Review of My Love Story!!

Ore Monogatari is a 24 episode romantic comedy revolving around the big loveable giant Takeo Goda and his girlfriend Rinko Yamato. It shows there trials and tribulations in being a couple, with some bumps along the way. Story: When this anime first aired I was surprised at how the less attractive male would take leading role in place of the usual blonde and handsome male in every other shoujo, romantic comedy. Little to my surprise that Takeo would be the one with a heart of gold and a much more likeable personality compared to that of his best friend Makoto Sunakawa. However due to Takeo’sfreakishly large stature for his age he has trouble getting the girl he likes to return his feelings and them often falling for Sunakawa instead. After the process repeats itself for many years it would be safe to assume this would happen again after helping the kind and sweet Rinko Yamato.

Making the assumption that Rinko likes Sunakawa, Takeo goes about trying to set the two up. Things stay this way before Sunakawa being the good friend he is and clears up the misunderstanding and helps get the two together.

From there on out we go through their angst, lack of trust, other love interests for both Takeo and Rinko and other stories.

Characters:
Takeo Goda is our main star for the show. He has a large and muscular build despite being a first year at high school. People often mistake him for a criminal as seen in one episode where police approach him. Takeo has a kind personality and helps others who are in need of it without. The downside of his personality is his self-doubt from constant rejection, making the first few episodes of the series quite frustrating.

Rinko Yamato is the main love interest and girlfriend of Takeo she is a sweet and nice girl who often likes to bake sweets for Takeo. After being attacked in the first episode Takeo came to her rescue and she developed a crush on him, even going as far as to track him down via police in order to see him again. I get the feeling that there may be more to her character than meets the eyes.

Makoto Sunakawa is Takeo’s best friend. He has the prince charming look and the laid back personality to make girls think he’s cool. Sunakawa is often rejecting girls as they either say bad things about his best friend or has no connection with them whatsoever. Sunakawa was instrumental in getting Takeo and Rinko together and is often good to clear up misunderstanding both have for one another.

Art:
The art was really nice in this series; it had a lot of shiny and pretty colours to suit the romantic theme. Madhouse was the studio behind this, meaning of course that we’re unlikely to get a second season.

Sound:
The opening “Miraikei Answer” was a nice opening it was sweet and the visuals to go with it worked a treat. The ending song "Shiawase no Arika" was much better to my taste having a sharp vocals and a lovely guitar sound.

Enjoyment:
I very much enjoyed this show. When I first saw it I instantly regarded my two best friends as Takeo and Goda as the personalities matched the characters in Ore Monogatari. The story was refreshing, telling it from the view of the less attractive best friend character. The comedy was entertaining and it gives me hope that even I can find love if my heart is good enough. The only flaws I could think of were the shows length, whilst I did enjoy its entirety I did think 24 episodes seemed like a lot. Another is the text that appeared above characters heads when they were thinking something and not saying it aloud, sorry to nit-pick, but I found that distracting.

Overall:
Ore Monogatari is a lovely show. Being a kind person with a golden personality is more than enough to get the girl of your dreams and this anime portrays that well. Characters are well developed, but leave me feeling there is more to be discovered about the trio of main characters. Story is good, although a bit longer than it needed to be. Art was good and had very pretty colours and nothing wrong with the animation either. There are few flaws in the show to mention.

Overall I give Ore Monogatari a 7 out of 10.

I don’t have any specific alternate recommendations as this show is similar to most other Romantic comedies out there.