Paradise Kiss, also abbreviated to ParaKiss, is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Ai Yazawa. It appeared as a serial in Shodensha's v|fashion magazine Zipper (magzine) from March 1999 to March 2003, with its chapters collected in five volumes. A 12-episode anime television series adaptation, produced by Aniplex and studio Madhouse, aired on Fuji TV's Noitamina programming block from October to December 2005. The comic and the anime have become popular both domestically and internationally. The English version was published by Vertical. Paradise Kiss occurs in the same universe as Yazawa's previous work, Neighborhood Story. However, Paradise Kiss is a stand-alone story, as only three supporting characters from Neighborhood Story have major roles.

Characters

Media

Manga

Written and illustrated by Ai Yazawa, Paradise Kiss was serialized in Shodensha's fashion magazine Zipper (magazine) from March 23, 1999, to March 22, 2003. Shodensha collected its chapters in five volumes, released from March 31, 2000, to August 23, 2003. Tokyopop licensed Paradise Kiss for an English-language release in North America and serialized it in its manga magazine Smile. The five volumes were released from May 21, 2002, to March 9, 2004. After Tokyopop's dissolving in 2011, New York based publishers Vertical acquired the rights to the property with plans on releasing the series in a three-volume A5 sized set with new covers, color plates and newly commissioned translation from September 2012 to March 2013. They re-released the series in a single omnibus volume as the "20th Anniversary Edition" on December 3, 2019. Madman Entertainment distributed the series in Australia and New Zealand. The series has also been licensed in Italy, Germany and Mexico by Panini Comics; Argentina, Spain, and Finland by Editorial Ivrea; in France by Kana; in Poland by Waneko; in Russia by Comics Factory; and in Taiwan by Sharp Point Press. In Brazil, it was first licensed by Conrad Editora, but was later re-licensed by Panini Comics.

Volumes

Anime

Produced by Fuji TV, Aniplex, Dentsu, Shodensha and Madhouse, the Paradise Kiss anime series was broadcast on Fuji TV's Noitamina programming block from October 14 to December 30, 2005. It was directed by Osamu Kobayashi, who also wrote the series scripts. Nobuteru Yūki served as character designer and chief animation director, while noted fashion creator Atsurō Tayama designed the outfits and THE BABYS and Narasaki (of Coaltar of the Deepers) composed the music. The anime was licensed for release in North America by Geneon Entertainment. On July 3, 2008, Geneon and Funimation Entertainment announced an agreement to distribute select titles in North America. While Geneon retained the license, Funimation Entertainment assumed exclusive rights to the manufacturing, marketing, sales and distribution of select titles. Paradise Kiss was one of several titles involved in the deal. Funimation let the license expire in 2011. The opening theme song is "Lonely in Gorgeous" by Tomoko Kawase (as alter ego Tommy february6). The ending theme features Franz Ferdinand's hit song "Do You Want To". Both songs appear on the Paradise Kiss Original Soundtrack released on December 21, 2005.

Production

In an interview in the January, 2007 issue of Newtype USA, director Kobayashi revealed many of the personal decisions which went into restructuring the manga into a television series. Wanting to avoid straying too far from the source material without approval, Kobayashi worked closely with Ai Yazawa on the new interpretations of the characters. In many instances, Yazawa was concerned that taking the original material straight would distract casual viewers or worse drive them away. Chief among these concerns was the handling of George's bisexual nature and interest in sadomasochism. Yazawa agreed that the dialogue should reflect this, but that actual onscreen depictions (as can be found in the original manga) were to be avoided. However, Kobayashi felt this was not being entirely true to the character, so he included a few hints of this side of George in the final episode. In another instance of modification, this time brought by Kobayashi, the character design of Arashi was modified to suit a scruffier, less slick appearance. "I wanted to make him look like Lupin the 3rd... sort of slouching and walking around with his hands in his pockets," Kobayashi explained. In agreement with the director, Yazawa went for the change. One area Yazawa and Kobayashi did not agree on was the casting of Shunsuke Mizutani as Arashi. The fact that he was not a professional voice actor, but rather a musician, was the cause of this debate. Kobayashi had wanted a more natural performance that did not sound like the typical voice acting found in anime. "Yazawa and I even had a few rows because of that," Kobayashi explains. "But after she'd seen about three episodes, she finally admitted that Mizutani's voice is a great match, and I was able to relax." In relation to the clothing design, despite Tayama's involvement with all of George's outfits, most of the clothing was left largely as originally depicted in the manga. Director Kobayashi had specifically requested a real designer to work on the project, and Tayama's role on the production had originally been conceived as reworking the designs to fit better with the real world, but much to everyone's surprise, the original manga designs by Ai Yazawa were already quite good. So, Tayama mostly was involved in updating the clothes to suit the very latest hot trends, and touching up the designs to make them look and behave realistically when animated. He also provided cloth samples and photographs with all of his illustrations to aid the animators with getting the textures right. Besides George's outfits, the majority of clothing for the other characters was designed by art director and stylist Asami Kiyokawa. After the rough designs were completed, texture artist Yoshikazu Suehiro drew all of the textures and lace by hand, and then scanned them into the computer and digitally applied them as textures during the animation coloring process.

Episodes

Live-action film

Together with the Japanese production company IMJ, Fox International produced a live-action, Japanese-language film based on Paradise Kiss; the film had an estimated budget of US$3–4 million. The live-action film features Keiko Kitagawa as Yukari Hayasaka and Osamu Mukai as George. Other cast members are Natsuki Katō as Kaori Aso, Aya Ōmasa as Miwako Sakurada, Kento Kaku as Arashi Nagase, Shunji Igarashi as Isabella Yamamoto, and Yūsuke Yamamoto as Tokumori Hiroyuki. The film was released in Japan in June 2011. It featured the songs "Hello (Paradise Kiss)" and "You" by Yui.

Reception

Melissa Sternenberg of THEM Anime Reviews called the character designs and animation "fresh and appealing" with the closing and opening sequences "some of the best of the Fall 2005 season," and praised the animation and artwork, especially the fashion designs. However, she felt the series went wrong in cramming the story into 12 episodes, saying 26 episodes would have been better, and said that she disliked the main characters. However, she said that the sentimentality of ParaKiss seems to "accurately reflect the real fashion world". Carl Kimlinger of Anime News Network had a more positive view, saying that apart from the established characters, the show's true star is the "costume design" which is shown in much detail, with a "delicate balancing of realism with drama." He said that the treatment of the series is "unusually thoughtful", and that the series is "about being young...having dreams...[and] romance." He called the series a "refreshingly mature story", but said it is not for "those in search of reassuring escapism." In 2024, through a survey of 100 people by TV Maga (a web magazine operated by TV Log), Paradise Kiss was voted second for most fashionable manga, along with Neighborhood Story, another series by Yazawa.