Paradise Kiss

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Alternative Titles

Synonyms: ParaKiss

Japanese: パラダイス・キス

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Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 5

Chapters: 48

Status: Finished

Published: Mar 23, 1999 to Mar 22, 2003

Genres: Drama, Romance

Themes: School, Visual Arts

Demographic: Josei

Serialization: Zipper

Authors: Yazawa, Ai (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 8.29¹ (scored by 22,314 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #320²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #314

Members: 55,273

Favorites: 2,752

Available At

Kodansha USA

Resources

Wikipedia

8.29

Ranked #320Popularity #314Members 55,273

MangaZipperYazawa, Ai (Story & Art)

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Volumes: /5

Chapters: /48

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Synopsis

After two eccentrically dressed individuals ambush her, high school student Yukari Hayasaka promptly passes out due to shock. She soon awakens to find herself surrounded by even more strangely dressed people in the basement studio of Paradise Kiss—a fashion design club composed of four students from Yazawa School for the Arts. Although it seems like Yukari has been kidnapped, the older students explain that they only approached her to see if she would model their collection for an upcoming fashion show.

Being a senior with a busy schedule, Yukari furiously rejects the group's offer. But when she drops her student passbook in her haste to leave, the ringleader of the group, George Koizumi, picks it up and uses it as a means to coerce Yukari into considering their request. After hearing about the other members' unbridled ambition, Yukari is inspired to reevaluate her own circumstances and eventually agrees to help them out.

Now as Paradise Kiss' model, Yukari must learn to balance her new responsibilities with her hectic personal life. However, the more time she spends with George and the rest of the team, the harder it becomes for her to avoid getting swept up in the glitz and glamor of the fashion world.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Paradise Kiss was published in English by Tokyopop from May 21, 2002 to March 9, 2004. Due to Tokyopop dissolving in 2011, Vertical Inc. acquired the publishing rights and republished the entire series in three volumes from September 25, 2012 to March 5, 2013.

The manga received a live-action film adaptation produced by Fox International, which was released in Japan on June 4, 2011. A mobile game based on the series was published by Hot Pod on June 6, 2011.

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Characters

Sakurada, Miwako

Main

Koizumi, George

Main

Hayasaka, Yukari

Main

Yamamoto, Isabella

Main

Nagase, Arashi

Main

Kouda, Mikako

Supporting

Yamaguchi, Tsutomu

Supporting

Tokumori, Hiroyuki

Supporting

Kisaragi, Seiji

Supporting

Sunami, Noriji

Supporting

Reviews

Sep 21, 2024

emmiuccia

Recommended

"No one can be completely sure of their own will. Everyone is worried and confused and influenced by the ideas of people around them."

What if you stopped trying to meet your family's and society's expectations? Could you be sure you wouldn't end up just finding other impossible expectations to be met? That's what happens to Yukari Hayasaka in Paradise Kiss--she's unable to meet her family's expectations, and when that's too much for her and she finds an alternative life to live, she finds herself new expectations that she'll never be able to live up to, forcing her to change from within. She struggles to understand ...

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Jul 27, 2017

Gundroog

Mixed Feelings

For the first time in a long while, my endeavor to find good women's manga ended with a positive result. Even though I'm still not exactly thrilled this was a nice way to expand horizons.

Art: Gotta say, while there are lots of pretty, close shots of beautiful characters in the flashy outfits, everything else is rather awful.
While some drawings like chapter and volume covers, as well as occasional manga panels have more or less realistic proportions, the rest of the manga is filled with skeleton people trying to hide inside skin bags with various degrees of success. It's inconsistent but it's probably a ... stylistic choice so your mileage may vary. I found it to be pretty bad cause fashion to me is about using clothes to bring out the best features of human physique and go even further beyond. Stick people don't work for that.
Next are backgrounds, they are absolutely dreadful, no two ways about it. It's better than something like Sailor Moon or BeruBara who completely annihilate spatial awareness.
Paradise Kiss has three types of backgrounds:
1. Absolutely nothing - nothing uncommon for women's manga, they often focus on characters and their appearance to a point where backgrounds doesn't seem to matter to them.
2. Minimal outlines - bare minimum of a background, at this point you actually have an idea of where things take place. Better than a void of nothingness but lacking in detail and not rally pretty to look at.
3. PHOTOS - straight up photos! No, even worse. It's very badly filtered photos. This practice existed in manga for a while but this is the first time I see it done this badly and lazily. Inio Asano and Mokoto Shinkai at times get criticized after someone praises them for what is essentially a traced photo but after this I'm sure people would give them credit for at least putting in effort to have it look nice and fit the style of their work.
Overall the linework is clean but rough, as in, lines themselves are often not smooth but there's no excess either. Aside from up close shots that have nice and smooth art with varying line weigh the rest is mostly flat looking.

Story: you might think Paradise Kiss is about fashion and you would be right. But it just as easily could've been acting or making music or drawing art. The fashion thing is just a setting for a character driven romance.
ParaKiss romance is rather well done, I expected another Cinderella type story that little girls and teens could insert themselves in and while there is a smidgen of that, it's not the point. The characters here are just believable enough to care about their attempt to build a relationship while having to deal with their own and each others flaws. It captures well the storm that takes place in someone's mind when they are high on love. Making irrational or impulsive decisions or coming to far off conclusions that are however easily understandable.
In the background there's a plot about all of the characters finding their place in life which I think made a compelling addition to romance. While it doesn't exactly go in depth on all of the themes is brings up, the part about growing up is decent. Our main heroine starts as an aimless student that goes wherever her mother points her to but along the way finds her true self, she finds what she wants to do in life and happiness it brings gives her courage to pursue her dreams. It's a sweet message.

Funfactor: Given how I hated most shoujo/josei manga I've read prior, I think it's worth something when I say this was decently enjoyable. I wouldn't recommend it to just anybody but if you like more complex romance that delves into psychology behind human relationship and doesn't just ride on melodrama I'd definitely recommend this.

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Nov 20, 2021

Cloe900311

Not Recommended

Funny

Well-written

As someone who has engaged with Ai Yazawa’s works like NANA, Tenshi Nanka ja Nai (I’m Not an Angel), and Kagen no Tsuki (Last Quarter), I am very familiar with what she is capable of. Ai Yazawa has the power to write characters who are flawed but you still feel for them and want them to be well, even if you don’t agree with all their decisions. Characters who you look forward to seeing how their journey ahead will be like. Characters who aren’t pretentious and are truly doing their best at what they strive towards. So after about eight weeks of waiting to borrow ...

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Recent Forum Discussion

Poll: Paradise Kiss Chapter 1 Discussion 0ven_dem0n - Oct 30, 2021	2 replies	by nidoqueen106_2 »» Dec 21, 2023 4:03 PM
Poll: Paradise Kiss Chapter 48 Discussion SakuraAme - Jul 17, 2020	8 replies	by MurukoHiiragi »» Aug 5, 2023 6:05 PM
Poll: Favorite Character Poll! accela - Sep 13, 2007	29 replies	by MurukoHiiragi »» Aug 5, 2023 5:59 PM
Poll: Paradise Kiss Chapter 39 Discussion 0ven_dem0n - Nov 12, 2021	1 replies	by Figva »» Aug 24, 2022 12:08 AM
20th Anniversary Edition WalterBlack59 - Oct 24, 2021	7 replies	by WalterBlack59 »» Dec 19, 2021 3:45 AM

Paradise Kiss
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