Genre(s): Shojo, Romance, Comedy, School, Slice of Life
Age-Appropriateness: 10+ (Occasional mild language)
Platforms: Crunchyroll, Hulu
Episodes: 24
TheAwersome Rating: 8.5 / 10 (A Pure delight)
Premise: Takeo Goda is a giant guy with a giant heart. Too bad the girls don’t want him! (They always go for his good-looking best friend, Sunakawa.) Used to being on the sidelines, Takeo simply stands tall and accepts his fate. But one day when he saves a girl named Yamato from a harasser on the train, his (love!) life suddenly takes an incredible turn! Takeo can hardly believe it when he crosses paths with Yamato again, and he finds himself falling in love with her… But with handsome Sunakawa around, does Takeo even stand a chance?
TheAwersome’s Thoughts: This one starts out very (and I mean VERY) cliché by shojo standards. The first three or four episodes are taken straight from the trope playbook, with dramatic events and sequences showing up ever-so-conveniently to allow our main characters to fall in love. It also FAR exceeded my expectations regarding its comedic elements and timing. It is also one of the purest, warm fuzzy, sweetest saccharine feel-good shows I’ve seen in a long time. This show does what I want to see more of in romance centered shows in that our protagonists confess their love and get together at the beginning of the show, and the bulk of it is building upon that. While the characters themselves aren’t very deep and this show doesn’t explore human psyche, it is still a hilariously good time that will routinely plaster a stupid grin on your face, even if it’s somewhat one-note.
TLDR: A simple, super pure, and joy filled romcom.
Something this show does that I feel doesn’t get represented enough (or even at all really) in romance shows is give a representation of just how excited and invested boys can get when it comes to a relationship. Takeo isn’t just a bumbling oblivious fool, or a cool, collected, calculating Ikemen type whose feelings get hurt too easily. He’s an earnest good guy, who while oblivious in some categories, tends to overthink and analyze and panic about certain aspects of the relationship. Because that’s what people, not just girls, do.
At a Glance Anime 