Marmalade Boy was a surprise hit in the 1990s, when it benefited from its bizarre premise and quirky humor. Told largely from the point of view of the teenagers involved, Marmalade Boy is the twisted saga of two families who swap spouses and then decide to live together in a sort of 'Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice Meet the Brady Bunch' scenario. Needless to say much of the humor involves a crush between two teens, who suddenly find themselves stepbrother and stepsister. The anime series became so popular that it soon used up all the material from the original manga title and went off on its own with a seemingly endless procession of love triangles and complications, so the plotlines of the manga and anime series diverge as American fans will discover as Tokyopop issues more volumes of the manga series and gets deeper into the anime offerings. Marmalade Boy's quirky plot has earned it worldwide attention from anime devotees and there are more than 1,000 websites, newsgroups, and forums dedicated to the series.
