I have watched the entire series, and as I'm writing this, I have just finished 16 of the 17 Volumes, and both are of high quality, but I think that the Manga does a better job of telling Kou Fumizuki's romantic story of an arranged marriage. The story is about Aoi Sakuraba, the daughter of a wealthy and influencial family, who decides that she is going to marry Kaoru Hanabishi, her love of eighteen years, despite her families protests. Once he realizes that her intentions are genuine - and that she's not just trying to get him to reconcile with his estranged (domineering and abusive) family - he begins to definitely warm up to the idea, too. This manga has some of the most touching, and shocking moments that I have ever read in a manga. More then a few times, I've almost been brought to tears, and it does a very good job at making you laugh along the way. I think that S.A. Bennett, a writer for the Comic Buyers Guide puts it best: "Ai Yori Aoshi is... Tender, sweet, and heartfelt, with beautiful artwork that never gets in the way of its simple story" [u][b]Art[/b][/u] The artwork in the manga is great. The characters are drawn to portray emotion, and backgrounds are very detailed. Hell, everything in this manga is drawn with amazing detail. Everything, from the grain the wood to the prices on food in the supermarket can be seen with clarity. I'd love to get my hands on an artbook for this manga, just to see the images in a larger format. The chibi-art (The manga has a little one page parody of an event from the previous chapter called Ai-Ao theater) is cute and it looks hand-drawn, which looks nice in its own way. The quality of the character design progesses through out the manga (Example, Aoi seems to get cuter and cuter as the story goes on). [u][b]Presentation[/b][/u] Now I'll talk about the sound effects. This is one beef I have with Tokyopop publications, they don't give translations for the sound effects like Viz Comics with their publications, and leave you wondering what sound just happened (While some of it's common sense, some are confusing.) Sometimes the effects get in the way of the artwork, but doesn't subtract from it thankfully. This manga is very good read (although it is a quick read). I can pick up this book, and have it finished inside a half hour. Tokyopop released the manga in Japanese format (reads Right to Left), which preserves the art work, which I think is key to any manga publication when its translated into English (Or any language that reads Left to Right). While the story unfolds slower then the anime, as I've stated before, it does a better job in telling the story. Character back stories go into more detail, and doesn't leave you guessing stuff as the Anime did to me. There is some nudity in this manga, and its used tastefully, weather to delvier a punchline, or make a moment seem more romantic, although, Tina's groping does get out of hand sometimes. The humor is great in this manga, in each volume, it always leaves me chuckling at some point while reading it. All in all, I give my full recomendation to buy this manga, it would make a great addtion to your collection, even if you're just starting out.