Yagate Kimi ni Naru

Yuu Koito has always been entranced with romantic shoujo manga and the lyrics of love songs. She patiently waits for the wings of love to sprout and send her heart aflutter on the day that she finally receives a confession. Yet, when her classmate from junior high declares his love for her during their graduation, she feels unexpectedly hollow. The realization hits her: she understands romance as a concept, but she is incapable of experiencing the feeling first-hand.

Now, having enrolled in high school, Yuu, disconcerted and dispirited, is still ruminating over how to respond to her suitor. There, she happens upon the seemingly flawless student council president, Touko Nanami, maturely rejecting a confession of her own. Stirred by Touko's elegant manner, Yuu approaches her for advice, only to be bewildered when the president confesses to her! Yuu quickly finds herself in the palm of Touko's hand, and unknowingly sets herself on a path to find the emotion which has long eluded her.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Koito, Yuu Main

Takada, Yuuki Japanese

Nanami, Touko Main

Kotobuki, Minako Japanese

Saeki, Sayaka Supporting

Kayano, Ai Japanese

Maki, Seiji Supporting

Ichikawa, Taichi Japanese

Kanou, Koyomi Supporting

Kohara, Konomi Japanese

Kodama, Miyako Supporting

Mori, Nanako Japanese

Koito, Rei Supporting

Komatsu, Mikako Japanese

Hakozaki, Riko Supporting

Nakahara, Mai Japanese

Doujima, Suguru Supporting

Nogami, Shou Japanese

Hyuuga, Akari Supporting

Terasaki, Yuka Japanese

Yamashita, Shinpei Producer

Ogata, Mitsuhiro Producer

Isogai, Noritomo Producer

Kimura, Kaori Producer

Reviews

Jun 6, 2024

Gwynbleidd_Alan

Recommended

Love is a complex subject, encompassing a vast range of feelings and emotions. In media, such as anime, these intricate aspects often get overshadowed by elements like comedy or fan service. However, this anime attempts to delve into the profound complexity of what it means to love someone. Love isn't the same for everyone and some feel like they can't love at all.

This goes particularly for the main character, Yuu Koito, who has never really been able to fall in love. Her counterpart, Touko Nanami does not face the same issue but faces her own complex and difficult problems, unable to love herself and stuck ... in a loop, pretending to be someone she's not. This anime boldly explores the question of what it means to love someone by depicting how different characters perceive love. Each person loves uniquely, and the show excels at illustrating this diversity.

Yuu finds herself in a situation where her relationship with Touku is more than a friendship but also not a romantic relationship.
Instead of trying to define the exact nature of the relationship or answering the age-old question of "will they or won't they get together," the anime focuses on exploring the concept of love and how each character experiences it. This approach offers a refreshing change of pace for the romance genre. The meaty part of the plot is the characters exploring their feelings and questioning why they feel some way or another.

The plot is coherent and has decent pacing but it is definitely a MAJOR disappointment that more or less the entire season builds up to the play, which ends up not being shown whatsoever besides some rehearsals. The supporting cast mostly had memorable personalities, with their own dilemmas and questions about love. The animation was generally fine, but the standout feature was the musical tracks, which greatly enhanced the scenes and made them significantly better.

While the show succeeds in certain areas, it fails in others, primarily due to its unfulfilling ending. With nearly six years having passed since the first season aired, a continuation seems unlikely, leaving reading the manga as the only option for closure. I also felt that, despite the show's original concept and unique take on love, most characters ultimately lacked depth and reverted to stereotypes, with Touku's multi-layered struggles and internal conflicts being the notable exception since I thought there is a lot to unpack with her character, which makes her particularly interesting.

There's much to like in this Anime, and it also offers romantic scenes which can even get a little spicy at times, without moving into the fan service or ecchi territory. It's not perfect by any means and suffers the usual fate of ending on a unfulfilling note with no season 2 in sight that many romances face, but still offers enough to be worth the watch and be a good option in the Yuri category. It's great for what it is and will leave a mostly overall good impression.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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May 22, 2024

veganramen

Mixed Feelings

I think the plot is good and there is depth in the characters, I couldn't say if the story or the way in which the events came to be is very realistic, but it's not at all far-fetched, besides, I really liked the perspectives, the ‘camera’ games, the colours, the art style in general, I think everything gave it a lot more dynamism and you can see that there is a real elaboration in it. However, at certain moments I was bored by a certain monotony that felt like it was going nowhere and when I finally felt it was getting too interesting the season ... ended.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Dec 3, 2023

woopwopp

Not Recommended

It's unfortunate because this is a manga adaptation that had a lot of potential, but I think there was quite a few things holding it back. Especially because of the unsatisfying ending. Thats not a spoiler though, because this was intended to be 26 episodes and ended because of poor reception.

I liked the manga mainly because it was actually substantial on its statements about queerness and self identity, but the anime ended up being inconclusive and unfinished. And even then, some of the characters here are either half-baked or extremely irritating/ trope-y. Especially Sayaka, as much as the fandom for this likes her, on ... a rewatch I found her mindset towards her friend unrealistic and frustrating. And Yuu for some reason never even fully admits to liking Touko in the show, which suggests some view on queerness that its caused by grooming. That doesnt help with Sayaka's backstory either.

This show is a very unfortunate failure in my eyes (if you are looking for explicitly romantic GL anime).
However if you are able to look into the implications set by the story instead of a concrete reciprocation of feelings with the characters, go ahead.

This is seen as a historic moment for Girls Love anime because of how lacking the genre is in terms of stories with endings that aren't breakups or disaster-involved. If you want to see a slow-burn Girls Love without the "yuri-isms" and male gaze, check out Fragtime.

My criticisms aside, this was the first anime I ever watched (I'm a bisexual and I always have tried to find shows that are positive LGBT rep, anime or not), so it does mean a lot to me. And it has some amazing artwork and moments despite its flaws. If you love the classics of GL despite their flaws, this has a lot in common with them in terms of it being a diamond in the rough, in terms of representation.
6/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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