Editing Marmalade Boy (section)

==Production==
When [[Wataru Yoshizumi]] first started planning ''Marmalade Boy'', Miki, Yuu, Ginta, and Meiko were all the opposite genders of what they ended up being in the final versions, and Miki's original design looked similar to Yuu's final appearance, while Yuu was an attractive girl with long black hair and a "devilish" and "unpredictable" personality. Yoshizumi notes several reasons behind the changes. Part of the reason was that it was a request from the ''[[Ribon]]'' publishers, who wanted a female as the central character as the story was going to be included in a "Mother's Day" set with magnets featuring the characters. Her associate editor also expressed concerns that a male hero would be a "sissy" when written about by a female writer. Finally, Yoshizumi herself decided that she would go with a heroine rather than a hero as most of the ''[[Ribon]]'' readers are girls.<ref name="MB Vol 8 Extra 1">{{cite book |title=Marmalade Boy, Volume 8 |first=Wataru |last=Yoshizumi |author-link=Wataru Yoshizumi |publisher=[[Tokyopop]] |location=[[Los Angeles, California]] |date=2003-08-05 |isbn=1-59182-192-4 |oclc=53040858 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/marmaladeboy00yosh_0/page/n170 172]–175 |chapter=The Inside Story of Marmalade Boy |url=https://archive.org/details/marmaladeboy00yosh_0 |url-access=registration }}</ref>

In the original story, the title of ''Marmalade Boy'' was an indication of the hero Miki's cheerful, sweet, and naive nature. After redoing the concept, she wanted to keep the original title, changing its meaning to what is stated in the first volume, that Yuu "has lots of bitter bits inside" him but people only see his sweet surface.<ref name="MB Vol 8 Extra 1" /><ref>{{cite book |title=Marmalade Boy, Volume 1 |first=Wataru |last=Yoshizumi |author-link=Wataru Yoshizumi |publisher=[[Tokyopop]] |location=[[Los Angeles, California]] |date=2002-04-23 |isbn=1-931514-54-2 |oclc=50194414 |pages=93 |chapter=Chapter 3 }}</ref>

The ending for the series was also very different from the final version. Ginta and Arimi were not going to be a couple in the original version, nor was Meiko going to be reunited with Namura. Yoshizumi originally intended for Miki and Yuu to truly be blood siblings, and thus have to break up. Afterwards, Ginta would comfort Miki and promise to wait for her to get over Yuu. Yuu and Meiko would have been shown meeting four years later, having both failed in their previous relationships. The ending would have been more open-ended so readers would have had to wonder what really would happen to everyone. However, as she was writing the third chapter, Yoshizumi became less certain of the ending, as it made Miki and Yuu's parents appear to be awful people for doing such a thing to their children. She also was concerned about how readers would react, and her own feelings of "emptiness" at the sad ending. Her editor agreed that the ending would be bad, so she changed it to the happier one now found in the series.<ref name="MB Vol 8 Extra 2">{{cite book |title=Marmalade Boy, Volume 8 |first=Wataru |last=Yoshizumi |author-link=Wataru Yoshizumi |publisher=[[Tokyopop]] |location=[[Los Angeles, California]] |date=2003-08-05 |isbn=1-59182-192-4 |oclc=53040858 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/marmaladeboy00yosh_0/page/n174 176]–179 |chapter=The Inside Story of Marmalade Boy II |url=https://archive.org/details/marmaladeboy00yosh_0 |url-access=registration }}</ref>