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This is a slow anime. One which isn’t seemingly going to rush how two strangers become friends, much less in a relationship.
The Introduction
It’s the 3rd year of middle school and Akane has found herself separated from all of her friends on the track team. With that, she looks around her classroom for new people to talk to and befriend. But, being that she is a teenager, it isn’t just friendship she is curious about. Enter Kotarou. He doesn’t seem to be part of any clubs and he has his own set of friends in the class already. But there is something in Akane wish pushes her to talk to him and, finally, by the end of the episode, she does. Thus possibly starting their friendship.
Highlights
It Seems Very Natural
The relief you feel when you finally talk to the person you like.
In middle school, who jumped into a friendship with someone they had a crush on? Maybe the extroverted people but for the average person? Please! Even the idea of being alone with them would probably leave you feeling like someone had their hands around your throat. So Akane’s hesitation, and trying to put it off, if not find the least direct way of talking to him, seemed very natural and relatable.
Low Points
But That Is Also The Problem
Damn near the whole episode is them looking at one another then the other looking away. Their friends, families, and activities they do seeming like a blur, and you wondering when something will happen. Which it doesn’t until nearly the last 5 minutes. Leaving you wondering, while these two kids seem cute together, can you really deal with a true to life slice of life anime which maybe painstakingly slow?
Overall: Mixed (Stick Around)
The premise sold me, this idea of following a friendship from middle school to high school. Especially one which could become romantic. However, this is being done in a slice of life style. Meaning it isn’t likely to rush a damn thing so you will have to stick around and be patient for the payoff. Now, I enjoy a good romance, especially one which seems authentic, but as cute as Akane was about her crush, neither one has that type of personality to keep you going until the romantic plot starts. They both seem like nice kids, but they also seem like the boring one in most romantic anime plots. You know, the one who is a blank slate and who changes thanks to the other character’s influence on their life.
Hence the Mixed label. This seems like the type of show you’d be better off binge watching than sticking with week to week. For the pacing may feel so slow that you’d get tired of it, if not forget it altogether. Yet, there remains this idea that it could portray love in its purist, and realest, form.
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