SPOILERS: For the entire Kimagure Orange Road Series. This also serves as a review of the entire series. Kimagure Orange Road: Summers Beginning concludes the Kimagure Orange Road series and wraps up the adventures of Kyosuke Kasuga the iconic Madoka Ayukawa and Hikaru Hiyama. I think the movie is essential to watch to see how the main trios personalities and characterizations grow from the main series and the previous movie seeing them shift from immature teens to more stable young adults. My interest in Kimagure Orange Road stemmed from the character of Madoka Ayukawa who prior to the arrival of Madoka Kaname from Puella Magi Madoka Magica was the Madoka of the anime world. Madoka is always cited as having foundations in the modernday tsundere trope not exactly fitting the definition of a tsundere as we know it today but being a prototsundere of sorts. Shes a skilled girl with the reputation of a delinquent but cares deeply for her friends and is whimsical in her treatment of Kyosuke one minute shes kind and sweet and the next shes ignoring him and being cold. The Kimagure in the title refers to her as being capricious or whimsical. Kimagure Orange Road is also known for setting the precedent for love triangles in anime. Kyosuke serves as the somewhat dense and indecisive protagonist who loves one girl Madoka but cant turn down the other girl whos interested in him Hikaru. Madoka is the cool beauty and Hikaru is the cheerful younger girl whos deeply in love with Kyosuke and always wants to be around him. The show undoubtedly helped set the foundation for anime romcoms with wacky antics simple misunderstandings that get blown out of proportion and the will they or wont they? question that gets you interested in coming back for the next episode. The addition of Kyosuke having psychic powers almost makes it feel like a genderswapped Sabrina the Witch at times. As a bingewatcher however the show can be infuriating to get through at certain points especially when they ramp up certain traits of characters to the extreme. Kyosuke not being able to speak his mind Hikaru not being able to handle the most simple rejection Madoka being overly fickle in how she treats Kyosuke and down to the side characters as well. In fact I think the shows biggest flaw comes from characterization and its only cemented by the fact that it takes 2 movies to solve it. While watching the show it feels like youre stuck in this limbo of no one developing. Kyosuke doesnt grow a backbone until the first movie I Want to Return to That Day. It takes Hikaru getting viciously rejected to understand she needs to give Kyosuke personal space and Madoka takes a step back from solving Kyosukes issues while also beginning to understand she needs to prioritize her own happiness over hurting Hikaru her best childhood friend. The side characters suffer even more: Manami and Kurumi get less relevance as the series goes on to just barely appearing in the movies Komatsu and Hatta are pervy side characters that dont even feel like Kyosukes real friends and Yusaku never learns to get over Hikaru and doesnt get to appear in the movies. The only interesting side characters are Kazuya Kyosukes bratty but confident kid cousin with mindswitching psychic powers and Akane his cousin who crushes on Madoka and has the ability to make people see her as a different person. They are very underused and shouldve been the ones to round out the main supporting cast instead of Komatsu and Hatta. Kyosuke may have his irritating flaws as a main character but in a way it feels like he really has no one in his corner. Hes constantly getting pushed to accept Hikaru in order to not rock the boat amongst the group except Yusaku who wants Hikaru for himself so with a lack of supportive friends its no wonder he struggles to handle Hikaru. So the movies come as muchneeded relief for the story and characters to grow but the biggest question is: Was it worth the wait following the television show? Id say the payoff was worth itto an extent of course. It was incredibly satisfying to see Kyosuke turn down Hikaru and make it official with Madoka but it was even more satisfying to see Hikaru move on to become a professional dancer showing that the rejection was necessary for her to move forward in life. Kyosuke and Madokas relationship feels unstrained now with them having the freedom to do what they please without having to worry about hurting Hikaru or the bugging of the Kasuga twins Komatsu and Hatta. The way Hikaru has to part ways with Madoka and Kyosuke also feels incredibly realistic and Summers Beginning does highlight that it was time they needed to spend a part to grow as people before reuniting as friends. The biggest cons of the series as a whole though is the slough that is the show and having to sit through 48 episodes of limbo many episodes of which arent even that interesting or simply just infuriating to watch. While it made the payoff for both movies greater as its necessary to the viewing experience and understanding why its so important for Kyosuke to finally speak up about how he really feels it really puts into perspective that static characterization hurt the show in the long run. There are little to no important character arcs outside of Madoka shedding her reputation as the local bad girl. That isnt to say the show has no value at all and should be skipped. For those fans wanting a more indepth look into romcoms and love triangles in anime Kimagure Orange Road is a massive influence on how the genre is shaped today and you can see the basis for many common tropes in each episode similar to Rumiko Takahashi works like Urusei Yatsura and Ranma . And as stated above Madoka Ayukawa helped define the idea of tsunderes in anime and is what Id say the backbone of this series. Shes by far the most interesting character it has to offer with her backstory in the final episodes of the television show being critical in understanding her personality. Her characterization of wanting to maintain her friendship with Hikaru a girl whos so close to her they could be sisters and wanting to be with Kyosuke but knowing itd hurt Hikaru definitely makes her incredibly sympathetic. You watch this show for Madoka to see her be incredibly talented cool and understand who she is as a person but then you stay to see Kyosuke stand up for himself and finally turn down Hikaru. As for other factors the animation is incredibly charming and rarely offmodel except for Kurumis simpleton face and all the openings for the show are catchy and amazing. The third opening is quite revolutionary for its time as it has a long continuous take and constant rotating. One of the earliest uses of time loops is also used in this series in its Christmas episode and the show features many uses of time travel with the finale movie being centered around Kyosuke being sent to the future while in a coma. As a whole the series holds a significant impact on modernday anime culture as well as vaporwave and future funk culture for having a clean 80s anime aesthetic. If youre interested in seeing where many tropes come from this show is one you should watch. But that doesnt erase its flaws while the movies have incredible payoffs and its satisfying to see how the main trio grow into young adults the show is something you should anticipate being an annoying repetitive ride especially if you want to binge it or are already familiar with modern romcom anime so youve most likely seen more advanced takes built on the tropes based in this series. So for historic value and for having a fulfilling conclusion Kimagure Orange Road as a series gets a passing score but I cant give it anything higher due to characterization flaws an odd choice of supporting cast interesting characters being underused and the agonizing payoff to get to the movies.