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This show is 24 episodes of nothing.

Pretty much nothing happens in any episode. Not in terms of the classic romcom where there's little to no romantic development, i mean like, plot-wise. Nothing happens. This show is basically about nothing. I remember almost nothing about the series i just watched.

Not one character is memorable, in design or personality.
It's a romcom but it isn't funny, ever.
The dialogue is just nothing.
This entire show is nothing.

Every character is oddly mysterious and vague in ways that are unrealistic and make it really difficult to get through. It's like their only desperate attempt to scrape together some type of plot ... for this story. Even then, this only happens sparsely.

There's like 12 cliches an episode, but the show isn't self-aware whatsoever.

Watching this show felt like how you would feel if you went on a 2 week vacation with a friend group you're not apart of, you just got invited because they had another spot and you sorta know one of the people, and the entire time you just don't really mix well with the friend group so you're lowkey bored and uncomfortable the entire trip. Please imagine that for a moment. That's what this felt like. For 24 episodes.

I get secondhand embarrassment watching this. It feels like the production staff made this series at gunpoint.

This show was very polarizing for me. It’s a masterclass in brilliant artstyle, aesthetic, and humor. But also a masterclass in having some really dull plotlines, and how to write some of the most hateable characters I've had the displeasure of watching.

To start with this show’s strengths, it’s visually gorgeous. The artstyle and bright pastel aesthetic is so captivating. It’s like eye candy. The character designs are great too, all the major characters look really memorable and immediately endearing, regardless of how you feel about each character as you get to know them. The show is also really funny. Like genuinely made me laugh a ... lot, which I think is an element this show really needed. I expected the humor to rely on low hanging fruit like most other anime of this type, and at times it did, but most of the time the humor was really clever, which made the show way more enjoyable. The voice acting across the cast was fantastic too. I watch dubs (don’t even) and it was great across the board. I’ll go into the characters I hated in a bit, but the two that really stand out to me in a GOOD way are Nanami and Chizuru. Chizuru is a fucking angel, the fact that she put up with Kazuya’s shit for so long is astounding. Kazuya put it best when he said that she’s too nice for her own good. Her independent/practical/slightly harsh personality is so endearing, because she’s never wrong lmao she always puts people in their place when she needs to and every single time i’m sitting there like FUCK YES CHIZURU GO OFF. I love Chizuru. Nanami too. Nanami is fucking evil, so i’m sure a lot of people hate her for that, but i love her for it. She’s pure evil, and it’s great. Every time she’s involved in the situation it makes it far more interesting, which is important because the plot tends to be rather dull and drag on. She’s adorable, and the sweet innocent nice girl facade she puts on makes her so much fun to watch. Nanami and Chizuru are really the driving forces that kept me going through this show when it got rough, and believe me, it got rough at times.

For the bad… god i fucking hate Kazuya. He’s a self-pitying whiny entitled dickhead. I seriously want to punch him in the mouth. I found no enjoyment at all in watching someone be like that. I swear to god every episode featured him moping, feeling bad for himself like “Well, i guess i really am a loser… I guess I really am nothing special to Chizuru… I guess I really am hopeless uwu…” Like you know what? Yeah bitch, you really kinda are. It was exhausting to watch, and I could forgive it if there was any sort of development in his character but there really wasn’t. There was lots of faux-development, where he tends to have some sort of moral breakthrough, but only to completely reset in the next episode. He gets completely carried by Chizuru emotionally, morally, and socially. He’s incredibly 2-dimensional which makes him an incredibly boring protagonist. It really feels like he shouldn’t even be the main character. He feels like a side character at best. I seriously think this entire show would be a lot better if it was from Chizuru’s perspective. She’s just so much more interesting, memorable, likable, endearing… literally she’s a better main character than Kazuya in his own fucking show. And don’t even get me STARTED on Ruka, somehow I hate her even more than Kazuya. She’s so fucking obnoxious and overbearing, but not in a likable way at all. Kazuya was bad enough, but adding Ruka to the mix made a big portion of the show just really hard to sit through. I almost stopped watching. That arc where she was the focus really did not need to be 4 episodes long. I was pulling my hair out and it was really struggling to keep my attention, because of how much I hate her and Kazuya. I really only got through it with the hope that whatever would happen after that arc would focus more on Chizuru and Nanami, which thankfully was the case.

The plot in this show is mixed as well. There are times where it’s great. The show started off very strong and ended INCREDIBLY strong, but there are large patches in the middle where it was hard to get invested because the plot was only being pushed forward by petty drama that wasn’t realistic as it would’ve been solved if there was even a minimal level of realistic communication between characters. Obviously misunderstandings lead to good drama, but the way this show went about it a lot of the time just didn’t feel believable, which just made it really frustrating to watch, especially when i don’t even like Kazuya lmao. The entire beach trip near the beginning of the season fucking blew. There were important plot points, but it really didn’t need to be 2 entire episodes. There were large portions during these 2 episodes where i was sitting there like, damn, they really are all talking about nothing right now. It just felt like they were padding for time at certain points. And the fight that Kazuya got in with Yoshiaki? Like the literal fist fight? So stupid. Kazuya is supposed to be this pathetic loser, so why is he getting in a fight with one of his friends on the beach like some frat bro who drank too much? It was so stupid and unnecessary lol, that fight was my first sign that maybe this show wouldn’t be that good. And i know i mentioned it already, but fuck… the Ruka arc was so frustrating. She’s straight up a whiny little brat. Her feelings for Kazuya don’t even make sense, it feels so random. People are gonna come after me for this, because I'm sure she’s a lot of people’s best girl, but they could kill her off and I'd feel nothing. The season did end incredibly strong though. You know why? Because Ruka wasn’t the fucking focus anymore. It switched back to Nanami. Nanami makes things so interesting, and I swear to god she always makes the worst case scenario for Kazuya happen. She’s manipulative, cunning, and honestly brilliant. I really hope they keep her momentum going next season.

Overall, rating this show is really hard, because there are things that i fucking hate about this show, but also things i fucking love. I love Chizuru, I love Nanami, I love the artstyle, I love the voice acting, I love the vibe of this show. But I hate Kazuya, I hate Ruka, and I hate when the plot tends to drag on. This show was strong when it relied on it’s more endearing characters, but unfortunately a majority of season 1 hung itself up on their less endearing ones, leaving my feelings about this show somewhere in the middle. I will be watching season 2, hopefully it keeps Chizuru and Nanami in the spotlight more, and Ruka not so much.

I think the reason people don't like this show is because it breaks a lot of conventional anime rules. A lot of people are going into this expecting it to be like most other anime, which is a mistake.

These characters have flaws. All of them. They all have flaws, and they aren't portrayed like other anime where they ~magically overcome their flaws with the help of the person they fall in love with and they all live happily ever after!!!~

No, man. You can't go into every show ever expecting that same resolution/closure, and i think a lot of people are selling this show short/stifling their ... own enjoyment of it with that expectation.

This show portrays these flaws and the development of these characters in a realistic way, as opposed to pretty much all other anime that end the way i described above. It's not because of lazy writing, the character arcs don't feel unfinished. It's just not realistic that all of the characters overcome all of their flaws by the end. Sometimes it doesn't work out that way, and that was INTENTIONAL. They talk about Yuma's flaws even at the very end.

I'm willing to admit that the story itself isn't mindblowing. It's not bad, but what made this show special for me is the writing for the characters. The tension Yuma finds herself with in the mess of a situation that develops feels very real, and the characters have a realistic progression. It feels like this show nailed how the situation would have played out in real life, not ~magic fantasy anime land~

I think the realistic take on a situation isn't sitting well with a lot of anime fans given the score this show has, but it's sitting well with me. I thought it was good.

IGPX is a criminally underrated gem. It's riveting the entire time. It paints a brilliant picture of the world surrounding the sport they play, and makes you feel like you're there with them, involved in the process/stressors that they're going through during the season. It's hard to talk about this without giving anything away, but if you're thinking about watching this show, just do it. Do yourself a favor. Going in blind is completely fine, you'll get sucked in pretty quick. It's 2 seasons, which i think is perfect. It doesn't overstay its welcome but it also fully fleshes out the story.

The entire story and relationship dynamic is peak male fantasy garbage. The main character is incredibly unlikable and was clearly a self-insert. Like yeah let me write a story about my boring ass self in my boring ass life and then suddenly a super cute anime girl has sex with me and we fall deeply in love for no reason at all even though i spent the entire time being a huge dick and she still loves me for some reason. It's not believable, it's not entertaining, it's so bad that it's almost offensive. The MC has next to no personality and i was nearly ... pulling my hair out at the end.

Trash lmao. Fuck this show