In my seemingly never-ending quest for a happy romcom that just prolongs the time until I watch the hard hitters I've been saving up, I stumbled upon this one. It was immediately interesting not necessarily due to the premise, but rather due to the "already established couple" bit, since I've gotten a little tired of having the fated couple get together in the last episode of the show every time.

The premise is relatively simple: Shikimori is cute, but gets protective around her boyfriend. Meanwhile the boyfriend has the worst luck streak of all time running, which gives ample opportunities to save him from falling billboards, swerving cars etc. Essentially, Yuu (male MC) is our damsel in distress and Shikimori (female MC, henceforth Micchan) is the knight in shining armor coming to the rescue.

There are fairly few side characters in the cast and while they get a little bit of development, the lion's share goes to Kamiya, who is essentially a blue-haired Micchan; cool, tall, beautiful...and also in love with Yuu. The rest of the characters are basically just his friend group who fully support him and Micchan and their interactions are generally cute, varied and fun to watch.

I'll start with the parts I personally didn't like very much: First off, the development and story is not really there. We do get to know the characters a little better over time, but only Kamiya and Micchan get real development flashbacks. Yuu just kinda always sways between "sorry for being clumsy" and "I wish I could protect you/stay with you forever". There's a little hint of "Yuu's kindness towards others helps them change for the better", but that's not a lot.

Secondly, while I went in with the happiness that we can skip some of the awkward stages on the main couple forming, that was quickly squashed. They may have been dating for roughly a year, harbored feelings for longer than that and have even been friends longer, but we still get the obligatory "indirect kiss/handholding is weird" scenes and the worst offender is that there's not even a real kiss in the entire show. We're talking two teens; 17-year olds, almost adults and they haven't kissed in an entire year of dating.

Lastly the minor gripes. If anyone has issues with the standard tropes, you'll find them here. I personally don't mind the "beach trip, culture festival, sports festival" etc. stuff, but I can see how people might be bored of the typical settings. I did enjoy them myself here. The friends and people around everyone are a tad too friendly. I do enjoy that we basically have a guy that looks like Bakugo (and is voiced by the same guy) and is as explosive and straight-forward, but a complete 180 on personality. Just always helping out, worrying about others. And that almost makes you think of conflict and realize how little there really is in this anime. With essentially just two "plot lines" that deal with heartbreak and dependency respectively.

But that leads me straight into the thing that puts a lot of the bad points into perspective: The genre. This isn't supposed to be some tragicomedy about overcoming constant hardships, reforging relationships and rending your heart. It's an Iyashikei. Meaning a feel-good story. Something to help you relax and escape the drama as you sink into this fluffy world of comfort.

And that can be seen throughout the whole show. Everyone's supportive, trysts never last long or were really that meaningful in the first place, the art is gorgeous, the soundtrack is incredibly comfy. The OP/ED are heavily stylized and a treat to watch. Essentially the show does exactly what it sets out to do. It gives you a cast of likeable characters and has them interact in inconsequential everyday occurrences that leave you feeling warm and fuzzy.

Looking at the entire package, I ultimately landed on an 80. It's not really stellar, it's not awful, but it does the job it sets out to do and is a delight to watch. Seeing these two lovebirds fluster and pout and laugh is just precious. If they behaved more like their age and advanced a bit further as a couple, maybe with a more conclusive ending, I'd rate this higher, but as it is, 80 feels just about right.

TL;DR: If you wanna escape into a beautiful world of minor mishaps, gorgeous visuals and peppered in pink-haired badass moments, this is the anime that perfectly scratches that itch. If you want fletched-out emotional journeys, hardships and drama, then this is not the one for you.