I had heard a lot about this title going in to the Spring 2023 season. There were a lot of titles that I was interested in watching at the time, and given my limited schedule, I chose only one between two other shows, Skip and Loafer and Tonikawa Season 2. Romance is one of my favorite anime genres and while I was already familiar with the latter two, I had no idea what to expect with The Dangers in My Heart. Twelve episodes later, and I was left feeling very conflicted and confused, but not necessarily in a bad way.

Synopsis

The main character is a middle school boy named Kyotaro Ichikawa. He's the typical outcast type you see in slice of life anime in a lot of ways. He doesn't really have any friends, he keeps to himself mostly, and he loathes the people around him. Especially Anna Yamada, who is the most popular girl in class. He has indiscriminate violent murder fantasies about everyone around him, but he especially fantasizes about Yamada, frequently carriying odd and unsettling books with him around school and daydreaming about violence. But something unexpected happens to him one day when he takes the initiative and interacts with her in an indirect way. This one action causes him to slowly become friends with Yamada himself, and he starts to see more of her true nature. How she likes to snack on things in the library when she really isn't supposed to. How she tries to be considerate of those around her, and how despite her popularity, she's oddly approachable and enjoys Ichikawa's company just as much as he enjoys hers. This leads to Ichikawa's violent feelings transforming into friendship, and eventually romantic affection.

The Good

• The show for the most part is very grounded and feels very natural and realistic. I very much enjoyed the trips and scenarios that Ichikawa and Yamada found themselves in with friends, and their moments alone were also enjoyable. I think my favorite was the job experience trip and Christmas Eve. Seeing Ichikawa let his guard down and have fun and show his happy side was nice to see, and it was also nice to see it making Yamada happy.
• In select moments, the dynamic and relationship between Ichikawa and Yamada is heartwarming and fun to watch. You watch their relationship turn from complete strangers to close friends by the time the last episode comes around, and in between you see them begin to care for each other, and see each other as people who they want in their lives.
• The animation is solid throughout. It's mostly pretty standard, but they knew exactly where to put in the effort, and coupled with some brilliant compositing work, it helped elevate and enhance critical moments in each episode. Very unexpected for Shin-Ei Animation, where the rest of their famous work (Doraemon, Crayon Shin-chan, Teasing Master Takagi-san, etc.) look almost nothing like this.
• Great music and soundtrack. Complements the mood and tone nicely. The opening theme in particular is a favorite of mine.

The Bad

• I think he falls in love with her a little too fast. Maybe because it's hard to visualize how much time is passing that I feel this way, but his change in heart happens so fast it's difficult to really feel like character progression happens. It eventually starts to feel that way toward the end, but the change from him being a borderline psychopath to being in love with one of his own targets only takes up maybe a few episodes. There's no real impact to that change so it makes his introduction as a disturbed person kinda pointless, like you could just change him to being anti-social and 99% of the plot could stay the same.
• Despite her feelings being just as obvious as Ichikawa's at times, there aren't many moments where we can see Yamada's contemplation and inner feelings regarding her relationship with Ichikawa. I suppose this is because the story wants us to focus on Ichikawa, as he's introduced to be a more interesting character, but I think it would have been worth it to have more moments where Yamada reflects on things. Perhaps moments where she confides in a friend about it or something, since she admits she's inexperienced in love to her friends.
• The series is a little too comfortable showing us how infatuated Ichikawa is with Yamada on a sexual level. Frequent implications that he masturbates to her despite antagonizing kids in his class who sexualize her and her friends. Showing him being this perverse makes it harder to like him if I'm being honest.
• On the topic of sexualization, the sexualization of the girls in this show is very uncomfortable, both in nature and when you take into account that this takes place in a middle school setting. I get these are pubescent teenagers and being horny is just something that happens to them, but it feels very strange. I wouldn't complain this much about it if it was incidental and didn't happen often, but it's more common than uncommon and present throughout the entire run, though admittedly they do pump the breaks a bit around three-quarters of the way in.

Verdict

This series was a mixed bag for me and left me very conflicted. I liked many parts of it, but I disliked a lot about it as well. For some, the overt sexualization will be a deal-breaker, and that's totally fair. Myself, I do have my limits but I'm generally desensitized to it since many romance anime have it to some extent. Regardless, I think the good this series has is just barely enough to hold my attention, and if the bad things I listed don't scare you off, I think it would hold your attention well enough too. I'll be generous with my rating though, just because I think there's still potential for my issues to be addressed more in the second season.