AllMovie

Miki's life can't get more complicated when her parents come home from vacation and announce that while they were gone, they met another couple who they each fell in love with a member of --so they'll be switching partners! On top of their impending divorce and remarriages, they decide that the two families should all live together, much to Miki's objections. Miki is still reeling from the idea of her family unit imploding when they drop another bomb on her: her new step parents have a son named Yuu, who is cool, funny, and devastatingly handsome. Yuu is calm and nonchelant, even with his own life turned upside down, and Miki finds herself alternately repelled by his teasing, too-cool-for-school attitude, and attracted to his sweet, sensitive side. Miki's romantic feelings for Yuu are almost worse than her frustrations with him, because no 14 year old is prepared to share a house (and a bathroom!) with her crush. Just when things look like they can't get any more complicated, Miki's longtime friend Ginta notices the chemistry between the two, and his jealousy inspires him to confesses that he has romantic feelings for her. Soon the shoujo love-dodecahedron reaches full force, as gradeschool sweehearts, teacher-student affairs and long-lost loves enter the picture. Marmalade Boy lasted for 76 episodes before the love lives of its characters finally reached resolution. The title comes from an early episode in which Miki compares Yuu to a jar of marmalade: partly bitter and partly sweet.