Goukon ni Ittara Onna ga Inakatta Hanashi

2024 has given us quite a few anime that I would consider to be fun, brain-rot. How I Attended an All-Guy's Mixer might not be as brain-rot as other shows like My Deer Friend Nokotan or ‘Tis Time for “Torture,” Princess, it's overall atmosphere is still goofy enough for me to consider it as such. While this anime doesn't do anything special or unique in terms of rom-coms, I still had a lot of fun watching this, which is important since we've gotten quite a few romance anime this year that absolutely bore me, and that's saying something since romance is one of my favorite ... genres in anime.

What makes How I Attended an All-Guy's Mixer fun to watch has to be all the goofy interactions and dynamics between all the characters. The six main characters - who are split between the male characters in Tokiwa, Hagi, and Asagi, and the cross-dressing girls with Suou, Kohaku, and Fuji - aren't that interesting of characters, especially when they fall into a lot of very common and tired rom-com tropes. However, these characters really make this show enjoyable when they're just hanging out and doing dumb shit for the sake of it. It's fun watching an airhead like Asagi misunderstand the context behind whatever unhinged shit Fuji is making him do. Hagi and Kohaku's fun and adorable romantic progression with one another breathes a ton of light-hearted charm to this series, and the typical shy interactions they have with one another made me feel at home with the genres this anime falls under.

Unfortunately, I wasn't too impressed with Tokiwa and Suou's dynamic. To me, their relationship felt the most bland and generic out of the trio of couples that this anime offers. I'm struggling to even find the words to describe the dynamic between these two because they're unfortunately the most forgettable parts of the show. That's not to say that the writing behind these two are appalling, it's more so that if these two ever got a series revolving around just those characters, I'm not sure if I'd be invested in their narratives. You could attribute that to the fact that this show has six main characters and three couples to focus on, which forces the writing to constantly shift focus on a set of characters so they're not left in the dark. I personally didn't mind it, but I can see it being an issue for other people watching this anime.

Overall, if you need a quick, easy, and fun comedy anime to turn your brain off to, How I Attended an All-Guy’s Mixer might be for you. I personally enjoy shorter anime like this every now and then, and it’s kinda the perfect type of anime to wind your long day down with.

A comedy anime about gender dynamics that goes nowhere. This anime started out interesting, a fairly new concept introduced to the new romcom anime genre. All characters are quirky, other than the boring male lead. While each episode is dedicated to exploring the relationships growing between the three female characters and male characters, their relationships do not go further and hit a ceiling. Of three relationships, the one between Kohaku and Hagi is the most insufferable, Hagi is a terribly pathetic written character and his awkwardness is neither funny nor enticing, it’s for the most part, aggravating. I dislike it anytime he’s on screen. Asagis ... golden retriever energy is very funny and his relationship with Fuji is both hilarious and wholesome. Suo is also a very enticing female lead and is the most charismatic person in this anime, however her goal to win over the male lead Tokiwa is very unrewarding because Tokiwa is a very bland lead and says nothing but generic things. This anime had a lot of potential, however it fails to deliver anything rewarding. I don’t hate it, but I can’t say I can recommend it either. Watch at your own risk.

I liked the idea of this show, at least what I thought the idea was: a romance where the girls are tomboys. Tomboys rule and aren't usually very well represented, so I thought it could be fun.

Instead what I got was a bunch of tropes and repeated jokes for 12 episodes straight, but now they're "crossdressing themed".

This show accentuates by a lot the problems I have with anime not accepting gay people in our society as something normal. There are ENTIRE EPISODES dedicated to Hagi (this show's most annoying character) just worried if he's gay because he's attracted to a women who cross dresses. He's ... such a good example of how anime thinks how funny a dude being gay is.

Besides all that this is just one more painfully generic show that does not even try to explore characters besides seeing them in slice of life, and for a slice of life show, there are a whole lot better you can do.

Also the show has a non-ending, literally just stops in the middle, and I have my doubts about the existence of a season 2