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(Slight spoilers)
My expectations going into this show were not high by any means. Before the anime, I heard the term “Nagatoro” thrown around by my friends who read the manga, and from what I heard, I thought this series wasn’t going to be anything exceptional. I was right, since this is about as generic and “turn off your brain” as a show can get (which isn’t necessarily a bad quality).

Story - 5

The plot consists of an introverted and socially awkward teenage boy only disclosed as “Senpai” meeting his pretty underclassman girl named Nagatoro. Their relationship is toxic by every means and bullying and harassment ... of Senpai is the common theme. But, the more time the two spend together, the more the bully Nagatoro begins to soften up and like “Senpai”. This concept has good potential and many heartwarming and cute moments happen because of it. It’s very simple and if you want mindless entertainment, the story works just fine. However, this show feels lazy. 95 percent of all jokes in this show have an ecchi aspect to it with no originality and sometimes make me wonder why this isn’t hentai. The first few episodes have no interesting story with a rinse and repeat formula that gets old extremely quickly. The later episodes do better by incorporating new settings, characters, and situations instead of having everything take place in the art club room. But ultimately, it’s whatever.

Art - 5

The art is extremely unremarkable and doesn’t have any charm to it. Just your bland and boring anime art style with a slight pencil-drawn feel. It’s the same with the exaggerated faces and “funny” art style they use (I absolutely despise the cat transition the show uses between scenes). Just your typical rom-com look. Yet, the art is best in the opening and ending sequences. The opening is messy, colorful, and has the attractive and rough look of graffiti. It’s unique and pops out from the rest. The ending has its own charm. The blending of the character’s hair with the background was an interesting artistic choice and the characters are drawn softer. Very pleasing to look at.

Sound - 7

This soundtrack I really dig. All the tracks have cheekyness and playfulness to them. Some of the earlier tracks have a more evil feel to them, where the bullying is at its worst. There are well-used EDM, jazz, and playful tunes that accentuate the teasing aspect of the anime. And when the anime has some more serious moments, the track swells up and gets slightly emotional. The voice acting performances are good all-around with Nagatoro’s voice especially standing out. Her slight talking quirks and expression that the voice actor gives to her is original to the character and make her stand out from the rest.

Character - 4

Senpai is your typical introverted protagonist. He can’t make eye contact, starts to sweat when talking to others, and other small actions. Pretty standard and not very innovative or creative. The supposed star of the show is Nagatoro herself. Although she has a unique character design, interesting personality and character traits, and a great voice acting performance to back it all up, she still isn’t able to carry the rest of the characters from their monotony. From the outside, Nagatoro’s relationship with the MC seems one-sided and exploitative, but snippets of affection are shown and I find those moments to be pretty cute and wholesome. Also, I swear Nagatoro is begging senpai to mark this show as X-rated sometimes. The side characters in Nagatoro’s friend group are only there to add to or carry out humor. I get why they do not receive characterization in the attempt to focus on the main two of the show, but that would only work if the relationship of the main two were complicated enough to focus on. This aspect of the show needs a lot of work.


Enjoyment - 6

If you enter this anime expecting “turn off your brain” entertainment, you will probably enjoy it. I wasn’t at first, but after a few episodes, I eased myself into the rhythm and enjoyed this show decently. A few things here and there such as the repetitiveness of the beginning episodes and the dumb isekai episode bored me, but everything else I managed to have a good time watching. The cute and wholesome moments were an unexpected but welcome surprise and made this anime pretty decent to watch.

Overall - 5

To me, this is an average throwaway seasonal show that I somewhat enjoyed in the moment, but will probably forget down the line. Simplistic and generic describes this anime very well, and that isn’t a bad thing to many people which is just fine. If you're looking for dumb entertainment, here’s your chance to take it. However, I did not enter this anime with high expectations and I was right in doing so. This show is exactly what I expected.