RogerBW's Blog

Otaku ni Koi wa Muzukashi 25 June 2018

2018 modern romantic comedy, josei manga adaptation in 11 episodes: AniDB, vt "Love is Hard for Nerds". Obsessive fans of games and manga try to balance their passions with real life.

While this is billed as a romantic comedy it's really more of a comedy about lifestyles. Narumi the manga fan has tried to date non-otaku, and it hasn't gone well, but she's still trying to conceal her obsessive nature from her workmates; so she agrees with Hirotaka the games fan that they'll have a dating relationship of convenience. But the other two major characters in this show are also otaku, and each couple has something to teach the other.

That said, it's a shame there's so little progress; once the situation's set up in the first couple of episodes, it's virtually static to the end of the run. On the other hand, the characters have distinctive personalities, rather than falling into generic gender roles, and one can even believe in the relationships as something more than simply conforming to the roles that society expects of them.

OK, most of what actually happens could be in high school rather than the working adult lives that these people have, but there's just a little bit of extra sophistication in the writing (this is a "josei" series, aimed at adult women, which means it gets away from the usual clichés I've seen elsewhere, and I haven't seen enough josei to recognise what are probably its own inevitable clichés) that leaves this as a surprisingly thoughtful piece.

There's been no word on renewal, and noitaminA shows don't usually get continued, but I'll watch more if it's made.

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