Were moving on to the next bracket in Face-off. Yesterday featured an epic battle between two heavy weights - Macross Frontier vs Code Geass. Today we’re featuring the light weights, it’s Itazura na Kiss vs Special A. What? You were expecting La Blue Girl vs Bible Black? Anyways for those of you who don’t know - face-off is where we take two anime series from this season and pit them against each other in a chocolate pudding fight to the death - or the very least till we run out of things to say about them. You can also vote for whom you think is better as well.
Itazura and SA will fight in these 3 categories; Characters, Animation, and Story.
Let the pudding fight begin.
Lead Male Characters: Naoki vs Kei
In their respective shows these individuals represent the perfect man - athletic, smart and witty. But let’s take a closer look to see if this is actually the case, or if these two are more like pimples covered by makeup.
Hotness: Asuna says neither Naoki or Kei is hot. Kira just shrugs his shoulders cause he wouldn’t know. But if Asuna had to pic one it’s Kei. Why Kei? It’s the hair of course.
Coolness: It’s not like either of these guys are like Kamina, but we think Kei gets the edge here. It’s really nothing to do with Kei, it’s more because Naoki has this snobby dweeb vibe about him.
Likeability: Looks like it will be a clean sweep for Kei. Naoki is a cruel little sadist prick at times. And watching how he treats Kotoko makes him very unlikable.
Winner: It’s a landslide victory for Kei.
Lead Female Characters: Kotoko Vs Hikari
These two don’t share much in common, ones a genius and one is dumb by Japanese standards. Ones super athletic, the other one has trouble holding a tennis racket. Ones in love with a sadist, and the other is so dense she can’t tell when someone obviously loves her.
Hotness: Kira diggs Kotoko more than Hikari. Kotoko is cuter and more attractive than Hikari’s - god dam where are your curves girl! Kira is a huge fan of curves - be it a nice butt or nice breasts. And Hikari has no curves at all, she as attractive as a piece of cardboard. Also we find Hikari too tomboyish and she doesn’t have any girly cuteness. While Kotoko’s girly mannerisms and cute looks, makes her the winner in this category.
Coolness: What Hikari lacks in hotness, she makes up for in coolness. She’s smart and athletic. And it’s hard to find Kotoko cool when she drools over a Metro-sexual sadist. The fact that Hikari can beat the crap out of most men twice her size gives her the win.
Likeability: Girls who would rather hang with? We say Kotoko since she is much easier to be friends with because she is sweet and easy to talk to, plus public embarrassment doesn’t seem to faze her all that much. Where being friends with Hikari would be harder as she is super competitive and challenge you at every moment.
And guys would you really want to date someone so dense like Hikari? Picture this you alone on the couch together, you wispher “Hikari - I’m in the mood for … you know….” Hikari then says “Oh - I know, I’m in the mood too…. For Scrabble. I challenge you to a sudden deathmatch!’ - No thanks.
Winner: Kotoko
Animation
Animation is important in all ANIME series, even romantic comedies. Poor animation or too many gimmicky techniques can distract from the story. Girls - its like dating a guy who has a nice body, nice personality but an ugly face. Sure you can ignore it up to a point, but when it comes to make-out time its hard to ignore.
Character Designs: Characters are very well done, each Anime has its own style. So character designs in both match their personalities. The only problem we have with Special A is that it’s hard to tell certain character apart because they look so much a like, even the facial features are similar. And the girls in Special A can all be mistaken for guys, because they have no curves at all. Because of all the Androgyny in SA, Itazura wins
Style: Itazura wins again. Itazura has a retro vibe to it, it constantly reminds of classics like Marmalade Boy. And we have issues with the art style in SA. Wut’s up with the loooonng legs? And it’s also because SA offers nothing special, its generic all around.
Consistency: In this category Itazura doesn’t so much win, as SA loses. With Special A the thing that bothers us is the manga style drawings that are inserted at the weirdest times and it throws off the smoothness of the anime. Typically it’s at the climatic point in the episode. This is the best gimmick they can come up with?
Winner: Hands down it’s Itazura na kiss.
Plot
Overall Plot: Itazura Wins. With Itazura something new happens each episode which makes you want to keep watching, (well it does for Asuna anyway - it’s her fav anime this season. Kira? Not so much) Asuna really enjoys the way Kotoko and Nakoi’s relationship is progressing. It keeps you wanting to know how its gonna end, sometimes the episode leaves off making you wonder if its even possible for them to end up together.
With Special A it’s kinda not going anywhere, the same things happen all the time. There is no change in the plot and it’s bloody boring. I’m going to keep watching though just to see how it ends.
Fillers: Call this one a draw. You really can’t tell if any of the series has thrown a filler at us. Especially in SA’s case, cause the same thing happens in half the episodes.
Pacing: Itazura, seems like something is always happening. It’s enjoyable to watch. With Special A it’s always the same, nothing new happens and the plot isn’t going anywhere, it’s so boring to watch.
Winner: Itazura
Final Score: Itazura 3, SA 1
So who else thinks that SA is perhaps the most disappointing show of the new season? It’s not the crappiest - you gave that honor to the craptacular Kanokon. But with SA it had such a pedigree to it that it’s so disappointing how bland the first 9 episodes have been. We hope the series does turn around, but we can’t say for sure it will having not read the manga.
Poll: Me likes ____ Better
Status:
Tags: Itazura na Kiss, Special A
June 5th, 2008 at 8:00 pm
Strangely enough, I think I like Naoki more than Kei, too. Kei really has no right to call Hikari dense when he’s too much of a wuss to confess to her. If he just keeps waiting for Hikari to do it, it may never happen, and he really doesn’t have a right to complain. He comes across as a hypocrite.
Naoki is many things, but at least he’s not a hypocrite.
June 5th, 2008 at 9:23 pm
I thought up there the verdict was in favor of Kei, but I’d have to agree with Jobrill here that Naoki is actually better than Kei now.
Perhaps it’s the recent episodes, where we see the sort of existential side of Naoki (explaining his coldness to the world), in contrast to the easily-shaken, cowardly Kei. I think Naoki is a soft interior inside a hard exterior, while Kei’s the other way around. Both have great potential but at this point Naoki is more in tune with me personally.
Kotoko vs. Hikari is a tough call as well. I like Hikari’s enthusiastic, optomistic, competitive attitude which just is so much fun to watch (and for a competitive guy like me very likable as well), but she’s just … so … dense. Kotoko’s an empathetic character but I’d still have to pick Hikari because she has to do more heavy lifting to carry S.A.
Overall, before this turns into a post of its own (nice work with yours, as well), I’d have to say that both anime have a lot of potential to be really great shows, just that ItaKiss has been using its potential more wisely. I’m personally behind S.A. though, just because of Hikari; although future developments in ItaKiss (from what I’ve heard) look to break new ground…
September 21st, 2008 at 10:51 pm
I love Special A. Hikari is hot if you ask me but I’m tall and have looong legs.
December 3rd, 2008 at 4:46 pm
-_- who cares what ur opinion is [person who started this whole thing]. Who do u think u are, the owner and judge of all anime? And special A is way better, the animation is better, it’s up to date, and it has more coolness to it. I finished the series yesterday, and i was sad because i wanted more. And it’s obiously hard for Hikari to know about kei’s feelings, after all, they have been rivals for years, so all she knows of is his fighting and competing side. You can’t blame her really. And i got long legs, wow? U tryna make fun of me? And the other girl looks like a 10 year old. Cute = wrong. If i saw someone like that come up to me, i would run away ASAP. Special A HANDS DOWN!