Review of Medaka Kuroiwa is Impervious to My Charms
A silly premise that struggles to hold up the show, but despite that there are some very real and enjoyable moments that made up for a lot of the parts that took a bit of work to get through. Most characters are pretty one dimensional but occasionally come out with something that sounds more human than a lot of characters in anime. The main couple's relationship was the least interesting part of the show for me, romantic and character development was slow and interactions were repetitive. It was the characters I enjoyed a lot more. Despite most being familiar tropes, many were developed just enough inthe right way to feel more well rounded and having good and bad qualities that stood out to me. At some points someone would say something that made it almost feel like the characters were actors breaking character and talking as normal people.
Example, the 2 main guy characters aside from the Main guy are classic shouty simp tropes that fawn over the Main girl and leer at girls. But in one of the first few episodes they point something out the Main guy that almost felt like a 4th wall breaking comment on the dynamic the show is based on.
Asahi (Main girl's rival) was great. She felt like a regular person had wandered into an anime and was forced to go along with tropes and wacky situations just to get the guy she liked. Her friend was good too, classic supportive friend character but with a bit of an underlying edge.
Main guy was dull, no thoughts. Despite being a major peg the show's dynamic is hanging on, the whole monk think is not developed or explained at all. He only mentions it to 2 side characters that don't matter, and we as the audience have no information. Will this whole love story end with him saying 'Oh, I'm gonna be a monk so despite everything I actually can't have a girlfriend/be in love, sorry.' It literally could for all we know.
Main girl was more interesting, despite not being a character I rooted for in any way.
If a young person has been defined by one aspect of themselves, whether that be looks, intelligence, a specific skill, it to no surprise becomes a big part of their identity. Enter someone in their life that breaks that constant and no doubt it would make an impact larger than a more rounded person would understand. I think a lot of anime looks at that idea.
That thought enabled me to give Main girl a lot of slack on her frustrating behavior. A person in that situation probably could be hyper-aware of image but have little to no experience on other parts of life. It might take them a frustratingly long time to come to terms with something, or develop negative traits that make the character'a thoughts kind of unpleasant to listen to.
Every time it got to the point where I was thinking 'Man I kind of hate this character, I don't want her to win, she sucks as a person', a human moment would break through that would make me go 'OK, she's really annoying but I don't know if I hate her, I don't know if it's completely her fault that she's like this'.
So overall the show had some slow, repetitive, frustrating and icky elements and moments, balanced out with some interesting, reflective, enjoyable and real ones. For me personally, it all ended up balancing out at a 7/10. I'd say give it a try.
Oh, and Asahi best girl