political reasons due to both families being very powerful. As such, Aoi was raised to be the perfect wife for Kaoru. However, Kaoru left the Hanabishi family when he became an adult as he was repulsed by what they represented and what they’d done to him. This causes the betrothal to officially be broken, which causes Aoi to look for the boy she loves, but has not seen since she was a child. By coincidence, they meet at the railway station, and both find their soulmate in each other. Aoi’s mother arranges for the couple to unofficially live together in one of the Sakuraba’s Western-styled mansions, under the supervision of Aoi’s strict guardian, Miyabi-san. To maintain the illusion that Kaoru is simply a tenant, other female tenants are brought in, causing Aoi and Kaoru to have to keep their relationship a secret from everyone, but giving the girls the wrong impression that Kaoru is free for the taking.
In the manga, and as an extra on the anime DVD, there’s a prequel story of sorts were Aoi-chan, and Santa-san look identical. It is silly, but sweet at the same time (those who’ve read the manga or watched the anime will know what I mean).
I recently reread the manga for some bedtime entertainment. One day, I’m going to have to dust off my anime DVD’s that I bought ages ago and rewatch the series too. ^_^
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read it and seen it. i was disappointing with the anime not adapting the manga’s final arc.
There was one element about the final arc that was rather “meh” to me, but otherwise, yeah. I’ve wondered if the reason the final arc weren’t animated was due to the first anime series sorta covering it, but in a different way.
and after that you’ll have to watch Love Hina’s Christmas Special again ^_^
BTW A!MG the first two seasons finally showed up on Netflix dubbed. before they had only the Flights of Fancy on there I think.
Heh! Yeah, I could watch that special again. ^_^
Thanks for the info on A!MG, though I don’t watch stuff dubbed. 😛
I saw the AYA anime first (and this February will mark the 10th anniversary of when Pioneer-Geneon released the first volume on DVD) and started collecting the manga later, but got up to volume 8 before I stopped collecting. I need to start tracking down the rest of the series before they become unavailable, since Tokyopop folded and nobody has rescue-licensed it.
That’s how it was for me too — anime first, then the manga (which was translated by the Twins, IIRC).
I’m surprised no one picked up Ai Yori Aoshi manga as a license rescue.
I need to read the manga yet, I’ve only seen the anime (and only recently for the Enishi portion at least). Though I’m more of a Taeko fan than an Aoi fan, though she’s still adorable. 😛
It’s a little surprising that the manga wasn’t license-rescued. I thought it did pretty well sales-wise, but it is a seinen title and does have a lot of nudity in it.
It was a Tokyopop title, right? Has any of their old titles been picked up come to think of it? I’m shocked that Fruits Basket of all titles haven’t been rescued, come to think of it. I’ll have to hold out hope on both of these I guess.
Yeah, it was a TP title.