If you like generic plotline, this is for you. If not, read the original LN or watch something else.

"The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten" is a romantic anime series adapted from the light novel with the same name, written by Saeki-San. The anime was produced by "Project NO.9", which doesn't have a nice reputation for light-novel series adaptations. On the other hand, the original work, started from a web novel in Shousetsuka ni Narou, to being a light novel series published under GA Bunko (SB Creative), to being ranked among the top 10 in Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi! 2020.

Starting from the plotline. I'll be brutally honest, it's just generic, like there's little to no drama. Here's the plot: Amane Fujimiya one day suddenly finds Mahiru Shiina, a super popular pretty girl which has an "angelic" and "untouchable" aura in Amane's school, sitting on a swing in a random park, on a rainy day, totally drenched and looking depressed. Amane being an awful good person he is, lent her his umbrella, and ran away drenched in rain. And the next day, Mahiru returns the umbrella, only to find Amane becoming sick and decided to take care of him as a little thank you.

Who could've thought that this little action was the whole cannon event that set the seed for the romantic development between these two people. Who could've ever imagined.

Like seriously, in my point of view, this just felt like... "Oh, you've helped me out by just giving me this umbrella under the rain, now I'm going to fall in love with you as a thank you for this only action". Before that, Amane and Mahiru basically have no interaction.

I like that the Chinese community has a word for this type of protagonist/lovers, it is called "天降系", literally "fallen from heaven", as in an angel that has descended from heaven, just to fall in love with you. Oh hey, the title is called "The angel next door spoils me rotten", must be a coincidence (lol). Anyway, rant over, Mahiru and Amane became closer and closer through daily interactions. Since Amane can't cook (and can't live alone because he made a mess in his flat), Mahiru offered to cook and clean for him. How convenient!

As for character design, in my opinion, Amane is a generic male character type that's more or less designed to be swapped in by the viewer (or by the reader) or at least, relatable to the viewer in some way or another. And as for Mahiru, well, she is just the platonic ideal for a woman, she can cook really nicely, she can clean the house, she's pretty, she gets straight A in his school grades. The perfect woman just like the Yamato Nadeshiko.

Unrelated note: I can hear social justice warriors from a mile away preparing to comment and to boycott saying "this is a stereotypical traditional woman, portraying women as objects to satisfy the male fantasy, this is unfair!"

Anyway, the design of the character Shiina Mahiru actually ranked in the top 10 at the Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi, female protagonist ranking in 2022. And I get it, Mahiru is a cute (moe) character, she has that untouchable and cold aura in the beginning of the series, many people would start fantasizing on how to conquer her. And I did too, I really wanted to see how Amane can melt Mahiru's heart made of ice, dissolving her untouchable aura to make her into a happy girl.

Speaking of character backstory, every single character has a sad little backstory. The anime only showed Mahiru and Amane's past history, and not in great detail. Mahiru in particular for example has a family which constantly neglected her existence, I think the author was trying to add a little bit of sympathy to the characters. But Chitose and Itsuki also has a little backstory from the light novel which never got adapted.

Speaking of secondary characters, Chitose and Itsuki, and also Amane's parents... I couldn't say much about them, they appear to satisfy a purpose rather than being characters. Like they only serve for the dry comedy scenes in the Anime or driving the plot.

Project NO.9 did actually fit 4 or 5 volumes into 12 episodes, ending with both confessing love for each other. And as I said, the plot... is generic, there's no drama, just both of them getting closer and closer together through daily interactions, a slow paced slice of life. There's nothing wrong with it. After all, Non Non Biyori is also a Slice of Life anime and it's one of my favorite anime (ok, I know this comparison is unacceptable, Non Non Biyori is FAR more superior than whatever this is, but I couldn't come up with a better example).

This work's plot development doesn't stand out compared to other romantic anime, like Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai (Whatever Hajime Kamoshida smoked, I would also like to have some, how the fuck did he successfully mix quantum mechanics, puberty and love into one giant masterpiece?) or Horimiya. Some might see the simple story as a plus, and some might see it as a minus.

After the plot, let's talk about the production quality. It's... meh, I would put it a little below average. I was able to spot a few problems, for example, one of the scene is Mahiru cleaning Amane's house, Mahiru's face expression was weird. And there were changes for absolutely no reason, for example: when she accidentally fell onto Amane, the direction that Mahiru faced was different from the light novel for no apparent reason. But, Mahiru is cute, and that's all it matters. I noticed the skin tones were a little bit off? I did check my monitor settings and color profiles, I tried all sorts of displays (I even tried it on my phone. Ironically, such small display has better color gamut and accuracy than my PC's monitor according to online reviews). Maybe it's not noticeable right away, since most of the time, the view is focused around the interaction between these two fellas, when Amane's friend Itsuki Akazawa and his girlfriend Chitose Shirakawa comes into play, their skin tones felt just a little bit off. But when Amane's parents appeared, I really started to wonder what happened behind the scenes, did the production team forgot to calibrate their studio displays? I don't know.

Speaking of Behind the Scenes, the director is "Lihua Wang", I can't seem to find any information about this person in relation to the Anime industry. I saw in a Taiwanese BBS (PTT) that it's probably just a pen-name. Which kind of concerns me, I have to point out that this light novel ranked 2nd in the poll about "Which light novel would you like to be turned into Anime?" by Japanese Anime news website "Anime! Anime!" in the first half of 2021. And project NO.9 elected to appoint an anonymous director (or someone who has little to no public information related to the Anime Industry).

The music is okay, there's nothing much to say about the background music, it felt elegant. I had a good laugh with the Opening song though, there was this high-pitched "Aouh!" from a male singer in the beginning, and honestly, it just sounded like a failed Michael Jackson imitation to me. The ED was sung by Shiina Mahiru, that's surprising to me.

Okay, I think I was a bit too harsh to this Anime. But really, it doesn't stand out. It just felt bland to me. My point is not "this romantic anime doesn't make sense", it's more like it didn't work out in the Anime due to the plotline compatibility, or rather it wasn't adapted correctly, after all, Project NO.9 has quite an infamous reputation. I felt that there was potential, but potential doesn't equal to real performance.

I actually read the original novel, and it was an okay experience, or dare I say, it's a fine experience. I like the original work more than this anime adaptation. I still remember pushing through every volume just to find out what will Mahiru and Amane will do together next, fantasizing them in my head. I felt excitement every time I read the next volume. Also, the novel holds a lot of inner dialogue or thoughts of Amane, which made the reading experience more enjoyable, as you can see more transparently what's happening more clearly. Sadly, the little inner thoughts couldn't be adapted to the anime.

In the end, the anime itself? A 5/10, you get a pass this time. I would recommend reading the original novel instead.