RogerBW's Blog

2015 romantic comedy, shoujo manga adaptation in 24 episodes: AniDB, vt "My Love Story". Gōda Takeo is a huge guy, clueless but with a good heart; when he saves Yamato Rinko from a groper on the train, they fall in love.

Not for the diabetic: this is sweet sappy romance in the extreme, with only the most minor obstacles in the path of the leads, to the point that it's unusual to have any tension even at the end of an episode. On the other hand, it's refreshing to see the standard clichés (Takeo initially assumes that Rinko has fallen for his best friend, who's always popular with the girls, rather than for him) brought up and dismissed quickly so as to get on with the main story.

It's also good to see the Big Dim Friendly Guy, a stock part in many series, get the spotlight for once. Sure, he can't really carry the story on his own, but there's a strong secondary cast who keep things moving in a good way (I particularly liked the way Takeo and Rinko form a bridge between his school friends and hers). Even so, nothing much really happens; there's a small challenge, the principals acknowledge that they really do love each other (assuming they even noticed someone/something trying to break them up), and then it's on to the next thing.

This is not at all my usual sort of story, but I enjoyed it a great deal; it was one of my favourite series of the 2015 autumn season. There's nothing particularly innovative here, but it's a basic story told well, with interesting diversions into the lives of secondary characters.

The ending resolves the arc of the moment, but it's certainly not an overall end to the story. The manga series is ongoing, but although it's hugely popular in that format the anime DVDs apparently haven't been selling well, so a sequel is unlikely.