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Now in Japan
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Thursday, 11 January 2007 00:00 |
 If you took MariMite and crossed it with Kasimasi, the end result wouldn't be a million miles away from Otomo wa Boku ni Koishiteru. When the decidedly male Mizuho Miyanokouji is sent to join a prestigious all-girl academy, he has to dress the part to make sure he fits in with the girls. In fact, he fits in almost too well, and that soon leads to all sorts of problems...
1 - A Prince with Lipstick
When Mizuho Miyanokouji's grandfather died, he left an unusual request in his will: that Mizuho attend the same school as his mother, the prestigious Seiou Academy. The problem? Seiou's an all-girls school, and Mizuho's a guy. A little makeover work by childhood friend and Seiou student Mariya Mikado, though, and Mizuho looks as feminine as you could ever hope to see, and so his adventures in highschool begin - and Mariya's done such a good job that the beautiful new student's soon the talk of the school. All the attention he gets from his fellow students soon begins to cause a few problems, however, while not all the students are pleased at the competition...
2 - An Inerasable Eraser
It's Mizuho first full day of classes, and classmate Shion soon strikes up a conversation with her. The two exchange erasers as a token of their new friendship, but Shion's a smart girl and quickly figures out Mizuho's secret. Fortunately, she promises to keep quiet about what she's discovered. Meanwhile, Mizuho's fame at the school continues to grow (great grades! outstanding athlete!), leading to speculation that (s)he'll be elected Elder for the year - a possibility that gets student council president Takako (who'd rather have the title for herself) really riled...
Mizuho's mother had died before he really got to know her, but since she was one of the school's most loved students, the principal agrees to allow Mizuho in. The rest of the staff seem to be in on the secret as well, but other than Mariya the student body has to remain oblivious to the male in their midst - hence the Tootsie routine to get Mizuho to fit right in. If anything, the makeover has worked rather too well, at least in terms of appearance - it's only Mizuho's forms of speech (he still slips into a male style, by way of habit) that stops the illusion being complete, and that's what tips Shion off. There's also the small problem of that part of the male anatomy that has a mind of its own when surrounded by beautiful girls - which isn't helped by Mariya's tendency to flaunt herself around Mizuho and really tease the poor guy. The old "childhood friend who'd rather be something more" story makes an appearance again.
The fun / torture for Mizuho (depends on your point of view) really begins when Shion and Mariya get together, and poor Mizuho becomes little more than a plaything. There's a lot of fun to be had watching those two bounce off each other and molest Mizuho - it certainly helps keep the show's fanservice level high.
As for the other characters... there's Hisako-sensei, Mizuho's homeroom teacher with the very sweet tooth; Yukari, a very energetic junior student who "sprogs" for Mariya in the dorms; Kana, another junior student who looks after Mizuho and could almost be mistake for Azumanga Daioh's Chiyo-chan in the way she behaves (kawaii!); Takako, the student council president who's a little too ambitious for her own good and has a long-running rivalry with Mariya; and Kimie, Takako's glasses-wearing sidekick. The opening animation tells me there are more characters yet to be introduced, as well, but that's enough to be getting on with for now. (What this "sprog", you ask? Back when I was a boarding school student, many moons ago, we also had the arrangement where senior students each had a junior student to slave after them. The juniors were called "sprogs". Yukari and Kana are filling that role for Mariya and Mizuho, and since the show doesn't give it a specific name I've gone with what I would call it. Same idea as MariMite's soeurs, at that. Kana seems almost insulted when Mizuho tells her she doesn't need to serve him - I'd have been positively overjoyed...)
I'm sure there are plenty more embarassing situations for Mizuho to find himself in - I'm waiting to see what happens when the inevitable swimming class comes around, myself. There are certainly no shortages of possibilities. The animation style of the show is almost more what you'd expect from a shoujo series (fanservice moments aside) - bright, fluffy, and occasionally framed in flowers. All very pleasing on the eye, and while the story isn't exactly a laugh a minute it's certainly enjoyable enough.
The only real problem is that there are 101 other highschool comedies out there, and even the sort-of shoujo-ai undertones aren't anything unusual now, so Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteru isn't doing anything to really make it stand out from the crowd. I'm still planning on sticking with it, though - hopefully it'll throw a few surprises into the mix before the end of its run. When it comes to recommending it... it's certainly worth a look, but don't be expecting anything outstanding. |
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