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Story

Tonikaku Kawaii is fundamentally about the relationship of a married couple. The author attempts to detail how the couple met and the ordinary life and goals of the relationship. However, the author fails to present a convincing story in this regard. Consider the first episode where the two met. Nasa, the boy who met a young maiden and determined that he loved her on first sight because she’s “cute”, gets hit by a truck in which he conveniently forgot to consider when crossing the road. Not only did he bleed from the head while looking for her, the truck driver and the girl Tsukasa showed ... little to no sign of worry or distress as one would normally think during the situation by calling the ambulance. In addition, a timeskip was shown in which Nasa, who hasn’t seen or heard of Tsukasa in years, conveniently finds her knocking on his front door with no rational explanation whatsoever. The sheer number of plot conveniences in the first episode alone severely reduces the development of the story and hampers its believability going forward. The rest of the episodes detail mundane tasks such as shopping which fail to capture the emotional and developmental aspect of the relationship. Do they grow to love each other, less or more? Do they grow to understand each other, from their hobbies to their philosophy on life? There are a few moments where these aspects are addressed, however such occasions are rarely emphasized. Of the few moments where their love is emphasized, e.g. the buying-a-ring episode, such moments are depreciated because of how unrealistic the plot setup was in the first place. As such, there is little to no emotion associated with this anime as one would expect in ordinary rom-com anime.

2/10

Characters

Nasa is a boy who is apparently very intelligent and Tsukasa is a girl with many mysteries. Nasa first loves Tsukasa because she’s “cute” while the anime does not explicitly detail why Tsukasa loves Nasa. The characters in this story do not progress in any meaningful manner nor do they present a realistic interaction between ordinary couples. For Nasa, his whole character, while being intelligent, is to act like what one would expect for a prepubescent boy who saw his first crush in 5th grade. For Tsukasa, her whole purpose is to serve as a “perfect” wife for Nasa by being proficient at tasks such as cooking. The story uses these characters as props where, for example, one is supposed to “laugh” at comedic moments such as Nasa sniffing Tsukasa’s clothing and turning red. Such comedy forms the basis of almost the entire cour of the anime, yet it fails dramatically both in humor and to portray a couple figuring out each other. The story does not present the case of a realistic and mature couple, yet it attempts to have the audience appreciate the relationship. Why should one care about the characters if the story does not progress their relationship, but instead resort to dry humor that fundamentally does not add anything of value to the story?

3/10

Animation

There is nothing much to say about the animation. The animation and color scheme does not support nor hinder its storytelling. From a 2020 point of view, the character and background art is mediocre.

4/10

Soundtrack

There are some moments where soundtrack is used to convey the appropriate emotion at critical moments, however the soundtrack is nothing special.

5/10

Overall

The relationship of a married couple is presented to the audience in which the audience is expected to appreciate. However the initial development and relationship progress is severely lacking such that the overall story fails to have an emotional impact on the viewer.

3/10