Genres: comedy, drama, romance Themes: bishounen, love, martial arts, rivals, school Objectionable content: Mild Number of episodes: 24 Vintage: 2008-04-06 to 2008-09-14
Plot Summary: Hikari Hanazono, the main character, has always been second to Kei Takishima. While Hikari considers Kei a rival and somewhat of a friend, Kei loves Hikari. Everyone knows this, but she is too dense to notice. Their wrestling loving fathers first introduced them to one another when they were 6 years old. Assuming that she was the best in wrestling, young Hikari challenged Kei to a wrestling match only to be thoroughly defeated by him. Ever since that fateful incident, Hikari swore to beat Kei in school grades, a sporting event - anything. To do this she has enrolled in the same school as Kei since elementary. Now she attends Hakusenkan, an ultra elite school, that costs her carpenter father a lot of money. Hikari and Kei are the top two students in the school, with Kei holding firmly to that number one position.
[quote=dragonrider_cody]
The cover art for this was just uploaded today, so thought I would share. Some people think it’s a bit busy, but I actually like it quite a bit.[/quote]
I like it as well if I had seen it I’d have gone ahead and pre-ordered it. Oh well catch it next time by then the second set should be listed.
Now this is how to do a group cover shot and the RIGHT way to go with this show. Putting 1 character on the cover as some suggest, I think would be poor marketing in this case.
Do not fear, I am looking for new art for this thread. I just happen to be on a Windows computer at the moment, which adds a few steps to making an image Jpeg.
FIXED-Slightly lower resolution, but still quite nice!
I just got around to watching the first disc of this series, and I have to say that I’ve been really enjoying it so far. It does have a lot of the normal anime cliches in it. For one, it’s completely obvious to everyone that Kei is in love with Hikari, except to Hikari of course. But then again, she does learn about his feelings pretty early on in the show. Though you can’t have the heroine of the story coming to terms with her true feelings so early…
The interactions between Kei and Hikari are the most entertaining aspects of the show. It’s really fun to see the two go back and forth. One moment they are battling each other, the next they are taking down someone who dared to insult the other. There is a wrestling episode where Kei and Hikari are partners, that provides some particularly touching moments between the two.
Anyway, the first few episodes are up on the online player, and the first set of DVD’s are up for sale now. So I really recommend everyone give this show a chance. The premise does seem pretty ordinary, but it’s execution and the characters of the show make it really enjoyable.
Well I did bite since the first part is so cheap at RSI right now . No idea when I will watch but hopefully I can start on my backlog again soon. Really only one comfortable place to watch DVD’s in the house and its only rarely accessible.
It’s similar in the basic structure of the series. You have an elite group of students in a Japanese high school. It also has a lot of the romantic undertones that Ouran has. But this, so far, is less of an ensemble show, unlike Ouran. Special A is first and foremost about Kei and Hikari. The other characters are generally used primarily as comedic effect and support for the two leads. You could easily take out one or two of them and have little effect on the show itself.
You could compare Hikari to Haruhi, as both are rather poor compared to their classmates. They are also both more on the “butch” or “tomboy” side of things, though Hikari could never be mistaken for a boy. Other than her athletic abilities, less than stellar manners, and complete inability to cook, Hikari is actual rather feminine and quite beautiful. Compare this to Haruhi, while not unattractive, could easily be mistaken for a guy.
I also don’t remember Ouran having anything like the constant competition between Hikari and Kei, though I have yet to finish that series, and it has been sometime since I saw it last.
Most of the people in this forum are not early adopters/heavy purchasers of DVDs. I’m behind myself due to the economic conditions. Sentai, Section23 are getting like 95+% of my budget though, but I’m behind on the newest stuff.
I’ve also been saving to buy it/watch it on DVD on my TV instead of watching it on the Online Player. I’m old school… only watch on the computer rarely. Someone needs to buy me a LCD HDTV.
