YMMV / Hikari no Densetsu

• Accidental Innuendo: In the French dub, Takaaki's name is changed to Willy, which makes it even funnier that two girls are fighting over him.
  • At least it's not that bad in the European Spanish dub, where Mao's name is changed to "Coque".
• Americans Hate Tingle:
  • Japan hated it so much it was pulled from syndication, mainly because of the huge deviances from the manga.
  • While it's more of a Broken Base example since the anime is popular there, a good number of French anime fans hate it for being boring.
• Common Knowledge: For years, there were rumours that this anime had a hentai version, even though this wasn't true. These rumours are so prevelant that they're even mentioned on the Wikipedia page.
• Fandom Rivalry: German fans often compare Hikari No Densetsu with "Mila Superstar", because the latter has more popularity in the country.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Between Hikari/Takaaki and Hikari/Mao, the couple fans prefer most is...Hikari/Shiina. The is especially common in the French fandom (where it's known as Cynthia/Deborah), even though the girls are straight in canon.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Despite its high production values (being produced by Tatsunoko Production, the same anime studio that produced Speed Racer), the anime adaptation was a huge flop in its native country and was Cut Short after only 19 episodes. But in Italy, where the series was renamed Hilary, the anime was extremely popular and still is to this day; they even released the manga there. The anime series also gained popularity in France (where the manga was also released and dubbed by Tonkami), Germany and Spain.
  • In Germany, the series attained popularity from being sold on VHS tapes after the anime was broadcast on RTL II.
• Memetic Mutation: In France, Hikari no Densetsu (or it's French title, Cynthia ou le Rythme de la vie) has the reputation of "one of the most boring anime ever made" (example). Though it was fairly popular (even the manga was released there), older French otaku have been memeing about it's low quality for years.
• Ship-to-Ship Combat: Hikari/Takaaki and Hikari/Mao, especially since the manga makes Mao her love interest and the anime makes Takaaki her love interest.
• Unintentional Period Piece: During the Olympics, the competing countries include the Soviet Union (Tatiana Elkenya), Yugoslavia (Nelly Szewinska) and East Germany (Sophie Wenzel). These countries are all dissolved today.