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SUMMARY

Two years after Aoi returns to Kaoru’s life, the couple are living together with their makeshift family at the Sakuraba estate essentially freed from the ties of their biological families. Kaoru is in graduate school. Taeko, Tina, and Mayu are still undergraduates and Chika is in high school. Miyabi still oversees the daily operations at the estate and orchestrates Aoi’s life with Kaoru. 

Aoi and Kaoru must keep their love a secret and, amazingly, the others stay obliviously unaware their Landlady-sama might have more than detached affection for Kaoru, who is the center of all their desires.

DVD VISION TEST

Video: The video is excellent. No defects, artifacts, color bleeds or pixels to destroy the smooth motion and sharp images. The color palette of soft pastels adds to the dreamlike, romantic quality of the show.

Audio: Audio tracks include English 2.0 and Japanese 2.0. Both offer quality sound. Other options include English subtitles and a separate option for Screen Text only.

Edits: The only obvious edit is that English credits replace the Japanese opening and closing credits.

Extras: Special Christmas Episode: “Miyuki”, Geneon Previews. Mini-poster of Aoi with episode guide and story summary of “Miyuki” (beautiful snow). Reversible cover.

WIDESCREEN REVIEW

Story: Ai Yori Aoshi Enishi is the continuation of Ai Yori Aoshi and the assumption is clearly that the audience will be familiar with the first series. There is only a brief summation of what has come before in a flashback while Aoi and Kaoru wonder at the two intervening years. The story then picks up at a running gallop. With only 12 episodes in this second series, a surprising number are spent on the secondary cast with little time dedicated to the continuing love story between Aoi and Kaoru. More emphasis is placed on the wackier elements of life at the Sakuraba mansion.

Acting: The English voice cast performs admirably, but just can’t capture the sweetness of these characters. The translation is fairly accurate, but there are no equivalents to some of the traditional language used by Aoi and Miyabi. We simply do not have the formalized language when talking to superiors in the same way and the honorifics (-chan, -sama, -senpai, -dono) do not mean Miss or Sir in quite the same way.

Soichiro Hoshi gives Kaoru a quiet respectability while Dave Lelyveld comes across as a goofy, insecure guy. In this series, Dave seems to be trying to mature Kaoru, but only succeeds in sounding bored. Michelle Ruff tries to capture Aoi’s demure lilt, but makes her sound young, instead of a grown lady, and when Aoi is upset Michelle’s voice becomes too shrill. Ayako Kawasumi just does a better job at capturing Aoi’s shy, yet confident, cadence.

The pronunciation is horrible in the English as well with Aoi’s name sounding more like someone’s been hurt (Owee versus A-o-e) and Miyabi’s name is pronounced Me-a-Bee.

The secondary characters are even further off base. Wendee Lee’s Southern accent comes and goes as the American Tina Foster. Kay Jensen as Chika produces a caricature, rather than a true teenager.

The voices of Taeko and Mayu, Sue Beth Arden and Kirsty Pape, are the only ones in the English cast that actually sound like you would imagine. 

CONCLUSION:

As the series continues, the story focuses more on the secondary characters with the serious love story as a minor thread. Fans of the first series will probably enjoy this one for the same reasons; it is fun, uplifting and all about relationships. However, it is also more of the same and some fans might get fed up with Kaoru’s inability to tell the other girls to leave him alone. We understand he must keep his love for Aoi a secret, but surely, he can say, “No!” to the others.

Chika features prominently on this first disc as we follow her to school. Her friends, Natsuki Komiya and Chizuru Aizawa, find a picture of Chika and Kaoru and naturally assume he is her boyfriend. They quickly invite themselves home with Chika to check him out. However, they are distracted by all the fun, caring young women at the mansion and forget about Kaoru, who is off at college all day.

Kaoru remains oblivious to the more than sisterly feelings these women have for him. He continues to pat Chika on the head with brotherly affection, and giggles nervously over the blushing girls. Chika, however, wants to know all their feelings for Kaoru and finally concludes they all love “Big Brother.”

The character designs have changed almost imperceptibly to allow for the passage of time. With Chika and Mayu maturing the most, which is appropriate since they are the youngest cast members. Aoi perhaps sees the most character development in these episodes, especially in episode 3 “Tennis,” where she holds her own in a heated match against Miyabi and impresses Kaoru with both her tennis skill and her pert figure in tennis whites.

Taeko also enjoys some character development as we discover her talent for purging spirits in episode 4 “Phantom.”

The theme song, “Takaramono” (Treasure) by Yoko Ishida, and ending theme, “I do!” by The Indigo, are both new and reflect the subtle shift in tone for the series. In the original series, the theme songs were devoid of English, these new songs both include lines spoken in English, which indicates the shift from tradition. Even the incidental music stops being so dreamy-romantic with a comedy, almost hillbilly, twang between scenes.

The special episode, “Miyuki,” is a true treat for fans of the original manga by Kou Fumiziki as it steals liberally from chapters 43 and 44 of the manga. The only changes in the story or dialogue are replacing some of the minor characters with Sakuraba residents in the anime.

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