While Itazura na Kiss isn’t one of the series being covered on this site, I’ve been following it ever since it started airing back in April. Back then, I got a bit overambitious when I started blogging and tried to cover every series that I was watching and Omni wasn’t. When I had eight series under my wing, I stopped myself though, which just so happened to be on a Friday—the day that Itazura na Kiss airs. So for those wondering, this is the reason why continued coverage of this series, BLASSREITER, and Kamen no Maid Guy never saw the light of day back in spring.

In any case, being a romance comedy, I kind of figured Itazura na Kiss would be my kind of show back then and having Mizuki Nana starring in a series never hurts either. What surprised me though is that the series is relatively popular amongst current generation anime fans (which doesn’t include me since I’m kind of old school), despite the 1990’s style character designs. Anyway, I had to put this series on hold while I was on vacation in Japan and am still catching up when I can, but the second ending theme grew on me almost instantly when I heard it. Now before people start jumping on my case that this isn’t new anymore, I’ll make it clear now that I’m already aware of that fact. However, I only came across this PV somewhat recently when I was checking what came out during the past summer season, so I thought I’d share my findings for those who don’t actively look for anime-related PVs.

As for some background information, AZU made her club debut when she was sixteen years old, but only made her major debut last year with the release of her first single, CHERISH. Prior to that, she was part of a unit with EILYSH (pronounced “Eri”) and together they provided female vocals for various songs by SEAMO. It wasn’t until SEAMO’s second album with the song “Kokoro no Koe featuring AZU” 「心の声featuringAZU」 did she have a prominent singing role in a song. In the past year and a half, she’s released four singles and an album on her own, with “Jikan yo Tomare” being featured on her fourth single. In a reversal of roles, SEAMO is featured in her song now and provides a nice compliment of hip hop rap to her singing. I find that AZU has a rather pleasant voice to listen to, and as a plus, is rather easy on the eyes too. =)

According to her profile, “AZU” stands for “Conveying all the words from A to Z that describe my feelings for U (you)”. She is also 26 years old now (DoB: Dec. 8, 1981).

22 Comments

  1. This is one of my favorite shows. It kind of sucks that you don’t cover it…but oh well. I watch it anyways. The ED is really nice, it always makes me smile when I listen to it. I don’t know if its because its a nice song or because it plays at the end of every episode and most episodes end happily.

    Jimmy
  2. Thanks for the link!
    I really like Itazura Na Kiss: I am the nostalgic type and when I saw that one of my favs pure ‘traditional classical’ shoujos was adapted to TV, I was really glad, especially since the mangaka unfortunately died before finishing it ;___;
    It looks like she revealed her intentions for the ending while she was still alive and it will be shown off in the anime: I am very excited! XD

    Sherry
  3. I love Itazura na Kiss! One of the best romance comedies atm 😀 Everytime Kotoko succeeds in her love bound journey you can’t help but feel bubbly inside ^^ you just support her all the way and feel down just as she does. Not to mention with Nana Mizuki who portrays Kotoko’s feelings right down to the core. I LOVE the awkward sounds Kotoko makes they’re just so funny and nana makes her even more adorable xD
    But… Naoki, ahhh~ you’re so cold to her =[ at least he’s opening up to her 😀 was especially pleased with 20 hehe ^^
    Anyway, the song, Jikan yo Tomare, ahhhh i love listening to this on loop! It’s such a really nice ending song :DDDD Everytime the episode ends I just have to listen to the song. Lol the PV was released before the albumn so i was looping the PV on my player instead and that lagged me from time to time, but was so worth it before I got my hands on the mp3 ^___^V
    though i have to say… she has really long eyelashes xD lol! that’s the first thing i noticed. but i also love the rain, slowing down and resuming normal speed – i think? this is from memory =[ ehehe…
    InK is def worth the watch ^___^

    Furuba
  4. I think another reason that that this series is so popular is because the Taiwanese drama was a pretty big hit. I watch a lot of dramas myself, and as a huge fan of “It Started with a Kiss” (season 1) I had to support the anime. Plus, the anime combines season 1 and 2 of the drama, which is good for me because I didn’t care too much for the second season. This way, I get a nice recap of all the things I skimmed over. lol.

    AntiAngst
  5. Nice song*_*
    It’s a pity you didn’t blog this series.
    Perhaps you could do a review for the series you watched but didn’t have time to blog?
    I’d love to read your final thoughts/impressions.
    Truthfully, I think I’d probably like that more than the usual episode blogs.

    Yukiruchan
  6. Itzura na kiss, a nice show, too bad you don’t blog it. The tv show “It Started with a Kiss” and “They Kiss Again” are good ones too, since they change some of the story, you don’t get bored watching the same thing over again. And Divine, don’t feel like you are “old school”, I got hooked with anime in the 80’s with the show Mazinger Z(I think this show is from the 70’s) and I don’t feel old at all.

    key05
  7. Hi there I just happened to bump into this site when I was doing some ItaKiss googling! ^^
    And yeah I love this anime!!! Kinda sad since there’s just one episode left. Just something that I feel like clarifying here. I’ve not seen the drama nor do I have the slightest intention to watch it because I don’t think that it’ll be any match for the anime. So I think the fact that this anime is a big hit has nothing to do with the drama at all. It just stands by itself as a great anime. Not trying to put up any kind of fight here and no offense to anyone out there who loves the drama. This is just a bit of my thought.

    ItaKiss Forever!! ^^

    naoki_love

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