Review of My Love Story!!

Ore Monogatari is the ultimate feel good romance anime. It's a break from the standard love triangle/trapezoids, unrequited loves, and shows that either end when the protagonists finally pair up or even end vaguely. You're not going to see the level of drama common for the genre here. There are no big plot twists (though plenty of pleasant surprises). And this is exactly what I think is this story's greatest appeal: subtlety. Many of the episodes could be seen as downright mundane. For example, one episode they go to the zoo. Exciting, right? I'll say it clearly, thisshow isn't for everyone. If you need drama, excitement, and suspense, you'll find it lacking here.

Personally I found this to be something really special, and more often than not I was grinning like a fool from ear-to-ear or laughing out loud. I just finished watching it a second time a month or so after my first viewing, in English this time (not typical for me but I wanted to recommend it to some friends that don't like subtitles so I checked it out and was VERY pleasantly surprised). The interaction between Rinko and Takeo is downright sickeningly sweet most of the time. It's like fanservice for hopeless romantics.

But what really brings this show together for me is the characters themselves. I'm not going to go into too much detail in what makes the individual characters unique, wouldn't do it justice if I tried. What I will say is that the show itself is much like a relationship with a person. It's at first taken at face value and perhaps you form opinions or ideas about the characters that are larger than life. Then you spend more time with those characters, time in which nothing seemingly significant occurs. But you start to notice things about them. Like the way Rinko is sensitive to hot food. Or how Takeo actually scares really easy in theme park horror rides. Each piece is a tiny part of what makes that character who they are. And the characters themselves sometimes observe these nuances about one another and appreciate those aspects of them. That's love right there. Taking a seemingly arbitrary, mundane aspect of a person and thinking it's cute or endearing simply because it's part of who they are and for no other deeper reason. You start to see they do get jealous, even though they have a fairy-tale-like relationship. They get nervous and misunderstand things and even sometimes think that maybe they aren't right for one another. Maybe someone else that has more in common with the person I love can make them happier than I, who seems totally mismatched, can. You start to discover that there is always something else to learn about the people in your life, no matter how long you've known them. One of my favorite lines Takeo says regarding his best friend of over 10 years, "I know his birthday is on September 13th. I even know what kind of underwear he wears. But there is so much I still don't know about him." You come to find that this larger than life guy who seems so strong is just a normal guy at heart, despite all his amazing qualities.

Sure there is some introspective discourse about love and friendship and all that. But that isn't what really makes this show special. It's a story that's more shown than told, through the mundane day to day relationship of a boy and a girl. Through the friendship of two polar opposites. It's the subtlety of it.

Now to some people, a dude is going to save a girl from a groper in the first episode and then pretty much nothing else is going to happen after that. And they're not wrong to see it that way. If you don't totally fall in love with this show in the first few episodes, I can pretty much guarantee it's not going to be one of your favorites. However, I definitely like it enough to recommend anyone who's a sucker for romance give it at least a few episodes. I just wish there was more of it.