I didn't expect much going in, but as usual the general consensus of this show is mostly formed by the opinions of people who only watch mainstream shounen or maybe the seasonal romcom at best, that is, the consensus was that this show is bad, which it isn't. Hey, its the opposite of Dress Up Darling, who'da thought.

Shikimori is very much like a modified TONIKAWA, but without the supernatural BS and boring side characters to drag it down, the drawbacks of such a show being that it is another high school romance, which isn't usually a problem, but it still uses the same old festival, swimsuit and other such cliché settings, but outside of that, the tropes aren't really there which is a change for once.

Another thing is that the show features alot of "traditional gender role-swapping", in that the girl is the more protective and perhaps dominant one, which I am a huge fan of. One typical drawback to a show with such a feature would be that the MC is probably written to be overwhelming cringy and embarassing to watch, but in fact its the opposite - for once, the MC is likable and honestly extremely enjoyable to watch, and isn't just too shy to do anything.

The only complaint I could give for this show, is that the progress is slow, but its still faster than Dress Up Darling and Kaguya-sama so its not so bad, I mean they're already together at the start of the anime which is a blessing.

Positives and Negatives
+both leads are amazing and alot of fun to watch, this is a first in a long time for a romance show ngl
+they are already dating so its not 4 years of build up
+the art is gorgeous
+the side characters are amazing for a change and dont just suck up screen time like they did in horimiya and tonikawa
+its still better than dress up darling, which isn't a high bar tbf
+for a supposed yandere, Shikimori is really tame and doesn't take anything too far, none of this "he's cheating on me, time to be obnoxious and bitchy without evidence, nah she's a lil possessive but its quite amusing.
+consistent pacing and quality, neither episode, maybe besides the last, feels particularly better or worse than any other
+doesn't focus on cringe comedy instead of actual romance, its more of a SOL than a comedy if anything.
+no love triangles (yaay :D), a love interest that comes in and immediately acknowledges that she shouldn't get in the way is fine and honestly only added to the experience
+tropes are not really here, none of those rolling-eye tropes that make you sigh when they come up, though i wish Izumi pushed just a lil further in that final ep, but they're teenagers, and shy, inexperienced ones at that so ill take it :D

-too few lovey-dovey moments honestly, the last episode almost makes up for it, but it makes the development hard to see, although they are building their trust up with each episode.
-typical school setting and tropes that go with it, but its so common that i dont really care about it at this point, so long as it does it well.

Izumi might be the first male MC that ive actually liked in a romance show, rather than just being fine with them. usually the MCs in these shows are walking bruh moments or really embarassing to watch, but this was a surprise, especially when they give him the easily-embarassed, inexperienced, shyness that he has, but they managed to do it so applause for that.

One other thing though, the characters don't really have much depth to them, I wouldn't say they are shallow per se, but Shikimori has no hobbies that we know of, and neither does Izumi for that matter, but I completely forgot about this til writing this review so it obviously doesn't matter in this anime since its just a chill, slow slice-of-life that I'm not meant to care about.
I wouldn't class it as a romcom just like I wouldn't class dress up darling as a romcom, the difference being this one could actually count as a romance.