Eleven years after this anime originally premiered, I finally watched it for the first time two days ago on Tubi TV and I absolutely fell in love with it. It ended up binge watching all 25 episodes in two days. It seemed familiar to me because years ago I read a well-written Sailor Moon fanfic called It Started with A Photo but I had no idea it was based off of this anime. The plot for this beautiful, well drawn anime is seventeen year old high school senior Kotoko Aihara finally muster up the courage to write a love letter to tell her long time high school crush Naoki Irie she loves him. When she presents the letter to him at school, he immediately rejects her letter in front of the entire school. One of her friends Kin, who also has loved Kotoko for years in a one-side love too, calls out Noaki for rejecting her and not accepting her letter. Noaki says he doesn't date stupid girl and laughs when Kotoko admits she's stupid when trying to defend herself against his insult. Later on, she's having dinner with her father in their new home. A 2.0 earthquake hits Japan and their house is destroyed because her father had it built with cheap material. Her father's high school friend feels sorry for their misfortune and invites them to live with his family at their home in an affluent part of Tokyo. His name is Mr. Irie and Kotoko thinks it's a mere coincidence that he shares the same last name Irie as Noaki and grows nervous when her father tells her his eldest son was her age and attended the same school as her. She realizes she's now living in the home of her high school crush Noaki, his parents, and his genius nine-year-old little brother Yuuki. From that moment on drama and crazy antics begin on Kotoko's quest to win to Noaki's affection.
The anime covers about fifteen years of their lives from high school, college, marriage, and parenthood within 25 episodes starting from age seventeen to their early thirties. Two other important characters are Mrs. Irie who is Noaki's meddling mom and plays matchmaker always encouraging his son to get together with Kotoko to his irritation and Kin who is determine to make something out of himself in the world to prove himself worthy of marrying Kotoko one day. Mrs. Irie plays as a plot device constantly pushing the story forward dealing with a stubborn son Noaki and an insecure Kotoko. There are three significant episodes in this anime: Episode 7 "Spiteful Kiss, Episode 14 "Greatest Kiss", and Episode 19 "Crazy For You" because each episode marks a turning point in their relationship. The character of Noaki is a genius, popular, and handsome. He's the smartest kid in their class and the smartest student in Japan. He has a photographic memory and remembers everything so he doesn't have to study. Everything comes easy to him so he's jaded in life, emotionally detached and almost robotic because certain feelings like jealousy and sadness are foreign to him since he never felt them before. At their high school, their class is divided by their academic aptitude from Class A being the smartest and brightest students with Class F being the academic failures and dumbest students. Naoki is in Class A while Kotoko is in Class F. Kotoko is stupid, goofy, a klutz, and a horrible cook but she's loveable and has a good heart. You can't help but root for her even though she does a lot of silly things with good intentions. Kotoko causes chaos in Naoki's life and she makes his life interesting. In the series, he comes across as mean and cold-hearted to her, always teasing her or mocking her. But in actuality, he adores her. Yet, he doesn't know how to express his feelings for her without being mean to her. Kotoko continues to pursue him for over a year without realizing she already won. He could have gone to Tokyo University which is the equivalent of Harvard University in the United States in this anime. Yet, he chooses to go to the same college at her. She encourages him to become a doctor to one day help the sick little boy in the hospital they meet and befriend when Noaki's younger brother Yuuki becomes ill and has to be hospitalized. So he studies to get into medical school which he easily gets into at their university, and his dream is to become a doctor now. It isn't until he almost loses Kotoko is when he realizes himself his true feelings for her. Instead of reacting when another guy tries to pursue her and he's on the verge of losing her, he ignores her and becomes distant. It takes Kin to make him realize he's jealous. At that moment, he realizes he doesn't only love Kotoko but he needs her because with her, he can be his true self. Once he accepts his emotions and learns to accept his feelings for her, he grows into a more human and likable character.
On the polar opposite side, I know we live in a MeToo era now where such made up terminology as "toxic masculinity" is used. But sometimes, trying to be worthy of the affections of a man does make a girl become a woman and reach her full potential. Through trying to pursue Noaki and be worthy of his affection, she begins to stop seeing herself as stupid and wants to prove to Noaki she isn't dummy. She blackmails him into helping her study for their high school mid-term exam and she becomes the first student in Class F to score in the Top 50 making the fiftieth spot while Noaki made the highest score. She annoys him to death (in a very funny scene) into helping the entire Class F pass their finals and get accepted into college. While on their honeymoon in Hawaii, after he snaps at her while trying to help a deceptive wife who Kokoto knew but Noaki didn't know was after Noaki about being upset with him touching other women. She decides she wants to pursue a nursing career to work alongside him. Even though she fails her entrance exam the first time around, Noaki encourages her to keep trying until she finally passes the exam and achieves her dream of being a nurse at the same hospital as her husband. While she at first sucks at being a nursing student and a nurse, she kept trying until she became better and when push came to shove, she was able to let go of her goofy side and become serious and help others. When the series comes to end and Kokoto is on the verge of becoming a mother, one of their old college friends and also a woman who challenged Kokoto in college for Noaki's affections comes to the hospital sick and in need of surgery on the same day Kokoto goes into labor. Kokoto had made Noaki promise to be there while she gives birth and he tries to honor that promise when their old friend comes in but he was the only doctor available to operate. Kokoto tells her husband to go save their friend's life while she brings their child in the world. She even encourage the nurses to allow Noaki to operate on their friend alone knowing this would be his first solo surgery. Yet, Noaki is so smart and perfect everyone knows he'll do a great job so the head nurse reluctantly agrees. This marked a significant point in their relationship because she stops becoming insecure in their relationship and lets her husband save the life of the woman who once was her rival. So both helped the other grow into a better person.
It's a beautiful drawn and written series. Even to the three most important episodes there is so much angst and build up to those moments. Making each kiss and love scene more impactful from the journey it took them to get to that moment in their relationship. So if you want to watch a romantic dramedy or even get lost in the fantasy or the reality for others of winning the affection of your high school crush and being able to build a life with that person where each of you make the other person into a better human being, check out this anime. The music is also amazing. One of the better animes I deeply enjoyed, and had fun watching.
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