A.I. Love You

Did You Know?

• The series' original Japanese title is a pun meaning roughly 'Can't Stop Love,' with 'A.I.' also meaning 'love' in Japanese and being the transcription of the English word 'I.'
• Tokyopop changed the English title to A.I. Love You to recreate the pun, making it read like 'I Love You.'

Plot

Hitoshi Kobe, a failing first-year high school student, creates over thirty self-rewriting artificial intelligence programs. His most advanced program, Thirty, can converse like a human. A lightning strike materializes Thirty into the real world, where she becomes his girlfriend. The series follows their lives as other A.I.s appear and they try to keep Thirty's secret while she adapts to human society.

Characters

Hitoshi Kobe is a freshman at Menjō High School who struggles academically and physically but develops programming skills to create A.I. Number Thirty is the 30th A.I. program Hitoshi created and the first he loves. Number Twenty is Hitoshi's A.I. Program No. 20. Number Forty is Hitoshi's A.I. Program No. 40, the first he brought to life on purpose. Kimika Asoo is a girl Hitoshi loves, leading him to create Twenty, who resembles Kimika but looks five years older with larger breasts; Kimika never considers Hitoshi and tricks him early on. Nitta-sensei is Hitoshi's math and homeroom teacher. Makoto guards Kujūkuri Beach from litterbugs; Hitoshi and Thirty help him collect 138,652 soft drink cans to build a watchtower. Billy-G is a skilled hacker who lived in the United States and produced operating systems, serving as the main antagonist of Volume 3. A.I. Program No. 31 is Billy-G's version of Thirty from a backup file, appearing in Volume 8. Takako Miyahara is a school newspaper reporter who wears glasses due to farsightedness. Kikuko Kobe is Hitoshi's paternal cousin from Aomori who calls him big brother. A.I. Program No. 29 is Thirty's previous incarnation, shut down due to a linguistics bug; 80% of its programming went into Thirty. Misako Takemoto is Forty's 26-year-old homeroom teacher and his first crush. Yuko Watanabe is a library representative known as the Madonna of the Library, with a quiet nature and a 90 cm D-cup bust. Misato Sekii, Aki Ito, and Ryoko Sakakihara are three girls from class 2-D whose names appear in the school system when Hitoshi and Thirty accidentally implant and remove a breast engorgement virus.

Release

The series was collected into nine tankōbon volumes from September 16, 1994, to October 17, 1997. Kodansha re-released it through KC Deluxe from November 1999 to June 2000 in eight volumes, and again from November 17, 2004, to June 17, 2005, in seven volumes. Tokyopop announced the English license at Anime Expo 2003, releasing eight volumes from February 3, 2004, to April 12, 2005. Printing continued until August 31, 2009, when all volumes went out of print due to Kodansha letting its licenses expire with Tokyopop.

Reception

Samantha from Manga Life gave the first book an A rating, calling it a very deep series with bright, lovable characters. Allen Divers from Anime News Network found the story predictable. Mike Dungan from Mania called the story amateurish with predictable plots but praised the English release's artwork and design over the original Japanese release, noting that while the artwork had not reached Love Hina level, Akamatsu's fans would not want to miss it.