Paradise Kiss

Information of Anime

Yukari Hayasaka is a normal high school student.  She studies hard, but doesn't know what to do with her life.  One day, she bumps into a weird boy who tells her that she is perfectly the person he is looking for.  Running away from him, she encounters more strange people that are friends to him.  Yukari later discovers that they are a group of fashion design students.  They are looking for a model for their upcoming fashion show for their brand clothing line, ParaKiss.  The girls in the company call her Caroline, because she's taller than usually Japanese girls.  This is the start of Yukari's path in her future.

Storyline (CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Below is a summary of the storyline I've seen.  This section does contain some spoilers.  If you haven't seen the series yet & don't want to be spoiled, skip this section.  If you want to know the story & want to see how I viewed it, read on.

The story is mainly about Yukari's life & career.  When she was young, her mother wanted her to attend private schools.  However, Yukari couldn't pass the entrance exam to the private elementary school.  But she got into a private high school, but struggles her way.  No matter how hard she studies, it didn't do her any good.  So, she takes cram school to improve herself.  But in meeting with the ParaKiss crew & thinking about becoming their model, she starts to think about what she should do with her life.  As she becomes more involved with ParaKiss' fashion show modelling, the less she gets involved in her studies.  Also, the more she gets involved with Jouji "George" Koizumi, the leader of ParaKiss, the less she falls for Hiroyuki Tokumori, a high school classmate that she has a crush on for the longest time.

The story reaches it's critical point when Yukari decides to tell her mother the truth on how she skipped school to help ParaKiss in becoming their model.  Her mother rejects the idea & Yukari decides to run away from home.  Also, she decides to quit school as well to help ParaKiss finish their clothing in time for the fashion show.  She stays at Arashi Nagase's place for awhile as she finds a job to support herself.  Mikwako Sakurada refers Yukari to her sister that runs a big clothing product line by becoming their model.  During this modelling task, Yukari becomes interested in pursuing a modelling career.  As her career is set, she starts to fall deeply for George & finally becomes one with him.  This leads to Yukari moving into George's place.

Because Yukari is dead determined in becoming a model, Mikwako's sister refers Yukari to one of her friends that runs a modelling agency that has been opened recently.  The president agrees to take Yukari in & make her a professional model since she is very determined in become one.  However, she wants to see her parents first for approval.  This cause Yukari to think about her future.  In the process, she meets with Hiroyuki who is concern about her studies & questions if her boyfriend George loves her.  Later on, she meets George's mother & understands why George is questioning her about her choice in life in becoming a model.  This cause Yukari to leave George's apartment & go back home.  At the same time, George becomes cold to Yukari ever since they had sex with Yukari telling him that her news to him isn't too important.  Yukari discovers the reason why he's cold to her is because that she didn't tell him that she is becoming a professional model & telling him about it wasn't important to her.  Back home, Yukari's mother & her talk about her modelling career.  Her mother agrees to met the president & continue modelling under one condition: to graduate from high school.  Yukari agrees to it & decides that she won't see George anymore.

Days have passed since Yukari went back to school & study for her makeup exams.  Hiroyuki supports her all the way.  Although he supports her modelling career, he recommends that she should go to university as well for backup.  Yukari feels about going to university too.  In the meantime, the ParaKiss crew is working hard to get their clothing project in time for the show that's coming really soon.  However, their tiara & necklace got confiscated because Arashi, Mikwako, & Isabella got caught skipping class to finish their project.  This puts them into a bigger pinch.  Later, we discover that Yukara still has feelings for George & he feels more in need for her now.

As the day of the fashion show arrives, we discovered that Isabella is actually a guy dressed in woman clothing.  He wanted to be a girl all his life & thanks to George, he manages to become one.  When the show is over, Yukari & the others only got second place.  Although it upsets her, the others don't mind since the name of the dress was entered under George's name, not ParaKiss.  Yukari starts to think that she's becoming like her mother; always thinking about being the top.  From here, we see Yukari's mother who seems to be secretly proud of Yukari's success by hanging her second place photo from the fashion show award ceremony.

As Yukari's mother's proud of Yukari's modelling career, the days of ParaKiss is coming to an end.  The group disbanded near graduation & have gone their separate ways.  Arashi will be concentrating on his band, Mikwako will be working for her sister, George will be studying in Paris with Isabella joining him to make patterns for him, & Yukari continues with her modelling career after she fails her university entrance exams.  The show ends ten year later as Yukari is about to get married, but not to George.  However, she plans to wear a dress made by him for her wedding.

My Personal Review

Paradise Kiss is geared towards teenage girls due to it's love & idol career theme; mainly on the love side.  Although there is no law saying that guys can't watch it, I just thought that I should give a heads up on it.

Animation

The character designs have that manga style to it.  The eyes are either quite big like saucers or small & pointy.  The chins are quite sharp on the bottom too.  Some times, the characters go into deform mode & it doesn't look cute or appealling.  They are quite simple to a small child's drawing.  One thing to note is the clothing.  It's quite appealling & the designs really look like the ones you would expect from some top fashion designers.

The backgrounds used in the show are quite unique.  They are a mixture of real images of Tokyo like the streets, stores, & alleys.  However, these usually appear in the start, middle, & end of each episodes.  Also, they have strange creatures & objects appearing at times, such as an UFO & frogman.  I'm not sure why they are there.

The colouring is dull, but well-balanced in terms of toning.  It looks like two tones of colours are used on each object or flesh.  Most of the time it's one solid dull colour.  I never found any bright colours that distracts or strains my eyes.   It looks simple, but efficient enough for an anime series about fashion.

The animation movements are natural.  The only times you see strange movements are from scenes where the characters go SD.  Nevertheless, it's quite smooth.

Sound

The sound effect are natural & realistic.  They sound like the things they are suppose to in real life.  Although there are some strange sounds in the SD scenes, it's still pretty good.  Volume wise is ok.  Not too loud or soft.

The voices are okay for the guys, but bad for the girls.  This could be from my own preference.  Mikwako's voice is high pitched & it got to the point that it annoyed me.  The way she talks like a little girl to make her cute & innocent went too far.  The seiyuu for Yukari isn't too good.  She doesn't capture her character well.  I couldn't feel any emotions from her.  For the scenes where Yukari is suppose to shout out very loud, the seiyuu doesn't let loose.  Personally, I don't think she fits her role well & shouldn't have been assigned to do Yukari in the first place.

There's hardly any background music in this show.  There are the occasional background music from a restaurant & the ParaKiss alter, but it's really kept to a minimum level.  The music played is mainly rock & pop.  They are quite good & manages to stick to your head.

Story

Initially, I thought the story is mainly about the world of modelling with a love story on the side.  It's actually about Yukari's love life.  Although the show does have Yukari talking about want she wants to do with her life, it really doesn't go in depth in that area.  It's more like a Cinderella-type of  story where Yukari has a hard life & manages to meet her prince charming from an underground world who guides her into the fashion world.

Pace-wise, it's actually stable.  The last episode was more of a filler though & really pushed it.  It squeezed in some last minute bits like George's fashion career & the love relationship between Arashi & Mikwako breaking apart.  Those situation manage to get solved too quickly & I saw no purpose of doing it since it really play a very minor factor to the show.

Overall Conclusion

Paradise Kiss isn't for everyone.  It's made for young teen girls & it shows.  Although I'm a guy that would watch some girl shows that I can follow, this one wasn't easy for me to do.  I couldn't understand the concepts of the fashion & modelling world.  Even though I have some friends in this field, I couldn't related them here.  It's probably that I have no strong interest in it.  There is the usual "what should I do next" stuff in it with some love involved, I just couldn't go beyond it.

On a grading level of ten, Paradise Kiss gets an eight.  The story is quite interesting in terms of the fashion & modelling career, but I couldn't fit myself in it.  It's probably more enjoyable to people interested in this field or want a glimpse of it.  With the love story on the side based on a female's point of view, I'm pretty sure that it will hook the female audience into it with interest.

Last updated on January 14, 2008