This is my first ever review on BakaBT, so please, I hope you enjoy!
Chiya Edit: First post from the open Blog BakaBT Scheme. Please leave lots of feedback for this brave soul willing to throw himself into the deepend.
ANN: Kimi ni Todoke
Kimi ni Todoke is probably one of the better shōjo animes that both gals and guys can enjoy with multiple character stories weaved in. The main character that the anime follows is Sawako, probably the sweetest girl alive, who sadly resembles the girl from the Hollywood movie “The Ring.” The majority of her classmates even think her name is “Sadako,” which is the same name as the girl from that movie. Because of this misunderstanding and her shy and timid nature, she is often taken as a ghost seer which scares her classmates off. Sawako has no friends, but remains her sweet self even though no one is looking.
Now to have a romance anime, you need a romance, right? This is where Shota Kazehaya comes in. He is an outgoing guy from Sawako’s class who has a personality trait to make sure everyone is socially included. He never wants to see anyone be left alone and not have any fun. The first time that Shota and Sawako met, it was on their way to the first day of school. Sawako offered him directions, which Shota thanked her for with a smile. She realized that he was the only person to not run away at the sight of her because of her obvious resemblances. From this time, they both had a spark of interest in each other, always watching each other from afar until the day they had to change seats in the classroom.
Up until the seating change, Sawako had no friends, but she had asked two of her fellow classmates a couple of days before if she could borrow some sweats because her closes got all wet. Their names were Chizuru Yoshida and Ayane Yano, both of which weren’t your average 15 year old teenagers. Chizuru is the tom boy girl who likes to rough people up, has too much fun in PE class, and sobs up every time she thinks something is sad (when really, she’s putting it out of proportions). Ayane on the other hand is the complete opposite, with her posh look and style, and calm and collective attitude. She has that preppy girl mentality, but is still best friends with Chizuru.
Once the class had started to pick numbers for where they will be seated for the rest of the year, no one wanted to seat next to Sawako (except for a lazy baseball player named Ryu Sanada, who often slept in class). Shota on the other hand, hated leaving people out or letting people feel bad because of what other people say or think. He took his desk and sat it right next to Sawako’s, basically saying you should never do that to someone and proceeded to talk with her happily. Seeing this, both Chizuru and Ayane moved their desks in front of Sawako and Ayane, thinking the same way about Sawako and not leaving her out. From there, the anime starts the story of how they all become friends and how interests of love conflict with their everyday lives.
Most of the episodes of this series are pretty light hearted, with some heavy scenes to prove points or progress a character’s development. You got a big mixture of “silly” scenes (animation turns comical to show slapstick or to add in humor) and serious scenes. All of Sawako’s -isms are done in the most hilarious way to maximize the comedic value of her Sadako-ness. Chizuru is basically a cry baby a lot of the time, with her childish passion for PE class and any other physical sports. The combination of all the characters really work well in telling the main story between Sawako and Shota along with weaving in story elements of all the other characters and their importance to everyone. It is a little slower paced of an anime (with 25 episodes), but is surely recommended. Remember, it is a shojo anime at heart, and has very many “girl” issues and plot elements. Nonetheless, I think it gave me a lot of insight about how to handle problems in a girl versus girl argument. Not only that, I did really enjoy the whole romance aspect between our protagonists.
Rating: 9.0/10
Animation: Top notch with great lighting/shading effects on characters and the background. This being a school anime there are not that many fancy visual effects. Presentation of everything was a little slow though. 8.3/10
Story: It was a slow throughout the entire anime, but it was not bogged down by empty fillers so it had a nice consistent pacing throughout the 25 episodes. As for the story itself, each story arc had introduced either a new character or something new about a character that everyone can relate to. Character design is also perfectly done. 9.5/10
Sound: The voice actors earned their money on this one, with each character’s voice fitting their personality and look perfectly. Music was good in parts, but not too noticeable in heavy drama points. 8.5/10
Similar Animes: Kare Kano (His and Her Circumstances), Bokura Ga Ita (We Were There), Lovely Complex.
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