A Whimsical Trip - The Boy, The Girl, and The Other Girl

100 steps... or is it 99? Is it just a red straw hat, or is it a red string of destiny?

A Whimsical Trip on Kimagure Orange Road

The Red Straw Hat / Kimagure Orange Road (kana)


The Boy, The Girl, And The Other Girl

KyousukeKasuga Kyousuke

Seiyuu: Furuya Tohru

Kyousuke is just another average teenager, so it would seem - his family's just moved to town, and he wants to settle in, make some friends, and enjoy a nice, quiet life in this new home. Unfortunately, this is unlikely, because he comes from a family of ESPers! Every time the "family secret" has been revealed, the Kasugas have had to move, but Kyousuke has found a special reason to stay in this town -

Ayukawa Madoka

Seiyuu: Tsuru Hiromi
Madoka

While counting steps on a long flight of stairs near his new home, Kyousuke sees, and catches, a red straw hat flying over his head. He hears "Nice catch!", and turns to see to Madoka, whose beauty, charm, and sweetness immediately wins his heart! After a playful argument on how many steps there are (he say 100, she says 99), Kyousuke offers a compromise - 99.5 steps! As Madoka leaves, he says to her she's forgetting her hat, to which she replies, "Keep it! It looks good on you!"

Kyousuke Puts On The Red Straw Hat
A Special Gift for Kasuga-kun

He then wears the hat home, having decided that he's going to like it in this town!

Later on at school, he hears that Madoka has a reputation as a delinquent (her nickname is Pick No Madoka, or "Madoka The Pick"). After an encounter in which Madoka slaps Kyousuke silly (when he chastises her for smoking), he wonders which is her true identity.

It may not be easy for him to figure out, because Madoka's kimagure (or whimsical) moods can change from cool to loving and back again in a skip of Kyousuke's heartbeat! He slowly realizes that her aloof nature hides a growing affection for him. He'd like to get to know her better, but complicating the situation is the appearance of -

HikaruHiyama Hikaru

Seiyuu: Hara Eriko

When they first meet, Kyousuke doesn't make a good impression on Hikaru, a cheerful but quick-tempered tomboyish girl, who thinks he's a bit of a wimp. However, when she sees him effortlessly make an impossible basketball shot by using his ESPer "Power" (when he doesn't think anyone's looking), she is amazed, and she immediately decides that he'd make an ideal boyfriend! She then showers her Sempai (also known as "Darling") with gifts, stuffs him with five-stack bentos (box lunches), and demontrates her devotion with the patented "Hikaru flying neck tackle", all of which Kyousuke reluctantly endures.

Kyousuke, oblivious to his fate...watch out for incoming neck tackles - "SEMPAI!!" Looks like Hikaru-chan gotcha

Unfortunately for Kyousuke, Hikaru's best friend is Madoka, whose not-quite-hidden feelings for Kyousuke conflict with her loyalty for her lifelong friend Hikaru, who is oblivious to their mutual attraction.

Torn between two lovers, feeling like a fool...

Kyousuke is a very indecisive fellow, so his attention tends to swing back and forth between Madoka and Hikaru, but this is only because he doesn't want to hurt one or the other. He truly cares for both of them, but for different reasons - he admires and appreciates Hikaru's earnest and unswaying loyalty to him, but he also realizes he has feelings for Madoka that he knows go beyond just friendship.

Kyousuke's anime and manga personalities are very similar. One major difference is that any ecchi (perverted) tendencies that Kyousuke has are almost subconscious in nature in the manga. He might try something with either Madoka or Hikaru, but it's usually not something he'd normally do if he realized what he was doing. This doesn't mean that anime Kyousuke is a pervert, but it does mean that most of that things he might try are more from a "normal" teenage boy's desires than anything else.

Madoka's and Hikaru's personalities are a bit different from manga to anime.In the anime, Hikaru is much more clingy with Kyousuke than in the manga. The anime Hikaru also tolerates a lot more of the ecchi things that Kyousuke does, intentional or not. Manga Hikaru is more short-tempered, and certainly doesn't let him get away with such things as him peeking at her and Madoka while they use his grandparents' furo (bath). She also doesn't tolerate indecisive guys (or cats ^_-).

By contrast, manga Madoka is a lot more tolerant of Kyousuke's bumbling nature than her anime counterpart. She realizes that the very things which might make him less desirable (like his indecisiveness) to others are a large part of his appeal to her.


So...

The question on your mind has to be "Who does Kyousuke choose?"

Kyousuke and his two lovely ladies... kawaii!!

Decisions, decisions...

Well... you're just going to find out for yourself by reading the manga or watching the anime.

(Wouldn't want to spoil it for you! ^_^ )


Go To

"A Whimsical Trip" Homepage / The Boy, The Girl, and The Other Girl / The Twins / The Perverts and The Misfit

The Rest of the Family / Other Characters

Manga Summaries / What's Available, And Where To Get It / KOR-related Links


This page has been viewed 22992 times since 5/18/96.