Kimagure Orange Road
Master's Corner at ABCB
I've named my site after my favorite minor
character in Kimgure Orange Road, Master from the ABCB coffee shop. As I
look more than a bit like him, I really can't resist.
Kimagure Orange Road is perhaps the best Anime ever conceived, thanks to the incredible Manga that inspired it. I discovered it by accident thanks to Project A-ko, which spoofs KOR in a big way in two of it's episodes. I then ran across the Manga and read it all, then got my hands on the television episodes, which won't be available in the U.S. until mid-1999. Fortunately, I have connections outside of the U.S. in the animation world. When Animeigo releases the tapes and LDs in June, GO GET THEM! You won't be sorry.
KOR is the story of the Kasuga family, but mostly the oldest son, Kyosuke (who narrates), as they move to a new town after being found out to be a family of ESPers. Kyosuke meets a pretty young girl as he counts the "100 steps" (there may only be 99) that lead to his new school and is immediately smitten. However, by the end of the second episode, the pretty young girl, named Ayukawa Madoka (as in Japanese custom, I use the family name first) has agreed to help her best friend Hiyama Hikaru win Kyosuke. Thus, a love triangle is born that lasts for 18 volumes of Manga (156 stories), A television pilot for Jump Comics, 48 television episodes, 8 OAVs and one movie before being finally resolved. There are also three novels that take place after that resolution and one more Movie released in the U.S. in May of 1998.
There are also the characters of Manami and Kurumi (Kyosuke's younger twin sisters), Master, Takashi (Kyosuke's father), Hatta and Komatsu (two perverts who want Kyosuke's sisters), Yuu-kun (a younger man who loves Hikaru), Kazuya (Kyosuke's 5 year old cousin and an extremely powerful ESPer), Akane (Kyosuke's teen-aged female cousin who takes a liking to Madoka), plus a sizable number of other characters who appear and reappear throughout, including a running gag involving the characters of Umao and Ushiiko, who seem capable of saying nothing except a certain famous exchange from Shakespeare.
It's a lot of ground to cover, and there are lots of web sites that cover this stuff, many better than mine. So what do I hope to contribute? A few things. First of all, I've put up my own summaries of the television episodes, OAVs and movies. Second of all, I've put up Craig Nashita's complete translation of the Japanese Manga. This can be found in compressed form at other sites, but if you are on a system other than an IBM you can't download it. As a Mac user myself I felt this inequity had to be corrected. There are also occasional comments from myself added to this translation. Third of all, I've put up some links to places you can get KOR related stuff, including the Manga and TV episodes, plus a link to the KOR Wormhole, which features links to nearly every KOR site in Cyberspace. There are also links to other sites that have the translations of the novels, which aren't available in any other form.
And I've also put up a fanfic of my own, which addresses what in my opinion is a serious loophole in the Manga. I also plan to put up other stuff as time goes by, including a reader's poll.
Do yourself a favor, and get anything and everything you can find about KOR.
Anyway, have a cup of coffee and click below to take yourself to the various places within Master's Corner:
(The above link leads you to another site, so bookmark this page!)
Manga Translations - THEY'RE BACK!
Shin Kimagure Orange Road III - Madoka's Private Memory..... My Translation into English!
KOR: To Return To That Day (The first Movie)
Shin KOR (The second movie)
The Red Straw Hat 2 (Original Fiction)
KOR links (The KOR Wormhole, the Novels, where to get KOR stuff)
Other links...