A.I. Love You Vol. 4
When one of Hitoshi's advanced A.I. programs is brought to life, he is suddenly burdened with a little more than he can handle. Program Number Thirty, or Saati, depending on your domestication preference in Japanese words, is an electronic dream made flesh. While she's not very experienced in the ways of regular human behavior, she is very attractive, attentive, and kind. She is good for Hitoshi in so many ways, it was just a matter of time before things got TOO good, and the author had to throw another character into the story.
Thus, Twenty was born. Being an earlier A.I. program, she's not as sophisticated as Saati, and since her design was implemented when Hitoshi's hormones were slightly more biased towards horny, Twenty is somewhat of a curvy, pervy, party animal. Just like Saati, she's not incredibly experienced with human culture. However, where Saati makes mistakes that are comparable to a puppy chewing on an old sock -- cute, harmless, and irresistibly endearing -- Twenty has all the subtlety of Matthew Lesko. You know, the Free Money to Change Your Life guy.
Naturally, Twenty is a thousand times hotter than Mr. Question Mark, as we affectionately call the man.
Since this is one of Ken Akamatsu's earlier works, fans may forgive the creator of Love Hina and Negima for having a relative drought of female characters. After all, the main protagonist in this charming romantic comedy only lives with two women. Just two! What kind of crazy, mixed up situations can a sexually inexperienced person get into when he's only living with TWO attractive members of the opposite sex?
I think the possibilities are mind-bogglingly limited.
In book four, appropriately enough, he takes another step towards remedying the awkward condition of the book's unusually low girl-to-guy ratio. Enter Program Forty. Hitoshi built Forty to be a companion for his two other A.I. constructs, and as the newest software release, she is far more technically advanced than her sisters. Yet, she also is somewhat buggy, though the fun of discovering her personality quirks is something that must be experienced by reading the book.
As can be expected, this is a fun, if not especially thought-provoking, release to read. It is nothing more than it promises to be, which is fine. If you liked Love Hina or Ranma 1/2, then chances are you'll enjoy this tale. Just be forewarned that it's quickly approaching true harem comedy status - I'm just waiting for the next few girls that assuredly will be introduced any volume now.
The artwork for this series is good, but the character designs do not align with the images on the cover. The cover graphics are representative of Akamatsu's current style, while the interior art was drawn early in the author's career. His love of thicker eyebrows is probably the most distinguishing feature of his early drawing habits, and not necessarily the reason one should be drawn to this book.
While the series shows its age here, especially when compared to the newest releases from the more artistically mature Ken Akamatsu that we have nowadays, it does offer some harmless fun. This type of story has been done before, and it will be done again, but I can always get a laugh out of it - even if there aren't fifty women vying for the same guy.
I'm a sucker for underdog tales like this. Hitoshi isn't very cool, or popular, but he's intelligent and kind. I can, in many disturbing ways, relate to the guy. Of course, I'm not surrounded by the physical representations of highly advanced software I wrote, eager to make my life as plentiful as my dreams desire it to be, but now that I work for a global consulting company, I should be able to find someone that can help me figure out a way to do that.
In the meantime, I'll be reading A.I. Love You.