English: Love You Baby
Synonyms: Aishiteru ze Baby
Type: TV
Episodes: 26
Status: Finished Airing
Aired: Apr 3, 2004 to Oct 9, 2004
Producers: TMS Entertainment, Animax, Toei Video, Sunny Side Up
Genres: Comedy, Drama, Romance, Shoujo
Duration: 25 min. per episode
Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older
I'll first do recommendation for those who are too busy to read all of a review. I recommend this anime for everyone who wants to watch something touching. Not really a romance, its more of a slice of life anime that should be able to find itself on everybody's list. Its an anime without grand events or drastic plot turns, its just goodness that keeps on going.
Kippei, an highschool goofy kid who spends most time slacking out and flirting with girls suddenly is entrusted with a 5 year old kid to take care of. This setup evolves into an incredibly heart warming story to cherish and rejoice, dealing with everyday problems of raising a child and struggling with his own carelessness and ineptitude Kippey becomes attached to yuzuyu quickly and tries his best to make her happy. Dealing with a child everyday brings many worries and consumes most of his time but also makes him grow into a mature responsible person.
The innocence of a child and how they perceive the daily events creates an amazing charisma towards this relation, dramatic scenes further enhances the feelings creating an intricate empathy towards the situation and drawing the viewer into it. Further along theres a touch of romance that fits perfectly as a symbiotic situation to the main plot. The main female characters (yuzuyu and Kokoro) are just overflowing with cuteness, their sad hearts makes you want to comfort them understanding perfectly how kippey matures for the sake of them.
Another strong suit of Aishiteruze Baby, the three main characters involved are all characters that you can root for and most importantly beleivable. There are many anime's that try to oversell certain characteristics of characters, sometimes almost to the point of overkill but there is nothing like that in Aishiteruze. The characters were just great! I don't want to spoil anything for anybody but I just wanted to add that Kokoro is, I think, the only main female character that I haven't found annoying in some aspect. Her character plays her personality very well and everything is fitting. Definently not some simple female character with some haunted past or one dimensional issue that in a big turn of events get solved and falls head over heels for the main male character
Technically the characters have a particular drawing style in which the drawings and animation are watchable but not on par with the latest animes. I enjoyed personally some still shots on key moments that portrays how a sweet memory is engraved into the mind in my opinion.
Like the animation, the in anime sound track is very simple. I hardly noticed it while watching it. Music is used very liberally but enhances certain scenes. The voice actresses/actors? for Yuzuyu and Kokoro were perfect in my opinion and made the anime that much better. Titled Sunny Side Up is one of the best opening songs I have heard. I never, ever, fast fowarded past it and listening to it gave me feelings akin to the opening song of Fruits Baskets.
I really, really enjoyed this anime. Its a type of anime that you can just watch at anytime and in any mood. It should cheer you up! Its a pity that more people haven't watched this anime so hopefully this review can change that.
Opening titles:
