Marmalade Boy

When Miki Koishikawa welcomes her parents home from their trip to Hawaii, the last thing she expects is for them to gleefully announce that they are getting a divorce. To her shock, they plan to switch partners with another couple they met on vacation. Barely able to keep her emotions in check, Miki begrudgingly attends dinner to meet the other couple and their strikingly handsome son, Yuu Matsuura.

After moving into a spacious house with her newly blended family, Miki struggles to adjust to her new lifestyle and her blooming feelings for Yuu. She attempts to navigate the coming school year with the help of her best friend, Meiko Akizuki, who is hiding a scandalous relationship of her own. However, the road ahead is not simple, as both Miki and Yuu have other potential suitors and emotional baggage from their pasts they are reluctant to reveal.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Koishikawa, Miki Main

Kouda, Mariko Japanese

Matsuura, Yuu Main

Okiayu, Ryoutarou Japanese

Akizuki, Meiko Supporting

Yamazaki, Wakana Japanese

Miwa, Satoshi Supporting

Oota, Shinichirou Japanese

Tsuchiya, Kei Supporting

Ishida, Akira Japanese

Suzuki, Arimi Supporting

Hisakawa, Aya Japanese

Namura, Shinichi Supporting

Furuya, Toru Japanese

Suou, Ginta Supporting

Kanemaru, Junichi Japanese

Rokutanda, Tsutomu Supporting

Tanaka, Kazunari Japanese

Grant, Michael Supporting

Midorikawa, Hikaru Japanese

Yabe, Akinori Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Yamayoshi, Yasuo Episode Director, Storyboard

Shidara, Hiroshi Episode Director, Storyboard

Oka, Yoshihiro Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Jul 28, 2021

The_Namer

Recommended

This show has been on my radar for decades as one I wanted to watch some day, but its length (76 episodes) made it a costly proposition for importing until recent years. I'm glad I finally bought it, since it's instantly become one of my favourite shows.

Miki finds herself living with a handsome but aggravating boy called Yuu when their parents swap partners and all start living together. After this quirky setup, Miki falls for Yuu, and the two become embroiled in the kind of love dodecahedron you would expect from a romance anime as various other suitors show up. What makes ... Marmalade Boy special is how sympathetic most of the characters become, and how every shift in the relationships between any of them tends to have a devastating knock-on effect on others. Though the mid-episode eyecatches flat-out tell you who really loves who, the trials the various couples face keep escalating to the point of being virtually insurmountable, and I was never certain if any of them would manage to stay together by the end. It goes through all these different permutations where happiness for some means misery for others, and by the final few episodes it was an almost unbearably nail-biting experience waiting to see how it would all play out.

Only two things bothered me about the show. Too many of the male characters forced the first kiss at times when the girls clearly weren't interested yet, and some straight up harrassed a girl into dating them until she caved in. The story didn't always vindicate this approach, but it cropped up far too often. The other problem is the show's chronic case of flashbackitis. Fortunately it doesn't have any actual recap episodes, but it's forever flashing back to scenes from the previous episode, or often just earlier scenes from the same episode. Some key moments are repeated up to a dozen times across the course of the series.

None of that dampened my enjoyment too much though. Despite its length, it took me barely a week to watch all 76 episodes. It never feels like it's spinning its wheels or going in circles. There's always some new challenge facing the characters, and the story arcs don't outstay their welcome. I can see this being a show I'll revisit time and again in the years to come. If you have any interest in the romance genre, it's essential viewing.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Sep 30, 2022

SapphiRubyCrys

Mixed Feelings

I'll say one thing for sure the manga is better than the anime. The anime felt dragged and unnecessarily long which you will agree with if you read the manga.
Otherwise this is a good anime there are filler moments but nothing was too boring. IT was a fun time but the animation may seem old now and less fluid like the ones we are getting now so keep that in mind.

All in all the parents and their antics are fun. Miki is actually one of the first FL's I got to experience so she will always have a special place in my heart. Yuu is ... also a good ML.
The story just felt too lengthy... that's the only problem I had, especially as the eps went by.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Sep 14, 2025

katachikumo

Not Recommended

I felt the urge to write a review after finishing the anime and being disappointed many times by the characters' actions.

But first I want to say some good things about the anime:
It starts off really well. As "well" as an anime can get back in those days. We get introduced to the characters, to the situation that they are involved in, their position/role in the anime and so on. It was all nice and good, understandable (in the anime world).
Character design is okay-ish. Yeah, the parents look younger than their children for the most part of them, the character design is "skeletal" (Ultra long and ... thin limbs, broad shoulders and looking like 27, not their actual age).
Some characters are just too annoying, which they excuse as "being protective and caring".
Other characters deserved more screen-time (I'm talking about Miwa and Yayoi).
The light effects, music, soundtrack, sound effects were well done.

Now I want to talk about what bothered me so much that I left a painful rating.
The families: Annoying, from the first second up until the last frame. Especially in the last episode they really killed the whole mood.
The lead female protagonist is the key "toxin" of the anime. Her melodramas, lack of communication, lack of common sense, imagining things in her head all the time, thus hurting herself and making a mess for the others, her selfishness were somehow cute in the first 25-30 episodes, but later she was a scourge. The whole anime could have finished in 24 episodes or less, if it wasn't for the problems she caused.

But the rest of the characters are very enjoyable, except for a couple blue-haired people. The excess number of characters at least gave space for a series of "plot" twists, which made the anime less sufferable to watch.

Why I didn't quit watching though? For 2 reasons:

1. I always finish an anime, no matter what.
2. It was Toei animation. I really love their art.

To conclude it, I hope you enjoy the anime more than I did. I wish you the best and thank you if you read until the end!

Sayonara!!!

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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