Love Me, My Knight


Love Me, My Knight is a shōjo manga created in the early 1980s by Kaoru Tada. An anime adaptation was released in 1983 until 1984, running for 42 episodes by Toei Animation. A live action adaptation titled Love me Licia was also produced in Italy in 1986. The manga is licensed in English by M'z Production for digital release on the Kindle and comixology.

Plot summary

"Ai Shite Night" is set in Osaka and tells the story of Yaeko "Yakko" Mitamura, an 18-year-old girl working in her father's Okonomiyaki restaurant. One day Yakko meets a little boy named Hashizo and his odd cat Juliano. Hashizo had lost both parents when still a baby and has been brought up by his elder brother Go. Go Kato is the lead singer of the emerging rock band "Bee Hive." When Yakko meets Go and his friend and "Bee Hive" member Satomi Okawa, an unexpected series of events and a tangled romance unfold.
The main narrative of "Ai Shite Night" is essentially a love story, but has interesting and innovative elements introduced to it by Kaoru Tada, most notably the portrayal of the Japanese music scene in the early '80s. In creating characters such as Go, Satomi and their band "Bee Hive", Tada was inspired by well-known bands of the time such as "The Stalin", "Novela", "Primadonna" and "44Magnum." Tada also plays with sexual provocation and sexual ambiguity, mainly embodied by the character of "Kiss Relish" vocalist Kazuma Kataoka/Sheila, although these elements were considerably toned down in the anime version of the story.

Characters

Manga

The manga is available in English through BookWalker
and Kindle.

Anime

The anime version of "Ai Shite Night" was produced by Toei Animation in 1983–1984, for a total of 42 episodes directed by Osamu Kasai, a veteran Toei director. The "Ai Shite Knight" anime presents some significant changes in the storyline and modifications in the characters' stories, and covers only one part of the story narrated by Tada in the manga. It was developed to target a younger audience than that of the manga with some aspects toned down and simplified.
Famous voice actress and pop idol Mitsuko Horie provided the voice of Yakko in the anime. Isao Sasaki was the voice of Go, Katsuji Mori of Satomi, Takeshi Aono of Shige-San, and Yūko Mita of Hashizo. Masa Amamori provided the voice of Juliano.
Mitsuko Horie also sang "Koi wa Totsuzen", the song featured in the opening credits of each episode.

Episode list

1. "The Boy, the Cat, and the Cool Guy"
2. "Juliano the Misogynist"
3. "Too early for a kiss"
4. "The Destined Rock-n-Roll"
5. "Go and Yakko's Wedding Figurine"
6. "Midnight Platonic Love"
7. "The Maiden Falls in a Love Triangle"
8. "Forgotten Love Song"
9. "The Illusion of a Kiss"
10. "The Birthday Present of Love"
11. "Farewell, Go"
12. "The Jigsaw Puzzle of Love"
13. "The Freeway of Sadness"
14. "A Nocturne of Love and Loss"
15. "Hashizo's Been Kidnapped"
16. "Long Live Rock and Roll"
17. "Juliano's A Jolly Good Fellow"
18. "Yakko's Rainbow-Colored Scat"
19. "Hashizo's Birthday"
20. "Lonely Little Boy in the Dark of Night"
21. "Go! Go! Bee Hive"
22. "The Long Beach at Dawn"
23. "A Steamy Kiss Amongst the White Birches"
24. "A Duet in the Heart of the Storm"
25. "Summer Festival Samba"
26. "Hot Vocals on the Lakeshore"
27. "A Passionate Exchange"
28. "Yakko's First Kiss"
29. "Baby, I Love You"
30. "A Love Song Beneath the Starry Sky"
31. "The Return of the Wedding Dolls"
32. "A Wedding of Love and Sadness"
33. "My Lonely Heart"
34. "A Prelude to Parting"
35. "The Broken Rhythm Machine"
36. "The Flame of Love: Fire!"
37. "Lullaby of Paris"
38. "Melody For A Little Star"
39. "Rock 'n Roll Cupid"
40. "A Snow-Colored Ballad"
41. "The Lovers' Concerto"
42. "Wedding Bells for Go"

Music

The main reason why the anime version of "Ai Shite Night" is particularly famous is because it features, for the first time ever, original songs within the episodes, a plot device which will be very successful in subsequent anime series such as Mahou no Tenshi Creamy Mami and – more recently – Nana. The songs were performed by "Bee Hive" and the rival band "Kiss Relish" and they popular enough to be released in a companion album. Joe Hisaishi, who has composed the music for Hayao Miyazaki's movies, collaborated with composer Nozomu Aoki in writing and arranging the songs. The original songs featured in the anime are:
Performed by "Bee Hive"
  • Rockin' all night
  • Fire
  • Midnight Rock'n'Roll Star
  • Lonely Boy
  • Baby, I Love You
  • Freeway
  • Someday on Sunday
  • Love Again
Performed by "Kiss Relish"
  • Let Me Feel
  • Boxer
A collection of all the original songs are featured in an album called Debut-Bee Hive, which was produced in Japan immediately after the end of the anime series. Subsequently, a tribute album titled Aishite Night - Hit Kyoku Shu "Yakko, I Love You" was also released, and it included the opening and closing songs of the series, as well as tribute songs for the various characters arranged on some of the background music used throughout the anime.

Internationalization

The anime also became extremely popular in Europe with the title "Rock'n'roll kids" in Germany, "Embrasse-moi, Lucile" and "Lucile, Amour et Rock 'n Roll" in France, and "Kiss me Licia" in Italy, as well as "Bésame Licia" in Spanish. The anime series was so popular in Italy that it spawned a successful domestically produced Italian live-action teen soap opera, which ran for 145 episodes through four series on Italian TV from 1986 to 1988. Cristina D'Avena, who performed the Italian theme song to the anime series, played Licia in the live-action version.
Versions of the songs in several languages also exist because of the popularity of "Ai Shite Knight" outside Japan.
In Italy, Switzerland, Malta and Slovenia, "Bee Hive" became teenagers' idols, especially when the live action sequels to "Ai Shite Knight" were aired and featured new songs performed by the band, which were awarded even gold and platinum status.
The "Bee Hive" members in the live action series were:
Manuel De Peppe, Marco Bellavia and Giovanni Colombo left for the third season, so three new characters were introduced:
Marco Bellavia returned for the fourth and final season.
Musical adaptation
In 2015, a theatrical adaptation titled Kiss Me Licia – ''Il Musical'' was created in Italy, licensed directly from Japan, written and directed by Thomas Centaro. In 2025, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Italian airing of the series, Centaro presented a new celebratory edition of the musical in Milan. This updated version featured refreshed staging and production, while maintaining the spirit and pop style of the '80s, with the participation of Pietro Ubaldi, the Italian voice actor for Juliano and Mitamura.