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Aishiteruze Baby

Author: Yoko Maki
Volumes: 7
Publisher: VIZ Media

Brief Summary:
Kippei, a high school student, is a bit of a playboy without much ambition. Everything changes when his Aunt Miyako leaves her five year old daughter with his family, since she cannot take care of her for a while in the wake of her husband's death. Kippei is told that he will be responsible for Yuzuyu. At first, he resents this a little bit, but he quickly comes to care deeply for the little girl, who helps him grow as a person even more than he helps her.

Review:
Aishiteruze Baby is a pretty great shoujo series. For one thing, I really appreciate the fact that the main character is a male, because this is rare to see in shoujo series. He's not a perfect guy, but he definitely seems like a real person. Watching him evolve into a mature adult from the flirty guy with no thought of the future is quite touching.

Generally, I do not much care for stories about children, but even I must admit that Yuzu is often quite charming. What person has a heart hard enough to not feel bad for a five year old abandoned by her mother? And, of course, caring for Yuzu makes Kippei sensitive enough to be able to support a slightly bruised girl like Kokoro.

While mostly light-hearted, the story also takes on darker issues like child abuse and bullying. This is an utterly touching story about the importance of family and growing up.

Although this song is about a girl thanking her teacher, I think it captures better than any other the way that Yuzu will probably think about Kippei when she's older, even if he wasn't actually raising her until she was old enough for perfume. Then again, I doubt the teacher would have been teaching a student for that many years either.

"Those schoolgirl days, of telling tales and biting nails are gone,
But in my mind,
I know they will still live on and on,
But how do you thank someone, who has taken you from crayons to perfume?"