Review of My Love Story!!

You’re a kid, you’re a squid, you’re a kid- Oh wrong series - My Love Story review One of My Love Story’s strongest elements is how well crafted and executed the story and characters are, regardless of the supposed cliches and many nitpicks I’ve seen in reviews for this show. Its cheese lies subtly in its favor. We’re introduced to a cast that each have their own unique characters to them, while nothing innovating, it all interconnects their relationship and development in a heartfelt way. From the reviews I’ve read, it’s mostly underdeveloped short introductions rather than an actual review. And highly lacks any depth oranalysis to convey an overall legitimate point. Mini rant over, onto the review.

My Love Story begins when our main protagonist, Gouda Takeo saves the Yamato Rinko from a groper on a train. Thus ushering the flattering romantic comedy. The show is mostly an episodic series that touches on moments for us to understand and appreciate the relationship between Takeo and Sunakawa, and Takeo’s bond with Yamato. In the beginning we are given a touching analogy of two ogre friends that conveys the bromance and challenges Takeo faces on a daily basis. Sunakawa is a friend that always has his friend’s back and accumulates his advice from simply watching people throughout his childhood, understanding the psychology behind people’s action in order to help his thick headed friend, Takeo. This is prominent throughout the show and shows that more to a book than its cover. In each episode we learn about our main character and how he became the person he is, how he reflects himself not because of others, but because of the actions he takes. I didn’t find comedy superbly funny but it makes the moments much more sweeter, creating and immersing conclusive endings to a conflict. There are plentiful of visceral moments that bile up heart wrenching excitement to portray Takeo in a positive manner and gain respect from people who wouldn’t have or didn’t otherwise.

Art and animation are pretty good. There were times when I noticed some slightly odd and derpy drawings, specifically of characters in far shots. Sunakawa just looked awful. There are more stagnate moments than action sequences so you shouldn’t expect much from the animation department, not to downplay it, it is good, just not Fate Stay Night Unlimited Budget level. Onto sound, again, it’s not at all amazing or WOW! like Tokyo Ghoul’s epic soundtrack that it doesn’t earn because the anime fails to tell a complete narrative. Or even Wolf’s Rain, another anime that I’m a bit mixed if it even earns such a FANTASTIC soundtrack for an above average show. I digress, anyhow, I still noticed it enough to convey the cute moments and intimate scenes. The opening was okay to me; it fits well with the anime. The ending on the other hand, I thought brought in a vibe of friendship that you’ll have only between a few friends. The love and caress of those who truly respect and love you. Voice acting did a nice job in consistency with the character design and really matched with the characters. Overall, sound does good job integrating in the show.

Characters can be easily summed up as cliche and generic, but what does that even mean if you just took it out of its context just to bitch about it. Gouda Takeo is your gorilla sized man with a huge heart. He has this charisma and hint of calmness to him that exasperates a gentle soul. Even as a nice person as he is, there are people that talk behind his back because of his appearance. Takeo can be simply stated to be a character putting up a front or some other wacky nit pick, but in what we’re shown, there’s no point in him getting mad or lose esteem. He is well aware of his surroundings and doesn’t let small talk affect him. Takeo’s bromance with Sunakawa has got to be one of the best I’ve seen since Free!. Sunakawa is an awesome supporting character to Takeo. He is always on the sideline watching and observing people in order to understand the situation and then giving his thought and solution. He’s the friend that will always have your back. His reasoning for not dating any girls or liking is the fact that he don’t like no hoes talking shit about his friend behind his back. Bruh, that’s just cool. His calm and understanding nature assists in good balance to Takeo’s thick headedness and even Yamato’s ignorance. Ah, Yamato, of all the squeaky characters I’ve been killed until deaf ears, I surprisingly and pleasantly found her to be quite a joy. Not one moment did I find her annoying because of how well her character is in relations to Takeo and Yamato, as well as how cheesy she is with her friends. It’s moments like these that even the stuff I hate the most, I can love. Yamato is the pillar to Takeo’s character change and the flaws within him. She is able to bring out the ‘real’ human inside of him. From there, we see him do and say things he normally wouldn’t say such as the whole issue with the patisserie dude, Ichinose, of which he found himself to be fine even if Yamato ever left him for someone else. Though we already know no character is without flaw, this shows Takeo’s true nature, that he can feel stress, doubt, and pain for someone so optimistic as him.

There are some criticisms that I have to say, though nothing major enough that it’ll deflect the score of the show. The last two episodes with Ichinose, while I thought it showed the human side of Takeo, it was a bit too underwhelming in impact as a narrative and it felt a little rush to me. But it still concluded good enough to show what they wanted to show. The whole situation with Yukika Amami I thought showed good development for her and Sunakawa but it felt like Snafu with the whole uncertainty, no answer situation. I don’t know. I feel like I just had to complain somehow.

My Love Story manages to efficiently utilize simple character traits and offer a new perspective of the romantic comedy genre. The character relationships are open and gives us answers to situations between characters most other shows bother to drag out for long durations. Or never to hear at all. That is why this show earns a 8/10, and just misses the benchmark for my badass seal of approval. But it is a show that I can recommend to anyone who isn’t a diehard shoujo fan because apparently they are the experts in nitpicking the basic traits but never explaining in context of the story and overall narrative, why exactly? Did you enjoy this review? Hit me up on MAL comment section, Twitter, or Deviantart and I’ll go rest now because I’m burnt out in writing two massive reviews in one night.