
a review by potsu

a review by potsu
Modern romance animes love to tease the viewers by not giving what they want. That is fine if it did not feel like the director intentionally blocked us from it. For example, by setting off fireworks when one of the main characters is about to confess so that the other person did not hear it, making one of the characters so shy that they physically cannot mutter out the words "I like you" even though their love rivals that of the amount of water in the ocean or artificially creating drama between the main characters so they would hate each other and their reconciliation will take 5 episodes just for them to say "gomenasai" and move on like nothing happened. It all feels superficial that I don't really enjoy romance in general because of it.
That was my mindset when coming into this anime. Seeing the word "harem" in the title made me automatically think that this will be another generic harem anime that I can kill time with while on the treadmill at the gym. But it only took me 1 episode to know that I have struct diamond when I thought all I see was coal. Starting the anime felt different. Not only was it because of the colors feeling more.... bland? It's not a bad thing because it is more pleasant to my eyes
Story-wise, the early episodes are very fast paced. For example in one episode the characters are preparing for a play that will take place at the end of the year, and the next episode they're performing that play. Meaning, between 2 episodes, a year has passed. But this is not a concern because it sets the groundwork for the upcoming episodes. When I was watching the anime I was unaware of what episode I was in because I had it on auto play. I thought I had reached the ending episode but no, it was only episode 9. I thought episode 10-12 would be just some filler but NO! I was wrong AGAIN! They actually have progression and MORE CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT! I cannot believe what I am witnessing, a romance anime with only 12 episodes, managed to show the life of a 16(?) year old up until they are in adulthood. Most romance animes stop at the high school graduation but this anime not only goes beyond high school but beyond college into the adult world as well. The best part is there was 0 drama in this whole anime! I am not a fan of seeing the characters who I like fight with each other, some might say that a couple with no drama have some deeper issues, maybe they're not honest with each other or- ?. I do not care. I realise I do sound contradicting that I argued that most romance animes are not realistic and here I am not wanting to see drama between the characters even though it is realistic, but I am human at the end of it all.The innocence between every of the characters' interactions is the most appealing part about this anime. The fact that they feel awkward sometimes when they realise they're saying something corny, the fact that they are brave enough to tell each other their feelings initially but when they say it again they feel embarrassed and the fact that they don't need to be together 24/7 and are able to live with just seeing each other once a month due to their busy schedules is a breath of much fresh air.
Finally the good and bad thing about this anime is that there is 0 chance of a second season. Everything that can be done, has been done in only 12 episodes with 24 minutes per episode. I am sad that it ended but at the same time happy it concluded. This anime makes everyone realise that yes, it is possible to have a proper romance story fit into a generic anime episode schedule.
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