Cheap Ai Yori Aoshi - Truly Yours (Vol. 4) (DVD) (Masami Shimoda) Price

Related Products

Customer Reviews of Ai Yori Aoshi - Truly Yours (Vol. 4)

Beach episodes with heart
Before watching this DVD I was quite annoyed at the idea of another harem series with the (...) girls going to the requisite trip to the beach. But, here, we have a twist. The most important girl in the series is too shy to wear a swimsuit. Most of the frolic occurs off-screen. So, instead of being completely about the male character falling head over heels for all the bikini clad girls. We get Kaoru just being his good old self and still wanting to spend time with his one interest, Aoi.

The new girl here is Taeko's cousin, Chika. Upon meeting Kaoru she proceeds to play matchmaker with her cousin and her 'boyfriend', uh 'husband', uh... wait a minute...

Tina gets another moment alone with Kaoru and this time it happens away from the mansion, not to mention at a romantic suites hotel. The tension between the two is expressed so well that it almost seems like they can't avoid each other for much longer. I'm still left wondering; How long can they stay friends? and What does Tina actually think about herself?

The character development flys with leaps and bounds throughout this disk. This is a rare case where beach and festival episodes are more than just filler and skinfest. Look out though. The nudity does arise quite often in and around these episodes and there is a brief moment of underage exposure.

---

Summer time!
As in all anime series, there must be a few summer episodes. Swimsuits, ice cream and hard work. On the beach everybody gets to meet the cute and tanned Chika, Taeko's cousin, who tries to get Taeko and Kaoru together (and ends up falling in love with him herself). Chika later visits them at the mansion, asking if she can stay while finishing off her homework, and ends up looking at Kaoru as a big brother (and a lap pillow). Tina's trip to the zoo, with Kaoru, ends up in a love hotel.
Many of the episodes, in other words, seem to focus on Tina and Taeko, and their feelings towards Kaoru, who doesn't have a clue.
Tight swimsuits, animal costumes and a college festival seems to bring Kaoru more trouble than happiness, yet in the end he still ends up with Aoi. Boy, is the photo club a interesting club to join!
Five episodes and tons of extras makes this DVD, and the whole series, a great value and a joy to watch!

---

Gee, I so hate to put a damper on the fanservice episodes :)
Ok, it looks like they decided to put the obligatory (for light weight anime) beach episodes, and the festival episodes pretty close together. They even managed to slip in something about watermelons, which seem to be somewhat of a Japanese focus for fun food in anime, because they are so expensive in Japan. I'm not going to go into much detail here. Fans, who like to see their favorite anime characters is swimsuits, won't be disappointed, but this hardly holds up very well to the early series promise. As you can see from the editorial review, there are several predictable, but funny moments.

The beach and the festival episodes seem to adhere to a basic formula for "situation comedy", punctuated at the end, by a few tender moments between Aoi and Kaoru. I guess this is a common formula for many series, (anime or live) to sustain a romantic theme between two characters without spoiling it, and taking away the romantic tension. What really doesn't make much sense is the apparent clueless approach of the supporting characters. It should be painfully obvious to all who Kaoru and Aoi really love.

My major complaint was stated in my first review of this series on DVD one. I thought it had the makings of a classic based on the first three or four episodes. The comedy seemed to come easily, even when the plot seemed more serious. The relationship between Aoi and Kaoru, given its consequences, seemed to have ample substance to sustain a serious series for 26 episodes, and perhaps more. Why then, did the creators choose to revert to the light humor of a Love Hina, or Tenchi Muyo type of anime?

Ai Yori Aoshi overall, is not a bad series. Overall, I rated it four stars (only three for this set of episodes). It just could have been much better, but stay tuned. Things do get better again soon, as the conflict and the depth of the romance will grow anew.