I'm an unabashed fan of shojo and josei series, so buckles your shoes, grease up your hair and prepare for some unapologetic sexy fashion.
Paradise Kiss
Based on the manga series by Ai Yazawa (Nana, Gokinjo Monogatari) studious Yukari "Caroline" Hayasaka goes through the motions: Go to school. Study. Prepare for college. But she doesn't know if she's doing so for herself or if that's what's expected of someone her age. She gets pulled into the world of professional fashion by art students who are in need of a model for their school project.
I cannot stress this series enough. The artist originally wanted to be in fashion herself, but ended up a manga-ka and it really shows. Her passion literally drips off the pages. The anime itself uses so many different kinds of one-of-a-kind animation techniques; hand-drawn, rotoscoped, layered filters, textures—and they're all sytlisitcally consistent. Nothing quite seems 'out of place'.
As a refreshing turn, the relationship between the leads is possibly one of the most realistically depicted of-age romances I know of in fiction and will elicit tears of all varieties. Paradise Kiss is, in my opinion, the logical conclusion of a 'slice of life'. It's a 5 volume manga and a 12 episode anime and it neatly serves up a slice of life in media res. I don't have a short clip that I could produce for you that highlights the facets of the series, so I'm going to have to give you the whole first episode.
Yes, it's subbed. And while I'm not going to get into a Sub/Dubs debate and I find the English voice cast to be very skilled, I find their timing and intonation off enough that certain scenes would benefit from the much more emotional Japanese cast.
Edit: I highly recommend finding the original version of the sub. The subtitles that aren't the official Aniplex version have a habit of, uh... Well. Not being good. They keep referring to Seiji Kisaragi as "Miss Kisaragi". Just because he's a glorious, smooth and ageless alien from a plante made of glitter and David Bowies does not a 'Miss' make.
Paradise Kiss
Based on the manga series by Ai Yazawa (Nana, Gokinjo Monogatari) studious Yukari "Caroline" Hayasaka goes through the motions: Go to school. Study. Prepare for college. But she doesn't know if she's doing so for herself or if that's what's expected of someone her age. She gets pulled into the world of professional fashion by art students who are in need of a model for their school project.
I cannot stress this series enough. The artist originally wanted to be in fashion herself, but ended up a manga-ka and it really shows. Her passion literally drips off the pages. The anime itself uses so many different kinds of one-of-a-kind animation techniques; hand-drawn, rotoscoped, layered filters, textures—and they're all sytlisitcally consistent. Nothing quite seems 'out of place'.
As a refreshing turn, the relationship between the leads is possibly one of the most realistically depicted of-age romances I know of in fiction and will elicit tears of all varieties. Paradise Kiss is, in my opinion, the logical conclusion of a 'slice of life'. It's a 5 volume manga and a 12 episode anime and it neatly serves up a slice of life in media res. I don't have a short clip that I could produce for you that highlights the facets of the series, so I'm going to have to give you the whole first episode.
Yes, it's subbed. And while I'm not going to get into a Sub/Dubs debate and I find the English voice cast to be very skilled, I find their timing and intonation off enough that certain scenes would benefit from the much more emotional Japanese cast.
Edit: I highly recommend finding the original version of the sub. The subtitles that aren't the official Aniplex version have a habit of, uh... Well. Not being good. They keep referring to Seiji Kisaragi as "Miss Kisaragi". Just because he's a glorious, smooth and ageless alien from a plante made of glitter and David Bowies does not a 'Miss' make.
