Kawaii dake ja Nai Shikimori-san

Yuu Izumi leads a high school life filled with one mishap after another. No matter how improbable the situation, unfortunate events strike him at every turn. In possession of such terrible luck, Izumi enters his second year with a single wish in mind—to spend more time with his affectionate girlfriend, Micchon Shikimori.

Cute, athletic, and caring, Shikimori is immensely popular at their school. But since they began dating a year ago, Izumi has witnessed a surprising side to his otherwise adorable girlfriend: when the need arises, she turns incredibly cool! His misfortunes are easily avoided when she is there to protect him with an awe-inspiring look on her face. Charming in every way, she never ceases to make his heart skip a beat. Unfortunate as he may be, Izumi is sure to see his days of bad luck end thanks to the cute yet cool Shikimori.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Shikimori, Miyako Main

Oonishi, Saori Japanese

Izumi, Yuuki Main

Umeda, Shuuichirou Japanese

Kamiya, Ai Supporting

Fukuhara, Ayaka Japanese

Hachimitsu, Yui Supporting

Hidaka, Rina Japanese

Izumi, Motoko Supporting

Shinohara, Emi Japanese

Inuzuka, Shuu Supporting

Okamoto, Nobuhiko Japanese

Shikimori, Fuji Supporting

Shimono, Hiro Japanese

Nekozaki, Kyou Supporting

Matsuoka, Misato Japanese

Shikimori, Miyabi Supporting

Park, Romi Japanese

Izumi, Akisada Supporting

Kusumi, Naomi Japanese

Motonaga, Satoshi Producer

Furukawa, Shin Producer

Kobayashi, Ryou Producer

Kamata, Hajime Producer

Reviews

Jul 9, 2022

BaronBrixius

Recommended

I'll start by saying this - Kawaii Dake ja Nai Shikimori-san is a fluff romcom. Nothing more, nothing less.

The premise is very simple - an extremely unlucky boy has an extremely cute girlfriend who can switch to "cool" mode and be his knight in shining armor when his bad luck strikes again, and a group of friends who they both hang out and do mundane things with. It's nothing groundbreaking. There is no depth to it. Its whole purpose is to give you a dose of fluff.

So then, why a 9/10?

It's simple - because Shikimori succeeds at fulfilling that exact purpose with flying colors and ... more.

If you truly enjoy these types of shows, then Shikimori has it all - a huge amount of cute couple moments, a vibrant color palette, high school shenanigans, festivals, and most importantly - a fun supporting cast, consisting of both a group of friends with high chemistry between them, and surprisingly alive and kicking parents, whose interactions with the main couple are often even more fun to watch than the friends group shenanigans.

If I had to give a rating to the supporting cast alone, it would be as high as a 9.5/10 - even if you're less invested in the couple for one reason or another, every moment the side characters are on screen is a joy to watch. Whether it's the MC's mom inadvertently seducing her son's girlfriend or Hachimitsu delivering her deadpan one-liners, each of them made me look forward to watching the show every week just as much as the main couple.

And regarding the elephant in the room, Izumi - the male MC who I'm sure you've heard negative things about at one point or another before reading this review - his only "fault" is that...he's not very masculine. Other than that, he's just a regular, social guy with a small group of friends that includes his girlfriend. He's nowhere near the cringy loner MC that starts stuttering whenever a girl enters his line of sight, if like me that is what you first imagined when you heard the rumors. At the same time, he's also not a deep layered character, he's a run-of-the-mill romcom MC - but his only "fault" is, again, that he is more feminine than masculine. You could say that this is a gender-reversed romcom, but that'd be mostly wrong - Shikimori herself is just as feminine 90% of the time, when she's not protecting Izumi from whatever tried to kill him that day.

To sum it up, I recommend this show if :

- You enjoy fluff romcoms.
- You like girls being badass.
- You are looking for a chill slice of life show to just laugh and turn your brain off to.
- You like deadpan characters/Kuuderes. (seriously Hachimitsu alone makes this show worth watching)

I do not recommend this show if :

- You expect strong character development.
- You expect plot/romance progression, and are bored by "mindless" fluff.
- You expect My Dress-Up Darling like a lot of people did when starting this. (Why?)

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Oct 11, 2022

noob2121

Mixed Feelings

C'mon, this wasn't as bad as yall made it out to be?

From my observations, one reason for the community reception behind this anime is because it came fresh off, and seems to have been seen as the spiritual successor to, Winter 2022's My Dress-up Darling, and this may have had set expectations a little too high. Now, i am not saying the criticism for this show is unwarranted, its just that i feel that the hatred for this has been blown out of proportion in discourse about the show.

Shikimori-san has a pretty blatant and on-the-nose way of reversing gender roles. It would put ... the couple in a position where gender stereotypes about masculinity and feminity come out, and would well... reverse them. Shikimori aims to act feminine in order to fit in with the school, but fails spectacularly no matter what. However this failings are not treated as failings, rather theyre validated as Shikimori choosing to "be herself". All of her decisions in how she behaves, especially when in cases when the action is not traditionally associated to be feminine are all treated as something that is "cool" and to be proud of. The female characters actually have agency, which should be the norm, but isnt something that the average romcom has. Izumi also has this one scene where he goes "Please dont tease me" and becomes all flustered and blushing, something that is typically associated with a female character in any other romcom. This reversal is what makes for this dynamic in their relationship which i will talk about next.

And so there is this interesting dynamic between Izumi and Shikimori, as Izumi happens to be extremely unlucky. The anime doesnt fail to hammer this point as it is one of the first lines of narration in ep 1. This is used to create situations where our mc ends up in trouble in order for Shikimori, to swoop in and rescue him. This happens over and over and over again and is probably the main thing that the show does, at least for the first half of the series, even the ED has this sequence where Shikimori is helping Izumi dodge and knock obstacles away.

This dynamic seems to have created this idea that this show is another one of those "waifu bait" shows with Izumi being an audience insert, but i could not disagree more. The conception of an audience insert protagonist is someone who the audience is supposed to project themselves onto, a blank slate, featureless, in a show meant for escapism. Well, when u consider the things that happen to Izumi, losing his things, getting his planned events ruined, it evokes laughter or pity rather than encouraging projection. Theres the other kind of audience projection, i.e. "this loser is you", but i find it hard to see Izumi as a loser at all. Izumi has a lot of qualities worth liking about him, his resillience to his unluckiness gimmick, or his ability to see the best in people, which earns him friends. It seems like any male protagonist who isnt straight up confident and upfront is suddenly a "generic loser mc" or a "self insert romcom protagonist" like what happened with Wakana Gojo last season.

Perhaps the most tenable criticism of Izumi's character is the unluckiness gimmick in itself. Its absurd, to the point that its funny (intentionally or not). However it becomes understandably hard to take him seriously at all. Any dramatic moments that youre supposed to feel sad for become comically laughable. Its also obviously a cheap way of creating situations for the wholesome interactions that we all expect out of a couple in a romcom. In this case, it manifests in the form of Shikimori saving him. If you can look past how contrived these situations are, and get over how repetitive the unluckiness gimmick (and it seems easier said than done for most ppl), then you'll probably be able enjoy these cute romantic moments more, and by extension the show too.

Shikimori-san is actually at its best when it... isnt focusing on Shikimori or Izumi honestly. The side characters, some of them pretty blatantly queer coded, are great too. Theres this introverted girl named Hachimitsu, who despises outdoor exercise, and she gets a whole episode dedicated to her and Izumi for them to train for their school's sports festival. I wont go into much more detail about it, but the experience was really heartwarming, and seeing them training hard together for the sake of the rest of the team, was easily one of Shikimori's best scenes. This is only one of the examples of Shikimori's side character episodes, and if theres one thing you should watch Shikimori for, its for the side characters.

The studio suffered from an outbreak of COVID in the middle of the show's runtime, which led to delays. Thankfully the end product is still of passable and servicable quality visually, and overall, it still looks decent, tho definitely not the best thing that Doga Kobo has made.

Easily the most overhated show of Spring 2022, Shikimori-san is a show that i recommend with significant caveats. Ultimately the appeal of the show for me was ironically Izumi, despite the repetitive nature of his unluckiness gimmick.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Jul 9, 2022

SingleH

Not Recommended

Anime openings truly are magical, aren’t they? The excite us, inspire us, and stay in our memories for years. Just this season, the OP for SPY×FAMILY, where it begins looking like a hyper-stylized spy thriller, but then quickly devolves into children’s artwork perfectly encapsulated the charm of the series; the OP for Summertime Render was so slick and atmospheric; and Paripi Koumei’s OP was a brilliant modern classic for obvious reasons, but the two runner-ups have to be Shikimori-san and Love After World Domination. They were both absolutely stellar, and Shikimori’s was so delightful, it almost successfully gaslighted me into thinking I was actually watching ... a good anime.

They say 70-93% of human communication is non-verbal, and I stand by these findings completely. This show has one of those OPs where, whether the show delivers on its promise or not, it at least suggests a level of personality and energy which I personally find so endearing and infectious. Like, even if the show has no personality (which, spoiler, it doesn’t), then the expressiveness and artfulness displayed throughout the OP can successfully brainwash me into thinking it does. It feels like a mixture of the Engaged to the Unidentified OP and the After the Rain OP, and no matter how shitty of a day I was having, no matter how fucking miserable I felt, it always made me smile.

The problem with all of this, of course, is that after the OP ends, the show starts, and it’s not great. The OP would make me think, “Oh, gosh! These two are so CUTE! Everyone looks so happy and expressive, the animation is astoundingly beautiful, and the artistry the director used to illustrate the trials and tribulations and the clumsy, invigorating course of their budding love is all just so invigorating! I just can’t wait to see this show with these characters and this artwork and this direction and—oh the show is boring as fuck………okay…great.” Generic, bland, banal, whatever word you wanna use, anything works. It’s just a boilerplate teen romcom with gimmicks that get old instantly.

There are definitely some things to like about this show. It’s a Doga Kobo project, so no matter how bland the art direction and character designs are, and no matter the fact this is clearly one of their lower effort productions, nothing ever looks unacceptably bad. The main couple are in a relationship at the start of the show, so you don’t have to deal with the usual melodrama involved with getting together, which itself is assuming you’re lucky enough to be watching one of the very few anime where the two main love interests actually at some point do fucking get to together. However, other than those few concessions, the entire show has very little in the way of redeeming qualities.

The gimmick is that Shikimori isn’t just a cutie. She’s also the female equivalent to the domineering ikemen in shoujo manga, and she endearingly protects her effeminate twink boyfriend, Izumi, all the same. I found it cute enough for a while, but my breaking point was already reached by episode five. Each stock friend character is just standing around doing their ONE thing, saying their ONE line in their ONE tone. Contrary to the bustling, energetic opening, the show itself has lifelessness leaking out of every orifice, including its fucking voice actors. As far as other, more recent waifu-bait shows go, Shikimori is comparable in quality to My Dress-Up Darling, an anime which I gave a 4/10.

…clearly should’ve put some more thought into that one.

Thank you for reading.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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