Ai Yori Aoshi

Rating: 3 / 5
Reviewer: Arcane


Effectively a "magical girlfriend" story with the magic replaced by extra fanservice, Ai Yori Aoshi is a fairly by-the-numbers romance. With the requisite amount of comic misunderstandings, hot springs episodes, melodrama, WAFF and dim-yet-busty girls the series is, for the most part, an amusing but generic story. However, there is one thing which keeps the series from mediocrity, and that is the wonderfully appealing relationship between the two leads. Although Kaoru is your classic kind-hearted sappy girl magnet (with a few wrinkles in his backstory which make him a bit more interesting) and Aoi is just a Belldandy-style gentle-and-loving-doormat, their oh-so-sweet romance gives the series a real core of strength, making viewing much more worthwhile every time it shows up (in between heavy doses of filler and fanservice).

The other characters are the usual disposable group of support characters- loser friends, busty junior classman/maid, foreign bimbo, bratty childhood acquaintance, stern minder and cute animal mascot, with personalities ranging from amusing to outright annoying. The fanservice often verges on excessive, but the series does usually manage to be quite funny when it tries. Although most of the episodes are filler, they rarely become tedious and the glimpses of Kaoru/Aoi material are well worth watching for. Technically, the animation is decent if unspectacular, boasting some attractive character designs (especially Aoi), while the Japanese voice acting is overall quite good.

Overall, Ai Yori Aoshi is a decent series for those who like their romance sweet and their fanservice free. Not fantastic by any standard, but worthy of a casual look.