Super late, but I liked reading this. I got to thinking about the shoujo romance manga I like (and even some of the yaoi manga I've read, haha), and realized that the pairings I like most tend to get together fairly early in the story. But I don't think I mind if the leads don't get together until the end, as long as there's real character/relationship development along the way. A lot of genuine development can occur while the characters are still in the "just friends" phase, so it is a little sad that so many romance stories just have the characters tiptoe around each other until they finally hook up.

Though on the topic of cynicism, in real life, I do think there are a lot of people who live by their assumptions and repeatedly fail to communicate with the people they have a misunderstanding with, regardless if the problem is love or anything else. (It really wouldn't surprise me if a lot of Japanese people are like this. *facepalm*) Maybe Kimi ni Todoke is actually meant to be a scathing social commentary, LOL.

On a happier note, have you ever read the Mars manga? It's probably my favorite straight-up romance manga. There's very little "chase" worth speaking of (just checked and the leads are together by the end of the first volume), so throughout almost the entirety of the story, the two of them just develop their relationship and help each other get through all their crazy life problems. :)

@Miss Anonymous:

Yeah, I honestly don't mind the chase that much as long as it's not the sole focus and it's not ridiculously contrived. (Which was the case for most of Kimi ni Todoke's first season.) It can be really fun if done right. But when it's drawn out like this for no real reason, it just seems so ... cynical to me.

As far as Kimi ni Todoke goes, that part in the manga majorly pissed me off. It was so obviously contrived. It's like, "Just get together already you dumbasses." If you don't mind a small spoiler, the stupid misunderstanding gets taken care of fairly quickly in the manga, as far as I remember. And then they finally DO get together. Buuuut, around that time is when I stopped reading the manga; kinda goes hand in hand with what you said about a prolonged chase resulting in the audience getting bored.

Unfortunately though, this sort of thing plagues a lot of shoujo. And I mean a lot. I don't mind the chase story TOO much, EXCEPT when it's obviously obviously drawn out. Like in Kimi ni Todoke. However, shoujo/romances that have a more natural progression are definitely preferred over the cliche of the prolonged chase. This is part of why I recently plowed through Itazura na Kiss.

@Mimmi:

The first season is decent because there's at least some other stuff going on aside from the romance, but this second season has been terrible so far.

I wish with all my heart that, one day, Kare Kano will be fully animated because it is such a stellar story!

Kimi no Todoke has been sitting on my computer but, going by this astute writing of yours, I won't be in a hurry to watch it xD

@SomeGuy:

I never read it, but I did read many an angry rant about it. :p

@:

Nodame is something you'd like, I think, because the romance develops incidentally, at least in the first season. Nodame and Chiaki's relationship really is one of the most organic in anime, mostly because they deal with things as people rather than characters in a plot.

I have absolutely no argument with this essay.

This actually always makes me think of stories where the people finally GET to get together, and how the good ones know how to change that into something new and different (and still good). First ones to pop into my mind are Love Hina (manga, anyway), I"s (manga again), and Superman. More so Superman, though, because Lois and Clark have been married for like, 15 years now and they're probably the happiest couple in comics that still kicks so much ass.

Heh. I bet you must have hated the Spider-Man "One More Day" story, eh?

I never did finish the first season, but by the sounds of it, if I ever do I doubt I'm going to watch the second.