Konbini Kareshi

The lives of high school freshmen Haruki Mishima and Towa Honda revolve around studying, clubs, and girls. Amid their hectic routines, romance is certainly budding for the two best friends. Since childhood, Haruki has been pining over Miharu Mashiki, and a chance encounter at the convenience store reignites his feelings. As for Towa, the class representative Mami Mihashi has caught his eye; but unfortunately for him, his affections are not reciprocated.

While Haruki's more reserved approach to pursuing Miharu contrasts Towa's persistence with Mami, love seems to be elusive for both. As the months fly by, only time will tell if romance is in the cards for the duo.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Honda, Towa Main

Suzumura, Kenichi Japanese

Mashiki, Miharu Main

Kanda, Sayaka Japanese

Mihashi, Mami Main

Kugimiya, Rie Japanese

Mishima, Haruki Main

Terashima, Takuma Japanese

Sakamoto, Makoto Supporting

Takeuchi, Shunsuke Japanese

Kisaki, Waka Supporting

Tamura, Yukari Japanese

Nakajima, Mikado Supporting

Tachibana, Shinnosuke Japanese

Minowa, Kokono Supporting

Sawashiro, Miyuki Japanese

Asumi, Natsu Supporting

Kamiya, Hiroshi Japanese

Itokawa, Nozomi Supporting

Koshimizu, Ami Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Yoshio, Souta Producer

Warashina, Tomoyuki Producer

Nabeiwa, Akiko Producer

Reviews

Sep 28, 2017

Shingster

Recommended

Please note this review assumes that you have already finished watching Konbini Kareshi and while care has been taken to avoid story spoilers there may be spoilers in character analysis

Romance, school life and a Konbini

The premise of Konbini Kareshi is a relatively common one often seen in this genre. Konbini Kareshi is a slice of life and romance anime set in modern day Japan in a fictional town that looks like a normal town which makes it relatable to many. Using the Konbini as a focal point the anime uses this as a place where people can meet up, bond, strike up friendships ... and purchase the items that they need to make memorable memories while attending high school. The overall story of the anime follows the school lives of four characters that include Haruki a honest and responsible high school freshman, Towa a bright and lively person that’s the joker of the group, Mami a quiet but serious girl and Miharu a positive and kind girl that gets nervous easily. After meeting each other on the first day of school and bonding with each other their relationships gradually starts to change as the months go by. As the months go by and as they encounter unexpected events and meet new classmates and friends how will these changes affect their relationship.

Haruki

Haruki Mishima voiced by veteran voice actor Takuma Terashima of Log Horizon fame is one of the main characters of the series. A 16-year-old high school freshman Haruki is an honest, kind and friendly person that because of his earnest and friendly nature is someone that can make friends easily. Due to his honest and earnest nature Haruki is someone that prefers to stay away from people’s gossip and disbelieves rumors and prefers to hear them from the concerned parties themselves. In the beginning of the series Haruki though honest and kind person was someone that can be said to lack any real goal in life seemingly to prefer to just live in the moment and not worry about anything else. This also has the effect of making it hard for him to understand people’s feelings which resulted in Haruki developing the personality trait of being indecisive with is his own feelings towards others. As the series progresses however Haruki starts to gradually change as he becomes more grounded, responsible and more determined to make his feelings known while also becoming more considerate and understanding of other’s feelings.

Miharu

Miharu Mashiki voiced by veteran seiyuu singer Sayaka Kanda of Sword Art Online fame is one of the main characters of the series and is one of the main heroines of the series. A 16-year-old high school freshman Miharu is a positive, kind and caring person that loves to help those in need and cares a great deal about her friends. Despite her earnest nature however Miharu is someone that gets nervous quite easily which is more prevalent in the beginning of the series. Despite this Miharu is someone that is noted to have a great deal of faith in people and always willing to believe in the best of them something that I find admirable about her. Unlike the other characters of the show Miharu due to her poor health is not someone that can afford to be athletic which I felt was a shame as sports meets and festivals are one of the joys in Japanese high schools. Perhaps as a means of not wasting the time that she must spend alone Miharu is noted to have a great deal in skill in handicrafts and in one notable scene makes use of this to support her friends a scene that I particularly liked. Miharu’s relationship with Haruki is one of the main points of the anime’s overall plot and unlike Mami’s one is a more complex one.

In the beginning Miharu though seemingly, the childhood friend of Haruki instead treated him as a stranger and though their relationship gradually improved as the series went on the distance between the two gradually grew. But as their feelings for each other gradually grew this started to be reversed as she started to become braver and gradually become to him. As a character I felt that Miharu was an interesting character that was developed rather well as the series went on. Her unique circumstances I felt were used well in the series. The romance between Miharu and Haruki I felt was pretty sweet.

Mami

Mami Mihashi voiced by veteran seiyuu Rie Kugimiya of Persona 4 fame is one of the main characters of the series. A 16-year-old high school freshman Mami is the very image of what a student that’s entirely focused on her grades and future would look like. A hardworking, honest though overly serious person Mami is someone that takes everything in life seriously and though while earnest would often cause people to resent her for being too rule bound. Perhaps as a result of this pressure that she puts on herself Mami takes great pleasure in reading which is one of her favourite hobbies. Despite her serious nature Mami actually has a surprising side to her personality in that she likes to read girls manga which I find quite amusing as it offsets her more serious sided nature. As someone with a serious-minded personality it’s easy to assume that Mami is someone that’s accustomed to dealing with people since she also has the role of class rep that she shares with Towa as well but this is far from the truth.

While having a serious personality Mami is also someone that’s very quiet and nervous and in the beginning of the series was seriously lacking in self-confidence not just in her personality but also in her appearance. More than anything Mami holds a fear that people will look at her differently if they find that such a serious-minded student is also a fan of manga as well. As a result of her nervous nature Mami is understandably nervous around boys but this has the effect of making her relationship with Towa that much more interesting since it also provides both a motivation and an opportunity for Mami to overcome these fears which are holding her back. Though the friendship between Mami and Towa admittedly did start off on the wrong foot but its progression from acquaintances to friends and then to partner I felt was done well considering the hurdles that both had to overcome. Their love story I felt was cute as it focused on Mami’s various insecurities and personal traits and their combined efforts to overcome both this and Mami’s rather strict family and their wishes and aspirations for her. In the end I was glad that they managed to overcome all this and end up together.

Towa

Towa Honda voiced by veteran voice actor Kenichi Suzumura of Naruto fame is one of the main characters of the series. A 16-year-old high school freshman Towa is a bright, earnest and positive person that tries to act as the joker of the cast which is helped greatly by his funny personality. A childhood friend of Haruki’s that he knew from middle school Towa and Haruki have known each other for some time and as a result each are able to understand what the other is thinking about quite easily. While seemingly positive and loving to play jokes on people Towa’s inner personality is very different to what he tries to present to others in that Towa is actually a very lonely person that comes from having to wrestle against several problems that he cannot tell his friends about.

In a way I felt that Towa’s struggles with is family and Mami’s struggles with the rules and aspirations that they have for her are pretty similar to each other and from there it’s quite easy to see how they actually bonded with each other. Though Towa’s relationship with Mami did not start off on the best of terms largely because of the approach that he took which caused her to actually fear him instead their relationship gradually improved as the series went on as Towa learnt to be more considerate and understanding towards not just Mami but to others as well. With regards to Towa’s character though I liked the contrast between his normally positive and joking self and his lonely self when he’s at home I felt that he could have been developed a bit more as compared to the rest of the main cast his development was rather limited.

Mikado

Mikado Nakajima voiced by veteran voice actor Shinnosuke Tachibana of Koi To Uso fame is one of the main characters of the series. A senior student and thus a sempai to Haruki and his fellow freshman Mikado is an honest, hardworking and logical person that has the role of student council president within the school. While seemingly laid back when compared with his second in command Masamune Mikado nonetheless is someone that takes his duties as student council president very seriously and when serious it can be seen that he can be pretty perceptive and logical. While Mikado can be strict he’s also someone that’s also fair and has surprisingly good sense of humor as well. While appearing to be a calm, composed and logical person it can be seen that Mikado as a result of being like this is someone that seems to be hiding what his true feelings are about something. Specifically, he seems to be reluctant to commit to a stable romantic relationship with a girl seemingly focused on his duties as SC president and taking charge of special school events.

Waka

Waka Kisaki voiced by veteran seiyuu singer Yukari Tamura of Naruto and Ange Vierge fame is one of the main characters of the series. A senior student of the school and this Haruki and his fellow freshman’s sempai Waka is a positive, cheerful and kind person that’s also a bit care free for her age. A childhood friend of student council president Mikado Waka has a complicated relationship with Mikado in that despite not being blood related she affectionately calls him brother as a result of the childhood that they spent together. In the beginning of the series it can be seen that her feelings towards Mikado is quite close but as a result of her childhood memories of seeing him as her brother Waka is reluctant to commit to her feelings a struggle that I found to be quite interesting. In the end I was glad that things worked out between them. Though the romance between the two was relatively short within the series I felt that it was also one of the sweetest as the groundwork for it was already laid when they were still young leaving the only thing that they need to do is accept the feelings and commit to it.

AMV

In terms of art the character designs for the characters as well as the uniforms that they wore I felt were well designed. The town that serves as the anime’s main setting also looked pretty nice. Animation I felt was pretty clear. The series I note had pretty good music with both the scene music and the opening and ending themes being pretty good. Voice acting overall, I felt was done really well with Sayaka Kanda’s portrayal of Miharu and Rie Kugimiya’s portrayal of Mami being deserving of praise.

Overall conclusion

Overall Konbini Kareshi I felt was a relatively simple anime that knew what its main strengths was which in this case was its simplicity and focused on it. In my opinion Konbini’s main strength was its simple premise, interesting story and well-designed characters. The decision to make use of the months of the year as its titles for its episodes I felt was also interesting as it highlighted that high school life is fleeting and that if you don’t make a decision now you may not get the chance again. The overall story when looking at it can be seen as a series of short stories that has as its focus one of the series main pairings that were combined together into one overall plot line. Each of these parings and the romance between them I felt was done really well especially between Miharu and Haruki and Towa and Mami. The romance between Waka and Mikado though the shortest in the series was also quite sweet. The premise of using a konbini which is the Japanese term for a convenience store as the anchor point for the friendships and bonds that the six main characters forge I felt was a great idea since in Japan Konbini’s are far more common than they are in the west. Its help in allowing the romance between Miharu and Haruki I felt was especially cute. The Final Score for Konbini I feel would be a 7/10 because of its interesting premise, well-designed characters, well developed romances and excellent voice acting. This was however let down by some under developed characters and not giving a better role for some characters which ended up wasting the talents of their seiyuu.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Oct 1, 2017

Ashiya-chan

Mixed Feelings

I haven't seen such lame main characters in my whole life.
The anime would have been a little better if the main story was about their friends , the class president and that cute playboy.
The main character-the boy wasn't even attractive or at least cool. He didn't have anything to stand out or to be interesting in any way.
The same goes with the girl.
I thought it would have been a good rom com but this was beyond boring.
The scenery and soundtracks made it even more boring and it was hard to keep watching till the end of each episode.
The last 2 episodes had some ... interest but then again it failed tragically.
I think I lost my time with this one. It was a complete contrast with other Rom-coms of the season like Tsurezure Children, Aho Girl, even Hajimete no Gal was better and more interesting!
I DON'T RECOMMEND IT.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Oct 30, 2018

sugarsong

Not Recommended

i have never written a review for an anime before. but this one was so lacking in everything that i feel the need to write one to save someone else time from watching this
the title and summary are misleading. the main protag isn't even the focus of the plot most of the time and there's not even '6 mains characters' that it focuses on. everything was open ended and i found myself struggling to want to finish it. every episode left me so bored and uninterested. i wish this actually SHOWED romance rather than TELLING me. there was also a pointless incest couple that showed ... up for zero reason for one episode who were never metioned again. i hated everything about this show

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

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