TL;DR at the bottom.
I'm not quite sure how to say exactly what YagaKimi is to me. There's so much to say about its portrayal of a unique relationship, how it explores the concept of love and what it makes me feel to watch it as it progresses. If I had to sum it into one word YagaKimi is 'interesting'.
Story - 10
The story of YagaKimi is about someone who has never fallen in love before, Yuu, having a 'more than friends, less than lovers' kind of relationship with her senpai, Nanami and how misconceptions about love shape that relationship. It is a rather slow burn and
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you could complain about nothing really happening but, that is one of the strengths of YagaKimi, after the first episode there is a gradual build-up of emotions that slowly but surely endear you to the characters, thoroughly immerse you into their mindsets until you feel you know them better than they know themselves and never wastes a moment of time, constantly adding or expanding on details.
Another strength of YagaKimi is the maturity in which it handles its themes and its refusal to have cheap drama or adhere to cliches. You never get the impression the impression that anything in this isn't genuine. Any drama that exists comes from the natural progression of events and the reasonable response given the personalities. No drama overstays its welcome and is often resolved in the episode it appears in when the characters talk about the problems. There are plenty of ways Nakatani Nio could have extended the drama infinitely or gone over the top like many of her contemporaries but, she refuses. A non-spoiler example is an indirect kiss that is only noticed by Nanami and that she only has a mild reaction to.
Character - 10
Romances, particularly shoujo romance, has always held a disconnect for me; an often insurmountable hurdle in the way they present love. They often present it, as Yuu perceives it should be, an overwhelming feeling of happiness just being around a person, that I never understood. This results in the anime having to convince me that this feeling is genuine.
YagaKimi overcomes this hurdle by having its main character being in that same situation of longing for that feeling but not being able to grasp it that makes for an instantly relatable character that you get invested in growing as a person as the story goes on.
Nanami, on the other hand, becomes one of the most emotionally complex characters in romance anime and seeing her various layers peeled back and explored is truly where my 'interest' in YagaKimi stems from.
My personal stance on side characters is too ignore them until they're relevant and let them not waste space or make them interesting. YagaKimi follows the former, the side characters are interesting enough that I'm not bored during the short time that they're the focus while adding little bits of detail to the overall message of the story. Though none of them really stand out.
Art - 9
YagaKimi was a decently drawn manga with a penchant for symbolism, visual storytelling and interesting composition. The anime has managed to bring some of the less expressive parts of the manga to life and has so far translated the panels beautifully into animation. Troyca has done an outstanding job with the visuals, making the best looking anime this season. Although other anime is technically better looking, YagaKimi uses its visuals in the best way.
Sound - 9
Every piece of music used compliments the scene that it plays under as music should, though nothing about the OST stands out. The OP and ED aren't to my taste, but neither is most Japanese music I've listened to so I can't judge them fairly.
The voice acting is on point, perfectly representing the characters and really selling their emotions.
Enjoyment - 10
As you can probably tell, I really enjoyed YagaKimi. It is definitely the best shoujo-ai I've seen and among the best romances I've read (all my other favourite romances haven't been adopted yet). The way all the points mentioned above work together to create an anime that I can only call a masterpiece. Watching the anime has made me notice lots of subtle details I missed in the manga, causing me to re-read and gain a better appreciation for it and rewatching the episodes has been rewarding in all the extra subtleties that animation can give.
Overall- 10
YagaKimi is an interesting take on an interesting relationship dynamic with mature handling of its themes and a refusal to add cheap melodrama or cliches. It has relatable and emotionally complex characters that are voiced well and animated beautifully. The soundtrack adds to the experience without standing out and the visual storytelling is the best this season. It is definitely worth a watch.
Dec 28, 2018
Yagate Kimi ni Naru
(Anime)
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TL;DR at the bottom.
I'm not quite sure how to say exactly what YagaKimi is to me. There's so much to say about its portrayal of a unique relationship, how it explores the concept of love and what it makes me feel to watch it as it progresses. If I had to sum it into one word YagaKimi is 'interesting'. Story - 10 The story of YagaKimi is about someone who has never fallen in love before, Yuu, having a 'more than friends, less than lovers' kind of relationship with her senpai, Nanami and how misconceptions about love shape that relationship. It is a rather slow burn and ... Dec 17, 2018
In short, the reason i dropped this is that the only thing I actually liked about the show is Sakuta's banter with Mai but, that wasn't a good enough for me to continue watching.
Firstly, there is the entire reason I'm an anime fan in the first place. Animation is capable of conveying emotions in a way that live action doesn't. BGS however, uses the medium for one visually interesting scene in the first 5 episodes. Apart from this, there were no shots that i find even remotely interesting to look at, with directing that feels flat to me and character animation that fails to ... Nov 30, 2018
Koyomi History
(Anime)
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I might as well write a review for this as the vast majority of people don't seem to be able to understand what this short is trying to do. In my humble opinion, this is a masterpiece as it perfectly encapsulates the feelings of my experience watching Monogatari.
TL;DR at the bottom. Story - 10 Since this is less than 4 minutes long, it's obvious that they have to be economical with there time. Therefore the story is simple: it's just Araragi reminiscing about the five main girls of the series and that's all it needs to be. Some may claim that there should have been 'more' somehow ... |