skysurf

This anime feels like watching Pepé Le Pew from Looney Tunes, but with the kitten falling in love with the skunk for no reason. In one line, it's a show trying hard to romanticize sexual harassment. This is the story of a creepy grown ass man romantically pursuing a high school girl by stalking, harassing and gaslighting her. His obsession starts by the simple fact that the girl apparently has been the only non-shallow woman he has met that rejected his creepy advances, so he immediately sets on a mission to conquer her whether she likes it or not. Even though the MC girl already told him tostop and that she's uncomfortable with the unwelcome attention, the male MC still continued relentlessly after that. Some of the creep's actions include: multiple unsolicited phone calls even late at night, sending unwanted gifts, pressuring for dating, touching the girl while she was sick sleeping, etc. The second harasser is the male MC's sister, who acts as a plot device supporting her creep brother and providing him with all kinds of intel info on her "friend" and setting up convenient scenarios so he can prey on the MC girl easier (e.g. literally gave out her friend's home address since episode 1, brought the brother's gifts to school, tricked her into giving out her phone number, schemed all kinds of settings to facilitate their encounters so they would appear as "coincidences", etc). There are even more red flags when observing the male MC character's behavior that provides a clear view on the kind of toxic relationship he's pursuing, just to list a few: 1) VIOLENT: He had no trouble in assaulting an adult woman in a public place and threatening her with further physical abuse. 2) POSSESSIVE: Got triggered just by the fact that a classmate was talking to MC girl and felt the need to act in a threatening way towards the teenage boy. His own male friend is aware of this, who is seen SECRETLY hanging out with the female MC admitting that he himself would be in trouble with the creep if he knows they're hanging out. Not being able to casually hang out or even talk with friends sounds like the depiction of the worst type of toxic relationship. 3) MANIPULATIVE: Despite the fact that the creep is the one harassing the inexperienced girl ignoring her requests to stop, when the girl tried her best to take a strong stand against his behavior and called him out, all it took was him doing a pikachu surprised face to make her feel guilty resulting in HER APOLOGIZING TO HIM. This is not a light observation, as the creep was literally shown rejoicing himself in the fact that she was the one who apologized to him. That's some dark stuff right there for those who can see past the shojo-esque colorful backgrounds and cute faces. As for the rest of characters, most of them seem to have been designed by the author to create an unrealistic sexual harassment fantasy where all the society surrounding the abuser is happy about his actions. Just as an example, you have the girl's mother who was being enthusiastic about all the unwanted gifts (instead of the more realistic approach of being suspicious/worried) and also not caring at all even after she found out the dude sending them is a grown ass man... instead, the mother was instantly added to the male MC's harem. The animation is nothing special, just alright and the art style is average. Nothing really stands out. Sound quality was awful mostly with the character voices. The opening and ending songs are quite cool though, which thankfully can be purchased and enjoyed independently without having to watch this anime. Overall, this looks like a typical trash josei story with an abusive male MC where the author went overboard with the harassment fantasy and destroyed all credibility of the world depicted, converting this supposed romance comedy into something mediocre that is neither funny nor romantic in the slightest.

Marinate1016

“You can’t judge another country by your country’s standards” A simple, yet oft forgotten message. Koikimo is a series that exemplifies the differences between the west and Japan in terms of entertainment. If you’re sensitive or not able to accept that fiction does not equate to reality, you should avoid this. If you are sensible and understand that you can enjoy a story, without necessarily agreeing with the premise and characters’ actions, this is a gold mine. Koikimo’s premise is truthfully a bit… odd, with the MC basically stalking the girl he likes, who happens to be a high school student and classmate of his littlesister, but it’s presented in such a way that makes you forget what’s even going on. Koikimo uses a really cute aestethic to hide a questionable premise, and does so very well in my opinion. Again, you don’t have to agree with what’s going on in a show to like it. It’s fiction, not a documentary. Shoujo Romance is my fave genre of LNs/animanga, so I check out any that air every season. I had no idea about this LN coming into the season and was immediately surprised by how much I love this damn show. In fact, it’s grown to be one of my faves. Ichika and Ryo’s relationship, while starting out in an unconventional way and with some weird circumstances, becomes very wholesome and downright adorable as the series progresses. Once the initial stalker phase ends, I liked the interactions between the two, a lot. Putting aside the age difference, their interactions and growth felt very organic to me and was the highlight of the show. The romance was well written and believable. It may not be socially acceptable, but things are not always black and white in life. In addtion to likeable main characters, Koikimo’s side cast was really good as well. A love rectangle of sorts begins to form at a certain point, and I thought it was navigated perfectly. In romcoms there’s always going to be someone getting their feelings hurt, but if you do it the right way it doesn’t hamper the experience. Koikimo certainly did that. Artistically, there’s nothing crazy or new going on design wise in the show, but I did really enjoy the bright colour palette throughout. I think it helped to create a cutsey atmosphere, in contrast to Higehiro, which ironically is the other series this season with a controversial premise. The OST is pretty solid as well as the OP and ED being bangers. In closing, I loved Koikimo. I’m not ashamed to say that. It’s not for everyone, but I encourage you to keep an open mind when watching not just this show, but any anime. You’re watching a medium that was created for people in a totally different society. There’s going to be things you don’t like or agree with, that’s ok. Luckily for me, once the show got going, it was easily my third fave show of the season and something I looked forward to on Mondays to start my week. I will certainly miss my fave ship of the season, but I’ll be checking out the manga and LN for more. Koikimo gets 10 out of 10.