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Dec 20, 2024
This was a painfully boring and stupid anime to slog through. ChatGPT might have unironically been used for this story.
The two leads were boring, behaved stupidly, and had little to no chemistry together. Working adults behaving like shy middle schoolers is both boring and stupid, not endearing. It also is in fact possible to create romantic chemistry between two shy/introverted characters.
The plot was terrible too, which was a surprise given how simple the set up is for the intriguing premise. Rika loves maps and exploring new places but doesn't want to go to Alaska... why? After finishing the series I still have no idea outside
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of maybe some general inertia against change. Same thing with Takuya. He love his cat and is worried he cannot bring him with for some reason? It's all just so incredibly stupid.
The scenarios used to propel the story were mostly fine... but they were dragged down by the awful main characters. Same thing with the side characters. In and of themselves they were fine, but it just made the main characters look worse in comparison. I unironically cared more about the how Gonda's relationship turned out despite being only 1 episode long than I did for the main couple after 12 episodes. That's how bad it was. The first 3 episodes were underwhelming, but not terrible, so I stuck around hoping for it to turn around and get better, but instead it mostly just stayed the same or got worse. Even the ending was disappointing. It didn't feel earned in the slightest.
The music/sound was very forgettable and the art/animation was subpar at best.
Your average sitcom slop is easily way more entertaining than this series.
Hopefully this review will help you avoid wasting your time on this anime as I did.
Story/Plot 1
Characters 2
Art/Animation 2
Music 1
Enjoyment 1
Thank you for reading.
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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Nov 13, 2024
This series was one of the hardest for me to rate because objectively it did a lot of things well, but the last ~10% fell off a cliff so badly that I cannot recommend it to everyone because a lot of people will feel the same disappointment I did with the ending.
For some reason long running popular manga have been botching their endings this year and Oshi No Ko can be added to the list alongside Boku no Hero Academia and Jujutsu Kaisen.
In the end, I decided to compare it to the ratings I gave for other series, as well as my own personal
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rubric, to conclude that it's still a very good manga, just well short of the masterpiece I initially thought it would be. Prior to the series falling off a cliff it was at least a 9, if not a 10, but now I'm struggling to justify even the current rating of an 8. Unfortunately, Aka wrote himself into a corner with a Kishotenketsu story structure that forced a poorly thought-out plot twist and an even worse conclusion that has left lots of readers disappointed. It's not even that the ending itself was bad, it was heavily foreshadowed as a possibility for the entire series, it's that it was very poorly executed with obvious plot holes that leave the reader frustrated with how something so obvious to them was ignored by the author.
Setting aside the ending for a moment, the series overall isn't as bad as its critics make it out to be, but it's also not the peak fiction its supporters claim either.
The story was well written most of the time, the characters were interesting and relatable, the art was very good, and it was an enjoyable series to read for most of its runtime.
If you can stomach a disappointing ending to enjoy what precedes it, you should try reading Oshi no Ko. If a bad ending ruins the entire experience for you, you are probably better off skipping this series because it's highly likely that you won't like the ending.
Thank you for reading.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Oct 26, 2024
It is damn near painful seeing so much undeserved glazing over the final arc of Bleach getting animated. I don't know if it's just the nostalgia speaking, the production quality, or both, but there's only so much lipstick you can put on the proverbial pig to gloss over all the ugliness underneath.
Even if you believe the art/animation, sound, direction, and enjoyment are all god tier 10/10 masterpieces how in the hell can everyone still ignore how godawful the character writing and story is?
For however unique and beautiful the character designs are we get a corresponding lack of any growth or realistic responses to events taking
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place. Characters stand around doing nothing when bad events happen, watch fights unfold against allies without intervening, and behave incredibly stupidly when necessary to suit the plot. Villains monologuing their powers? Check. Convenient powerups when needed? Check. Character motivations that are, at best, ambiguous and, at worst, stupid? Check!
It's just nonstop asspull deus ex machina bullshit for a story that doesn't make any sense. Why did the Soul Society not KILL Ywach when they fought 1,000 years ago after "sealing" him? Why are zero squad members, all significantly stronger than the CAPTAIN COMMANDER, getting easily destroyed against opponents that Shinigami WEAKER THAN HIM SOMEHOW BEAT LATER? Why the hell are Orihime, and ESPECIALLY Sado, and GANJU of all people not immediately dead upon confronting these ultra powerhouses? The anime even managed to create it's OWN PLOT HOLE THAT DIDN'T EXIST IN THE MANGA!!! HOW IN THE HELL DOES A 1,000 YEAR OLD PLOT TO KILL THE SOUL KING HINGE ON THE COINCIDENCE OF THE BIRTH OF 1 SOUL REAPER/QUINCY HYBRID APPEARING WHEN CONVENIENTLY NEEDED?!?!?!?
This list of plot holes is far from exhaustive either! If possible, Swiss cheese would go green with envy over how many more holes exist in the plot of this entire arc.
I'm sorry folks, but characters this stupid and a story this asinine is nowhere close to a "masterpiece". Production values can only carry a series so far, but for whatever reason people have decided to ignore that in favor of overrating this anime by a ton.
If you are a Bleach fan and you're interested in watching the last arc getting animated, watch the show. That's why I'm watching, in spite of how much I physically cringe over how stupid the characters and plot are.
If you have never read/watched Bleach before and you are wondering if the hype for the last arc makes it worth getting into, I would caution further investigation before investing your time into it. Most people would honestly be better off just reading the manga before watching this final arc if they are interested in starting Bleach. It will save you a lot of time wasted on fillers and glacially slow pacing from the original anime.
Art/Animation 9/10
Music/OP/ED 9/10
Enjoyment 5/10
Characters 3/10
Story 2/10 (Direction itself is 10/10)
Overall 6/10
Thank you for reading.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jul 17, 2024
Tl;dr: Idk why the comedy tag is missing. While not a full-on parody like Gintama, it is frequently closer to Gintama in tone than a serious story. If you don't take it too seriously you are more likely to enjoy the ride. Solid series overall, but has a few issues that leave me a bit surprised it has such a high average rating score. If you strongly dislike the comedy, story issues, and/or the subtle promotion of capitalism you can safely drop it as it shows no signs of changing those aspects. Otherwise, there is a decent chance you will enjoy the series.
Let's start with
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the negatives:
Story wise things basically always fall into Lloyd's lap perfectly. Either the "system" that put him there is purposefully influencing events as part of "fulfilling his wish" or it's just literally Deus Ex Machina to resolve conflicts that aren't based on Suho's knowledge of events in the novel he has been transported to or his engineering knowledge. Having a gatcha game provide him with the perfect tool to resolve his engineering dilemmas every time he uses it, getting new skills conveniently provided when needed, or surviving an encounter that he should have died from are some examples of this issue. There's still a chance for an explanation that at least explains the system related Deus Ex Machina, but not likely for all of it.
There is also a tendency for Lloyd to have solutions ready for problems he knows little to nothing about as the story progresses further away from the original storyline he is changing. A recent example is when the Queen of his country, Alicia, is informed that the countries at the southern border are being difficult in trade negotiations due to a recent event. She is frustrated about the situation and cannot think of how to resolve it. She is also told immediately afterwards by the same messenger that Lloyd has returned from being gone for a while on a separate quest and seeks an audience. When she speaks with him, he immediately proposes a solution to the problem she was literally JUST informed about, despite being away from the capital for at least several days. It's just bad writing, and while this is probably the most egregious example, expect to see other examples of conveniently provided solutions to problems in the story that cannot be explained away by the system's influence.
I should also mention that the set up for the premise is even worse than average for your typical isekai series, which is saying something with how low the bar is. I'm 142 chapters in and it's just some vague handwaving about a "system" that is probably magic but still remains almost completely unexplained. I'm not asking for much here either, an averageish isekai like Rising of the Shield Hero just had the people of the world summon him with magic there. That was sufficient enough for me to accept it initially with the expectation for further explanation later.
The overused video game system trope is also present and there is no explanation for it yet either. I don't even think it is necessary to tell the story, so it just feels like a lazy writing shortcut. For comparison, the manga The Person in a Villainess has the person that gets isekai'd die and reincarnates as her favorite character in a fantasy Otome video game with the original soul also in the body and there are no video game system mechanics used in the manga. Whereas, Suho gets transported into a fantasy novel that has added video game mechanics to it.
On a random note, the running gag about him having an ugly face compared to the beautiful face of the story's protagonist guarding him feels like a rip off of Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint (ORV)... It's used comedically, but there is no reasonable in universe explanation for it like in ORV. The problem is that he isn't actually ugly, it's only when he makes certain exaggerated faces that he actually looks ugly. So every time he gets called ugly without making a corresponding facial expression it just feels like beating a dead horse with the joke.
The art itself is right around average for a Manwha. Maybe a little better.
Despite all of these complaints don't misunderstand me that I think this a bad series or anything, just that I was expecting a bit more given its high average rating.
Here are some of the positives:
Despite my complaints about the overuse of the ugly face running gag, overall I found the comedy to be pretty good. Mostly slapstick humor with a few solid running gags that has the novel protagonist Javier play the straight man to Lloyd's craziness.
While the story is fairly predictable overall in how things will resolve positively for Lloyd every time, it is still enjoyable to see how they manage to reach that destination. The pacing of the story is pretty good too, not too fast or too slow.
The characters are also good. The female characters in particular have been much better than average. Plenty of strongly written female characters. Queen Alicia in particular stands out as both best girl and my favorite character overall despite her relatively limited screen time compared to our two protagonists. Speaking of which, both Lloyd and Javier are good characters too. They have great chemistry together as friends. Most of the other side characters are solidly written too. Although the villains themselves tend to be pretty basic. Since there is no major overarching villain the story mostly just cycles through different low level villains until they are either removed or conscripted into service for Lloyd.
There is also some nice social commentary about society in Korea effectively mixed into the story too when it flashes back to Suho's previous life. It's rare enough and simple enough to not be preachy while also giving us some tidbits about Suho's background.
Finally, the civil engineering aspect was interesting to read about. It is an engaging aspect for the story with how it teaches the reader while also showing Lloyd's ingenuity in adapting modern engineering techniques with medieval technology.
Overall, I have enjoyed this series quite a lot thus far. We'll see if things change later but so far, it's just very good, nothing truly special yet. I'm willing to have my mind changed. Biggest swing factor is explaining why Lloyd got transported to this novel world and how that impacts the copious amounts of Deus Ex Machina. If done well the story could improve to a 9. Done poorly and it might drop to a 7. It started out as a 7 for me after the first 40 chapters or so but there have been enough improvements in certain areas that pushed it up enough for a soft 8 right now.
Art - 6
Story - 7
Characters - 9
Enjoyment - 9
Thank you for reading.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jun 30, 2024
Weebs are simple people. Give them some amazing animation and sound in beautifully rendered fights for a shounen battle series and they are happy. Mix in some memorable character designs with enough personality to not bore or piss off the audience and you are almost guaranteed a popular hit series. I get it. Most people got into anime from a popular shounen battle series, myself included, and enjoy the spectacle it provides. I do too. But there is a certain bare minimum of quality to the story and the characters I need to not roll my eyes and laugh at how stupid what I am
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watching is too. Ufotable's godly production values don't compensate for an arc that was almost entirely boring filler that could of been either skipped entirely or summarized over an episode or two.
This is one of the worst cash grab anime seasons ever and to see so many people unironically give so many high scores for such a waste of our time is honestly kind of depressing. I'm sorry, but Giyuu's backstory sucked. Between the stupidity of the issue and the ease of resolution, I was left laughing by the end of it. The Shinazugawa family drama was also not properly explored enough for me to care. Don't worry though, it will get explained later in a flashback during the movie trilogy! Same as every other character whose backstory hasn't been covered yet! Why waste time covering that now when we can spend most of our time on training montages with mob background characters that nobody will remember or care about? Himejima's background was the only one that didn't suck, but if you haven't seen the backstory on a character yet you can expect to see it in a flashback during the upcoming movies when they are close to death, as is the norm now for this series.
It is easier to overlook the weaknesses in a series like this when it focuses on the fights. Unfortunately, since this a training arc, the issues with worldbuilding, plot holes, characterization, etc. all become more stark without the distraction of sakuga. Since you cannot turn your brain off and enjoy the nonexistent sakuga, you are left stewing in boredom and disappointment. You could honestly probably skip everything but the last 2 episodes and it wouldn't impact your understanding of the story or the characters in the slightest. That's a pretty damning indictment of this season.
Having said all of that I don't want you to misunderstand, I'm not some dedicated Demon Slayer hater. In fact, I read the entire manga after being intrigued by the first season and enjoyed it quite a bit. But we gotta have a little bit more self respect as weebs and not give this cash grab the praise it doesn't deserve.
Thank you for reading.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Jun 30, 2024
As someone new to this franchise I wanted to share my perspective on this season, and on the franchise as a whole, to any readers curious about this series. Having watched everything through to the end of this final season over the past month my conclusion is that this is an all time great series that has some issues that prevent it from being a full on masterpiece. I will go over those issues for this season in particular while also touching on them for the entire series.
Story - 8
A simple coming of age story prefaced around a love for music culminates in the end
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of Kumiko's journey through high school in season 3. While the ending was satisfying, it still felt incomplete. Too many plot points and character stories were left to be summarized by single sentence narration, if they were addressed at all, from our protagonist instead of being shown to us. The cardinal sin of show, not tell had to be broken for the final episode because the story had to rush through to the end in order to fit everything from the source material being adapted. Unlike previous seasons, season 3 didn't show any performance beyond the final one in the last episode. More evidence of inadequate run time allowed to tell the full story. I haven't read the source material, but based on the comments I have read for the anime, it appears that a lot of plot points were shortened/cut or changed. This resulted in some dead end/unanswered questions that left me wondering why they were even introduced in the anime if they weren't going to be given enough time to be properly developed. A rudderless romantic sideplot, infamous yuri bait, and some issues with execution of the drama, are among some of the issues that readers may have with the story. While I thought the much discussed change from the source material for the 2nd-to-last episode was a very good change to the story, a perfect complement to the themes being expressed that added realism to it, other people are sure to disagree. Aside from those issues, I didn't have any other major complaints. There is no deus ex machina, plot armor, or any other negative literary techniques/tropes used that usually detract from the story for me. It's a very good story overall.
Art/Animation - 10
Kyoto Animation isn't so highly regarded for nothing. The art and animation in this season and throughout the entire series is top notch. Better than all but the most hype scenes in any shounen battle series you will find. It maintains that quality throughout the entire run time of the series too. Character designs are simple, realistic, and gorgeous. No moe blobs or unrealistically rendered characters to be found anywhere.
Sound - 9.5
I was very torn between a 9 and 10 for the sound so I am going to split the difference at 9.5. My main issue isn't with the quality of the music, which is superb, but with the lack thereof for this season. Previous seasons that had more music deserve recognition for that compared to this final season. The VAs were also excellent as usual for this season as they were for the entire series. This season also had my favorite OPs and EDs for the series, with a nice callback to the OP for season 1 included in the OP too, hence my indecision between a score of 9 or 10.
Characters - 7.5
This is definitely the weakest part of the series overall for me, including this season. Setting aside the hyperbole of this hypothetical, if the entire town and all of it's characters died in an explosion at the end of the story, the only character whose death I would mourn is the protagonist, Kumiko. Don't get it twisted though, I don't hate the other characters, I wouldn't celebrate their deaths as I would with terribly written characters in other series. They were just too boring or opaquely characterized for me to care all that much about them. That's a pretty major issue for a musically based character drama. Fortunately, the focus is mostly from the POV of Kumiko, whose journey over the course of the story is a joy to follow from beginning to end. For this season in particular, the new character, Mayu, stands out as one with insufficient characterization for me. I could tell she was supposed to be a foil for Kumiko, given how her past issues mirror those Kumiko had earlier in her life, but not enough time was given to fully explore her background to explain her character.
The most difficult thing to balance in a normal school setting such as this is creating characters that are both interesting and realistic. Too boring, and you get characters that the audience doesn't care about. Too quirky, and they feel unrealistic/stupid, ruining the immersion in the story. It's a hard balance to maintain, and at least for me, I felt only Kumiko's character had been executed well in the story. A 10 for Kumiko and a 5 for the others characters average out to 7.5 overall.
Enjoyment - 8.5
This was my favorite entry in the series. After so much time spent with Kumiko watching her grow up before our eyes we get a well-deserved finale that ends her story in a satisfying manner. It's the type of story I believe even non-anime fans would enjoy since it is very relatable and realistically executed. If you enjoy coming-of-age school dramas with a realistic story and characters, you will almost certainly enjoy this series as I have.
Thank you for reading.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jun 22, 2024
Congratulations to the staff at Doga Kobo on an amazing 50th anniversary anime!
For me, this show was a joy to watch from start to finish. All of the most important aspects to a great show I saw in the first 3 episodes for writing, direction, art/animation, sound, characters, etc. continued through to the end.
I had high expectations going into this series with Yuki Yaku writing the script, and he continues to deliver characters that are both realistic and interesting, reflecting all of the complexities of the human condition. The themes, comedy, and drama were all well-done, packaged together into a message of self love that
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seems very relevant in an increasingly connected digital world where differences are often quick to be "Othered".
I was worried the ending wouldn't be able to successfully wrap everything up going into the last episode, but I thought it stuck the landing pretty well. Another of my worries partway through was that I wasn't much of a fan of one of the members of the group, Mei, after her initial character arc was concluded. Fortunately, she was able to shine later in the show in such a way that she went from a character I was fairly ambivalent towards to one that I liked. Outside of that one issue, all of the characters that receive significant screen time were well developed within the time constraints of the series.
A short side note that while the show is not without flaws or above criticism, a lot of the complaints, particularly those about "melodrama" or "forced drama", were honestly stunning for me to read. The conflict in question was foreshadowed since episode 1 and builds throughout the entire series, including the ending. It is neither forced, over the top, or comes out of nowhere. It also fits in well within the themes the story is telling about self-worth. I asked a couple other reviewers I know and trust for their thoughts and they had a similar reaction. Take that for what you will.
My biggest complaint is that I felt that more could of been done with the story itself with more episodes. Instead, the show decided to leave some things as is rather than try to fit more than was possible to realistically cover within the 12 episodes allotted. I would of preferred to see more, but I'm satisfied with the story we received.
The last thing I wanted to give readers a heads up on is that there is some yuri bait/subtext, but I found it tastefully executed. Your mileage may vary.
Thank you for reading.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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May 31, 2024
This show feels underrated to me based on it's current low rating. Definitely a hidden gem for the season. A lot of Japanese comedy doesn't work for me, but this show manages to be silly without going TOO over the top that it becomes stupidly ridiculous in an unfunny manner. It successfully balances the straight man reactions with the comedy. It also has a nice message about being yourself and choosing your own happiness over societal expectations.
It's basically a modern sci-fi reimagining of Maison Ikkoku, which remains a classic of the romantic comedy genre after all of these years. The show even references it directly
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in the 1st episode. It is able to maintain the same charm as Maison Ikkoku too, with a loveable cast of characters that are fun to watch. The story is also interesting to follow unfold. Lots of twists and turns as we slowly learn more about what is happening with the plot while simultaneously watching our two leads slowly get closer to each other. The show does a nice job of creating an incorrect impression based on limited information to later subvert for comedic purposes. If you enjoyed Maison Ikkoku you should definitely check this out. The sci-fi elements are mostly for comedic purposes so I wouldn't recommend someone watch it for that part of the show alone. The art and sound are also solid for this type of series. It helps add to the experience while watching it.
Overall, I'm really enjoying this show and I'm glad I checked it out. Hopefully this brief preliminary review encourages you to give it a try as well.
Thank you for reading.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Apr 27, 2024
Man, after so much promise in the beginning the growing number of red flags is becoming concerning for me. Hopefully things turn around going forward because I really enjoyed the premise that was set up initially. Unfortunately, reading the reviews for the manga has left me feeling uneasy for what is yet to come.
The biggest red flag for me is Kafka potentially devolving into a stereotypical middle school male shounen MC with all of his yelling. Part of my interest in his character was seeing a middle aged guy get a 2nd chance at his dream after giving up. If he continues acting too
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much like a child going forward I might not make it through to the end of the season. Children acting like children can get old fast, but having someone that old acting like that is going to get old REALLY fast. He should act more mature than the younger characters, not less so.
I'm also getting more concerned about the world building. Especially that the need for these super soldiers to take out Kaiju won't be adequately explained. Why can't conventional weapons be used against Kaiju more often while being augmented by Kaiju parts? It's still early so an explanation can be coming later, but unless these Kaiju are appearing by magic, or possibly underground, the larger ones should be detected much earlier to prevent them from causing devastation to cities. The only reason these soldiers would be necessary for urban landscapes is to enter areas not easily accessible to helicopters, planes, tanks, etc. that smaller Kaiju infiltrate into. Large Kaiju coming from the sea are easily detectable by sonar and should be intercepted long before they enter a city, same for air based Kaiju via radar. The first Kaiju in episode one literally appeared from a waterway and it was the size of a multistory building. Not exactly undetectable!
Did I mention there is a large domesticated tiger that attacks a Kaiju as big as a house in episode 1? I was hoping it was some kind of domesticated Kaiju they kept locked away, but nope, it just lives in the apartment of the female love interest. Yeah...
Anyways, there is still time for these things to receive an adequate explanation. It is just concerning that the number of questions without answers are rising so fast while the number of questions answered thus far is comparatively low.
Let's do a few positives quickly.
Kafka was mostly good thus far except for the recent aforementioned immature yelling. Ichikawa Reno has been a likable friend thus far. As expected, Production I.G is delivering on the audiovisual aspects of the show. The OP and ED are both bangers. Everything else is mostly still too early to tell right now, so it's not like it's all bad by any stretch. I'm just feeling much more mixed about the series after the 3rd episode compared to the first 2 episodes.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Apr 2, 2024
Tl;dr Is it overrated? Probably. Does that make it a bad show? No, it’s still an excellent middle school romance. For me, it was a lot like eating cotton candy, deliciously sweet, but not substantial enough to stay with me long after eating it. If you like sweet things as I do, you’ll enjoy it. If you are expecting something more filling, you may be disappointed.
I’m going to start with a confession: When I sat down to write this review, I realized I had already forgotten what happened in the first half of the show and had to read the episode summaries online to
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refresh my memory. When I read them, I was able to recall the events that happened, but this speaks to the narrative weakness of the show’s story that I had already forgotten so much so quickly.
To be honest, going into season 2 I forgot most/nearly all of season 1 too, other than the characters and their relationships to each other.
If you think I’m exaggerating, forgetful, or being overly harsh, I’ll give you a quick rundown of how much I remember from the first half of each of this season’s anime I watched weekly, with how much I remember of the first half, and if/when I read the source material.
BokuYaba Season 2– Totally forgot – Current on the manga as of last summer.
Chained Soldier – Remember the beginning plus bits and pieces – Current on the manga as of last fall.
Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki 2nd Stage – Remember most of it – Read the LN last December.
Solo Leveling – Remember most of it – Never read it.
As you can see, it is not the overall quality or enjoyment of the show impacting my forgetfulness, it is a larger issue with the story narrative, or lack thereof beyond the love story, to be frank, that is likely the reason I forgot so much of what happened. While Solo Leveling was awful all around, the story does flow smoothly in the beginning from arc to arc to maintain narrative coherence. You get an origin story, a training arc, and the first dungeon after finishing training, all with a beginning, middle, and end with a climax to the story of each arc that resolves the conflict. Allow me to dive into this issue more deeply by discussing the story of BokuYaba itself in the hopes of level-setting expectations for someone curious about the series that hasn’t watched season 1 yet.
Story – 5
This is easily the weakest part of the show, and even putting aside how easily I forgot much of it, there are a couple of other issues regarding realism that need to be addressed. Especially if you haven’t watched season 1 and are expecting a masterpiece as you start the series from the beginning.
Regarding the narrative weakness of the show, because the only “conflict” throughout the story is waiting for the 2 main characters to confess and start dating, the episode planning largely feels like the author was just brainstorming as many ideas as she could to put the “cute idol at school" she wanted to draw, the literal impetus for creating the series (I shit you not), into as many cute situations as possible to interact with the protagonist. There is no narrative story thread underlying almost any of the show. There is just a series of slice of life scenarios designed to push the two main characters together through as many cute and romantic situations as possible. Compared to another popular and well-regarded romance story like Toradora, which has character arcs for Ami, Minorin, and Kitamura, as well as story arcs for the swimming competition, summer vacation, the ski trip, Christmas, and Valentine’s Day, each with its own beginning, middle, and end, I can easily recall many details from each of those arcs because they actually follow a normal story progression involving the resolution of some kind of conflict. With BokuYaba, there isn’t any of that across a similar run time to Toradora besides the speech and the climax of this season. Since there is basically no real conflict, villain/antagonist, or anything else going on in most of the storytelling besides the love story of the 2 main characters, there is no flow to anything that connects 1 episode to the next with some sort of conflict resolution to help me remember what happened after I have watched it.
Beyond the narrative weakness of the story, the other issue that people that haven’t seen season 1 yet should be aware of is the realism of the premise. While each person has their own idiosyncrasies for what they find attractive in falling for a potential partner, there are some basic commonalities among them. To borrow a description from another story: “It’s when dependence, sexual desire, possessiveness, and maybe personal interests coincide”. To be frank, I don’t think any of those conditions were met by the time Yamada liked Ichikawa in season 1. I just kind of shrugged it off and went along with it to continue enjoying the sweet moments the show was creating, but it can be an issue for some people’s suspension of disbelief. Particularly if you usually don’t watch romance shows in general or ones that use the cliche formula of a model with giant breasts falling for another average looking loser/loner guy because of how unrealistic that scenario is in real life. There is nothing this series does differently in season 1 to make it believable. It’s honestly worse than average in establishing why she likes him besides narrative convenience, which is already a very low bar for the genre. The extent to which she throws herself at him during both seasons and his stubborn denial of her obvious attraction to him can also wear thin at times too. Yamada and Ichikawa barely spend any time together before she likes him, and I wouldn’t call stalking her in the library for most of it as “quality time together” either. I would guess Taiga and Ryuuji spent more time together in a single average day in their lives than Yamada and Ichikawa spent together over the 6 months of time spread out over 6 episodes in season 1 it took for her to like him. It is very much another in a long line of formulaic and predictable wish fulfillment fantasy romances. If that bothers you or isn’t your jam, you’ve been forewarned. The only things I found after researching it for why Yamada likes/is attracted to Ichikawa is because his personality and hair remind her of the male lead in her favorite shojo manga, and her father. That last part is pretty icky, but I’m not going to go all Freud on you over this either. There are plenty of infinitely more degenerate things that are popular in Japanese media *cough* Mushoku Tensei *cough*. Having said all of that, if you got through season 1 accepting the premise, season 2 will continue to develop the relationship in an organic way that largely feels believable and real, if not a bit too convenient.
The last thing I will add is that while the romance itself is very well done, the comedy was more hit or miss for me. Probably more miss than hit, but comedy is very subjective, and you can expect more of the same from season 1 to season 2.
Art/Animation – 9
The art, animation, and direction are all superbly done. The production value the studio put into this anime is top notch and deserving of all the praise it gets. The anime definitely elevates the source material quite substantially. There isn’t much more for me to add that other people with a keener eye haven’t already explained.
Sound – 9
The music that plays at the end of each episode before the title card is shown really hits home for the beautiful moments at the end of each episode. It is magical. Really pulls at your heartstrings and adds greater emotional impact to the scene. The OP is also very well done.
Characters – 8
Overall, Ichikawa is an excellent romantic male lead. He is a very realistic representation of a male middle school student going through all the usual foibles of school life as he tries to navigate that and his budding romance with Yamada. Yamada herself is also a pretty good romantic female lead. She has significantly less development than Ichikawa, because the story is told from Ichikawa’s point of view, but she has her own foibles she must work through too. They each have strengths and weaknesses that make them relatable and well-rounded, and they also grow together over the course of the series. They have good chemistry together too as the differences in their personality help balance each other in their relationship. While I like the main characters quite a bit, I don’t love them as I do for other series that I give higher character scores to. They just aren’t that interesting to me. Besides Yamada being an idol, they are your typical middle school kids, nothing more and nothing less.
The side characters were... fine? Outside of maybe Kana, Ichikawa’s sister, the side characters are mostly just background characters that exist to orbit around the focus of Yamada and Ichikawa. They serve their purpose well though, helping to push Ichikawa and Yamada together.
Enjoyment 8
I enjoyed this series for what it was. A very well-crafted version of the same generic formula you find in most romance anime. Outside of an amazing climax, the rest of it is an enjoyable, but ultimately forgettable slice of life romcom. Since there isn't anything you learn later in the series that makes you reconsider how you viewed earlier episodes and the characters and story aren’t interesting enough for me to rewatch it on their own, I am unlikely to rewatch this series. In my rating criteria, that makes it an 8, not a 9 or 10. Having said that, it definitely is fun watching these two adorkable kids stumble along through romance and life together. If you like wholesome romance anime involving awkward kids being cutely awkward together, you are almost guaranteed to like this series, if not love it. If you don’t normally watch romance anime because you don’t like those types of stories but have wandered over to see what all the hype is about, you may feel underwhelmed relative to the hype.
Thank you for reading.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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