Just finished this up and I've got to say this is one of the best romance-genre manga I've had the pleasure of reading.

There's so many things I found enjoyable about this that it's hard to know where to start. I guess the first thing that jumps out at me is how "Japanese" this manga is: from the traditional views of honor and family, to the snapshot of what may be considered the ideal Japanese woman (by traditional standards), to the thoughts of those who feel outcast from Japanese society; this manga is deeply immersed in all of it.

The story is both very traditional, and yet also quite uncommon in conventional manga. The feelings of love, honor and family which permeate the chapters give it a very distinct feeling that is surprisingly missing from much of the stuff that's out there today, and because of that it feels fresh and unique and even the traditional genre cliches are given a new spin.

It also helps that I found all of the characters quite endearing. Each one was fully fleshed out and realized, albeit with some gaining quite a bit more time than others, which is one of the few faults I had was the book. I did find that an extraordinary amount of time was given to a couple of the female leads, while others had decidedly less time devoted to them. Not to say that any of them were glossed over, because they weren't, but it is noticeable none the less. Still, with that one criticism aside, all the characters are quite charming and I find it hard to pick a favorite among the girls.

I must give credit to the writer too for not dumbing down what could have been a run-of-the-mill harem title. There are the various conventions to be sure, but everything feels natural and more grown up, like the author assumed the readers would be more mature and thus raised his own level to meet their expectations. Even something as straightforward as the ecchi scenes and fanservice (of which there is a lot) feels much more natural and I don't ever remember feeling like it was tacked on just to appease the male audience.

I've read some complaints about the artwork, which surprises me as I thought it was very well done, and was able to match the tone of the book quite well. It never overpowered the story and instead served to enhance it, which is how it should be. In fact, if you look at some of the author's more recent work you'll see that not much has changed between now and then, which is fine by me as I find it really seems to compliment his particular style.

Also a word about the Tokyo Pop translations: in the past I've been critical of the work they've done and the liberties they seemed to have taken with some of the original language, but here it seems like they were a lot more faithful to the source material. I don't ever remember coming across a particular phrase or a piece of dialogue that made me shake my head in wonderment, and I commend them for that.

So to wrap it up, if you're at all a fan of a more traditional Japanese story, or are just looking for a good romance manga with plenty of comedy and drama, I can't recommend Ai Yori Aoshi highly enough. While it could have spent a little more time on some of the female characters, it's still one of the very best this genre has to offer.

This is a "feel good" manga really. Something to read to take your mind of something else. No complex plot or anything, just romance with the feeling you get from those "slice-of-life" manga.
The only thing that annoys me a little is Aoi's complete affection for Kaoru. Damn, they could at least make her dislike something about him...

Why should you read this? Simply because it's different from other romantic manga. This manga seem to begin where other manga finished. A nice change.

Even though it turns into a harem manga i'm against labelling it as such, because it could mislead the reader. Though i was kind of disappointed when it turned out to be one.

... Last updated on January 15th, 2008, 10:45am

This is probably the second romance manga I read when I was first getting into manga about 5 years ago. After reading over 100 other series and getting a better understanding of manga, this is still my favorite romance. I originally rated this a 9, but after 5 years of reading less satisfying mangas, I give this a 10.

As one of the other readers said, it was refreshing to see a manga that puts a guy in a situation surrounding him with women that love him, yet he does a very good job of staying true to the woman he's secretly betrothed to. It's very well written. There's definitely fluff, but it's heartwarming and good. I was genuinely touched and fully enjoyed reading this series.

I would recommend it to anyone that likes a good romance story with a fairly happy ending.

This manga has some heartbreaking and touching parts to it, especially when it comes to not getting what you want but deserving it.. which goes for Tina-sans part. But I love the way the group of friends were all honest with each other but still manage to keep their relationship without going out of limits,

The ending is great, i wouldnt have it in any other way, it makes my heart melt.

I totally recommend this to anyone, for a good long heartfelt story.

Long story short, this manga is the epitome of the ideal love. It's not about the twisted and dirty real world we live in, but an ideal world where za powa of rabu wins. One of the most emblematic mangas for the Romance genre, and next to Love Hina, pretty much one of the best Harems carried out.

Nothing more to add. Excellent manga and story. FUMIZUKI Kou, one of my favorite even though only 2 of his stories are famous (Umi no Misaki being the other one). Seal of Quality.

... Last updated on April 1st, 2010, 12:28am

i don't understand why she's so obsessed with him. i guess this one just wasn't for me and i didn't really like the animation. i stopped at around ch.12 and never started up again. i couldn't really connect with any of the characters and if truth be told, i prefer it as such. all of the characters were either all timid or just hid behind a facade of timidity that kind of annoyed me after the first volume. not my cup of tea.

I enjoyed the tension, surprises, dialogue, art and flow of volumes one and two, but three slowed down into tired stereotypes and cliches, and by the time I arrived at volume four I was skimming. As I eyed volume five, I thought, "Why am I forcing myself to read this manga when there are so many other manga I have yet to try?!"

I loved this manga. Everything about it seems right. I'm a sucker for a happy ending, so this one appealed to me. I also enjoyed that it was an ecchi harem manga were the male lead wasn't an indecisive twerp. He knew who he wanted all along, wouldn't be tempted away by the other cute girls and fought against the odds to be with her. Aoi was also an absolute sweetheart. Probably my favourite female love interest in any manga I've read (with Bakuman's Azuki being a close 2nd and Kirari from Love Lucky being third).

A really beautiful story drawn by one of my favourite mangakas. The characters range from adorable to hateworthy which does wonders to your emotions. Tina's story is so sad that my heart actually twinged in pain many times (Same thing happened after I finished reading the last chapter after starting this title only yesterday!) If you're a guy like me who doesn't mind getting emotional (no I'm not gay) then this is the story for you.