I hope you’ve seen Itazura na Kiss 14. I really do. If you haven’t, I am not liable.
WHAT IN THE NAME OF GOD JUST HAPPENED TO ME?
I died and went to fangirl heaven, that’s what’s happened to me.
I had this feeling (well, okay, I saw a screencap of the final frame of episode 13 with “No, it isn’t the rain scene yet,” so I decided somewhat unconcsiously to hold off on 13 until I could watch 14 with it.
My brain doesn’t function anymore. I think it melted. 14 should have come with a Surgeon’s General warning for people with heart problems, because this is some lethal shoujo. I’m sure lesser (wo)men than I have died upon witnessing this episode in the ongoing saga of Kotoko and Irie’s life. I am now convinced that Tada Kaoru suffered the same fate that poor Ernest Scribbler did–she created shoujo so potently shoujo, that it was physically impossible for one human being to stand that much shoujo at any given point in time and they would die. Forget nukes and WMDs–we should develop shoujo missiles.
I really don’t think I can say anything on the Irie/Kotoko relationship dynamic that I haven’t said before. It’s all kinds of complicated, and it’s hard to see where true feelings start and other things begin. The rain scene, as I had heard, was legendary (I told you, this show invites hyperbole over for dinner and gives it a ten-course meal)–it was so much bubbling over of feelings and emotions and whatnot. Even better was that Kotoko and Irie didn’t react in ways that were totally foreign to them–Kotoko was fresh off a rather disastrous incident with Kin-chan (by the way, I love how Kinnosuke went from annoying comic relief to a serious character with some kind of depth without really seeming like it was tacked on) and Irie, of course, had just gotten wind of the news that Kin-chan had proposed to Kotoko and that she was seriously considering his proposal. It’s entirely unsure why Irie had been keeping his feelings suppressed–after his father’s heart attack, of course, it makes sense. Part of the reason he tells his mother that he likes Chris is most likely empty talk designed to convince no one but himself that this is the truth, and that he better get used to it, because it’s the only way to make up for hurting his father’s company even more through the heart attack. When faced with the pressure, though, Irie forgets about obligations and does what he feels is right. Before all this, it’s unsure–he was clearly in like-mode (as much as he could be), but I don’t think the all the pieces had been brought into play yet.
Some other memorable moments include Chris telling Kotoko that she never liked Irie anyway, and that Kotoko, in fact, is “handsome challenged” since she chose Irie over Kinnosuke, but I don’t know why she said that because that just means that she gets Kin-chan all to herself. I’m also a big fan of the maturation of Yuuki–he’s the one, after all, who started the process of knocking sense into his brother by reminding him of the sneaky little secret he had–remember Yume de Kiss Kiss Kiss? That was an amazing twist on that previous prank, and it certainly made an impact on Yuuki because ever since then, he’s been…nice. And friendly. And even telling his parents (and later Kotoko) about Irie’s little secret.
I have no idea where this series is going to go (or where they could go from here, aside from the marital strife angle), but I am pretty sure that the whole marraige and actual confessed love thing will certainly not ruin what’s made Itazura na Kiss fun from the get-go. And, even if it somehow gets worse from here on out, Tada Karou and Yamazaki Osamu (and the rest of the anime’s staff) have my undying love forever, for these 14 episodes of Kotoko and Irie romance have basically cemented them in the upper echelon of anime couples fictional couples period. Love ain’t always easy–but watching it happen can be a hell of a lot of fun.
Anime wa Bakuhatsu da! 
Well, even if all does not go well from here on out (unlikely?), we could always treat the 1st 14 episodes as one series and the last half as the sequel that never happened ;P
But if there wasn’t another half to the story coming up, I’d probably find that episode 14 was a super rushed effort to tie everything together in a nice little ‘and they lived happily ever after’ package. A part of me was actually cringing everytime Naoki spouted lines like “Kotoko is the only girl for me” since his ‘enlightenment’ came so suddenly, but mostly I was really satisfied (though slightly jarred) by the episode. And lol at the handsomely challenged Chris XD
Rushed? Yes. Contrived? Yes. Do I care? No.
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I honestly think that it’s better this way–it would probably be worse in terms of story to drag out the “does Irie like her or not?” much longer than they did, and certainly not for 26 episodes (or 23 volumes of manga), especially given the truth behind Yume de Kiss Kiss Kiss (which they hinted at in the episode) and the fact that Irie was being positively nice to Kotoko before his father had the heart attack. To keep that part of the story going longer would have required a gigantic monkey wrench (which I was expecting all the way up to the final frame of the preview of episode 14) or some serious filler.
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I don’t even know that they could have done 13/14 better than how it was done, though–Itakiss has always been about random and seemingly sudden shifts in thought, and discarding that, it’s not really been one for HIGH DRAMA, which is probably the only way to have a not-contrived or rushed-feeling conclusion to this arc.
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As long as I feel like a squealing fangirl watching this series, it’s doing its job, and I will have no complaints.
Honestly, this is the only reason I picked up the series in the first place (personally, i thought they would get married sooner -_-;)
But I’ve been holding out on episode 14, mostly because I’m too addicted to (read: obsessed over) another anime at the moment
Whew, they finally tied the knot
I have been watching this post sitting in my feed reader for a while now, thanks to my inability to find time to watch anime (thankfully your post title kept me free of spoiling). I want to find something of value to say other than “ditto,” but really I’m with you all the way. The past two episodes have been pure anime crack.
I do have one complaint though: you mentioned that Kin-chan went from comic relief almost effortlessly to a serious character who strongly affected episode 13, and I totally agree. That was a monster moment right there. But he went back to comic relief really fast once his tragedy was over. I mean, hasn’t Kotoko proven to us that it ain’t that easy just to get over it?