Keikenzumi na Kimi to, Keiken Zero na Ore ga, Otsukiai suru Hanashi.

To the shy and reclusive Ryuuto Kashima, associating himself with his popular classmate Runa Shirakawa is nothing but a distant fantasy—or so he thought. After losing a bet with his friends and being coerced into confessing to Runa, Ryuuto's world is flipped upside down: instead of the cruel rejection he was expecting, Runa agrees to go out with him!

But dating Runa proves to be overwhelming for Ryuuto, who requests that their relationship remain a secret known only by their closest friends. His decision, however, leads to a series of mishaps that he fears will doom the relationship. As they work through their misunderstandings, Ryuuto reveals his insecurities stemming from his past experiences, and the two grow closer together.

Just when things are getting back on track, Ryuuto's middle school crush, Maria Kurose, transfers to his class and begins to stir up a fuss. At the same time, terrible rumors about Runa spread around the school, prompting Ryuuto to take desperate measures to protect her.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Shirakawa, Runa Main

Oonishi, Saori Japanese

Kashima, Ryuuto Main

Hanae, Natsuki Japanese

Kurose, Maria Supporting

Koga, Aoi Japanese

Yamana, Nikoru Supporting

Fukuhara, Ayaka Japanese

Tanikita, Akari Supporting

Kusunoki, Tomori Japanese

Nishina, Ren Supporting

Sakaguchi, Daisuke Japanese

Kurose, Mao Supporting

Okamoto, Nobuhiko Japanese

Ijichi, Yuusuke Supporting

Ochiai, Fukushi Japanese

KEN Supporting

KUN Japanese

Sekiya, Shuugo Supporting

Maeno, Tomoaki Japanese

Tokumura, Kenichi Producer

Nishimae, Shuka Producer

Sawahata, Kouji Producer

Kimura, Sora Producer

Reviews

Dec 22, 2023

Smilomaniac

Recommended

This is a teenager's romantic show that I think is somewhat useful for boys and young men, but maybe not so much for girls or women.
In short you can expect a sugary development, a modicum of drama in the form of misunderstandings, some character development of our couple and enough bitterness to temper the bliss.
In conclusion a decent romantic show, mostly generic, low levels of humor and a mediocre production value and performance.

The premise is not a new one, nerd boy (Ryuuto) loses a bet and has to ask out the school's most popular girl (Runa - modest gyaru/gal type) and she ... accepts. As the title of the show suggests, she's experienced and he's not.
We've seen this before in 'dress-up darling', 'horimiya', 'my first girlfriend is a gal' and several other shows. The premise of this show is not immediately obvious however and the subplot slowly starts to develop as our couple get along. In true soap opera fashion a girl returns from the past who also happens to be related to Runa.

Supporting cast is decent but nothing special, the show almost only revolves around the main love interests.
Some of the misunderstandings can be a little grating and predictable. Why a 7 (good) instead of a 6 (fine)? Because while a lot of shows milk you for time and just push the conclusion, this one does have a good point to its story and drama and can be more relatable than I think most romance shows, the pair dynamic aside. It's also not littered with fan service and 'kyaaa' peeks, which is a relief.

I've already given you the plot summary and what to expect, so go no further if you don't want to know more.
The rest from here are my thoughts on how the characters and how the story develops.

---

The reason I stated that this is useful for boys is that one of the 'mystifying' elements of girls, when you're young, is that they flip-flop emotionally depending on the social expectations they experience and set for themselves and others.
To many Runa is going to be a frustrating character - Despite her investing herself in whomever her boyfriend at the time is, her positive outlook and romantic ideals, she's insecure and very quick to run away from confrontation. Her having had many boyfriends has only given her experiences in a shallow way and when Ryuuto starts mattering to her she gets hurt so much quicker.

Insecurity is by no means exclusive to girls, but it is especially prevalent for them since its common for them to ascribe meaning to social interactions that isn't intended or seen by others (something that can continue well into adulthood), which is why women moreso than men are thought of to be prone to drama.
Please do not take this as a 'literally all' generalization, all people have some measure of insecurity but because girls mature quicker they experience this faster than boys. Also boys tend to be insecure from a lack of achievement from which they primarily derive self worth.

That little tangent aside, the point is that I think the show does a good job of showing you some of the issues you can expect from a school relationship. Not so much repeated impossible timing misunderstandings, but misunderstandings in general and what others might see as an issue even if you don't. And, also to not give up and to figure out what you want and go for it.

I don't think Runa is particularly realistic, but I recognize many facets of her behaviour from past relationships and I think it makes for a decently considered story.

Ryuuto himself is nothing to write home about, he's mostly an everyman who makes a few good observations and starts steering his life in a long term direction which is admirable and a good approach. I think his limitations are what you could expect from an inexperienced boy, so his weaknesses aren't annoying or particularly unrealistic, at least for a somewhat socially awkward nerd.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Dec 22, 2023

Ionliosite2

Mixed Feelings

There’s almost always one random anime that will get some controversy no matter if for something that is minimal or stupid yet will become the center of criticisms about the show, and in this case the series that got this treatment was KimiZero. For some reason, the main girl made some people go crazy with part of her gimmick, which in this series is that she already had relationships with other boys in the past and even had sex with them. That’s all, and as it was proven in the past by series like HigeHiro where you could complain about basically anything like bad writing, ... bad animation, badly written characters, etc, but instead people ignore them and whine about a completely unrelated thing, as the main complain there was also that the girl in the cover wasn’t a virgin.

Some people will say that the writing of this series seems like it was made by an incel, and I have to disagree, after all, that kind of people are the most likely to complain that the girl had sex before. In fact, I can’t comprehend how such a simple series like a romcom got so misunderstood, the memo that you get from here is not that having multiple relationships and sex with literally anything is good, no, the series paints this in a negative light and Runa regrets it because it happened due to her bad decisions on how to make a significant relationship. The fact that this simple fact gets over so many people’s heads is surprising to me, as it is something very easy to pick up from so many episodes, the one in the festival in particular is extremely blatant about this. This series at least tries to make sense, as some people will have a sexual life earlier than others, and they might regret it later if it isn’t with someone that matters to them in the first place.

But now, is KimiZero a good series? Of course fucking not, as much as I want to side with the fans of this series, that simply isn’t possible for me. At the very least, I think this series is commendable for actually having the main girl who is super popular and beautiful interacting with boys, and having had relationships in the past, because in most romcoms God forbid that the main girl has ever interacted with any boy except the MC. The series obviously suffers from average romcom and light novel writing, nothing actually exciting happens, and when it does, it is written like a Mexican telenovela, like, do people think that the twin sister of a girl faking to be her is not something ridiculous? As it happens, the MC is also bland as hell and the relationship came to be in a completely unnatural way, it happened because Tanjiro asked Runa to become his girlfriend after he lost a bet with his friends and she simply accepts like it was nothing, no one in their sane mind would see this and think it isn’t forced, and even if some moments between Tanjiro and Runa were fine enough, it isn’t enough to see this series and think it was anything meaningful. I can stand the telenovela tier writing because I grew up watching a lot of them, so that’s why most romcoms are not something that bother me at all, and this one is not exception, this series is simply boring most of the time and not much more, it isn’t actively annoying, and it was a good enough joke when a character started talking about something they are very passionate about and the other was completely lost without understanding anything.

Nicole acting like a bitch towards Tanjiro was always something weird, she constantly told him that he shouldn’t do anything bad about Runa, when he looks so inoffensive and his personality is literally “I’m nice”, I can only wonder if she was doing the same for previous Runa boyfriends or if she saw Runa being hurt so many times she started being overprotective coincidentally with him, I want to believe the second one, especially because Runa seems to ignore a lot of her advices, but there’s nothing to tell me that she isn’t like this because the current guy is the protagonist and apparently she must annoy him. There’s also other romantic relationships happening in the background with Tanjiro’s friends and the other gyaru, but they go nowhere and fail miserably at it. And Maria is probably the side character that is most important, her deal is really weird, she is also in love with Tanjiro and he even confessed his love towards her in the past but she rejected him, so why is she seeking for his love now even after she rejected him before? Is it just to have more drama in the show, as it happens she is jealous of Runa, but at the same time wants to be more noticed by her because of their relationship? She acts like a bitch half of the series and then victimizes herself, she clearly has problems in her, and it all revolves around Runa and Tanjiro.

As it stands, KimiZero is basically just a generic romcom with more drama than it should have, but at the same time has a female MC that seems more plausible than other girls from other romcoms, thanks to her not being an untouchably pure virgin. I seriously cannot make an effort to be on either side of the conflict about the series, since I for one think that anyone can have any relationship with anyone they want, so I cannot agree with the haters, but I also disagree with the people saying this is a wholesome show, as nothing about it stands out as actually meaningful or even cute.

Thank you for reading.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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Dec 22, 2023

ZeroMajor12

Not Recommended

When you have accumulated enough experience or watched enough anime, you begin to see a pattern where most season will often have their share of anime so that every part of the demographic is fulfilled. Casuals and action fanatics got their meal with the 2nd course of Jujutsu Kaisen S2, fans of heartfelt drama are present with the all-new Sousou no Frieren and The Apothecary Diaries. And then you have your usual palette of romance, varying in quality though since everyone has their schtick on it. Naturally, there will be various types of anime to provide to any anime fans, even fans of run-of-the-mill romances. ... By that point, it's obvious that Kimizero is another anime catered towards romance suckers. Without wasting any time, let's jump into it.

First, the production value is nothing short of bland mediocrity at its finest. Who would expect anything good from ENGI after the abomination I had to witness like The Detective is Already Dead? The character models sometimes go off-model, they are mostly still in every shot, and whenever they have to perform movement, it just looks awkward. What would you expect when they adapt another crappy romance light novel? Yup, there's nothing else to comment on other than the word "bad" plastered. Even their main promo picture looks like it was made by an amateur.

When I comment about bad anime, the majority of them would be a lack of character detail or inept storytelling from the author, and this anime is no exception. This anime is filled with tropes that pathetically tried their hand to subvert tropes, only to be for naught. Kashima is a socially awkward otaku who got forced into dating the most fake gyaru ever written. It never tries to develop layers beneath their persona, since the anime is intent on only focusing on the cute romance scenes that don't feel earned whatsoever. The awkward guy in love with an extroverted girl relationship has been tested and succeeded multiple times by different anime like Hyouka or Bokuyaba, but whatever this relationship built up to has been squandered by the mediocrity of the author's capacity to write a compelling romance story. Then you have the most generic friends just to remind you that they have friends, where you're forced to sit through supposed yapping about online creators, trends, or anything just to appeal to the young demographic, but it feels like some old man throwing gestures without understanding the meaning behind it. It just wants to include Gyarus and Otakus for the sake of it.

What's worse about the storytelling is that the premise is not all that bad. Of course, it is generic with the usual relationship, but it had an interesting node with Luna's past suggesting that she was mistreated by her past boyfriends, but never proceeded to expand that hook after Episode 1. It has been used plenty of times before like in other anime, however, it would have made Luna into a more interesting character other than this fake, robotic, and insincere character who just acts nice to everyone she meets. And the anime expects us to believe she's sincere and empathetic to everyone she holds close? It doesn't try to suggest that maybe Luna was a victim of abuse, doesn't try to show that Luna was traumatized by it, or have Luna somewhat push people away from being afraid of being hurt. No, instead you get Luna being too nice that she's willing to let go of people and somehow that's good enough. Then what's the point of the multiple boyfriends then? You could throw away that detail and the anime would work just as fine. With this statement, Luna Shirakawa is the epitome of an AI girlfriend who has no flaws to be explored and made up drama for the sake of its romance.

Luna was such a bad character that even Maria, the supposed love breaker, is more well-written than the main love interest, and that's saying something. Before it decided to make Maria suddenly submissive and willing to let Luna win, she had actual grounded motives and feelings, though it's pretty stupid if it happens in real life, but it's still something that can be understood. A girl trying to get back someone she rejected, only to realize she squandered her chance with a potential boyfriend. Her character is easily the most interesting and holds actual drama behind it. Even the bad boy had more presence than Kashima, who had most of the show's screen time. I get that introverts don't hold a candle against these guys, but when you have the main character and his otaku friends just spouting about streamers and FPS games all the time without any actual meta-reference, it feels like a cheap throwaway just to attract younglings.

I have made my point clear enough. Thank you for reading.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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	I'm starting the Kimizero Light Novel, what volume did it leave off after episode 12? Jeremygrandison - Oct 22	3 replies	by No_22 »» Oct 22, 12:48 PM
	What chapter of Kimizero I should read after episode 12 Jeremygrandison - Oct 21	6 replies	by Jeremygrandison »» Oct 22, 8:12 AM
	Poll: Keikenzumi na Kimi to, Keiken Zero na Ore ga, Otsukiai suru Hanashi. Episode 9 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Dec 1, 2023	82 replies	by Fortress_Maximus »» Oct 1, 12:29 PM
	This anime destroy the stereotypes about popular girls passtur - May 12	24 replies	by Quadruple_Oi »» Sep 26, 7:37 PM
	Poll: Keikenzumi na Kimi to, Keiken Zero na Ore ga, Otsukiai suru Hanashi. Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) Stark700 - Dec 22, 2023	160 replies	by kaneki1231_ »» Sep 26, 12:08 PM