Yū has always loved shōjo manga and awaits the day she gets a love confession that sends her heart aflutter with bubbles and blushes, and yet when a junior high classmate confesses his feelings to her, she feels nothing. Disappointed and confused, Yū enters high school still unsure how to respond. That’s when Yū sees the beautiful student council president Nanami turn down a suitor with such maturity that she’s inspired to ask her for help. But then the next person to confess to Yū is Nanami herself. – ANN
Streaming: HIDIVE
Episodes: 12
Source: Manga
Episode Summary: Yuu has always enjoyed the romance in the manga she reads and the music she listens to, but has never genuinely felt those same feelings in her own life. Though one of her classmates confessed his feelings towards her after they graduated from junior high, Yuu’s answer has been up in the air since then because she hasn’t felt inspired enough to respond in the manner she feels is truthful. One day Yuu is “recruited” to help the student council, and wanders the school grounds looking for their out-of-the-way office. She witnesses a boy’s confession to an upperclassman who, though she answers in the negative, lets the young man down with such grace and dignity that Yuu is incredibly impressed.
The senpai, Nanami, is herself a member of the student council. She explains to Yuu that she’s not interested in romance and plans to stay single throughout high school. The two end up working together fairly closely over the next several days, until the time comes for Yuu to speak to her potential suitor. Due to Nanami’s influence, she’s able to reject him truthfully and with kindness. But a surprising transformation seems to take place – Nanami now seems smitten with Yuu, and confesses those feelings to her. As the days go on, that momentary awkwardness seems to fade into memory, but Yuu still wonders how to address them.
Impressions: Though romantic anime tends to be hit-or-miss with me, I’m always on the lookout for titles that take typical expectations of romantic tropes and play with them a little bit. I’ve heard (from reviews of the manga) that this series wasn’t a typical romance, or even a typical yuri romance; instead it was more the story of a close friendship that served well the growth both of the characters involved. I’ve also heard it described as unusually good at featuring a character who might be on the asexual spectrum, or at least has been interpreted as such by fans of the story. These assessments piqued my interest and I was excited to be able to start this series.
Honestly, the most striking thing about the first episode might be its aesthetics; this isn’t meant as a criticism, more an observation that it’s just really gorgeous. It reminds me quite a bit of Kimi ni Todoke in how the backgrounds are rendered in soft, detailed watercolors. Yuu’s mental landscape has been influenced by shoujo manga, with all its airiness and use of negative space, and while the anime doesn’t directly translate her internal feelings into an outwardly manga-like atmosphere, the use of glowing light, soft character outlines, and line-less painted backgrounds does probably the best job it can at conveying this particular idea without being too literal about it. The visual “package” is delicately rendered and seems very intentional, which is something I can appreciate.
Yuu is definitely an interesting character and her internal thoughts provide a good framework for this episode. Though I don’t identify as being on the asexual spectrum, some of Yuu’s feelings are very easy for me to relate to. I understand the idea of being in love with another person and I enjoy it when people I know are in relationships with people for whom they have those feelings, but I have trouble relating to the ease and frequency with which others are able to feel romantic attraction to others. For me, this feeling has always been very rare and anything but instantaneous. I can appreciate the aesthetic appeal of an attractive person, but the fluttery feeling that Yuu describes is something I only get after knowing someone for a long time and becoming intimately friendly with them (which I mean in a non-sexual sense). I’m lucky enough to be married to someone who gave me those feelings, but it was several years after meeting him and knowing him as a friend that we even thought to take the next step. In any case, Yuu may feel like an outcast because her expectation of what romance feels like isn’t reflected in her reactions, but to me her experience feels very genuine and I can appreciate how those who identify as ace or aro might feel drawn to her character.
What the story seems to be leaning toward, however, is the development of some kind of relationship between Yuu and Nanami, almost as if Yuu is just a late-bloomer who just needs to meet the correct person. It’s difficult to predict exactly what kind of relationship the two might ultimately cultivate and I’d certainly like to believe that the series has something else up its sleeve, but it feels very typical of a yuri romance. Yuu has a conversation with her two friends about the upperclassman she met in the student council office, and her friends assume that she’s talking about a guy until she says otherwise. The conversation feels very much like it’s dancing around the standard sentiment that “two girls can’t have those sort of feelings, can they?” which tends to surround a lot same-sex romance in anime. It’s the suggestion that these relationships are somehow outside the norm or that homosexuality is an unknown concept – in this day and age, that’s an assumption that’s difficult for me to accept. In any case, this setup feels like an invitation for Yuu to be awakened to romantic same-sex feelings, thus explaining her lack of romantic feeling toward her male classmate. I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing, but it’s certainly less groundbreaking in my opinion.
Stepping back a little bit, I do think that this series has the potential to be very good, whatever its arc encompasses. The strongest thematic impression I got from this episode is that, whatever form Yuu’s and Nanami’s relationship eventually takes, it’s already based mostly on kindness, admiration, and encouragement. The first episode has a very subtle emphasis on respecting others (even if you don’t want to date them) and understanding their feelings’ merit even when they aren’t necessarily shared. In a real-life environment where girls’ and young women’s unreciprocated feelings are unfortunately sometimes used by young men as reason to commit harm against other people, it’s nice sometimes to indulge in a piece of fiction that seems to understand that violent entitlement doesn’t need to be the immediate reaction when a young woman says “no, thanks.” Both times in this episode, even the boys who’ve been rejected have mature reactions to the situation, which was refreshing. I’m positive that’s not what the creators had in mind as a major take-away, but it was my unexpected one and I’ll take what I can get.
I was looking forward to this series as a reprieve; something soft and gentle to take my mind off of real-life’s grimier realities. Whatever form the central character relationship eventually takes, I think its subdued, mellow tone and focus on character relationships will probably serve that function well.
Pros: Aesthetically gorgeous. Character interactions focus on kindness.
Cons: It may end up taking a more typical route with the character relationships.
Grade: B