Review of My Love Story!!

Everybody loves a good romance anime and this one is indeed another good one. But does it do enough to set it apart from its peers? Story & Characters: My Love Story!! introduces us to best friends Takeo Gouda and Makoto Sunakawa. They're neighbours, have known each other for well over a decade and are currently in high school. While on the train one day, they notice that a girl from another school is being groped by a random passenger and Takeo gets him away from the girl. She introduces herself as Rinko Yamato and, after a few times of hanging out,start to fall in love with each other. During the course of our story, Takeo and Rinko learn what it's like to be in a relationship for the very first time, with the former in particular having no clue what to do when it involves a significant other. We watch as they hang out with each other, create new memories and never really waver from that.

The story structure itself stays pretty light throughout the entire runtime and this is basically the definition of a pure romance anime. This can be seen as both good and bad, in that you know that the story will deliver pleasant results, but may bore audiences who are looking for a little more of a stark conflict between our two love birds. Don't get me wrong, this series does have conflict, it just never comes close to leaving that light and happy feeling that the show seems to stick to. With that in mind, you do feel like it starts to get overly comfortable with it's structure just a little bit too much. Episodes can feel the same from episode to episode, despite being about different topics.

Takeo's our gentle giant, but is a perfect match for this series. He's a pretty exuberant individual, which is a complete contrast to his best friend, Makoto Sunakawa, who he calls Suna, for short. Suna's pretty mellow, but calling him monotone wouldn't be correct here. Like Takeo, he's very thoughtful of others and seems to be able to guide Takeo through most of his early days in the relationship between him and Rinko. While I thought I'd get bored of Suna really quick, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed what he added to the series - whether it may be correcting Takeo on the obvious, not panicking when a situation suddenly changes or just being blunt with those around him. Rinko's a sweet girl who is actually pretty small for her age. She's a master baker, something Takeo appreciates from the very first day - hey, you don't get that big by not eating. Like Takeo, she is often stuck worrying about how Takeo reacts to her and is especially worries that whatever she makes wouldn't be to her liking. Watching two people who have no idea how to be in a relationship is simply magical.

Side characters are a bit of a mixed bag. Suna's sister has a short backstory that I appreciated and, due to her familiarity with Takeo, was a nice add to the cast. Nanako and Osamu are friends with Takeo and Rinko respectively, but even though we see them decently often, I wouldn't say they ever really stood out to me as anything special. Takeo's parents get involved in some episodes and they get some pretty awesome interactions with Rinko, much to the likely embarrassment of their son. Rinko's family is oddly never shown here, but I feel like that could have been special. Mariya and Yukika are both shown pretty late in the series and get a few episodes to show who they are. They both go to Takeo's school and add a nice mix to the story. Yukika in particular was fun to watch because, even though she shares similarities with Rinko, you can't help but feel for her at the conclusion of her two-episode arc. Koki Ichinose is also introduced fairly late and his short arc brings out some conflict between Rinko and Takeo that adds a nice mix.

The story's progression from beginning to end does evolve, but they really stretch it across it's two-cour duration. As such, character progression is pretty slow. Slow isn't necessarily bad, but you are asking your audience to stick around longer than some might otherwise. I didn't find myself minding it too much, just because of how much I liked the interactions between our main couple. The last episode felt like a weird place to leave the series off, and I sort of wonder if they wanted to keep going after this conclusion. (Story: 7/10, Characters: 7/10)

Art: This series looks about as pretty as you'd expect for a modern day anime, but the added goofiness is very welcome for a series of this nature. I specifically loved the small font that would appear near a character if they were thinking something a little off-beat, something we saw with Suna a lot. This series obviously has overemphasized lips on many of our main cast and it does look weird in a few scenes, especially with Rinko. (7/10)

Sound: The sound wasn't anything overly spectacular, but didn't distract from it in any scenes either - a norm for many romance anime. The VO work was equally average, though I thought Tia Ballard (Rinko) was easily the best of the bunch. Andrew Love (Takeo) has a very distinguishing voice and was able to project the up and down moments very well. Austin Tindle (Suna) oddly matches his character very well, despite being in plenty of anime that I simply wasn't a fan of his. Much of the side cast had solid voice work too. (7/10)

Overall Enjoyment: My Love Story!! is a good watch if you want to watch a romance anime that's a little goofy, about two characters who have no idea how to handle a relationship. It mostly stays realistic, and lasts for two cours for those that find themselves really enjoying it. I find myself much preferring romance anime with a little more conflict, but this series was still fun to watch. (7/10)