Predictability will always be a calling card of the harem romance, as much a part of its makeup as colorful hair, cute girls and awkward situations. However, Ai Yori Aoshi takes this a step further, practically redefining the the concept by stretching it to breaking point. Suffice to say that if you are unable to guess how things will turn out after watching just the first episode of this series, it will be because you set your sights too high and hoped for a surprise, a shock, a bombshell or any kind of diversion from the plot's unwaveringly linear course.

The anime experiments in sentimentality are equally clumsy and ill-advised. In addition to the aforementioned predictability and the tedious characters, something which I will get onto later, the show ruins most of its emotional scenes with its incessant drive to patronise the viewer by having characters voice their thoughts and feelings in a manner more suited to an infant's puppet show than what is ostensibly a series aimed at relatively mature individuals. In one scene, for example, the heroine Aoi stares wistfully at the clock, then at the empty chair opposite her, then at the full plate of food laid out in front of the empty chair. A few seconds pass before she announces, seemingly to herself "I wonder where Kaoru has got to? He should be home by now" or something equally banal but just as bleeding obvious from the circumstances.

The faces and figures of the characters are their outfits. You can tell that the author is quite familiar with Japanese traditional clothing not only in the terminology (another thing left intact by Tokyopop, thankfully), but in the care taken in drawing the outfits. Especially Aoi's. Every little draped fold is given care and thought, and it really adds a great deal of livelihood to the scenes.

There's very little "action" depicted in this manga's panels. True, a romance is going to have much more dialog than action, but while emotion and drama are well laid out with faces and shading, there's not much presented with action or movement. It's a small weakness, but a noticeable one.

Another thing to be wary of; Ai Yori Aoshi doesn't hide its fanservice. Aoi's breasts are on display for all to see several times throughout the story, and frequently as chapter break pages. I'll be true to my testosterone and admit that Fumizuki does a good job drawing the curvy soft parts of a woman, but blatant fanservice is blatant fanservice.

The backgrounds are also very beautiful, consisting of soft and almost dream-like artwork of the most serene proportions. While the sharp and vivid characters clash somewhat with the more subdued backgrounds, this isn't enough to be too distracting. The animation of the series is also done nicely with fluid movements and good camera work that allow foreground objects to blend in nicely with the background.

It's crucial task is delegated to the many failed attempts at comedy, sentiment or anything which would have given the anime some measure of personality. Although there are a couple of rowdy characters in the mix, Ai Yori Aoshi's humor is executed with all the enthusiasm and wit of a chartered accountant with a gun pointed at his head. The only real way to tell that a scene was supposed to be funny is the occasional sweat drops which materialise on the back of characters' heads. If this show had canned laughter, I probably wouldn't be sane enough to write this.

Ai Yori Aoshi~ is everything that I hoped the original series would be, a touching, bittersweet drama with just enough comedy to keep the mood light. A worthy closure to a fine series. (show less)