Reflecting Lights

I didn’t really like the Paradise Kiss anime. I loved the opening and ending themes, and I enjoyed the side characters (Miwako, Arashi, and Isabella), but I despised George and Caroline and didn’t really care much about the story.

What a difference the manga version makes…

The manga is everything that was actually good about the anime and so very much more. The immediate difference is Caroline. In the anime, she was a flat, cold, bitch. She had little emotion, in part, I think, due to a terrible “seiyuu” (Yamada Yu who is a professional model, not a profession seiyuu–a fact that’s painfully obvious) and also due to a poorly written script.

Enter the first scenes with her in the manga. Instead of an emotionless teen, we get a girl who could possibly be seen as a combination of Hachi and Nana from NANA. She’s got a biting tongue, but is still filled with a naivety and sense of wonder that the anime-Caroline lacked. You see and feel that she’s truly struggling with where her life is going, whereas in the anime they just sort of “say” the issue and move on, thinking that just knowing she feels overwhelmed will be enough to spur on empathy for the character.

With the manga, you get the full blown emotion (not melodrama, however), plus you still get the gorgeous art, neat character designs, delicious style, and the antics of the awesome side characters. There are a couple of flaws, namely there’s even less of Isabella, and for some reason Tokyopop decided to give Arashi a British accent (or at least he uses a lot of British slang and swears, which works for his punk style, but he is Japanese…). But other than that, I’ve got nothing but praises for Paradise Kiss. Hated the anime? Try the manga anyway, particularly if you’re a fan of Yazawa’s other works. If you’re like me, you probably won’t regret it.