Yeah, the last season or two became too soap operatic for me. Before that it was a fun scheme-of-the-week with overarching subplots but you could still miss a few or watch out of order with no problems.
Haven't seen it...the commercials I saw didn't look great. What makes it better?
Valentine's Day is tomorrow, and if you're anything like me (and I know some deep, hidden, sick and demented part of you is), you're a hopeless romantic.
I usually start my February out by launching myself into the streets of The Big CIty, giving random strangers hugs and throwing chocolates at them. Eventually the poleese are called, and they're like, "Do you have any ID?" And I'm like, "Yeah, but I left it on your mom's nightstand last night."
Then I run. Fifteen minutes later, they've chased me down, tased me, and put me in handcuffs. Then they're like, "Why did you run?" I reply with, "'Cause that's what Tupac would do!"
Then they throw me in County, and the bangers are like:
Bangers: "We're gonna take your stuff."
Me: "That's cool."
Bangers: "Then we're gonna rape you!"
Me: "Sweet!"
Bangers: "Then you're going to work for us as a drug mule!"
Me: "Now hold on. I'll make you guys some Grade-A hooch, but that's as far as this is going to go."
Bangers: "You had us at hooch!"
So I'm stuck there for weeks until I finally get in front of a judge. He asked me why Iwas throwing chocolates at people and I tell him, "I did it for love, judge!"
And the judge is like, "You're free to go, noman, and God bless you!"
Then we all hug: I hug the judge, the bailiffs, the cop who I made fun of, and the cop's mom (who returns my ID). And then I came home to write this post.
Which brings me to the actual point of this post: romance anime!
What? You thought I was all about Dark, Death, and Grim anime, with death, dark, and more dark? Also crazy chicks with guns and baddasses who fail to protect the lolis they're sworn to defend? Nope. I love it all, and I like a good romcom as much as anybody.
A few notes before I get into this:
I picked these because:
- Of their good, overall quality.
- There's no real fanservice (IIRC), meaning no ridiculous boob physics (okay, there's that one character in Chi No Maid, but that's mostly comedy), or too much ecchi, or anything like that. The focus is mostly slice-of-life + romance, with little to none of the usual harem or ecchi tropes found in anime.
- If I had middleschool or highschool kids, I'd feel comfortable watching these with them.
Anyway, on to the shows:
Love, Chunibyo and Other Delusions
A high-school romance. You'll see a lot of these here, because, well, anime.
LCAOD has an interesting setup: students who become trapped in their own fantasy worlds, and refuse to deal with reality, referred to as chunibyo patients. The male protagonist (MP) is a reformed chunibyo, and is trying to escape his embarrassing past. The female protagonist (FP) is an active chunibyo. They meet, get involved, and hilarity ensues.
It's a sweet, fun little anime with a simple, heart-warming message: reality sucks; fantasy is better.
Recommended.
Toradora!
Another high-school romance. Scary-looking-but-actually-nice-guy MP meets troubled, hyper-aggressive yandere FP, and the two conspire to date their respective crushes while slowly falling for each other.
I didn't go into this with high expectations, but this anime hooked me by the second episode. All of the characters are interesting, the female characters aren't all useless (one of my major complaints about most anime), the pacing for the romantic elements was well done, and it was both heartbreaking and fun at the same time.
It features one of the best cat fights I've seen in anime, as well as teenage boys constantly crying about their crushes (which, like, I never did when I was sixteen...or twenty...or thirty...and that video is fake and you shut up!).
Recommended.
Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid
Not a high-school romance! Whoohoo!
Drunken salarywoman FP somehow stumbles upon a wounded dragon, makes friends with her, and uses the power of FP + alcoholism to somehow pull a massive sword out of the dragons' hide. Dragon is so grateful, she decides the best way to pay this debt is, not with arcane lore or treasure, but by becoming the FP's maid. Because anime!
It's cute, sweet, and utterly hilarious. One of the few anime that came out of 2017 that was worth watching.
Highly recommended.
Spice and Wolf
My favorite romance anime of all time, and one of my favorite anime overall.
Set in fantasy Late Middle Ages, the MP is a traveling merchant (not a highschool kid, not a ninja, not a mutant, not a badass, just a really good, small-time businessman) and runs across a wolf goddess. He agrees to take her to her home town, located far to the north, and the two travel together.
Conflict in this anime takes two forms: romantic conflicts and business conflicts. The first are self-explanatory. The second involves the MP constantly getting in over his head, being on the verge of losing everything, and then thinking a way out of it at the last moment. All business related, and far more stressful to watch than any anime combat scene I've seen.
The only real downside is the series ends after two season, on a cliffhanger. There's unlikely to be additional seasons, though this anime certainly deserved it.
An excellent anime. Highly recommended.
You need help.
You may think that now, but he is just biding his time before he gets to real WTF.
Allow me to display my ignorance by stating I have no idea who that is, but yes, the art is crap.
