Paradise kiss (2005)

Paradise Kiss tells the story of Yukari Hayasaka (Caroline) a high school student who is tired of her life as she has always done what her mother wishes. One day while walking to school she is scouted to be a model under the brand Paradise Kiss. The brand is formed by 3rd year students at an elite fashion school. Yukari gets to experience new life experiences and decides that she wants to chose her own path and make her own choices withher future.

Paradise Kiss is a very relate-able slice of life anime. I felt like I could relate to Yukari's character in so many ways. As a teen myself who is not sure what to do with my future it was interesting to see the decisions that Yukari decided to make and how she started to change as a person. This anime has really impressive character development. I believe character development is really important when telling a story and the character development worked really well with the timing of the storyline. I admit I found George's character to be really annoying and unlikeable at first but you slowly get to see how his character changes and you eventually get to see different sides of his personality.

The fashion choices reminded me of the late 90s / early 2000s style. And the animation is very early 2000s style which is something I'm not a fan of. I also wasn't a fan of the fashion choices but since I don't know anything about fashion or the fashion industry who knows. The real word combined with the animation seemed kind of weird to me at first but I got use to it. The sequencing and editing in the first few episodes seemed kind of out of place to me but that didn't stop me from continuing. Also I think the thin eyebrows was a trend back in the 90s/ early 2000s which I noticed with the character design. I must mention was I the only one bothered with the safety pins on Arashi's face?

This romance element in this anime was really intriguing. It has a realistic approach when it comes to a relationship between a young couple today or back then. I have to admit I was disappointed with the ending but at the same time I wasn't surprised it kind of reminded me of reality and like I wasn't watching a unrealistic romance between a young couple.

I liked how the LGBT community was represented in this anime.

Many people in the anime community say that this anime is very underrated and deserves more and after watching the anime I understand why, It ticks most of the boxes and is really enjoyable to watch but many people don't know about it. Paradise Kiss is well known internationally in Asia as well as parts in Europe and has been dubbed in multiple languages though.

Paradise Kiss has a live adaption as a film which I will probably watch and I might have a look at the manga to see if there is more to what is shown in the anime.

Overall I really enjoyed watching this anime and I would recommend other people to watch it. I don't think teens today would be interesting in watching this anime though cause it's not watch they are use to watching. I still wish japan made anime / manga like this. There are people who do but they are rarely adapted into anime these days or they're hard to find.

OR: 4/5 R: Must Watch CG: 15+