【Itazura na Kiss】 Well-received and hugely loved live-action and anime adaptations!!!

2022-07-18

What is Itazura na Kiss about?

Itazura na Kiss (translated as “Playful Kiss”) or more widely known by its fan as “ItaKiss” is a shojo manga series written and illustrated by Tada Kaoru. Itazura na Kiss was first published in Bessatsu Margaret magazine by Shueisha from June 1990 to March 1999, with a total of 23 volumes.
The manga became an overnight sensation since its debut and put Tada Kaoru’s name on the list of top shojo manga artists. Its popularity has spawned three live-action TV drama series adaptations and a 25-episode anime series. Despite its success, the manga went into hiatus and was never completed due to the tragic death of the author in a house-moving accident. However, the manga continues to be published with the permission of the artist’s family.
The story follows high school girl Aihara Kotoko on her journey to confess her love to the boy of her dream – Naoki, a perfect hottie who is smart and good at sports. Through fate, they end up living under the same roof and land themselves in a love-comedy situation.
Itazura na Kiss

An unfortunate love confession

Third-year high school student Kotoko Aihara’s feeling was shattered as her 2-years crush coldly rejected her confession letter. Worse of all, he refused to even read it.
Kotoko first met her crush Naoki Irie at their school opening ceremony. Because of his exceptional score in the entrance exam, Naoki was appointed to read a speech representing all new student. Before Naoki stepped up on stage, rumors were already circled around about a genius from a famous secondary school with a 200 IQ. Opposite to the image of a guy with huge glasses and bland appearance, Naoki Irie turned out to be unbelievably handsome.
From that moment, Kotoko fell in love with Naoki. However, as Naoki was put into the top A class, Kotoko fell to the bottom F class due to the vast differences in their academic abilities. For her crush, Kotoko even aimed to work hard to become the top student of her class and slowly move up the rank. Her friends told her that it was impossible and even harder than getting into university. Thus, Kotoko decided to confess her love before her high school years would pass by.
Back to the present, Kotoko cried about the failure of her rushed confession to her best friends while a guy crashed their conversation. His name was Kinnosuke Ikezawa and he seemed to have an unrequited love towards Kotoko. Kinnosuke was angry that the girl he liked would confess to another guy.
However, they would soon move past that decided to gather at Kotoko’s house to cheer her up. It was also to celebrate her newly built home.
On the way home, Kotoko and her friends encountered Naoki and his close friend. At first, Naoki ignored her and intended to walk away. However, Kinnosuke yelled at Naoki for being insensitive towards Kotoko’s feeling. To that, Naoki simply said, “I hate brainless woman.”
Kotoko was shocked by Naoki’s rude remarks and grew angry at herself for even having a crush on someone like him in the beginning.
Later at night, Kotoko’s friends all came by her house as promised. When everyone was having a great time, the ground started to shake signifying an earthquake. Just as everyone rushed out of the house, Kotoko’s newly built home suddenly collapsed. The earthquake was only a minor two degree and her house was the only one that collapsed. It was so rare that it made the next morning news. All of Kotoko’s classmate whispered about how her chain of bad lucks continued.
After school, Kotoko’s dad took her to a friend’s house. On the way there, Kotoko’s dad told her that the reason their house collapse was because he wanted to save money on material fees and ended up buying wooden column infected with termites.
Greeting Kotoko and her dad was a nice couple and their two sons. As fate would have it, the older brother was none other than Naoki Irie.
The younger brother was third-year primary school Yuuki Irie. Like his brother, Yuuki was also extremely smart and hardly show any emotion on his face. He teased Kotoko by asking her to show him how to read a really hard kanji character and called Kotoko “stupid” when she couldn’t read it.
Naoki’s mother wanted a daughter for a long time and was really glad that Kotoko came to stay with them. She even prepared a cute pink room full of stuffed animal for Kotoko. At the door, Naoki looked displeased and said that room was originally his brother’s. Because of Kotoko, they now have to share Naoki’s room.
Looking at both brother’s expression, Kotoko understood that she has landed herself in a place where she shouldn’t be.
How will Kotoko’s life under the same roof with the Naoki brothers turn out? Will they overcome their differences and grow closer? Read the next chapters of “Itazura na Kiss” to find out.
Itazura na Kiss

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