The story follows teenage esper Kyōsuke Kasuga and the love triangle he gets involved in with Madoka Ayukawa, a young heroine with a reputation for being an unpopular loner and delinquent, and her best friend Hikaru Hiyama.

Upon settling for the seventh time, Kyōsuke briefly meets a pretty girl who gives him her straw hat, and he falls in love with her on sight.

On the first day of school he learns this girl is his junior high classmate Madoka Ayukawa, who, contrary to his initial impression, is feared as a tough and no-nonsense delinquent.

Their underclassman (and Madoka's best friend), Hikaru Hiyama, sees Kyōsuke use his powers to sink an impressive basketball shot and falls in love with him.

Several short manga that were precursors to Kimagure Orange Road were created prior and later published in a collection called Graffiti.

[5] Matsumoto later stated that Kimagure Orange Road was the first series to combine elements of science fiction and romantic comedy together.

Because an art shift is seen in Kimagure Orange Road once it resumed from a Matsumoto health-related hiatus, it is rumored that Hagiwara was responsible for the change in style.

In March 2013, Hivelinx released the manga first volume in English as an e-book for NTT Solmare's Facebook app "ComicFriends," and for Amazon Kindle and Apple iBooks.

[11] In March 2014, Digital Manga Guild acquired its rights and released Kimagure Orange Road through its eManga website.

After a lengthy remastering process, the company made good on their promise and gave buyers the option of mailing in their original DVDs to receive a version that had the themes intact, free of charge.

On September 1, 2017, Netflix in Japan began streaming the entire 48 episodes of Kimagure Orange Road with a new high definition transfer and restoration.

[25] The Kimagure Orange Road anime series was broadcast in Japan and around the world, in countries such as Australia, France, Italy, Singapore, Spain and Turkey.

[3] Also of Otaku USA but looking back on the anime, Erin Finnegan wrote that the psychic powers are not important in the series, serving simply as an excuse for "zany plotlines" and gags, with the I Want to Return to That Day movie dropping them completely.

"[26] Anime News Network gave positive reviews for both the TV series and the I Want to Return to That Day movie.

The Third Christmas") featured an early use of the time loop plot device, predating the films Groundhog Day (1993) and Edge of Tomorrow (2014) and the "Endless Eight" arc of the Haruhi Suzumiya light novels (2004) and anime series (2009).

In turn, Kimagure Orange Road's use of the time loop concept was predated by the anime film Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer (1984).