Anime Profile: Paradise Kiss

At the beginning of this anime we meet Yukari Hayasaka, a student troubled by her studies at her local high school. She is under constant pressure from her mother to be the best in her class. After years of constantly feeling like she has let down her mother, Yukari begins to tire of school work.

One day Yukari is stopped on the street by a punk-looking guy with wild piercings and spiked hair by the name of Arashi. He tells her she has the perfect look. Yukari instantly thinks he's crazy and runs away, but not before being stopped by Arashi's friend, Isabella. Yukari faints from the shock of everything and wakes up in the Paradise Kiss atelier.

From here on out, Yukari befriends (reluctantly at first) Arashi, Isabella, George, and Miwako, who are all students at an Art School studying fashion design and its sub-careers. The real reason for bringing Yukari to the atelier was to ask her to become their model for the annual school fashion show. Eventually, with some convincing, Yukari agrees, and soon finds herself swept up in the world of High-Fashion and a romance with George, the genius behind the underground fashions of Parakiss. In Yukari's world, school becomes a thing of the past.