My Clueless First Friend

Oh, those elementary school days. When things were so simple, and every day was seen through rose-tinted glasses. The goofiness of those days was so fun, and this anime made me reminisce about those days back then. It’s a rather simple anime, where a quiet girl, who is seen as unlikeable and gloomy, meets a boy so positive, upbeat, and dense that a supposedly derogatory nickname like “Grim Reaper” is just so cool to him.

We all likely had a first friend we made when we were kids, and that person was probably special to us. A lot our time was probably spent in the company of that first friend, and perhaps some of our fondest memories came at that point in our lives. For Akane Nishimura, the gloomy girl who everyone calls “Grim Reaper”, her first friend in Taiyou Takada, the most positive guy around, was something special. Someone who found her presence endearing, someone who wanted to be around her and hang out, something seemingly trivial like that can mean so much. It was simply such a wholesome ride seeing their friendship blossom, to the point it made me tear up multiple times throughout the show. Sure, there’s some romance in there, but it’s more innocent and sweet than anything else. It isn’t the most realistic anime out there, especially with its portrayal of bullying, but that’s not to say it isn’t believable, since kids do tend to call either names in elementary school.

Visually, the ceiling was low, but I did like the simplistic art style, with a relaxing colour palette, and fun character expressions. The soundtrack was not hugely noticeable, but complimented the show well. The ED was both great in the song itself and visually, and quickly became one of my favourite endings of the season.

Romcoms can fall into the common theme of staying in the status quo for a long time, and while the male protagonist in this show is dense like you’d see in other romcoms, it’s a very endearing and adorable type of dense, as you’d expect from a kid. Even so, the progression and development of characters was pretty solid, with some “little kid drama” that was resolved without it dragging for too long. The pacing felt pretty well done for some organic and natural interaction between all the characters.

I’ll keep this review pretty brief, this was just such an adorable show that had me smiling (or tearing up) for most of its episodes. For me, it reminded me of my childhood and the goofiness that entailed it. It was a warming, healing experience every Sunday morning, and was one of my favourite anime of the season without a doubt. It was pure sweetness, yet had its share of impactful moments. Highly recommend this one!