Although I like the original manga, I'm not very fond of the Marmalade Boy anime. I find it way too over the top when it comes to drama. While the manga is melodramatic too, it's not nearly as over the top as the anime, which adds a bombastic dramatic score and more dramatic emphasis in its animation. Instead of being moved, I found the effect unintentionally funny.
And I found the constant love triangle angst overwhelming; it's like every conflict in the show involves a love triangle of some kind to the point where it gets tedious. American characters aren't very well developed. To give an example: