Iketeru Futari

Iketeru Futari
Cover of the first manga volume
イケてる2人 (Cool Couple)
Genre	Comedy, Romance
Manga
Written by	Takashi Sano
Published by	Shōnen Gahosha
Demographic	Seinen
Magazine	Young King Comics
Original run	1997 – 2010
Volumes	33
Anime television series
Directed by	Takeshi Yamaguchi
Studio	J.C.Staff (animation) Geneon Universal Entertainment (distribution)
Network	TBS
Original run	February 2, 1999 – February 26, 1999
Episodes	16
Live-action film
Directed by	Oku Wataru
Studio	GP Museum Soft
Released	October 2, 2009
Runtime	79 minutes

Iketeru Futari (イケてる2人, lit. "The Hot Couple") is a Japanese manga written and illustrated by Takashi Sano. It was serialized in the Shōnen Gahosha magazine Young King Comics from 1997 to 2010 for a total of 33 volumes.

The 1999 animated television adaptation has 16 episodes, with about 5½ minutes per episode. This anime features significant fan service. A live-action theatrical film version was released on October 2, 2009.

Plot

Sixteen-year-old Keisuke Saji loves to fantasize about young beautiful women. He hopes to land the object of his affection, Koizumi Akira. Koizumi is a classic tsundere, switching between violence towards Saji and affection. While most guys take Koizumi's cold shoulder as a hint, Saji pursues head-on without having rejection faze him.

The plot of the anime covers the early portions of the manga it is based on (the manga currently being at over 30 volumes long in Japan). There are, however, a number of alterations. Most obvious is the removal of Saji and Koizumi's sex life. Their first night together is implied rather than explicit, and other times they were intimate instead end with Saji being kicked or punched into space.

Additionally, for the sake of time most likely, many side plots of the manga are ignored, an example being the exclusion of Arigase's boyfriend, a shy young man named Konoe, and the tale of how they met.

Lastly, several events in the story occur in a different order in the anime than they do in the manga.

Soundtrack

Track 1 - Fall In YOU

Track 2 - Windy Scene

Track 3 - Fall In YOU Instrumental

Characters

Keisuke Saji (佐次京介 Saji Keisuke)

Voiced by: Shigeru Shibuya

Saji is a 16-year-old high school guy with spiky hair who loves everything about women. In the beginning the series Saji was just your average sex-crazed, teenage boy; but one day he steals his father's cell phone and gets a message from the mysterious girl named Alice promising to do sexual things to the first person to meet her. The next day at school, he bumps into Koizumi and learns from his friends about her and all the rumors surrounding her life. Later that night he goes to meet Alice and finds out that there are a bunch of other old guys there harassing all the young girls fitting Alice's description. He then sees Koizumi sitting on a bench laughing at how many perverted old men there are in the city. He immediately recognizes her voice as the one that called his dad's phone claiming to be Alice. When he exposes her, she takes him on a date stating that "Alice doesn't lie." The next morning Saji meets Koizumi again, much to her dismay, to talk about the previous night. When Koizumi immediately denies it to save face in front of her friends, Saji begins to think it was only a dream, but he decides to wholeheartedly dedicate himself to making his dream reality once more (whether or not they had sex is never fully confirmed nor denied; the manga confirms their sexual act as well as showing future sexual acts which leads to Koizumi's embarrassment many times). Over time he soon begins to realize that even though he may act extremely lecherous, Koizumi is the only girl he wants to be with. At one point, when he thinks that Koizumi may be attracted to another guy, he tells her he loves her. Despite being in love with Koizumi that is still not enough to stop his perverse actions, in which he often apologizes to Koizumi in his head while performing lewd acts. It should also be noted that Saji is on the basketball team and is actually quite good at it.

In the manga it is revealed by Saji's mother that he was actually once a very shy person. This all changed when he had to stay home as a child due to getting sick and returned to school to find out that a girl he liked but had never confessed to had transferred schools while he was gone. She was his "first love" and he never got the chance to tell her so. This put him into a period of depression from which he emerged as someone who never held back his feelings.

Akira Koizumi (小泉明 Koizumi Akira)

Voiced by: Kae Araki

Koizumi is a young girl with blue hair and red eyes. Her looks and figure has the guys in school turning their heads, including Saji. However, Koizumi expresses her rejections from the proposals of the boys by physically assaulting them. Out of all the guys she meets, Saji is her favorite target to take her frustrations out on. In the beginning of the series rumors go around saying that she is a lesbian and has sex with older men for money. But soon after that is found out to be untrue as far as her being a prostitute is concerned. She still hates men and apparently had a former lesbian lover (hints suggest that she started those rumors herself to keep people from getting too close to her). As time goes on, in her interactions with Saji she eventually starts to open up. Although she doesn't hold back from attacking Saji when he does something perverted she will often state that she acts differently when he's around. At some points she will get jealous of Saji doing perverted things to other girls which promptly leads to a sound beating from her or she will often shout out her inner feelings revealing her growing fondness of Saji. It should also be noted that despite the fact that everyone thinks that her and Saji are a couple she does nothing to dispel these rumors and doesn't really seem to care. Deep down she really cares for Saji and credits him along with her friends Ryoko and Maki to being the reason she decided to stay in Japan.

The manga details that her habit of engaging in prostitute-like behavior stems partly from low self esteem. She has admitted a number of times that she does not like herself very much, which perhaps is one reason she is reluctant to accept Saji's adoration. She is prone to thinking the worst of people and early on usually accuses Saji of having ulterior motives for any kindness he shows her. She is quite touched as she over time accepts that while Saji does indeed desire her, his devotion is not dependent on what she gives back.

Saji's lack of shame and straightforwardness in his words and actions are at the same time an annoyance to Koizumi and one of the things she likes most about him. For while Saji never hesitates to show his feelings, Koizumi is easily embarrassed when it comes to admitting her own. Because of this, especially in public, she is prone to loudly denying that she cares about Saji at all. The truth however is that she is much more perverted herself than she would like to admit and often has trouble (or simply fails to) control her own desire for Saji.

Yuki Umemiya (梅宮悠樹 Umemiya Yuki)

Voiced by: Yamada Miho

Yuki is Saji's busty childhood friend and somewhat an unintentional rival to Koizumi. Yuki has grown well-proportioned and shapely. However, her charm and body, while still able to make guys drool, are not as effective as Koizumi grace and mystery. Throughout the series Yuki finds ways of putting her towering breasts on Keisuke's face. Towards the end of the series her nerves get the better of her and she repeatedly tries to seduce Keisuke, eventually succeeding with the help of her enormous breasts. Despite her appearance she has very low self-esteem because guys like the smaller more, petite Koizumi and the fact that her old boyfriend, who was the captain of the basketball team, broke up with her because she was better than him.

Ryoko Arigase (蟻賀瀬涼子 Arigase Ryoko)

Voiced by: Ayumi Furuyama

One of Koizumi's friends, Ryoko has long purple hair. She tends to remain calm, despite whatever is going on around her, she will usually put on a face to match the situation, as well as saying something to go with it. In manga, she is considered as a Venus with purple hair due to both well endowed shape and her sexiness. In the manga she also has a boyfriend named Konoe, a friend of one of Saji's friend's older brother. His shyness results in her usually taking the initiative in the relationship, which seems to suit her just fine.

She has a habit of somewhat discreetly supporting Saji and Koizumi's relationship, putting them in compromising situations and making various short comments concerning her take on what Koizumi really means when the girl expresses frustration or hatred for Saji. At one point in the manga she counseled Saji (who was trying to learn from Konoe how to control himself better) to be himself, as that is what Koizumi likes even if she won't admit to it.

Maki Amakasu (甘糟真希 Amakasu Maki)

Voiced by: Tomoe Hanba

Another of Koizumi's friends, Maki has brown hair either short or in pigtails. She tends to be a bit more high-strung than Ryoko, leading to her to act to match the situations. Several times throughout the series she states that she thinks Saji and Koizumi are a good match and wants them to be together. In manga, Maki has an elder sister who is a policewoman and a mother. Both elder sister and mother are very well-endowed women and both of them attract lots of men.

Misa Kuroki (黒木美紗 Kuroki Misa)

Koizumi's lesbian friend who behaves as if they were former lovers. She is part of a small circle of friends who sell themselves to men with usually perverse intentions, Koizumi having become a part of the group for a while in her search for acceptance. Misa does not actually engage in sex with her "clients," instead teasing them and using her own method to ensure the men never get too far with her.

In the manga Koizumi makes it pretty clear that they were never lovers, the attraction being fanatically one-sided. Still, Koizumi does value Misa's friendship and the protection the girl afforded her when she was a part of that lifestyle.

Noboru Hitachi (日立のぼる Hitachi Noboru)

Apparently an old friend of Saji and Yuki. Both him and Saji joined the team at the same time to pick up girls. He once asked Koizumi out and she shot him down saying that it would just be a waste of time. It is because of that, that he often gets furious with Saji and tells him to stop acting like Koizumi's boyfriend. He shows up near the end of the anime trying to make Saji come to practice and ends up challenging him to 3 on 3 basketball with Koizumi being the prize. Even though Hitachi and his team won against Saji, Koizumi still rejected Hitachi and left him heartbroken again.

Kaneto Sakurai (桜井兼人 Sakurai Kaneto)

Sakurai is a young boy who is the same height as Koizumi. When Saji saw Kaneto talk to Koizumi, he assumed he was Koizumi's boyfriend. However, Sakurai revealed to Saji that he was a homosexual. He only talked to Koizumi because he saw how happy Koizumi was with Saji and that he had a crush on Saji, which freaks him out completely. Now, Sakurai dresses like a girl to get Saji's attention, but it scares Saji to the brink of insanity.

Katsunori Urawa (浦和克典 Urawa Katsunori) and Susumu Kuwabara (桑原 進 Kuwabara Susumu)

Urawa and Kuwabara are Saji's classmates. Urawa wears glasses and Kuwabara has brown hair. They both encourage Saji to go forward with his declaration of love for Koizumi, despite everything backfiring on Saji.

External links

• Iketeru Futari (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• Iketeru Futari (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia