Designing Life in Paradise Kiss

Paradise Kiss is the story of Yukari, a high school student going with the flow — she goes to cram school to do well on her exams, so she can get into her reach university if she aces, her target university if she studies hard, or if she totally bombs out at least she makes her fall back university. The only problem with Yukari, cram school, and university, is she never actually decided that is what she wanted to do with her life. Yukari was just doing it because that’s what students do.

Then one day she meets a group of fashion design students who want her to be their model for an upcoming fashion show. These designs students are foreign to her, bizarre, and somewhat frightening, in part because they have done something Yukari has never done. Paradise Kiss is a story about people making the choices and working toward be who they want to become, rather than letting the choices be made for them by someone else.

(This might be a little bit spoilerish for those who haven’t seen the anime or read the manga.)

The way under-used Isabella is the most obvious example of a person deciding for themselves who they want to be (I love Isabella). Isabella won’t even let physiology decide things for her. She decided she no longer wanted to live like a man, so she began to live as a woman. In some ways Isabella could make this choice more freely than most people, since her family was incredibly wealthy and she didn’t have the same kind of parental pressure that Yukari faced. Isabella also had support from her best friend.

George was key in helping Isabella make that decision, telling her that she should make the decision to wear the dress, not other people. Who are they to say that she can’t wear the dress. And that’s pretty much they key message — who are other people to tell you how you want to live. It’s your life to make. A simple and beautiful message. It’s a lot easier said than done, but in the real world a lot of people have not chosen who they are, but let themselves be made. I believe this what makes many of the unhappy people unhappy.

Yukari’s story is more in line with the average person. Everyone has something that makes them special, but very often they can’t realize it because of outside factors, usually parents who want to make sure their children will be able to support themselves as adults. So, this often means they get the “go to college” message pounded into their heads, which is probably the right thing for most people anyway. It would just be better if they could be like Takumori and decide that really is what they want to do with their life. Sometimes parents bang that drum so loud the child isn’t the one making that choice.

On a side note, I appreciated the way Paradise Kiss handles the choice of the path most taken. In western entertainment especially, stories such as this often represent the choice of the standard life as a failure or cop-out of some kind. Paradise Kiss treats it as viable and noble as the path less taken, so long as that’s what the person wants.

Yukari pretty much lucks out though and stumbles into the right group of people that can bring out her innate talents. She gets the opportunity to show her mother proof of another viable path. Proof is important. It’s what seperates fancy from reality. Too many people wish for something and never attempt to prove to themselves it is real, then cling onto the fantasy of regret as an excuse for never taking the responsibility of authoring their own life.

In real life a lot of it is dumb luck, but luck favors the prepared and those who walk out the door. You do have to be in the right place at the right time. Luck favors those who decide to do it. Luck favors those who walk to that place they needed to be. Still doesn’t mean it will happen exactly the way you meant it. Just means you have to find another way in.

I preferred the way the manga ended vs. the anime. The difference is subtle, but very disappointing if the manga was ever part of you.  Still, Paradise Kiss is a beautiful story and one that I will always remember.