Sukitte Ii na yo. (Say "I Love You".)

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Alternative Titles

English: Say "I Love You".

Synonyms: Suki-tte Ii na yo., Sukinayo

Japanese: 好きっていいなよ。

Information

Type: TV

Episodes: 13

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Oct 7, 2012 to Dec 30, 2012

Premiered: Fall 2012

Broadcast: Sundays at 01:00 (JST)

Producers: Starchild Records, Kodansha, Magic Capsule, Yomiuri Advertising, GANSIS

Licensors: Sentai Filmworks

Studios: Zexcs

Source: Manga

Genres: Drama, Romance, School, Shoujo

Duration: 24 min. per ep.

Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older

Statistics

Score: 7.48¹ (scored by 274,543 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #1656²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #269

Members: 500,588

Favorites: 4,608

7.48

Ranked #1656Popularity #269Members 500,588

Fall 2012TVZexcs

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Episodes: /13

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Synopsis

Friends will only let you down—that is the sad truth Mei Tachibana lives with, ever since she was wrongfully blamed for the death of a class pet by her so-called friends in grade school. Since then, she stays away from people in order to avoid ever being hurt again. However, Mei's life begins to change drastically when a misunderstanding in high school causes her to encounter popular student Yamato Kurosawa.

Yamato finds her intriguing and insists on being her friend, even though Mei wants nothing to do with him. But when a dangerous situation ends with Yamato kissing Mei to save her from the unwanted attention of a stalker, Mei begins to develop feelings for him. On the heels of her discovery that their feelings are mutual, they start dating and she gains not only a boyfriend, but friends as well. Mei, however, finds it very hard to adapt to this new lifestyle, especially in expressing her true feelings towards Yamato.

Throughout misunderstandings of their new relationship, each other, and the attentions of other girls, Mei and Yamato slowly grow closer and learn the true meaning of those three little words: "I love you."

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Sukitte Ii na yo. is licensed by Sentai Filmworks for release in North America. The anime adaptation was followed by a live action film adaptation that premiered in 2014 and earned over ¥1 billion (around 10 million USD) at the Japanese box office.

Episode Videos

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Suki tte Ii na yo.
Sequel:	Sukitte Ii na yo.: Dareka ga
Side story:	Sukitte Ii na yo.: Mei and Marshmallow

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Tachibana, Mei

Main

Kayano, Ai
Japanese

Kurosawa, Yamato

Main

Sakurai, Takahiro
Japanese

Takemura, Kai

Supporting

Maeno, Tomoaki
Japanese

Mutou, Aiko

Supporting

Uchiyama, Yumi
Japanese

Oikawa, Asami

Supporting

Taneda, Risa
Japanese

Kitagawa, Megumi

Supporting

Kotobuki, Minako
Japanese

Kurosawa, Nagisa

Supporting

Ise, Mariya
Japanese

Tachikawa, Masashi

Supporting

Majima, Junji
Japanese

Sasano, Momoko

Supporting

Yonezawa, Madoka
Japanese

Arai, Miki

Supporting

Hayami, Saori
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Satou, Takuya

Director, Series Composition

Kuroyanagi, Toshimasa

Director, Episode Director, Storyboard, Key Animation

Aketagawa, Jin

Sound Director

Kouta, Fumiaki

Episode Director, Storyboard

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Opening Theme

"Friendship ~ for Sukitte Ii na yo. (Friendship～for 好きっていいなよ。)" by Ritsuko Okazaki

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Ending Theme

#1: "slow dance" by Suneohair (eps 1-11, 13)
#2: "Sarari (さらり)" by Suneohair (ep 12)

More reviews

Reviews

Dec 30, 2012

13 of 13 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 7

Skadi (All reviews)

402 people found this review helpful

Oh how I wanted to say, I love you to Sukitte Ii na yo... but I just can’t because you’re a flat two dimensional romance that just didn’t live up to my expectations. It really is a shame, because Suki na yo had a tremendous amount of potential and gave us some things we don’t often get to see in the romance genre. But as the series winds down I found myself lamenting what could have been.

It’s hard for me to be too hard on the romance anime plot premise, I mean they have pretty much already all been done before and they are all mostly silly as well. Suki na yo is no different, with the unlikely story of the hot and most popular guy in school falling for a shy, friendless loner who kicked him down the stairs because she mistakenly thought he flipped her skirt. The beginnings of true and lasting love if I ever saw it. The girl Mei, and the boy Yamato, both have some interesting personality issues on the surface and despite the silliness of their meeting there was some enormous amount of potential in their relationship. However this is sadly mostly wasted over the course of the story.

Now here is where Suki na yo is a bit different from its other romance cousins. For the most part our lead characters are in a relationship together from the beginning to the end of the series. The typical format is 99% courting with the eventual payoff at the end when our little lovebirds finally realize their mutual affections. While it can often be frustrating when it is drug out with silly misunderstandings and character cockblocks at least by then we have a clear understanding why they both love each other. The show is called Say I love you, but it should probably more aptly called Say why I love you.

Even though I have some pretty serious complaints about the way the shows romance and plot unfolds, I can’t say I didn’t enjoy watching this series. But when you compare it with its peers within the genre and even shows that were airing during the same time as this, it comes across as distinctly average and ordinary.

Much in the same way as the story is underwhelming, so are the series main characters. A romance is by nature very character driven and if we don’t get compelling leads it’s pretty difficult to care if they end up falling in love with each other. Mei is your standard "everyman" kind of girl typical in shoujo romances. She’s cute, though not particularly beautiful, and pretty much average in every other way. She’s a nice girl with a strong spirit but very vulnerable as well. Exactly the kind of girl most people can relate too and can root for as well. It’s sweet how she slowly comes out of her shell and makes friends and learns to trust people again as well. Even though this mostly comes across pretty corny and clichéd. Though hell I like corny and clichéd anyway.

Yamato is less interesting and in many ways is also your typical bishounen leading man. Though I will give him some credit for breaking the trend and not being a cold, aloof, and unfeeling jerk. You get the feeling most of the time he has genuine feelings for Mei but at other times he’s actions around her seemed to be a bit condescending and they he was treating her more like a pet and as an equal partner. I felt some aspects of his personality were also very inconsistent, especially later in the series. For a guy who came across as supremely confident he was surprisingly weak willed at times and his distrust of Mei's feelings at times was implausible considering what the pair had been through to that point already.

The supporting cast is the weakest link though and stereotypical shoujo fair. This plays in to the weakness of the plot but basically the same themes are repeated multiple times over the course of the story. Girl appears, of course hopefully in love with Yamato, drama unfolds, girl is rejected and our leads love continues. And the rejected gets new love and becomes best friends with our dear Mei. While I mostly liked the supporting characters they simply lack the depth for them to be actually interesting. Then of course you have to look past the unlikelihood that two romantic rivals are going to be besties afterwards, particularly when one side was involved in some pretty nasty schemes and bullying.

Despite all these flaws though what Suki na yo really does best is both its artwork and musical soundtrack. Both are typical of the genre but I really did love both of the songs. The seiyuu cast is comprised of mostly veterans but none of them are real stars. I thought they did solid, if unspectacular work. While the artwork may not be a masterwork, it is very fluid and reality based, with clothes and body types that stay in the realm of possibility.

Even though in the end I have quite a few complaints about Suki na yo, it’s still a good watch. If you’re really starved, as I was, for a romance anime with a sweet ending and are not demanding to be shown some that’s never been seen before then you should have a good time with it as well.

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Dec 29, 2012

13 of 13 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 9

Stark700 (All reviews)

138 people found this review helpful

Sukitte Ii na yo is a gem. I mean it as a gem that sparkles, shines, and is one of those rare classic shoujo that is pleasing to audience who are into the drama medium. The series is quite something to take an insight on because of the way it presents itself. Let's think of it this way and picture yourself in the story:

You're an individual who has a troubled past. You have been ostracized by various circumstances and nowadays, you don't give a damn what anyone thinks about you or your life. That is till you meet one of the hottest student at school read more

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Jul 30, 2013

13 of 13 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 4

EmoolyCow (All reviews)

134 people found this review helpful

Say 'I Love You.'
Where do I even start with this anime. The title even gives off an exceedingly romantic, unrealistic atmosphere. If there was ever a competition for "The Most Generic Shoujo," Say 'I Love You' would take the cake.
Let's start off with a brief summarization. A reserved young girl who has no social connection whatsoever plays as the object of desire for the most popular, handsome boy in the school. They eventually establish an awkward relationship filled with uncomfortable dialogue and well, there you have it. There really isn't much else to say about this anime. It's simplistic, it doesn't try to break read more

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Jun 16, 2013

13 of 13 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 7

Rinkashikika (All reviews)

108 people found this review helpful

Sukitte Ii na yo was my first romance anime to watch and I decided to write this review in order to convey to you all of my thoughts about it. Well, when I was watching the earliest episodes, I thought it was really underrated. There are many out there that don’t really like it (and I’m talking about girls certainly) and that was always leads it to be given really unfair ratings.

Well that’s exactly the problem with romance animes. Their stories redound to become mainstream and that’s why they don’t appeal much on their viewers, so that makes them complete them without considerate them as a big deal. But here we have something special. A HUGE deal, actually lol.
So, let’s start from the basics.

We have our typical social-awkward girl and the popular hot guy who falls in love with her. Of course I was like “awww” when hearing the typical love words and stuff like “you’re my everything”, but what I liked more was the participation of the other characters in the story. I mean, watching a couple doing stuff all over the anime is totally boring. But here, you will see development in the characters. They will narrate their different pasts, their different stories and reveal sad truths and facts about them. So, there were some life lessons as well. Trying hard to be accepted by the others -so much that you harm yourself, overcoming your fears, the meaning of friendship, be envy of the others, isolate yourself. All these applied on the characters making you enjoy the show as you see how relations between them are being developed. And I think that was actually what made me curious about the next episode, watching it right after the previous ‘cause I just couldn’t wait at all :P What I also liked was the way that characters showed up in the show, leaving you more curious and making you wanting to “explore” their personalities and find out their connection to the rest of the characters, as well (which was an another strong point of the anime).

So, about the “romantic” side, I have to say that I really liked it. You can clearly see what love really means, what love really is just by how the relation between the two main characters is developed. And this anime taught me that love has to do with completing and dedicating completely to each other. Hahah, and I’m putting aside the cute main character, our loving Yamato.

Overall: 7
Sukitte Ii na Yo was a decent romance anime. Not too girly nor boring and totally NOT stupid at all. It can keep you stuck to it until the end through its great love story, the shapely art, the variety of the characters and the zestful relations/connections between them.

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