Sounds a bit confusing at first because it sounds so similar. But yup, Osananajimi To Wa Love Comedy Ni Naranai is not a sequel or spinoff to that 2021 Osananajimi Ga Zettai Ni Makenai Love Comedy. But both deal with the typical romcom of the childhood friends trope. And as you would make a guess from the title, our main guy dreams of doing such romcom stuffs with all his cute childhood friends. Which anime guy wouldn’t? When teens grow up, they have all this raging hormones, emotional instability and rebellious phase. Damn puberty. He thinks they hate him. Better to just dream and fantasize it all in his head, eh? But guess what? These girls actually secretly love him too but they think he hates them! So the big game of pretending goes round in circles. See where this is going? See how this is going to play out? You bet it is. Love comedy indeed. Oh wait. Make it a clown show! Get your popcorns ready!
Episode 1
Yonosuke Sakai is like any other teen guys. He fantasizes about getting lewd with the girls. But he is also a realist. He knows it cannot happen in real life. So that is why when neighbour-cum-childhood friend Shio Minamo is seen sleeping right next to him, he pushes her off. She does a lot of flirty stuffs but he isn’t fazed. Then as they walk to school together, she presses her boobs on him. As usual, nothing happens. In fact, in Yonosuke’s mind, he absolutely loves it. Here is the catch: Shio is actually in love with Yonosuke and has been trying hard to seduce him but can’t understand why he is not taking the bait! And so we see this pattern that both lust for each other but in reality, they act as though they hate each other. Then in the crowded streets, both tightly hold hands so as not to get lost. They are spotted by Akari Hiodoshi who is also Yonosuke’s other childhood friend. She scorns him for trying to do something lewd to Shio. Here is the catch: Akari is actually in love with Yonosuke and has been trying hard to catch his heart but for unknown reasons she keeps saying mean things to him. So yeah, another obvious pattern that Yonosuke and Akari are always seen quarrelling but deep down inside, they regret saying such stuffs. When Akari almost had an indirect kiss drinking from Yonosuke’s bottle, both argue about having experience in kissing. This has them go somewhere to prove it and we can see both shaking in their pants. Yonosuke gives in and admits he has never kissed anyone. This brings Akari relief that means this would be his first kiss. She is about to gladly kiss him when Shio sees this. Akari trips, revealing her animal print pantsu. So kiddie-like. She punches his gut and the usual argument ensues. Yonosuke’s friends are jealous he has childhood friend babes hanging around him. Yonosuke lies that he doesn’t see them as women. Heard that, Shio? On pretence on wanting to copy his homework, she sits on his lap and starts twerking. See where this is going? Akari tries to tell them off, especially Shio can copy her homework from somebody else. But since Shio claims he can handle it, this means Akari now sits on his other lap and starts twerking too! Are you feeling it yet?! Yonosuke then shoves them off and goes to the toilet. His pals think he is hardcore to brush them off like that but he is breaking down from all the sexy time in the toilet. Shio and Akari vow to continue until they win his heart.
Episode 2
Yonosuke bumps into Shio in a crowded bus. Of course, expect the usual tropes. With the crowd and the bus motion, you bet Shio is pushed close to him and her boobs pressing onto his body. Yeah. With Shio seemingly enjoying the hugging, suddenly she fears he has picked up her signals. Has Yonosuke finally realize her feelings for him? Because he suddenly requests for the next bus stop. They alight and he buys her a drink? He thinks she is suffering from motion sickness like she always have in the past. Bummer. Then she sits and leans against his body, causing him to spill all his drink. In class, Yonosuke and Shio play shiritori. Akari didn’t want to get into this childish game but seeing both accidentally say words that mention each other’s game, Akari joins in and tries to rig it so that Yonosuke says hers. However that dumb guy manages to find another word! Curses! When she has the opportunity to say his name, she retracts and disses all that, causing her to lose the game. Heavy rain after school, Yonosuke sees Akari changing her stockings at the shrine! Oh no! Those animal prints pantsu again! She freaks out and tells him to GTFO! Seeing she has no umbrella, he shares his. You know this trope, right? He thinks she really hates him but in actuality, she doesn’t know what to do in such situations. She notices his wet shoulder and ushers him to walk closer. She even has to point out her handkerchief is for his shoulder. Idiot. Before they realize it, their hands touch as they hold the umbrella. Don’t so shy now. More mixed signals until Yonosuke protects her from a car splashing puddle. All wet now. Did I word that correctly? But Akari’s shirt is all see through. She slaps him, thinking this was all part of his plan! Back to square one.
Shio hops over to Akari’s room to share her snacks. Because Akari is wearing her ear buds, she doesn’t realize Shio is listening to her inner thoughts that she likes Yonosuke but can’t be honest with her feelings! Imagine her horror when she does. This makes Shio suspicious but also confuse since Akari continues to say she hates that guy. More confusion as her search history is all about childhood friend love and her closet filled with pictures of Yonosuke! Not photo bombs! Shio is certain Akari has a crush on Yonosuke. Flashback shows both made a promise not to keep secrets and stay as best friends. I guess it’s a different game now that love is involved, huh? Both girls are in sync as they start dissing Yonosuke for being some dense dimwit. Yonosuke outside heard part of that and thinks they really hate him. He is about to leave when he hears them scream and barges in. Oh, they spilled the drinks and are changing. Oops. Akari beats the hell out of him and this has Shio confirm there is no way this girl likes Yonosuke, right? We know better.
Episode 3
Shio reads the latest romcom manga and wishes for her life to be like that. Well, Yonosuke is soundly sleeping… Yonosuke later gets his hands on this latest manga too but to his surprise, Shio and Akari catch him in the act. He tries to hide it but as they keep pushing him (sending those romcom vibes), his cover is blown but Shio is not surprised because she knows where he secretly keeps his collection! So when Shio tries to get all flirty on the way to school with him, he pushes her away, thinking she is trying to make a fool out of him. Remembering he has duties today to clean the gym storage, she tries to hide there as per the manga to get steamy with him. Unfortunately she will be sleeping there until night fall because the teacher reminds Yonosuke there is no PE today so he doesn’t have to be on today. By the time Shio realizes this, the door is locked and her phone out of battery. Classic. Worse, alone and not with her love. This sucks. Fantasizing about old times is all she can do. Until suddenly Yonosuke opens the door! Because she did not come home and Yonosuke remembered he had cleaning duties, he figured she would be waiting for him here to ambush him. Call it childhood friend intuition. Also, he read this in the manga. Shio is very happy and in her attempts to hug him, he falls on her, creating that typical cliché scene. She is hoping to get flirty with him but too bad, he won’t fall for her tricks! He thinks she is trying to fool him still! Both regretting it in their hearts. Then as they sit down and talk, she hints she wants to be with him a little longer and sits really close to him. Physically touching close. When things are about to get steamy, lights are on, Akari is here. She is stumped Yonosuke did not reply her. He did. 20 minutes ago. In that case, what were they doing in the dark for the past 20 minutes?! Although Shio claims she just needed time to calm down, Akari confronts Yonosuke and asks straight if he likes Shio! He says he does. Like a family. He assures her that they are childhood friends so nothing happened.
Next day as Yonosuke walks to school with Akari, he starts to see her in a cuter way. Even her actions are hinting that she may like him. Thus he can’t dismiss the possible start of his romcom with her. Wow, starting to imagine lewd things already, huh? This is caught on by Akari as she gives him the tsundere act. He takes note of this and also wonders if she too is starting to like him. At the school toilet, Akari confronts Shio about last night. Yonosuke overheard things and thinks they are already fighting over him! As he heads over to stop them, this is when he hears Shio clearing the air that she is not dating Yonosuke. She was just following what happened in the manga and only wanted to make fun of him. As we can guess, the girls realize he heard all this. Poor Yonosuke, he feels so disappointed and runs away in despair. Shio feeling dumb she blew it all. Akari so relieved. Back home in the bath, Akari ponders about this when suddenly Yonosuke enters?! WTF?! Turns out their families are having a gathering with Shio’s too. Yonosuke notices Akari wanting to be left alone, which is contradictory to her past self because she was always begging not to be left alone. She wonders if he remembers the promise. Yes he does. The one where not to leave her alone at night if they go to the toilet! Bummer. Not that one. That time when she was sad when her pet cat died. Yonosuke promised to always be with her. For life! Yes, he still remembers this. So as she is about to ask him when he’ll take her as his wife, here comes Shio all drunk! And she only drank water?! But the one having the reddest face is Yonosuke. We all know why.
Episode 4
Just hearing a couple of young kids talking about love at the park is enough to give Yonosuke the shivers. Think childhood friends are still a pain? Suddenly a girl overhears him noting this so she takes a close look at him. Wherever he goes, she follows. And then after examining closely, she recognizes Yonosuke. Oh, don’t tell me you don’t recognize your other childhood friend, Runa Tsukimi who is a year your junior? She used to stay in the neighbourhood until she moved away 5 years ago. Now she is back to stay at his place but until spring as she is trying to get into the high school here. Yonosuke may be fantasizing about having some romcom with her but with the rate things are going, he is sure that he only sees her as a little sister. And likewise, him as her big brother. Really? Because when she is moving boxes into her room, she trips and he catches her. She confesses she loves him but he takes it as sibling love. Later Akari and Shio visit and are glad Runa is back. While Yonosuke is in the bath, Runa tells the girls she is in love with Yonosuke. The kind where she wants to do ecchi things with him. Oh no. Red alert. Now the duo are scared to leave her alone with the guy. However Runa has a penchant to get close to him so the girls have to tear her away. Even sitting with them, her foot starts to caress Yonosuke’s foot! Having fun underneath? Then she wants him to tutor her, purposely showing her cleavage. The other girls too want to help tutor her but she gets the best seat, sitting on his lap! Then she confesses she loves him and is about to kiss! Turns out she fell asleep. Phew? You girls better be wary that the competition is up now. Snooze, you lose. With Runa making breakfast for him, he thought he was just overthinking about Runa being romantically in love with her. Until she hugs him and wants to go on a date. Take her to nostalgic places. Frolicking at a river bank, Runa helps an injured kid reunite with his mom. Yonosuke has always thought she’s a kid but she is way more adult than he is. She corrects him that she is still a kid who can’t wait to be an adult. Is there a hidden meaning to it? Conversation interrupted with Akari and Shio joining in. The girls have fun wetting their feet but for Yonosuke, his mind starts drifting looking at them.
Episode 5
Akari tails Yonosuke to the store, worried about what Runa said. Of course he spots her and thinks she is fooling around. Not wanting to lose to him, she claims she is here to buy some stuffs. However she picks this super spicy bread! Yonosuke warns her she’ll die! But the prideful girl remains stubborn. I chose this! In class, she sums up her courage to eat it and damn, it’s spicy as hell! Yonosuke fears she cannot take it any longer but she tells him to watch her finish it all. And boy, she did. While holding his hand! He has new respect for her so in her confused spicy state, she says she loves him before collapsing. With the exams over, it is summer vacation. But Yonosuke realizes he can’t be dumber than his childhood friends so he holes himself up in his room to study! OMFG WHAT?! The girls try to bug him to go with them somewhere for the holidays but this guy remains steadfast in studying. Not even Akari’s scolding that a day’s rest would reset everything. It’s not like he will become a genius over 1 day, right? Sorry girls, not working. Until Shio comes up with a plan. They dress up in their swimsuits! Can we go to the beach? And just like that he agrees. The other head must have made the decision! Turns out Yonosuke’s grades are very good! He just wanted a perfect score like Runa? So did Akari and Shio fail and have to do remedial classes?!
As Yonosuke lies in his bathtub, suddenly the girls come in. WTF he goes to hide under the covers?! WHY?! Oh right. So we can hear what they say and hope something fanservice will happen. Aside boobs talking, Runa then goes into the bathtub. Not sure how Yonosuke contorted himself to hide further! But he did! Runa then poses the question if Yonosuke will see them more than just childhood friends. Akari and Shio deny he ever would. Until Runa says she would be happy if he says he likes her. This makes the duo also hint they would like that. Once the girls are done and Yonosuke manages to get out and clean himself, Runa returns and hints she knew he was hiding in the bathtub. Can’t miss that mole on his ass! Oh, is this blackmail material for him to take responsibility in the future? One day, Yonosuke goes out with Shio alone. Is this a date? Well, if you consider studying at the library as one. Of course Shio tries to get close to him, having some physical contact and this makes Yonosuke confused. He still thinks she sees him as a childhood friend. This has him lament things will never change between them and that they will be doing the same thing as they did before. This has Shio asking if they will always remain as childhood friends even if they marry someone else. I guess so. You can clearly see the sadness on Shio’s face. That is when she poses the question: What if she asks him out. Is this finally the start of his romcom? But trolled once more because she meant ask him out to go buy ice cream with her. Shucks. Back to square one.
Episode 6
Beach episode! Last episode was a preview of the girls in their swimsuits. Now it’s the real deal. Yeah! However with all of them bugging Yonosuke to have fun with them, this guy doesn’t look interested. While he might put up a sourpuss face, inside he is holding it in, hoping to resist all the temptation! Akari thinks she is falling behind because Shio and Runa are being very aggressive today. Since he continues to be a dick, Akari tells him off she was looking forward to have fun with him. An accidental slip has Yonosuke fall into the sea as the girls quickly scoop him up. Eventually he relents and the day just flew by just like that. As they prepare to get on a bus home, because Yonosuke and Akari continue to bicker, the bus left without them. Shio and Runa are on it but they’re tired and already fast asleep. Oh, did I also mention that the phone signal doesn’t work here? Oh well, at least better than dead batteries! Of course, thoughts that it is just the 2 of them alone race through their minds. Akari trying to put up a tough front but the slightest jump scare is good ingredient for her to huddle close to Yonosuke and be a tsundere. Eventually her legs give in so he has to carry her and hike all the way to the nearest civilization. Yonosuke have been serious and tense all the time because he is concentrating on protecting her. She realizes he has not changed. When they finally have phone signal, their families manage to get through and relieved they are fine. They book a nearby hotel for them to stay. You can guess it. Sharing the same room and the same bed. Yonosuke is on his guard expecting the usual Akari but to his surprise, she is quite cooperative. Even when he gets clumsy during dinner, she isn’t mad but thankful. Bedtime. She huddles close to him for warmth. It is then she tells him to look at her like he used to. He then hugs her as she utters I love you. This shocks Yonosuke but then he realizes she has fallen asleep. Next morning, Yonosuke is smirking because last night was definitely the romcom moment he always wanted. He never knew his first would be Akari. So as he goes to talk to her and beaming with confidence, Akari is back to her grumpy and scornful self. She leaves him and heads home herself. Oh well, back to square one. No romcom for you, lover boy. Meanwhile Akari is distraught on what she said last night. Did she really say it? Yes, you did.
Episode 7
Yonosuke is already having his head full thinking about Akari’s confusing actions and here comes Runa asking to hang out further with him because she has to go home for the holidays. Since he isn’t interested, she laments he doesn’t know a girl’s heart. That should be the buzzword. He needs to speak to her privately. Meanwhile Akari is still ruing from what she said to Yonosuke. Her solution? She is going to make him lose his memories with this metal bat! As she waits outside his window to ambush him, she sees him coming in with Runa. He asks about his stint with Akari but in third person. And yeah, asking for a friend. While Akari gets he is trying to ask her about them, Runa paints this romance as no hope! He should let this go and move on! But when he explains about her behaviour, Runa changes her mind and believes she is tsundere! This shock has Akari slipping. Yonosuke spots this and catches her in time. The tsundere being a tsundere, scoffs him off and goes home. This is when Runa starts connecting the dots over what he asked. Oh man, just like that she gets snarky with him and tells him to think about the rest himself! Hmph! Poor Yonosuke, he still doesn’t get girls! Akari sees an ad for the fireworks. And there’s this legend about couples kissing will be together. Do you believe this childish nonsense? Or do you wanna try?
The girls go out shopping for yukata as Shio’s actions has Akari note that she too likes Yonosuke. Likewise for Shio too. Flashback shows they are so close and did everything together. But now they lament that they too have fallen for the same guy. Shio talks to Akari about that legend. Because she plans to ask Yonosuke about it. Akari’s heart sinks but she puts up a strong front to support her. However Shio asks if she is really okay with this. Because she wants to be honest with her and not ignore her feelings. Knowing she wants the same, Akari also admits to it. This makes Shio relief because Akari has always closed her heart. Knowing the truth makes her glad that they are childhood friends. Well, it won’t be so nice to be the losing heroine, eh? And here we are at the fireworks festival with Yonosuke. Shio panicking because she had her chance the whole day to ask him and when that time came, she chickened out. She makes her attempt again but since she is too meek, Yonosuke doesn’t pay much attention and ignores her. You snooze, you lose. Because it seems Akari is going ahead to ask him… And fails! Shio so glad because now they know how hard it is to ask him out! Is this some sort of consolation? With time running out, the girls are egging the other to ask him first?! Do you even know how to play this game?! Anyway, Yonosuke must be the biggest winner as he stays true to himself having a lot of fun. Well, time for the fireworks. Oh sh*t. With the girls fumbling again on the invitation, Yonosuke takes it as they want to be together and not with him. Desperate, the girls finally manage to say it. Now he has to choose one of them. Because both of them will be waiting at different places. Oh sh*t. Can he clone himself?
Episode 8
Yonosuke so confused. Can’t blame him. What if this is another trap set but them? As he runs around looking for them, he spots Akari near a tree and trying to kiss a mask? Of course she sees him and freaks out. Thank goodness a few passing girls are talking out loud about some legend that if you kiss someone during the fireworks, they’ll be together. Oh. Typical Akari’s move is to run away as he gives chase. This gives other men the wrong impression there is a pervert chasing a girl so they arrest him. Akari had to apologize and they both get lectured. Yeah, what a dumb lover’s quarrel. Looking like a couple, eh? Suddenly a call from Shio to say she can’t make it for the fireworks. You see, she felt like an eternity waiting for the appointed time to happen. Then she thought she could kill some time by helping a lost girl find her mummy. Then helping a lost grandma. And then sending a lady in labour to a hospital! Even trying to run back, her sandal straps break. Oh gosh. She’s as good as missed the fireworks. So she starts reminiscing how when her parents were working late, Yonosuke often came to her house to accompany her and stayed with her, refusing to let her be alone. Shio thinks Yonosuke would have done the same thing so she resigns to her fate. As she thinks Akari will be the ‘winner’, I guess Shio has a change in heart. Or at least her heart for Yonosuke has never changed. She tries to run back to the festival grounds barefooted but looks like the show is over. To her shock, Akari and Yonosuke are here! They lecture her about saying it when she needs help but she still remains guilty she ruined their outing. No worries. They can have their own fireworks. Yeah, they bought some to play. Well, must be a waste of money since their fireworks went out with a sputter. At least the sparklers are okay. Even so, best summer for Shio. As to how the duo know about Shio’s predicament, that grandma recognized Akari’s hairpin the same as Shio and she saw what happened and told them about Shio bringing a pregnant lady to the hospital. I don’t know how Yonosuke can fall asleep soon after but I guess this allows the girls to renew their rivalry. Stop blaming themselves because they are strong enough to vie for Yonosuke’s heart. So loving a childhood friend isn’t easy? Girls, I’ve seen dozens of similar genres and even strangers find it hard to be true to their heart! To pull a trick on Yonosuke, they both kiss his cheeks. Yeah, that boy missed it so when he wakes up, he is confused why those cheeky girls are running away! Meanwhile Haru Hinata was also at the festival and she thought she saw Yonosuke. Definitely it was him. About time she showed up!
Episode 9
The usual dilemma from Yonosuke about having romcom with his childhood friends. While on an outing with Runa, Haru recognizes him but he doesn’t. Next day, heading to school with Shio and Akari, Haru once again cycles by to say hi. Haru gets physical with Yonosuke as she also recognizes the girls. However they too are unsure who she is. In school, the guys are jealous of rumours that Yonosuke is hanging out with Shio and Akari. Even the girls are whispering if this guy is dating multiple girls at once. The trio then trace the rumours to being spread by Haru who is a rising athletic star. Yonosuke goes to find her to set the record straight but catches her changing in the changing room. Oops. But she’s not panicking. She’s cool about it. Then the cliché accident in which Yonosuke falls on top of her but instead of getting mad, she gets flirtier. The girls are worried so they go check on him to see him in this compromising position. Wasn’t he going to straighten things out? Before they blow their top, Yonosuke now knows who she is and tells them this is Haru, their childhood friend. You see, they always thought Haru was a boy! So typically tomboyish. Haru laughs at this misconception and gets even flirtier with Yonosuke. Now that he knows she is a girl, is he getting conscious? Haru apologizes for the rumours and will correct them. However she asks if they are dating because think about it, the trio are always hanging out together. Why are they sheepishly denying that? If that’s the case, Haru is relieved because nobody is cheating, right? After school, Haru invites Yonosuke to hang out with her alone. They play basketball and obviously she beats him. Lots of close contacts and near accidents that only bring smiles to Haru. She tries to ask him if he sees Shio and Akari as more than friends. After all, she saw what happened at the fireworks. He denies but she can tell his trademark lying looks. So they challenge each other by doing stupid-cum-funny faces. In the meantime, Haru trying to dig further because she remembers Shio, Akari and even Runa asking her opinion about Yonosuke during their younger days. Although Haru loses, Yonosuke admits he does see more than just childhood friends with the girls. But he is unsure if he is in love. He would feel dumb for being in love if he doesn’t know their feelings for him. Don’t worry. Haru will ask them for you! So when they have a party to welcome Haru, she blatantly asks the girls what they think of Yonosuke. There’s another can of worms opened…
Episode 10
Yonosuke takes Haru away for a pep talk. He reminds her to stay out of this but Haru was trying to help and believes he wants to know too. Well, he says he doesn’t so that’s that. Returning to the rest, they talk about that Pocky stick game they used to play for losers. Yeah, now it rings differently. Kiss, right? Both sides are thinking the other will be mad about this. But the game won’t materialize because Runa returns. However she is afraid of Haru! Why? She blames her for the cause of her trauma for hating frogs. You see when they were young, Runa was fond of this frog plushie. So Haru thought she would prefer the real deal and brought her real frogs! Scared Runa ran but Haru tripped and accidentally all the frogs in the bag spilt over her. Ugh. Haru chases Runa around, trying to make up. Accidentally, she trips and her lips connects with Yonosuke’s! No count? Well, if everybody says so. And the night ended just like that. Everybody pretended it was nothing but deep down, everyone is so damn bothered by the kiss. Next morning, Shio out on a morning run, can’t stop thinking about it. She bumps into Haru as she asks if she has feelings for him because she looked happy about the kiss. Haru denies and tries to throw it back to her that she seemed worried about it so that means she likes him, right? The girls try to outrun each other? I don’t know, is this some logic they will be too out of breathe to talk? Though, Shio mentions she was always the first to do things with Yonosuke and thus she is not jealous?! What kind of logic is this?! In the end, both try to play this childhood friend card. Is there any difference? Shio on her way back, bumps into Yonosuke. She collapses into his arms and then kisses him! From that angle, we viewers are left to wonder. Did they kiss or not?
With this confusing the hell out of Yonosuke, looks like he feels jumpy each time the word ‘kiss’ is heard. Even more so when he sees Shio acting so normal as usual at school. So it did not bother her? Confused. After school, Haru continues to chase Runa. Then they see Yonosuke alone at the park and try to surprise him. But they catch him trying to look up about a girl kissing you! At first they thought he was into Haru but he dismisses it. Relieved? Then they believe it is someone else and bug him who. They think it is Akari but he accidentally gives it away and names Shio. Haru advises to just go ahead to do it and as well as other advices do it. But since he continues to be hesitant and is confused over their relation as childhood friends, the girls change their tune and don’t like a guy who can’t make up his mind. At this rate, he will be rejected by all. In class, he is dejected about this but the class needs to pick a committee for sports day. Because Shio volunteers, Yonosuke soon follows. They are checking the equipment in the store. Yeah, classic and cliché moment to expect, right? Both are trying to ask each other about the kiss but eventually chicken out. You see, Shio is also bothered about that kiss she gave him. In her eyes, Yonosuke looked unamused and thought he was bothered by it. So as they sum up all their courage to ask about the kiss but eventually fail, this presents them a lot of close proximity moments. But as we all know, nothing happens. Status quo. And they act like normal for the rest of the day. Are we getting irritated or what? Since Shio is so obviously miserable about it, time for Akari to have a talk with her.
Episode 11
Akari can tell something has happened between them because they’re acting so obviously strange. Shio tries to run away but when Akari catches, those tears in her eyes. Real tears. Akari believes the kiss is bothering her. Well, Akari thinks it is Yonosuke kissing Haru but for Shio, it is her kiss with Yonosuke. So you bet they’re on different pages as they talk this out. Akari hugs her, believing she is having it hard after being rejected by Yonosuke. As Shio continues to wallow in despair, Akari reminds her that they are childhood friends. She is willing to help her. Meanwhile, Haru takes Yonosuke to a batting centre to cheer him up. She too can tell something is off between him and Shio. He tries to give excuses it is not so Haru reminds him again at this rate, everyone is going to reject him. Worse, everyone will grow apart. I guess that is a harem lover’s worst fear. Damn right Yonosuke gets his mojo back. Shio continues that she wants things with Yonosuke to be like before but is afraid of the thought of being rejected. With everything going through her head, she doesn’t know how to talk to him anymore. She is afraid. Akari smacks her back and reminds her no matter how much they fought in the past, they always made up. This time is no different. That is the bond of childhood friends. This gives Shio hope because a mere kiss with Yonosuke will not break their bond. She will go talk to him. At this point, it dawns to Akari that it is Shio who kissed him! Oh God. Confused! As thanks, Yonosuke gives Haru a gatcha toy. Looks like this is the missing piece she has always wanted from the collection. You feeling something in your heart now?
A call from Shio that she wants to meet. Suddenly a loud crash is heard and the line is cut off. Oh dear. Could she have fallen down the stairs and died?! Yonosuke rushes back to school where she said she was but couldn’t find her. Did he also go around town to look for her?! Where to start?! Nowhere to be found! Not even at home. Oh, but she is waiting in his room! Looks like she tripped and smashed her phone. WTF why she go outside the rooftop just to talk to him?! You see, now she slips and falls on him. Their lips meet! Oh… So that’s why… She hopes to stay as friends. He too hopes the same. So they’re brushing off the kiss again? That night, Yonosuke thinks deep of Haru’s words that everyone will grow apart at this rate. During the sports festival, Shio thinks of teasing Yonosuke and goes up close to him. However… WTF why does he spot a dumb pure face?! He is also like, uhm, innocent? Yeah, the sky so beautifully blue today. HUH?! Gross! Shio summons the rest about this problem. It’s like the guy is freed from all the world’s suffering! Haru tries to give him a shock therapy by slapping him many times but it did not work. Runa then cuddles close to him. The rest also follow suit. Wow, who could ever imagine that Yonosuke’s romcom dream has come true! This must be hell because he gets up and says how silly they are. Because they’re childhood friends and they’re all acting so lovey-dovey. Because they are his precious childhood friends, it would be silly for them to be in this romcom situation. The girls are in shock because, damn, did they get rejected! Say it isn’t so!
Episode 12
The girls are in shock as they narrate Yonosuke’s bad points but eventually the good person he is. Is romcom possible at this point? The event continues with Yonosuke paired up with Akari for the 3-legged race. She is not impressed with this gross version despite he mentions he would like to run with her and would do anything she wants. Wow. Thinking about that kiss now, eh? As the run begins, Akari notices Yonosuke matching her pace even those this puts them in last place. Akari thought she could be more honest if he is this kind. More flashbacks on their past but this causes Akari to be irritated so she runs at her own pace, dragging Yonosuke behind. They’re out of sync but they’re moving up the ranks. She then chides him for not being himself as she blurts out she loves him. I wonder if everybody heard that. Suddenly they trip but he catches her and looks like they’re going to kiss! However Akari uses her hand to shield their mouths. She’s not going to let this gross version steal her kiss! Because Yonosuke continues to be his gross version, none of the girls want to join him for lunch. Elsewhere and alone, it seems Yonosuke has been putting on this gross version act and can’t fathom why they are acting so. But he revels hearing Akari’s confession. That is when his inner voice or rather the real gross version of him pops up and accuses him of getting horny with his childhood friends. Yonosuke denies so gross version turns into sexy visions of his childhood friend, egging him to be horny with them. He tries hard to hold it back but his gross version knows he wants it. Then he gets lectured about how he should’ve been more honest with his feelings and cherish then. Runa finds him and realizes this is the old Yonosuke she knows and hugs him. As she treats him to her lunch, she talks about how strange he was acting the whole day. He tries to psycho himself not to get horny over her but accidentally said that out loud. However, Runa accepts his horny feelings. This leaves Yonosuke confused because there is no way that could happen with a childhood friend, right? Well, here is Runa’s words of wisdom. Come closer…
The event returns with the final scavenger hunt. Yonosuke participates and looks like he hit lottery. Because this one needs him to bring the person he loves! Oh dear. Who is it gonna be?! Short snippets of all his lovely childhood friends. But now he has decided. He heads straight to Runa and has her come with him. The other girls are shocked his true love is Runa. Are you feeling disappointed? Don’t jump your guns yet because he soon approaches them and wants all of them to come with him. Flashback to Runa’s words of wisdom: When she hugged him, she told him that both feelings of horniness and wanting to cherish someone are okay. It’s okay to have both feelings. As they cross the finish line and the judge asking if he really loves them all. His reply is that he doesn’t know but they are all his precious childhood friends. The judge clear him and his team wins. Though, his girls aren’t really that happy with his ambiguity. With Yonosuke ready to be honest with his feelings, his gross version bids goodbye. Next morning, Yonosuke gets a rude awakening. Or rather, the awakening he always wanted? Runa and Shio sleeping by his side. They head to school together with Akari. Haru joining soon after. Looks like her bicycle has a flat tyre so she can’t cycle? What lame excuse is this! Yonosuke feeling the bliss they are all his childhood friends. They fear his gross version will return so they tease him by running away! They hide and see him flustered and confused because now he isn’t sure if romcom is possible with childhood friends.
When Love And Hate Collide…
Well, keep dreaming. There is no harm in doing that. As long as you do, romcom with childhood friends will always be possible! It’s like its version of Schrodinger Cat! So yeah, keep fantasizing, continue to leave everyone in the lurch without picking anybody specific, that way they will continue fighting over your attention and voila! There you have it. Your magical romcom moments with your childhood friends. Ah yes. Yonosuke, you don’t know how f*cking blessed you are having 4 beauties fawning over you! And also a f*cking torture that you can’t really end up with anyone in the foreseeable new future. So yeah. Keep dreaming…
You know the drill. It is a pretty standard romcom harem affair with all the usual antics and tropes from the genre. Guy loves girls and the girls love him back but because love is such a complicated issue when it comes to human beings and even more so in the hands of Japanese anime teens, that is why you can stretch this romcom tomfoolery to a dozen episodes and many will still not get bored of the same tropes over and over again. Sometimes feeling frustrated or bored over the repeated stuffs but we always return for more of the same antics. Just ask yours truly. Heh. Yeah, I guess it is a dream for us otaku losers to have our own harem and since many can’t have one in real life, the next best choice is to obviously watch a series about it. Sighs. Get a life, huh? So yeah, any girls wanna be my girlfriends and fight over my love in real life? Didn’t think so!
So there isn’t anything else much to say about the plot and storyline for this series because well, it is what it is. It is not the most unique of romcom premise because guy and girl(s) who hate each other on the outlook whereas behind all that facade they actually like each other, this has been done many times in many other animes. I’m sure Kaguya-sama Wa Kokurasetai would be the most popular recent anime for this kind of plot. So yeah, to keep this misconception between both sides running (they have to, it is the ‘main ingredient’ for this series), that is why both sides think the other side hate the other due to whatever unfounded and baseless ideas. But deep down, they don’t want to give up and cling onto that faintest hope that he/she may change his/her mind. Yeah well, when that happens, the romcom harem magic ends. The moment Yonosuke chooses one, it is all over. That is why status quo is so important in a harem genre and why all the girls are happy rivals because that is the only way that all of them will continue to be together. Haru said everyone will grow apart? Oh come on. Do that and you lose out big time! Therefore nobody here will dare do that and it will always be back to the safest status quo circumstances. That is how it works! And don’t let the name of this anime fool you. There are no rules to say you can’t be in a romcom with your childhood friends! It feels like a flimsy excuse to cock block everybody!!! A reason for everyone to stay miserably single! Do you not agree with me?! Whatever.
I know they’re trying to spice things up late in the end with Yonosuke turning into some zen monk by rejecting this romcom notion but we all know he is just kidding himself, right? Wow, is he trying to salvage everything by giving up on everything, especially on the biggest dream of his life? How can you have the privilege of rejecting cute girls who are big potentials for your romcom harem! Yeah, this method is the fastest and sure fire way of actually making everyone grow apart! Because this gross-cum-dumb Yonosuke is not the Yonosuke that the girls fell for. So as to play it safe and not wanting anybody to get hurt makes it much worse because you cannot grow or develop if you stay in your safe zone, right? So uh huh. It sounds like a complicated formula that it is better for everyone to fight (fair and square, I presume) and get a little hurt once in a while but that is okay because competition is healthy. Supposedly. So pure Yonosuke who tried to salvage his friendship turned out to be even more detrimental and fell into that classic adage of the guy who tries to catch both rabbits at the same time, will catch neither. So we all prefer the old Yonosuke and fight over his love, right? Yeah, we prefer Shio, Akari, Runa and Haru to show their sexy side to get his attention and falling flat on their butts while doing so. Because that’s how it is. Remember. Status quo, people!
Character wise, what else can I say? It’s the usual same stuffs that you’ll probably find repeating itself in previous blogs of mine in the same genre. It will make me sound like a broken tape recorder. More accurately, I’m just too lazy to write them down again for this series. Heh! So yeah, Yonosuke, main guy in a harem anime. What else is new? Just like any other healthy kid of his age, who wouldn’t want a bevy of cute girls to shower him with attention and love? Yeah, dream on. And of course, he is not some sleazy scumbag who is a pervert in fantasizing such dreams because as we have seen, he is also a nice and kind kid who cares for his childhood friends. It is the biggest factor of why the girls like him. First impression counts. It is the heart that counts. Yonosuke may be a plain guy but they know he has a good heart despite everything that has happened. That is why they nickname and call him as Eiyuu AKA Hero. Who is the hero of their heart? You guessed it. Therefore it is worth fighting for his attention and eventually his hand in marriage. Oh right. Status quo. So Yonosuke, I hate to break it to you but I’m gonna have to say it that your dream is just right beneath your nose.
As for the girls in his harem. Your usual tropes but we can’t cover them all in a harem anime because it will look like this is some prostitute agency! HAHAHA!!! Imagine having girlfriends with personalities that cover all the tropes imaginable. Oh wait… Hyakkano… F*cking sh*t… Anyway… Since we are focusing on the childhood friend trope, now we need a little bit more variety so that they aren’t just copy and paste of each other. So you got the popular and carefree girl, the tsundere girl, the little sister girl and finally the tomboyish girl. I wonder if they’re going to add the returning foreigner girl in the future… Never mind. Good thing they are all childhood friends because the power of friendship will have them be nice and friendly to each other rather than resort to psychotic b*tch fights for the same man they love. Hah.
My personal pecking order is Shio and Akari at the top follow by Runa and then Haru at the bottom. Well, Shio and Akari are your standard beauties so obviously they are tied at the top spot. Runa is like a little retard despite her bold actions but that is only meant to shake things up. A sign that Shio and Akari better buck up or this little sister will steal everything under your nose. As long as Yonosuke sees her as a little sister, she remains a dark horse candidate. The same can be said for Haru because suddenly a childhood friend whom you thought was a guy turned out to be actually a girl! And no sex change surgery was involved! Her mug was after all on the promotional poster. I mean, this Haru girl showed up so late, I was wondering if she would show up at all! Yeah, 2/3 of the season is already over and finally this girl graces our screen. So unless the rivalry gets too heated up and too confusing for Yonosuke to handle, perhaps he’ll take Haru as a safe bet. That’s the only way I can see this tanned athletic girl win his heart. Don’t be fooled by scenes that show her that she might be starting to fall for him because that is part of the element to confuse us that she is not out of contention. Well, at least not by a long shot. Though, I am baffled that if she was in the same school as them, did Haru at least not notice them at all and thus hung out with the? Or did she transfer away but I don’t think so since it felt like she was in this same school for so long. Was she too engrossed with her athletics ability to even consider them? Yeah, it made like as though Haru just popped out of thin air all because of plot convenience and to complete the harem. At the end of the day, it is going to be Yonosuke who has to pick them, right? And yes, status quo rules! It’s the only way to get his harem route, dammit!
Art and animation are quite standard. Cute looking girls because this is romcom anime so your girls have to be looking kawaii, right? Right. Yeah, even your tomboyish Haru is looking as much feminine possible so that people can’t make gay jokes of Yonosuke x Haru!!! HAHAHA!!! Sighs. Sorry. If there is one thing I want to point out about the visuals of this series, it is that the colouring and hues are quite light. It’s like the studio doesn’t have enough budget or they did not allocate enough in the colouring department and thus the visuals from the characters to the backgrounds all turn out to be looking lightly coloured. Sometimes the scenes also look like sketches but it is nothing that will break the anime. Then there’s the CGI. Although sparsely used and doesn’t break the show, it could’ve been a bit better. Especially that bus animation in the second episode that just felt mediocre. Is that a bus or some stiff CGI abomination? This anime is done by Tezuka Productions who did a few series under this genre such as Kanojo Mo Kanojo, Go-toubun No Hanayome, Megame No Café Terrace and Isekai Maou To Shoukan Shoujo No Dorei Majutsu Omega. Maybe that’s why the similar light colouring and hues.
Voice acting is also decent, nothing special to note. The casts are Takehiro Urao as Yonosuke (Hisui in Hanyou No Yashahime), Rin Kusumi as Shio (Hiyori in Slow Loop), Yuu Serizawa as Akari (Yumemi in Kakegurui), Sae Hiratsuka as Runa (Meiko in Boku To Roboko) and Yuuki Yamamoto as Haru (Biddy in Spy x Family S3). If you love your anime songs as super sugary sweet synthesizer pop, then I Love You by the quartet of Yonosuke’s dream harem girls should be your cup of tea. It has all the ingredients of what makes it cute and upbeat. Even more so the cringe, oops I mean cute mini dancing that the girls do in the opening credits animation. It won’t be as infectious and addictive as Gangnam Style but it has its own cringe, oops once more I mean cute charm. But if you like slow-moderate anime pop, Amanojaku by Hikari Codama as the ending theme will suit you just fine. Though, it sounds pretty generic to me.
Overall, another average anime for me even for the romcom genre. There is nothing really new that breaks the mould for this series and it is your typical romcom harem stuffs. If you are a hardcore lover of this genre, you’ll definitely will love it. Otherwise, other casual viewers like yours truly (despite I consider this genre to be one of my favourites), it’s just one of those silly and perhaps guilty pleasure animes of the season. After all, I would be lying if I said I didn’t want to have my own romcom with my childhood friends. Of course the big problem is obviously glaring: I have no childhood friends to begin with! Oh well. So looks like I’m gonna have to start looking on Tinder to start looking for girlfriends of my own. Are there rules that say I can’t get a romcom harem from an online social and dating app?! Never mind, I don’t think girls like me at all in the first place :’(…
Chua Tek Ming~*Anime Power*~ !LiVe FoR AnImE, aNiMe FoR LiFe! 