Its my 100th review and Im continuing my Ai Yazawa reviewing adventures. I first read this series a little over a year ago Im pretty sure it was the second ever manga I completed after Sailor Moon. I decided to revisit it for my 100th review because of its themes of growing up and figuring out what you want to do with your life. Im graduating from high school this year and so I thought that this series would be more impactful and meaningful to me at this time and that it would affect me differently. Im also intending to review all of Ai Yazawas translated works so this was hitting two birds with one stone. High school student Yukari doesnt quite know what to do when shes approached by a variety of eccentrically dressed people who ask her to be their model for their art school fashion show. While she initially refuses due to her impending exams their passion and a little bit of coercion wins her over. The more time Yukari spends with these students learning about them and their upcoming brand Paradise Kiss as well as becoming increasingly involved with their leader George Yukari finds herself questioning herself and her decisions particularly regarding her own future. https://cdn.statically.io//media.kitsu.io/f=webph=350/anime/coverimages/289/original.jpg Do not go into Paradise Kiss expecting a cute romance because it isnt. This is not a love story by any means. Its a coming of age drama which features romance elements. And something that seems very obvious is often missed: George and Yukari are an unhealthy couple. Neither one of them are bad people and their relationship definitely changed each other for the better but they would not have worked out and maintained a healthy relationship. George wants an independent woman while Yukari wants someone who can support her. They both want different things out of the relationship and while they inspired each other they ultimately were not right for each other. Its easy to put all the blame for the relationship failing on George. I hated him the first time I read Paradise Kiss when I was 16 years old and was completely immersed in Yukaris perspective. This whole story is told from Yukaris point of view and so we feel Yukaris emotions as an insecure and imperfect teenager. Her perception of George is definitely skewed and its easy to get caught up in that. Rereading Paradise Kiss now at the same age as the characters hes no longer a monster but just kind of an asshole. Yukari was clingy and possessive quick to put the blame on others. George was cold and distant unwilling to offer the support Yukari needed. Their relationship was not meant to last and that was okay. Yukari became more independent and began to discover who she was with the help of George while George began to realize his own shortcomings. George walks to the beat of his own drum while Yukari ultimately needs someone to support her. In the end they kept forcing their own ideals on each other which is ironic considering how George would tell Yukari to think for herself. It wasnt just the romantic relationships that I observed differently it was Yukari and Georges relationships with their mothers. At first I didnt notice Georges relationship with his mother and how unhealthy it was. She never provided him with adequate emotional support as a child separating herself from him and constantly telling him shed wished shed never had him because he reminded her of her own unhealthy relationship with his father and her pregnancy ended her own career. Telling your child you dont want them is incredibly damaging even if you dont really mean it. It sticks with the child for the rest of their lives and shapes how they view themselves making them worry that their unwanted. Im certain that due to his mothers poor parenting and lack of emotional attention lead to George becoming less emotionally attentive himself. He wants someone who is the opposite of his mother since he had to be her emotional support instead of her looking after him like she should have been doing. https://www.themoviedb.org/t/p/original/6bB6p3AiPDJ7kAJjm0psgh7wFOr.jpg And Yukaris relationship with her mother hit a lot closer to home. While my mom is working on self improvement currently she used to be somewhat similar to Yukaris mom minus the physical abuse. I felt a lot of pressure as the oldest child to succeed and get perfect grades while my younger siblings got away with a lot more. I could see where her mother was coming from while acknowledging how terrible of a parent she was. Yukari never felt acknowledged and she felt like she had to fit her mothers idea of a perfect child in order to be loved which painfully reminded me of my own experiences. Sometimes I could tell that her mom was genuinely worried and not a soulless monster like I thought she was and I appreciated how she began to open up to Yukaris growing independence even though she clearly had a ways to go in becoming a proper parent. Yukaris independence is the crux of Paradise Kiss. She begins the story as an aimless high school student who doesnt know what she wants to with her life despite being a senior. Shes living her life the way her mother wants her to not living for her own sake. She has no dreams or goals beyond going to college and she doesnt even know what shed want to study. I dont think she was even allowed to have outside hobbies other than studying. When she meets George and the other three members of Paradise Kiss her world opens. Now that shes been exposed to modeling a whole new path opens. She realizes that she doesnt just have to study and go to college like her mother wanted. It can be her own choice. Now Yukari has the opportunity to explore and make her own plans about her future even though she makes more than a few missteps along the way. Shes still only a teenager and some of the stuff she did that I applauded when I was younger I can sense the absolute recklessness and bad decision making now. However in the end she makes the best choices for herself and she decides what she wants to do with her adult life. https://i.pin.com/originals/be/31/f2/be31f20d966a1fb2aaea0233f61c1164.jpg While there is a lot of good with Paradise Kiss I must unfortunately bring up the bad and that means talking about two of the other Paradise Kiss members Arashi and Miwako. Theres nothing wrong with Miwako. I love Miwako. Shes very sweet and shes a supportive friend towards Yukari. She deals with physical manifestations of anxiety which is something I also struggle with and it was nice to see a character who deals with the same things I do. Shes the younger sister of Mikako the protagonist of one of Ai Yazawas other works Neighboorhood Story who is now a big name fashion designer. Miwako is worried about her own skills since she can only mimic her sisters design style and she feels like she has no originality and wont be able to make it in the design business. I wish that Ai Yazawa had used that as Miwakos arc instead of the love triangle stuff and Arashi because that barely got explored and anything is better than Arashi. Arashi sucks and I hate him. Hes a bit of a tsundere showing animosity and aggression towards other characters but really caring for them deep down. He may look like a punk but hes actually very level headed. Oh and hes also homophobic transphobic an abusive boyfriend and a rapist. He repeatedly freaks out when the bisexual George approaches him and jokes about dating guys he deadnames the fourth and final Paradise Kiss member trans woman Isabella and he is generally awful towards his girlfriend Miwako. He forbids her from seeing her childhood friend Hiroyuki who had romantic history with Miwako even breaking her phone when caught her sending a Christmas text to him. Hes generally very possessive and controlling. If Ai Yazawa had left it at that before attempting to redeem Arashi who feels guilty for his actions and wants to amend things with Miwako and become a better man I would have been fine with it even though all of that felt really awkwardly written. However in one of the last few chapters a bomb is dropped. Arashi apparently raped Miwako and thats how they got together. Thats right. And its revealed in a conversation between Arashi and Hiroyuki where Miwako isnt involved at all so we never hear her perspective on what happened to her. That bomb is just dropped and isnt addressed properly in the slightest. We never hear about Miwakos feelings at all and Arashi is redeemed in the end despite being terrible. Its brushed under the rug that he literally committed a crime against his girlfriend and as a result it feels like their relationship is romanticized especially since they are shown to have gotten married after the story ended. Its just always left a bad taste in my mouth about how terribly this arc was handled. When I first read it I was so upset since I didnt see the red flags with Arashi and he was one of my favorites and then the reveal happens and he just gets away with it. Now I see the red flags and I see how terribly and clumsily Yazawa handled their relationship which felt different from her other series which never really romanticized abuse despite portraying unhealthy dynamics. This subplot is probably one of the worst things Ai Yazawa has ever written and I feel like it kind of undermines the message about unhealthy relationships in the plot with Yukari and George. I think this contribution really weakens Paradise Kiss and I think its probably one of Yazawas weakest works from what Ive seen so far. https://pbs.tw.com/media/FCwKbGhXMAYqwwF.jpg And I wont skip out on talking about Isabella either. I love her though I wish she was utilized more since she had the least to do in the story. She and George have a great friendship as they have been close since childhood and George was the one who helped her embrace her identity as a woman. Shes a positive portrayal of a trans woman even though sometimes the mangas age really shows. Shes very mature and wise and shes one of the characters who most consistently breaks the fourth wall. In general shes very likeable but underutilized. The art is gorgeous as you would expect from Ai Yazawa. This series is about the fashion and modeling industry so of course everyone is stylish and all the clothes are meticulously drawn. The finished product for their fashion show is to die for. The characters are always spectacularly dressed with their own styles. George dresses very eccentrically Arashi goes for hardcore punk Isabella dresses like a Victorian lady and Miwako wears lots of pink and the lolita style her sister popularized. Im not going to lie some of Yukari and Miwakos outfits were things Id like to wear personally. I could go on for hours about it. I appreciate Paradise Kiss and its messages and portrayal of unhealthy relationships. While people glamorize high school relationships and some couples stay together these relationships are not the endallbeall. Sometimes in order to become your best self the right thing to do is to leave a romantic relationship. Sometimes your career comes first. I think this manga is particularly important for people about to leave home and start their own careers or go to college due to the themes it explores. However there is the major caveat of Arashi and Miwakos relationship which is very distressing especially since Ai Yazawa has shown that she can write abusive and toxic relationships without romanticizing them. Id say I still like it and appreciate it though I can look at it more critically now and of course I have more to compare it to now that Ive read more than Sailor Moon.