Shikimori's not just a cutie is about how a really attractive, and cool and capable girl protects and wants to be loved by a meek nice guy virgin. Judging by the OP alone this seems to be quite an interesting gimmick and setting for a rom com. And yes the OP is a banger both in visuals and music. The same can be said for the ED and it is obvious there is a lot of heart that was inserted into them. Sadly the superb quality of the OP and ED does not mirror with the actual series itself.

Positives first: The aesthetic is totally on point. Cute pastel colours on a diverse spectrum and the really clean art style really gives it a good look though it looks quite generic compared to other art styles to be honest. Sadly there is nothing else that seems outstanding to me that is worth mentioning. The voice acting is pretty good I guess, they really fit the personalities of the characters in the show...

My main problem with this series is the two main leads which is the cool capable girl and the meek nice boy with bad luck. The boy first; he is literally so forgettable as his only personality trait is: I am a nice guy and I have bad luck. Like bro, being a nice guy is like the bare minimum in finding a person to date there is nothing special about that! And about the bad luck, I don't know if it is suppose to be cute in a lovable idiot kind of way but I will be honest... it is pretty pathetic. I am saying this as a male, I don't know honestly. Girls! Let me know if you find a guy with bad luck and always need to protect him something you look forward to in a man? You tell me.

And the main female lead... oh my god. Yes! She is definitely the girlfriend that every single man on this planet wish they have; she is attractive, cool, capable and just badass. Imagine a young boy's dream to be a badass hero: his power fantasy is Goku, now imagine a meek nice boy that needs to be protected: his romantic fantasy is Shikimori. I have no idea why she likes this guy? It even conflicts with her background story later in the series, I do not want to spoil anything. And gosh she is such a mary suu, she is totally attractive, totally capable, totally badass and worst of all she is both really cute and really cool like? what? she is a character designed in a lab based on the shameless fantasy of a meek nice guy boy that wants to be a mega simp.

And speaking of female characters there is another female character that is also cool like her as in she is good at sports and is attractive like a model all that. The only difference is she totally does not act cute at all, she embrace the really cool femme fatale personality. Now this is actually what I was expecting Shikimori to be: this really almost masculine and cool personality that treats the male lead like a girl. This could be interesting, at least I think it has potential but instead the character of Shikimori seems to want to eat the cake and have it at the same time; being a cute pink haired girl but also a cool capable badass.

One more thing about the characters the male lead seems to have some female attracting hormones or something because Shikimori is not the only one falling heads over heels for him for WHATEVER reason. Also the side characters seem to be more interesting and have more personality than the two main leads which is not a good sign about the quality of character writing in my opinion.

How about the plot? There is virtually no plot as things happen but they do not seem to come together in order to reach an end goal in mind. Shikimori and the male lead are a couple in the very first episode. And this can be totally fine especially for a rom com because if you cannot sell on the romance plot at least sell on the COMEDY. And boy o boy the comedy are just so bland. Whoever directed this was totally afraid to take risk to really put the foot on the gas to sell the comedy. The 'comedic' situations by itself is really bland and normal mostly consisting of Shikimori going: 'I want to be called cute and not only cool'. I want them to treat this really mundane and seemingly minor thing as totally bombastic and her only goal in life which I can imagine make for a really absurd comedy direction. But no, they kept it really safe and at the very most you will see her blushing or being like really handsome and cool with the stereotypical shadow covering the eyes as the punchline expression to these really simple gags.

Really taking a step back and seeing the setting as a whole I can really tell what the author is going for: A series that breaks and subverts gender expectations where the female character is the one wearing the pants in the relationship and she cares for the male. But all these simply do not play out! The male lead is just so pathetic and uninteresting (sorry) and the female lead really just feels like a regular capable female both in appearance and in personality and is totally a mary sue. The series have its emotional moments in the later moments but I really find them undeserved because there is virtually little to no build up to them.

In conclusion I really love rom coms and it is probably my favourite genre of anime but this is just not anywhere near a list of my recommendations.