Line #4 YMMV/MarmaladeBoy


1	* AdaptationDisplacement: If the Seven Seas reprint is anything to go by, this seems to be the manga's reputation in the United States. Each volume makes it clear that this is the manga that "inspired the beloved anime".
2	* {{Adorkable}}:
3	** Miki, and we love her for that. Adding on to her StockShoujoHeroine traits, She shows us how much of a total dork she is by playing with a group of {{sentai}}-costumed children, acting as the [[LargeHam hammy]] and villainous "Towel Monster" in TheMovie, going as far as chasing them which even gives Yuu a laugh.
4	** Ginta at times can almost be a gender-swapped version of Miki. He tries to act cool and tough, but is actually pretty sensitive and lacks a bit of self-confidence, as shown with his feelings towards Arimi. On a normal day, he can easily become silly and enthusiastic when excited, as well as emotional and flustered when provoked by his friends. That’s not even including his childish bouts with his cousin, Tsutomu, who falls deeper into this trope.
5	** Michael is the series’ {{Keet}} character and is introduced as a downplayed example of a FunnyForeigner. He has so much energy and cheerfulness that both his brother, Brian and Yuu comment that he’s basically like a little kid excited for Christmas.
6	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMoments:
7	** Yuu punching one of the thugs that tried to attack Miki in the penultimate episode.
8	** Ginta and Arimi finally getting together after episodes of buildup. All of the boys of Arimi's school, sans Tsutomu, all cheer them on.
9	* BaseBreakingCharacter:
10	** Our lead characters, Miki and Yuu, are often considered to be the favorite couple of the series, but are just as equally criticized for much of their flaws. Yuu's characterization in the anime forces him to suffer from a lot of cases of PoorCommunicationKills, which either allows all of the other girls to forcefully make moves on him, making Miki jealous, or causes him to take drastic precautions like [[spoiler: locking himself away from his parents for a month, or breaking up with Miki without giving her an explanation why, ''immediately right after they got back together'']]. Miki, on the other hand, frequently becomes jealous over any new person who hangs out with Yuu, ''regardless of their gender'', and can be ''very'' emotional and more often than not confused or paranoid about the situations that she's put into. This almost always [[ProneToTears puts her in tears]] and forces her to cling towards Yuu, Meiko, or anyone else available for emotional support.
11	** Tsutomu, who starts off in the series as Arimi's HopelessSuitor, which forces him into the plot just to butt heads with [[UnknownRival Yuu]] and especially [[ClashingCousins his younger cousin Ginta]], even when they really aren't interested in Arimi ([[spoiler:though that eventually changes in Ginta's case, which eventually leads to the two fighting each other]]). [[VocalDissonance His younger-sounding nasally voice in the English dub]] in contrast to his more masculine voice in the original probably doesn't help either. He’s either considered an annoying and unnecessary pest because of this, or is appreciated for being the group's ButtMonkey and making some of the more dramatic moments in series much lighter. Helping what positive reception he gained was him later being [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap rehabilitated strictly as]] [[TheFriendNobodyLikes "comic relief"]] and [[ThrowTheDogABone he eventually gets his own girlfriend, Yayoi]] in the anime.
12	** Namura, especially concerning his questionable relationship with Meiko. [[spoiler: see FanPreferredCouple.]]
13	** It would easy to say that pretty much anyone who falls for Miki or Yuu during the series' run would fit in this trope, but the biggest offender would have to be Kei, who enters the series with a very anti-social personality and depends on his love for Miki to make most of his major decisions. [[spoiler: He practically steals Miki's medallion and uses it in an attempt to sabotage her relationship with Yuu by lying to the latter, claiming that Miki no longer wanted it. He's later shown to not get along very well with Suzu, and nearly gets into a fight with Michael over Miki]]. At the same, he's ''very'' alone, having no friends, withdrawing from his family and dropping out of school. Even the anime started to take pity on Kei, where he [[spoiler: finally starts dating Miki for a few episodes after her and Yuu's first breakup, right after openly telling Yuu that he's going to steal her away from him. While it didn't last long, there are indeed people who are mixed about the decision about Kei being in a relationship with Miki.]] In short, there's a side who thinks he's a completely irredeemable {{Jerkass}} who doesn't deserve Miki or someone who just needs to be loved.
14	* EnsembleDarkHorse: Kind of like Tracy from ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'', Yayoi appears during the later half of the series and has very little screen time, this does not prevent her from being beloved by all fans and, unlike other characters, including her significant other, she's not all that divisive of a character, despite the fact that she's a non-canonical character. Her memorable design, her wholesome relationship with [[spoiler:Tsutomu, and the bit of character development he gains from it]] is probably the reason for this.
15	* FanPreferredCouple:
16	** Meiko and Satoshi. Many fans were [[spoiler: visibly irked by Namura's re-entry into Meiko's life, and the noticeably abrupt abortion of what seemed a slow-but-steady romantic buildup between her and Satoshi. Many post-series fics have been written [[DieForOurShip with Namura either]] [[DroppedABridgeOnHim dying in a fire]] or turning out to be an [[DomesticAbuse abusive husband]], leaving the door open for Satoshi to play KnightInShiningArmor. However, these fanfics have been subverted by the ongoing sequel, Marmalade Boy Little, where Meiko and Namura are noted to still be together, and that they have a son.]]
17	** Some people also ship [[spoiler: Bill/Anju]] over [[spoiler: Bill/Jinny]], due to the BirdsOfAFeather deal.
18	* FriendlyFandoms: With fellow ''Magazine/{{Ribon}}'' series ''Manga/{{Kodocha}}'', which is [[FanNickname often referred to by fans as]] "''Marmalade Boy'' [[ThisIsYourPremiseOnDrugs on crack]]" due to its anime adaptation's zany, hyperactive energy and the main characters of that series, Sana Kurata and especially Akito Hayama, sharing similarities to Miki and Yuu.
19	* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: The series used to be huge in Spain, where it was known as "La Familia Crece" ("Family Gets Bigger", though the DVD kept the original title and only added this as a subtitle).
20	* HilariousInHindsight:
21	** A cute, clumsy, and hot-headed girl with reddish-brown hair and a quiet, snide and TroubledButCute blonde boy fall for each other, and one of their best friends is a nice and shy brown-haired dork with impulsive anger issues. All in a Ribon manga. Are we talking about ''Marmalade Boy'' or ''Manga/{{Kodocha}}''?
22	** The movie that Miki and Yuu watch in episode 10 is titled ''"[[Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet Elm Street]] on [[Franchise/FridayThe13th Friday]]"'', nine years before the two franchises would crossover in ''Film/FreddyVsJason'', and over 23 years before Fabolous and Jadakiss' rap album, ''Friday on Elm Street''.
23	** The WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes-esque rings that are shown in the background when Ginta and Arimi finally get together in the anime definitely earns a mention with the live-action movie being produced by Creator/WarnerBros Japan.
24	** The five Gastamen aren't the only group of [[VideoGame/SonicAdventure multi-colored gunners that identify themselves with with Greek letters.]] In fact, the both the Gastamen and the E-series robots have a red member named "Gamma" and a green member associated with the term "Alpha". Adding even more hilarity to that is in the series proper, Ginta's original voice actor is none other than Creator/JunichiKanemaru, who has been the main Japanese voice of Sonic The Hedgehog since the 1998 release of ''Sonic Adventure''.
25	** Miki pretending to be a Sentai villian towards the Gastamen in the prequel movie retroactively foreshadows Creator/MarikoKouda voicing [[Anime/HappinessChargePrettyCure Queen Mirage]] a good 18 years later. Befriending them also forshadows Creator/MichelleRuff voicing Luna in ''Anime/SailorMoon'''s modern dub almost 19 years later.
26	* HoYay:
27	** While all three [[spoiler: are proven to be straight or at very least straight-leaning]], it's interesting that of Yuu's two closest friends in the series, [[spoiler: he is suspected of being lovers with one (Satoshi) and the other is long believed to be gay (Bill).]]
28	** For added hilarity, [[spoiler:Bill ''pretended'' to be AmbiguouslyGay (when he was actually a mild CampStraight) so he'd approach the flirty Jinny without being rejected by her.]] Then again, he could be AmbiguouslyBi.
29	* JerkassWoobie: Kei, who has no friends along with a cold personality towards anyone aside from Miki and has pretty much isolated himself, living in an apartment all alone. Thankfully, once his arc is over, we get to see his CharacterDevelopment.
30	* {{Moe}}: A large portion of the female cast fall under this trope to some extent, but the stand out examples include Miki, Anju, and Yayoi.
31	* SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound: The jingles that play during both the episode title cards and the [[EyeCatch eye catches]].
32	* NightmareFuel: Their are a couple of instances in the anime where Miki's life is genuinely put into danger. One of which occurs when a group of drunk guys force her to join them and hang out only for Jin and the other parents to come to her rescue. Another case happens during the second-to-last episode where Miki runs off into Manhattan by herself and gets lost with a group of men following her with a knife, presumably in an attempt to gang-rape or even kill her. They start chasing her and her young rescuer Eddie only for the men to be stopped by an older women dropping what appear to be bedsheets at them. While she's lost, the police fail to find the correct person that Yuu and his friends are looking for and he still has no idea where she is. This shows us one of the reasons why it's not a good idea to travel around a foreign continent alone.
33	* SugarWiki/NoProblemWithLicensedGames: Both the Platform/GameBoy and Platform/SuperFamicom games are dating sims that give Miki the choice between Yuu, Ginta, and in the Super Famicom version, Kei. Depending on your views on dating sims and your ability to get past the Japanese language barrier, the games are average at worst, and pretty good and faithful to the anime series at best.
34	* OneSceneWonder: Both Eddie and Chris only appear in the episode before the series' finale and are featured in the episode to show Miki [[spoiler: that both she and Yuu can still love each other and be close, regardless of whether they're siblings or not.]]
35	* RetroactiveRecognition:
36	** Suzu, along with ''Manga/NintamaRantarou'''s Yuki (filling in for Miki's voice actress Creator/MarikoKouda from seasons two though nine), were the earliest of Creator/SakuraTange's voice-over roles, now well known as the voice of Sakura Kinomoto of ''Manga/CardcaptorSakura''.
37	** You'd never expect Creator/StephanieSheh to go from one of her earliest roles as a supporting extra like Yayoi, and years later have her play Usagi Tsukino aka ''Anime/SailorMoon'', arguably one of the most well-known manga and anime characters of all time.
38	* SignatureScene: The first opening is one, especially the first shot of Miki and Yuu kissing.
39	** Yuu kissing Miki in the infirmary at the end of the first episode.
40	** Miki and Yuu's first real kiss together in the sunset in the final scene of episode 25.
41	* ValuesDissonance: This is not something you want to marathon with anyone overly obsessed with being PC and/or who forgets that the series's [[FairForItsDay pretty dated by today's standards]]. Miki is very fragile and sometimes becomes very clingy and dependent on others, many of the boys can be forceful towards Miki, Tsutomu's constant stalking of Arimi is PlayedForLaughs, and Yuu has occasional moments of chauvinism when he believes [[spoiler: that his eventual best friends, Satoshi and Bill, are homosexuals]], To say nothing of the Meiko/Na-chan relationship being portrayed as it is, which even at the time HAD to have produced this reaction in some viewers.
42	* WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids: In Japan, the target demographic of both the manga and the anime was made for elementary school girls as well as early middle school girls, as a lot of the merchandise of the series shows. And while it's not raunchy like its previous timeslot holder, ''Manga/MagicalTarurutoKun'' (itself based on a shonen series from Shueisha), That doesn't stop a lot of the mature topics and complexity from coming up every once in a while, including the aforementioned student and teacher relationship between Meiko and Na-chan, how Meiko's neglectful parents act towards one another, [[spoiler: Jinny lying to Miki about sleeping with Yuu]], and the complicated history between the Koshikawas, the Matsuuras, and even [[spoiler: Satoshi's father]].
43	* TheWoobie:
44	** Yuu eventually turned himself into this when [[spoiler:he was starting middle school. He came across a few photos that ultimately led him to believe that Youji Matsuura wasn't his real father. He felt betrayed and lied to, but instead of simply asking his parents about this, he locked himself in his room for months and it was only because of how close he became with Anju that he was able to find happiness again. History then repeats itself when he finds out that his mother Chiyako was once pregnant with Jin Koishikawa's child before he was born and believes that baby was him, which would make him and Miki, who are now in a serious relationship, brother and sister. He actually cries on at least four separate occasions (one of them being a childhood flashback) because of all of this alone.]]
45	** Anju, who not only [[spoiler:couldn't have Yuu as her boyfriend, but also nearly died after being sent to the hospital, on ''Christmas Eve'']].

Context YMMV / MarmaladeBoy