Joy & Pain: like sunshine and rain. 

I can't say what exactly one could label this anime when you get right down to it. Romance? Yeah ok. Comedy? Most defintely. Harem? Yes and no. When I added this series to my schedule at the last minute, I thought of it as nothing more than another harem adaptation and something that could fill-out my Saturday anime-watching schedule until I got bored of it. I had no expectations of it as it was a last-minute add. Like everyone reading this review, I had my doors blown off by the end of the first episode and knew that I had stumbled upon something special. The show promised that it was going to be subversion/commentary on the light novel romance formula, but ascended to become something unique in its own right. It focused on makeine—the Japanese word for the unlucky girl in the love triangle—and it showed a look of love, compassion, and dignity for these characters rarely shown in light novels or anime. The comedy and heart in this series is so balanced that one could find yourself shaking with laughter and holding back tears in the course of one episode (hell, the first episode itself is a prime example). I think it is ironic writing this review almost a week after the death of Frankie Beverly, but I could not help but have the words to his song Joy & Pain in my mind throughout this anime's run. 

Remember when you first found love how you felt so good.

Kind that last forever more so you thought it would.

Suddenly the things you see got you hurt so bad, so bad. 

How come the things that makes us happy makes us sad?

Kazuhiko Nukumizu Is a lonely highschooler whose only friend in the world is his sister and who really enjoys light novel romances, despite never being in love himself. While eating alone at a cafe, he witnesses one of the most popular girls in his class, Anna Yanami, get rejected by her childhood friend who decides instead to date one of her other friends (who may be even more popular). Nukumizu watches the painfully-embarrassing aftermath of this and his and Anna's eyes meet awkwardly after she is caught drinking out of her beloved's cup after he has rejected her and left for the victorious heroine. Thus began one of the most intriguing relationships in recent-anime history. While Anna, Lemon Yakishio (track star who gets rejected by a guy who goes to Nukumizu's cram school), and Chika Komari (who gets rejected by her Literature club president/senpai), form his harem/girl posse(?). I suppose the anime concludes by simply letting us know they are his friends—though it becomes clear that Anna has plans to play the long-game into getting a relationship upgrade when the time is right.

Love can be bitter, love can be sweet.

Sometimes devotion, and sometimes deceit.

The ones that you care for, give you so much pain

Oh, but it's alright, they're both one in the same.

I think one of the big things that stops this "harem" anime from being a conventional harem anime is that only one of the female protagonists has any interest with being the male protagonist's boyfriend—and she's deliberately taking her time in a very savvy way. This is a "harem" anime where the male protagonist is not in any love triangle/polygon with the female protagonists. All the other girls are in love triangles of their own and Nukumizu's primary function is to act as support for them aka be a friend. Only Anna shows any romantic interest in him, but is not going to jump the gun until he is able to return those feelings. With all the love wars mostly happening on the other-side of our not-harem, we are more looking at how Nukumizu acts as a friend with people who are not his sister and how he slowly learns more about himself through this process. Each girl is given an arc where their losing romance is allowed to play-out and those arcs (specifically Lemon & Komari's) are explorations of how these girls who were deeply in-love reconcile with being in the friend-zone and they each show their own unique takes. We get a little of this with Anna, but not a lot as I can guess her story is the most deeply intertwine with Nukumizu himself, so we'll have to wait for the sequel to learn more about her. In any case, the arcs of Lemon and Komari were masterly-done and really show the debt this series owes to its spiritual predecessors My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU & Kaguya-sama: Love is War. 

Listen, don't it seem we go through life going up and down?

Seems the things that turn you on turn you around.

Always hurting each other

(If it ain't one thing it's another)

When the world is down on you, love's somewhere around.

The other thing we need to mention here is the production. Good lord I knew A-1 Pictures was good, but this was Steph Curry in the Olympics good from them. They went all-in on making this little known light novel series the masterpiece that it was visually. No expense was spared on detailing every scene and individual action to its finest detail. Rarely have I ever seen a comedy this well-animated before. I feel bad for the production committee for Gimai Seikatsu which was adapting a very somber light novel romance this year of it's own and while going for an art house-feel, did not achieve the same artistic peak that this anime did. The voice actors here are mostly on the newer-side and they each rose to the occasion. It's not too surprising that the anime studio behind franchises like Kaguya-Sama: Love is War, Idol Master, and Lycoris Recoil could make a good anime, but this was on a different-level even for them. It seems A-1 Pictures took the hard lessons they learned from their disastrous production of 86 and turned their operation completely around. Still amazed that there was no pause this season, despite the high quality of animation. I guess it also helps when one of the financiers on your production committee is the Central Japan Railway Company (JR Toukai Agency). That might be a first. 

Over and over you can be sure

There will be sorrow but you will endure (You will endure)

Where there's a flower, there's the sun and the rain

Oh, but it's wonderful, they're both one in the same.

I don't think that anyone working on this anime knew it was in for the critical reception it got. It seems the light novel author Takibi Amamori was caught off-guard with him stepping-in to write an original anime-only episode for the finale rather than anything from the light novels. I suspect he will be busy for the foreseeable future. I feel like after this series, the whole industry has been put on-notice that these new creators aren't going by the old rules anymore. The fans only stand to benefit.