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I started watching this show mostly on the strength of how beautifully awful the wizard Riri was and the strength of the jokes in the trailer. On that level it absolutely delivers; this is the most actually laugh out loud funny anime I've watched since Nozaki Girls Monthly, and it's rare that, as much anime as I watch, I feel like it really truly delivers on comedy. Many shows with similar setups don't really deliver on making the heroine (or hero) seem like they *actually* hate the weird harem situation they've found themselves in, but the combination of Riri being legitimately the worst, taking away ... the parts of Anzu's life that bring her legitimate joy (look, we all need chocolate in these trying times), and the fact that there are serious ethical and emotional implications behind what Riri is doing (essentially manipulating three unwitting men into romantic situations without their knowledge or consent) makes Anzu's resistance seem legitimately plausible. It helps that even though Anzu knows she will go _longer_ without her three earthly desires if she resists the romantic manipulation of Riri is putting her through, she doubles down on resisting just because of the sheer fucked up ness of what is going on. (Chaos and hilarity ensue.) This becomes a crucial point that the show establishes about Anzu’s personality in the latter half of the series.

I'm going to get into spoilers now so this is your last chance to stop reading if you want to watch the show.
There's two major turns in the story; the first I think is reasonably small and easy to predict, which is that Junta actually _is_ Anzu's real childhood friend, and she just hasn't recognized him because of a post-grade school glow up. (We all know that guy who got HANDSOME post-puberty, so I completely buy the plausibility of the scenario.) I've always been a sucker for the boy next door but Junta is extremely well written, a full on cinnamon roll who reminds me of many shy nerdy boys I know who are completely clueless that they are now devastatingly handsome and adorable.

The second bigger turn concerns Kazuki, who is a survivor of a stalker and sexual harasser. (It's implied he was probably assaulted as well.) If you know The Signs you will start seeing this twist around the mid-point but even though I knew what I was seeing I was in a bit of denial that this goofy Rom Com was going to Go There, but it does with surprising thoughtfulness. There were a few things about it that impressed me:

-The treatment of Kazuki brilliantly shines a light on _both_ how women’s experiences of assault and denied and minimized (by using Saki as a female mirror)…
-…AND highlights the unique ways in which male survivors are minimized and shamed as “deserving” of their treatment because of the inversion of the expected power dynamic.
-Kazuki is never, ever treated as a subject of mockery or belittled as weak. His own internalized shame as somehow “deserving” what happened to him or being at fault mirrors real life-survivors tendency to blame themselves for their own abuse/assault.

One of the cleverest things the show does in the leadup to the reveal about Kazuki’s past is that around the time Junta shifts to also living with Anzu, the show also shifts tonally from feeling like an otome harem fantasy to feeling like, of all things, a found family show. It’s telling that one of the “needs” taken away from Anzu at the top of the show is video games—something that in Japanese media is often used as a proxy for social alienation from real people. In the end, the show reveals itself not as about kissin’ but about creating peer support structures that hold you together when you don’t have or can’t use familial support structures. Despite Kazuki’s admonition to Junta that “we’re never talking about our feelings for Anzu again” there is a real friendship you can see has grown between them from living under the same roof.

As Junta says, it’s not really surprising that they do, as despite Anzu’s many faults the show makes her extremely likeable by showing her core strength is that she’s principled and accepting—accepting Saki, Kazuki, and Junta for who they are and standing up to people who treat other people badly. The show reinforces this strength consistently and well, too, culminating in Anzu’s standing up to Kazuki’s father and keeping him from bringing Kazuki back to his family home, an even bigger deal in Japan than it is here, especially since Kazuki is still technically a minor.

In terms of its emotional arc, this third act of this show reminded me of *all things* of ERASED, with its core themes about finding alternate familial structures when your own fall short. All this in an otome game parody anime whose first 2/3 deliver some of the best laughs I’ve seen in a long time from a comedy anime. Definitely worth a watch, especially since it neatly wraps everything in a very tidy 12 episodes.

It's pretty rare that I drop a series and then go back to it, and it's doubly rare that I retroactively bump the score of said series after finishing it, but dammit Real Girl, you almost lost me and then you got me back and when you got me back DAMN. I was hooked. This is a show where I really recommend committing to both seasons because a lot of the slower, lazily paced first season builds into what makes the second season hit really hard and well. I also do love a good slow burn, too, so if you like shows like My Love ... Story this is definitely one to try.

Ok, but why? Why get six episodes into a show, drop it, and then circle back several months later? I'll admit that part of it was watching Colleen's excellent "The Decline of Shoujo Anime" video, during which I learned that this is one of the very few shoujo anime produced since 2016. I refuse to put myself through "Fruits Basket" again (fool me twice shame on me) so I decided to give Real Girl a second go. The second half of the first season definitely picks up steam, energy that the show uses to excellent effect in the wholesome and addicting second season. To me, there are a few things that set "Real Girl" apart from other shoujo high school series:

SLOW PACE: I often get turned off in more popular shoujo romances by the very "whiplash" pacing--everything's great! Oh no, the couple is having a fight for a completely stupid and arbitrary reason, which goes on entirely too long! Oh they got back together! But oh no, an entirely arbitrary and terrible tragedy has happened! The feeling that something awful is always just around the corner is what's turned me off from a lot of blockbuster series like Vampire Knight and Fruits Basket. If you loved the slower, more realistic pacing of shows like My Love Story, this is a great show. The couples have fights or disagreements but they feel like realistic, grounded disagreements that real high schoolers would have. Bad things happen to the characters but they feel like the kind of shit that happens to you in real life when you're growing up, not drama manufactured for drama's sake. And those disagreements and tribulations feed into real character growth and learning that makes them better adults instead of just more angst-fodder for a later arc.
ENSEMBLE DYNAMIC: Hey, are you a nerd who grew up lonely and isolated from your peers, but found a loving group of friends who finally understood you in young adulthood? Man this show is gonna hit you in the feels. A lot of shoujo series I grow cold on spend their time on love triangles, but the interplay between the friendship of the cast fuels a lot of what makes this show so charming. Much of the cast is isolated from their peer group for one reason or another, but they find each other and build a loving group of friends. The kind of friends who aren't afraid to tell each other how much they love each other, even when they aren't smoochin'. Extremely wholesome shit. The slow build of the friendship between the cast means that when the final 'ship of the main cast gets together, it feels completely earned because of the growth those two characters have gone through from being a reliable, loving support to their less-socially gifted friends.
TWISTS DON'T OVERSTAY THEIR WELCOME: There is a big twist in this show, which comes late in the second season, but it's alluded to throughout the show without being given away. There are a couple other twists and turns in the show that walk up to the line of maybe being a bit too much of a buy or a letdown, but they never quite cross that line. I never felt like the show's plot beats were yanking my chain, a tendency for romance shoujo to pull that tired me a bit on genre staples back when, you know, shoujo anime were actually being produced.

Is the animation budget for this show good? No. It's not. The fact that the anime industry continues to short shrift the budgets of shoujo anime while drawing up elaborate sakuga for shounen and even some seinen series is once again in full evidence. But the music and voice acting in this show are absolutely stellar, which especially impressive performances from Serizawa Yuu and Aoi Shouta. (I think I might stan Aoi Shouta now???) The second season's budget is a significant jump and honestly, maybe it's because I grew up on 90s anime, but the animation is fine 90% of the time except for one episode with some pretty bad inbetweening. I will also say, I love that the anime made use of its format to increase the presence and use of Ezomichi, the magical girl "inner voice" that helps guide Tsutsui. I actually kind of love her role in the story and frankly if I have any complaint about this show it's that I would have loved a few more scenes with her helping Tsutsui through his emotional epiphanies.

If you like Shoujo romance anime, especially slower-paced series like "My Love Story" or "Natsume Yujinchou" or shows about found family or coming out of your shell, it's well worth a watch--especially if you can relate to being a loner and a nerd in high school who nobody "got." It's worth noting that I started the josei series Wotakoi around the same time as this one (via manga instead of anime) and ultimately, while that show has a lot of very funny gags that are relatable, it just never really had wholesome emotional core that this show has.

"You haven't realized that everything you've done so far has sparked a flame that is now burning you up."

Hodgins' words set the tone of Violet Evergarden's central arc and framing device, which is about the impact deep wartime trauma has on a soldier after the end of a war. And it is a framing narrative--more than Violet's individual arc as a former child soldier, the story's central premise is what it means to grapple and work through trauma knowing there's no "rewind" button for a society-wide tragedy that collectively impacts the lives of the people who experienced it.

Violet takes what is ultimately a utterly mundane ... job, a glorified secretary at a private postal service, in an attempt to use her experiences recording people's thoughts and feelings to understand her own, deeply suppressed from her childhood training. And this is where the genius of the frame narrative really shines; a Iyashikei ("healing") story where each letter becomes a peek into the lives of individuals impacted by a horrific world war unlocks another peek into Violet's slowly unraveling and re-raveling her own internalized trauma and identity. Violet Evergarden ultimately succeeds at what it is doing on the same core promise that makes or breaks any great Iyashikei story--that the stories of healing feel real, authentic, and emotionally resonate and not manipulative or worse, treacly. The show manages to do that incredibly well, pulling off stories about individual loss and hardship that in less deft hands would feel Hallmark-bad. It does this by using scenery, expression, and lighting to internalize the passage of time, the weight of feelings and the pace of change after wartime tragedy without resorting to overbearing or heavy-handed dialogue or monologues. Yes, Kyoto Animation's incredible work and budget definitely helps here, but it's no less impressive for all that.

It's worth noting that although Violet's central arc is certainly compelling, it is two episodes that are _not_ centered on Violet-- " " " " and "A Loved One Will Always Watch Over You"--which are two of the most beloved. "A Loved One Will Always Watch Over You" is particularly impressive for taking subject matter that could be absolute glurge in a sloppy writer's hands and making a deeply moving episode, one that made me cry the first time I saw it and then made me cry more the second time, after my father had passed several months earlier. There's so much this episode does well and I don't want to spoil it, but it brings us along emotionally by dedicating itself to the perspective of the impacted character and bringing us on the emotional journey alongside _her_, rather than sticking to Violet as an informed observer.

"I Don't Want Anybody Else to Die" is not as lauded among fans but is one of my personal favorites for contrasting Violet's earlier indifference to wartime tragedy with her growth after working at CH Postal. Violet's decisions in a tense and brutally affecting situation show the contrast starkly while _showing_, rather than _telling_, why Violet is "burning."

If you're looking for a dark, gritty show about a wartime survivor full of violence that brings you along on someone's trauma, this is not it. Violet Evergarden's strength is that it shows that even after the destruction and violence of a war's end, there are survivors, and we must grapple with the things we have done and seen and move forward. That is it's strength as a fantastic example of its genre--It is committed to showing the impacts and effects of violence on a society, rather than trying to immerse its audience in the danger and survival of the moment for cheap thrills or voyeurism.

Noragami seems to have a lot of mixed reviews, but I really enjoyed it. I think this has a lot to do with where you approach it from: by far the vast majority of unfavorable reviews seem to be disappointed in Noragami's lack of focus in its plot.

I can see where this would be a major downside to a lot of people; many shounen series with a similar target audience focus a lot on plot and a lot on battles. They're mostly about the journey of the main character down some kind of plot-based rabbit hole, whether it's being "the best" at something or ... fighting against a big power.

Noragami is neither of those things; it's billed as a comedy, and while it definitely has moments of humor, Most of them are character-based. This show is really a character-based comedy, I would say similar to earlier Takahashi in overall feel. There is a lot here that is episodic and more about exploring this very interesting world than focused on some overarching conflict that includes Yato. Like character-driven anime comedies of the nineties, this show is mostly a show about characters interacting in this world with some plot sprinkled in than a show about exploring big plot-focused ideas.

In that vein, Noragami succeeds *wonderfully*--every character in this show is very lovable and interesting while being complex and not one-note. Yato, Yukine and Hiyori--our three leads--in particular show wonderful growth as human beings over the course of this series. The mark of a truly successful anime romcom is that you start the show neutral on the main couple and by the end want to write terrible fanfic about them. [SPOILER] Hiyori and Yato definitely fit that definition and by the end I was cheering them on. [/SPOILER] Yukine really shines as a Japanese delinquent, with hints of what his past might be without overwhelming the show with them, and delivering *just* enough conflict with his character arch that you're on the edge of your seat without being exhausted by his trauma.

It's been awhile since I watched a show like this--I tend to gravitate toward more "big idea" anime that are considered somewhat "artsy", like Moribito. This was a wonderfully refreshing return to earlier anime I loved back in the late nineties and early naughts, but much better balanced in terms of plot progress and characterization. Unlike some of those shows, this one never feels too filler-y or confused on where the character arcs are headed.

if you are looking for 12 episodes of pure enjoyment--something that brings you along for a ride without making you feel exhausted--I heartily recommend "Noragami."