Ai Kora

Infobox animanga/Header
name = Ai Kora


caption =
ja_name = 愛こら
ja_name_trans =
genre = HaremInfobox animanga/Manga
title =
author = Kazurou Inoue
publisher = flagicon|Japan Shogakukan
flagicon|South Korea Haksan Publishing
demographic = Shōnen
magazine = Shōnen Sunday
first = 2005
last = 2008] [cite web |url=http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-01-30/ai-kora-manga-to-end-in-shonen-sunday-on-february-6 |title=Ai Kora Manga to End in Shōnen Sunday on February 6 |publisher=Anime News Network |accessdate=2008-01-30]
volumes = 12 [ [http://www.s-book.com/plsql/com2_series?tid=409127381 "S-Book"] . Accessed 2008-04-30.] Nihongo|"Ai Kora"|あいこら, also known as Love&Collage, is a manga series by Kazurou Inoue, mangaka of the popular manga and anime series "Midori Days". The manga ended on February 6, 2008 and 12 volumes have been published in tankōbon form, but has been republished and has been continuing since July 23, 2008.

Plot

The plot is based on a teenager, Hachibe Maeda, who idolizes individual parts of women. When he moves to Tokyo to attend high school, he finds himself living in a shed near a girls' dormitory, which has ladies that possess one of the ideal features he desires. The story revolves around Hachibe's quest to indulge in his fetishes, and his growing relationships with the other characters.

Characters

Main

; nihongo|Hachibe Maeda|前田 ハチベエ|"Maeda Hachibē": The main protagonist of the story. He is a 15-year-old boy who all of his life has loved only women’s body parts. Because of his fetish, he is not attracted to women that do not have his ideal parts and does not get excited over parts that he believes not to be ideal. For this reason, he begs his mother to let him go to Sakashitamon Academy in Tokyo in order for him to seek out his ideal parts. Once he meets a woman who has one of his ideal parts, he becomes very protective of her. He goes though great lengths to indulge in his fetishes as well as maintain the friendship with the women themselves. Normally he is very passive and non-violent, but when a serious event threatens his ideal parts, he transforms into a berserker state. In this state, he is able to accomplish superhuman feats. Later in the story, he reveals that his father died when he was young and had a similar personality. His father's happiness of finding his wife (his ideal woman) is what drives Hachibe's quest for his own ideal woman.

:: "Hachibe's character design resembles Seiji Sawamura, the main character of Midori Days, Kazorou Inoue's past work."

; nihongo|Tsubame Ameyagi|雨柳 つばめ|"Ameyagi Tsubame": The landlord at the girls' dormitory as well as a English teacher at Sakashitamon Academy. She has what Hachibe considers "ideal legs" (like Sally Yumeno's) and is very tall (by Hachibe's estimate, at least 190 centimeters, or about 6'3"). She is an easy going, fun loving girl who loves to smoke, drink, and street race in her modified Honda S800 (in fact being the reason why she learned English was because the parts for the car were in America). Because she is almost 25 years old, her mother desperately wants her to get married and often makes her attend "omiai" meetings. Tsubame purposely sabotages these meetings because she refuses to marry anyone who she does not love. She actually had a boyfriend (who apparently had a leg fetish) who she met in college, though he died in motorcycle accident. His younger sister held a grudge against her for years until Hachibe helped them reconcile. She is originally from Osaka. She seems to not mind Hachibe's fetishes and even asks him to massage her legs, comically she asks most of the time during times where it seems to be an inconvenience for him to do so.

; nihongo|Sakurako Tenmaku|天幕 桜子|"Tenmaku Sakurako": A freshman at Sakashitamon Academy and a tenant at the girls' dormitory. She has what Hachibe considers "ideal eyes." Two years ago, she had to transfer schools because she was being bullied by other girls who accused her of deceiving their boyfriends. During this time she met a boy one year older then her named Junichiro Taniyama in cram school, who she liked until he attempted to rape her (later this was revealed to be a misunderstanding). For this reason, she is cold towards men and is considered a man hater by her classmates at Sakashitamon Academy . When her father learned about the torment she was put though by the other girls, it caused him to become overprotective of her. He has since passed that responsibility onto Hachibe, who has also indirectly helping her overcome the psychological trauma she has towards men. She is very economical by nature and loves finding bargains as well as having an extensive knowledge of how to save money. When Hachibe first moves into the dormitory, she dislikes him, but her feelings gradually change. They have gotten to the point that both Tsubame and Ayame have noticed. Her family, which consists of her father, grandmother Hana, and her younger brother and sister, owns a restaurant. Though her mother was thought to be dead, she makes an appearance in Parts 83 of the manga. Both Sakurako and her mother both have Hachibe's ideal eyes. Now realizing her feelings for Hachibe, she has a tough time actually stating so in public; so she asked Hachibe to keep wowing her so one day she could admit her true feelings for him.

; nihongo|Yukari Tsukino|月野 弓雁|"Tsukino Yukari": A middle school sophomore at Sakashitamon Academy as well as a tenant at the girls' dormitory. She has what Hachibe considers "ideal breasts." The trait is revealed to be hereditary because her older sisters have the same breast shapes but are larger. Her mother, however, doesn't have them at all. Yukari is very bashful, partly because boys make fun of her breasts which are bigger than her peers. She excelled at Kyūdō and is the district champion. She is secretly a part of an otaku dōjin circle. She likes Hachibe and confesses her feelings to him. Since he does not understand true love, he can only reply by explaining his love of parts. This greatly upset her until Tsubame helps her understand Hachibe better. She also uses her large breasts to get Hachibe to notice her, though nowhere near as much as Ayame Yatsuhashi. Recently she discovered that Hachibe and Tenmaku are now dating but still can't help but love him.

:: "Yukari's character design resembles Midori Kasugano, the main character of Midori Days, Kazorou Inoue's past work."

; nihongo|Kirino Ootori|鳳 桐乃|"Ōtori Kirino": A freshman at Sakashitamon Academy as well as a tenant at the girls' dormitory. She has what Hachibe considers to be an "ideal voice". She is descendant of a ninja family and master of the Shuusui ninja style. She loves to sing, but has to hide it because her grandfather's disapproval of it getting in the way of her ninja training. For this reason, she loves to go to karaoke by herself. She has the ability to sense another person’s killer instinct. She often threatens to kill people that annoy her yet this usually has no effect on Hachibe for he is in a bliss state just hearing her voice. Her 8 year old cousin Ai once tried to take her life (to no avail) but in the end they made up. She normally protects her cousin from Hachibe perverted actions because they found out that Ai has Hachibe's "ideal hands". It is also revealed she might just have feelings for Hachibe.

:: "Ootori's character design resembles Nao Makinoha, another character from Midori Days, Kazorou Inoue's past work."

; nihongo|Ayame Yatsuhashi|八ツ橋 あやめ|"Yatsuhashi Ayame": A student at Sakashitamon Academy and the school idol. She is the daughter of the plutocrat Yatsuhashi, which strive to be the best at everything. Her father donates so much to the school that she can have her way without question from the teachers. She wants Hachibe to become her boyfriend because he is considered to be the strongest in the school. Much to her surprise, Hachibe rejects her because he can't see any ideal parts. She refuses defeat and, through reconnaissance, learns of his parts fetish. While being saved from being hit by a truck, Hachibe learns that she has his "ideal waist line" (like fine Japanese pottery, or so he says). Afterwards, she decides to move into the girls' dormitory in order to remain closer to Hachibe. She is the only character that regularly exploits Hachibe’s fetish in order to control him (by doing a belly dance). In the series, it is unclear if she truly loves Hachibe or if it just a superficial love, though it is inferred that she truly loves Hachibe. In chapter 59, Hachibe, once again, proves how far he will go to protect all of the girls part, for Ayame and her behavior afterwards was that of a person in love. In Chapter 51, she has shown the willingness to go further than the others to make Hachibe hers.

upport

; nihongo|Junichiro Taniyama: In early chapters he is seen as the boy from cram school that Tenmaku fell in-love with when the girls were out casting her, yet out of the blue tried to rape her; being the reason Tenmaku had a man-hating personality in earlier chapters. He reappears in the end of Chapter 70 where Tenmaku runs for her life in chapter 71, screaming rape till he saves her from being hit by a car. After she has calm down he tells her how he never meant to hurt her and only realized what he did after she slapped him. He tried to apologize to her but Tenmaku's father would threaten to cook him alive if he ever came near and didn't know she was still in the area when she changed school. He also reveals that he has yet had a girlfriend since he still loves her, where he asked if she was dating anyone yet she replied with how much he is a jerk for leaving her alone at the amusement park (but also states that it might be her fault for making him ride rides that were clearly making him sick). He states to her he isn't going to give up on her and leaves. Later in Chapter 73 looking for her school (and revealing he has a very terrible sense of direction, unable to locate it when it was right next to him) and finds Hachibe by accident, saving him from a bully (revealing he has taken boxing lessons) and joins him to an event to discover what kind of guy the guy Tenmaku loves. Discovering that this event is a Boob Lovers Convention he believes Hachibe to be a deviant, wanting to leave as soon as possible to warn Tenmaku but is then stopped to join in the final contest. Seeing Hachibe's determination he realizes that he does have competition for Tenmaku's heart (and accidentally becomes known as the Boob King, getting respect from Hachibe for it).:: "Junichiro's character design resembles Osamu Miyahara, another character from Midori Days, Kazorou Inoue's past work."

; nihongo|"Ai Hagidzuka"|萩塚 亜亥|"Hagizuka Ai": She is Ōotori's 8 year old cousin that was introduced into chapter 68; she is an aspiring ninja and wishes to be the best within the family; seeing to do this as to take the life of her cousin. But she is still at an amateur level (hiding with wrong patterned wall paper, her disguises still revealing her short height, and unable to keep herself from falling off the ceiling). But it is soon found out that she has Hachibe's ideal hands and he constantly tries to cover them with some kind of jam (which results in Ōotori protecting her cousin from him). But then Ai pulls out a dangerous bomb in which Hachibe's berserker mode was able to kick it out of the distance just in time and for this it seems that Ai has developed a crush on him (and might have revealed that Ōotori has one on him as well).

; nihongo|Ryuunosuke Shibusawa|渋沢 龍之介|"Shibusawa Ryūnosuke": The president of the art department at Sakashitamon Academy. He, like Hachibe, has a love of women’s parts as well as other various fetishes. At first, Hachibe and Ryuunosuke tried to hinder each others fetish activities, but later have become comrades and now help each other.:: "Ryuunosuke's character design resembles Shuichi Takamizawa, another character from Midori Days, Kazorou Inoue's past work."

; nihongo|Kureha Kano|鹿野 紅葉|"Kano Kureha": A student at Sakashitamon Academy and the former “Mysterious molester”. She used to attack cute girls and draw glasses on their faces to satisfy her glasses fetish with other girls. After being stopped by Hachibe and Ryuunosuke, she starts to hang around bi-spectacled Yukari.

; nihongo|Haiji Kikuno|菊乃 盃二|"Kikuno Haiji": A bisexual transfer student at Sakashitamon Academy. He is popular with the girls of his class except Sakurako. He fell in love with Hachibe because of his pureness of heart, much to Hachibe’s displeasure. Through an accident, Hachibe learns that Kikuno has his ideal butt, causing Hachibe to have mental anguish because his part fetish is not strong enough to overcome the gender issue, but it has died down enough that they seem to be good friends in later chapters.

; nihongo|Yoichirou Tatsumi|辰巳 与一郎|Tatsumi Yoichirou: The president of the science club at Sakashitamon Academy. He is often seen with Ayame, helping her with her schemes to have Hachibe become her boyfriend. He is known to have a breast fetish. He even invented what he called “Skeleton vision”, which is a pair of glasses that allows the user to see through clothes to help satisfy his curiosity.

;nihongo|Seishirou Aburazaka|油坂征四郎|Aburazaka Seishirou: The founder and first president of the art department at Sakashitamon Academy known for his exaggerated manga face. He is considered to be the mentor of Ryuunosuke and a pioneer fetishist that travels all over Japan to satisfy them. He is a big believer in taking the offensive role to enhance the fetish experience. However, his fetishes have led him to be beaten up by Kirino and to be a suspect of a burglary. According to the extras, Aburazaka used to have a normal face but the change in the face is unknown.

;nihongo|Umeka Outani|鶯谷 梅香|Outani Umeka : She is a middle school freshman that fell in love with Ryuunosuke. Even when he rejects her, this only seems to encourage her. Her innocence and naiveté allow her to see Ryuunosuke's perverted activities as "artistic". She has proven to have many talents during her trials of the made up initiation to the Art Club, all of which had sexual connotations, where instead of scaring her away as intended, she is shown enjoying them.

;nihongo|Yuuzou Kawatani|川谷 裕三|Kawatani Yūzō : A student in Sagashitatmon's Judo team and is the school's champion. He has a genuine crush on Yukari, and has a rivalry against Hachibe over her. He tries to protect Yukari from him, but when danger comes to Yukari's breasts, Kawatani's protection is trumped by Hachibe's protection of his loved parts. He returns in a later chapter and inadvertently confesses to Yukari, but she tells him that she is loves Hachibe to much and even though knows he is with Tenmaku, is going to keep trying to be more then a part to him. So Yuuzo promises that he will still be there if she can't be with Hachibe. A running gag that goes on with him is that everytime he tries to confess his feelings to Yukari, she gets into the middle of a very dangerous situation that even though he is the Judo Champion, gets beat up and she is saved by Hachibe's berserker mode.

References