Here's my goal of writing this review. I think some thoughts and reviews on this piece is either very harsh or too lenient while being dismissive of what this anime offers so I'll write about what this show did right and wrong and the effects of it. No real original thoughts about different aspects like Story, Visuals, Sound, Enjoyment, Animation, Directing, etc so I won't comment too much about it. Whole review might make me sound like an apologist for the show but all I want to do is to adjust the viewpoints of some people and explain what the value of the show. If it's a plain review about the aspects listed, other reviews covered those already and I generally agree with them.
Unrealistic yes. It really ruins the expectations of the younger audience. No female would just come to your house to do all that and slowly get involved in your life just because of some family issues because after all, such people are looking for security and going into a male stranger's house ain't it. HOWEVER, this review is not about that. I was just trying to note the elephant in the room to show that I'm not avoiding it.
Let's say you can get past that and you trust that everyone is like the mc. A true gentleman. Whatever you need to suspense the thought of the situation being weird. Then this becomes a show where you can immerse yourself in a situation where the two have a "healthy" and "supportive" relationship. As bland as the show can be, they really did love each other properly. In fact that's all the show does. Let me show you what I mean with the Love Language thing.
Extra: Asked each other to rely on them
For their traumas, they are nothing fancy but are passable, which a lot of shows CANNOT even do properly nowadays. More on why I feel like they are passable later. Disclaimer: I want to stress that relative to other similar shows, the reasons they gave in this show are fine but not great in general. I do think it doesn't have to be dramatic or let us get invested in their emotional baggage. The show sucks at letting us getting invested in anything else but their love for each other anyway so if you mentally gave it a pass for the unrealistic story part to enjoy this, you probably won't care about this issue. In other words, don't even bother caring about the handsome guy or the best friend couples who's main purpose is to become plot devices so the two can advance their relationships, most obviously seen in the final few episodes. They're likable and are good people sure but after some time you probably won't even remember them.
Very surprisingly, the MC is not a self insert. As mentioned he did good at loving but is understandably infuriating to us for avoiding Mahiru's OBVIOUS feelings, even with the trauma he had as an excuse. Worst of all they did it in a way that requires mental gymnastics, constantly denying his own feelings and gaslighting himself instead of being oblivious like the other trash ass mc in empowerment fantasy or romance anime that wants to maintain the status quo. But like I said, the trust issue thing is at least a legit reason even if the audience is not sold on it. I will say on this point the one good thing is that they don't drag it out. It's good when an author elaborates on something like this to get the audience invested but when you don't have a good base to build on, it'll only be a nuisance to add more to it. Better brush it off than be a burden like how some shows doesn't bother to explain the magic system because it'll only be a hot mess.
Which brings me to my next point which I already sneakily mentioned it twice. No good base to build on because the story ONLY showed off how they love each other. If you ever played a game with skill points to add, it's like pumping ever single point you have to ONLY 2 or 3 stats out of say, 8 of them. Nothing else matters. That's what I mean when I said no good base, there's not a lot of things to build upon when you only excel in a few aspects. There are no room to flex and everything else just becomes unimportant. Once you become delusional and not care about the setting, the other characters, the visuals, this anime becomes extremely enjoyable. The phrase "Just turn off your brain and enjoy it" is relevant here. Yes I am saying people who do enjoy this piece a lot have suspended their disbelieves greatly or have problematic expectations but their enjoyment is also very real. This is why I'm writing this review in the first place. To explore why people love this anime without being dismissive about it or being a snob and call it trash, give it something like 10 points or lower without acknowledging what it did right.
In case I need to say this, no, turning off your brain to enjoy something is not a legit point it's a joke saying that I unironically bring up to prove a point. You can enjoy something and you can turn off your brain sure, but do NOT say something is good just because it became enjoyable through special means.
Personally, it was a great junk food type of anime and I don't take them too seriously. If you can't tell already, I don't even remember the MC's name for crying out loud. I just wrote him as MC in the whole review and I've heard his name being called non stop. All I want to do here is show you the value of the show and what it could do but hey if you think the show is boring that's absolutely understandable. My own ratings for this show is not high but I'm putting a 69 because
#nice.
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