Megane na Kanojo

Megane na Kanojo exceeded every expectation I had for it. Going in, I thought it was going to be your run of the mill romance OVA- fun, but nothing to write home about. What I got, however, was a touching series of cute vignettes that capture romance in a warm and authentic fashion, free of the pretensions of a writer simply trying to impress his audience, all somehow relating back to the experience of having glasses. Beginning with the story, the format of these small, potent snapshots of the characters and their lives works out really well, and the pacing is essentially perfect. The fact ... that the episodes are shorter than usual, and there's so few of them, fosters a sense of beauty in them, like the fleeting yet precious moments in our own lives. Though, they're not so short so as to rob each story of its development, and indeed the story of each one arcs gracefully from beginning to end. Furthermore, they're all quite funny in their own relatable ways, especially if you have glasses or have been with someone who does. Honestly, the glasses in each story occupy this weird conceptual space where they're not the most important part of these romantic snapshots, but they are essential in the way that these stories rely on the fact that the glasses are present. They're not this fetish object as one might expect from such a specific anime, and in fact the whole story is rather wholesome, and really engenders a sense of wellbeing. The art similarly evokes this feeling about the beauty of everyday life, and how things can go from normal to perfect in an instant. On the surface it looks like any other anime from the early 2010s, but the way its utilized betrays the fact that it was lovingly made, and the shot composition is meant to be distinctly meaningful. The only drawback with the art is an occasional stiffness of animation, in a setting where fluid emotionality is crucial. The sound is good, with strong voice work and a calm, romantic soundtrack typical of the genre. The best part of the show, however, is the characters. Megane na Kanojo is a decidedly character-driven show, and you really feel that the fate of their happiness rests on their actions, their feelings, and sometimes their glasses. All the couples are quite endearing and interesting in their own way, but my favorite has to be Aya Ichinohe and Takashi Miyaguchi. Something about how their personalities compliment and contrast each other, and how, despite her 'Roman Holiday' fantasies, Miyaguchi is totally ignorant of her stardom, and genuinely likes her for who she is. Their earnest, carefree relationship is what she needs to feel normal, and what he needs simply because he fell in love with her as she drank her coffee day in and day out. All in all, I'm a sucker for a good romance anime, and this is certainly it. Megane na Kanojo is realistic, funny, human, endearing, and above all, honest. It bewilders me that nobody's heard of it- it's not even the first result when you search its title on MAL. Given its quality and brevity, this is an easy anime for me to recommend.

Megane no Kanojo is a very short OVA consisting of 4 episodes that follows the love story of girls wearing glasses. Each episode is dedicated to a single girl and is about 14 minutes long including its OP and ED themes. Despite the lack of length, the OVA delivered in contents. Each episode is fun to watch being lighthearted and the pacing is very nice as the stories revolves around a girl, the glasses the she wear, their circumstances, and how they overcome the hurdles and discover what love is as the episode moves along. Each episode ends with a sense of completeness in it.

The ... animation is average, nothing fancy or eye candy here. The environment looks detailed enough, movements are fluid, and the character designs are interesting and stayed consistent throughout the episode.

The OVA includes an OP and ED theme songs that is nice to listen and the accompanying animation that reflects its overall theme, it has several BGMs that match the scenes it is played upon well enough.

The OVA has a very small amount of characters, each episode consist of the female and male lead and may or may not have any other characters besides the two. Voice acting is very good, I could recognize a few of the VAs and I feel that they match the characters they are portraying.

My overall impression of the OVA is that it did a very good in staying true to its title with each episode having the glasses the main focus of the stories. I enjoyed the episodes all throughout and feel satisfied with a sense of completeness in it. This OVA is recommended for individuals who likes short romance stories that is lighthearted and sweet.

Megane na Kanojo is a 2010 OVA from AIC Takarazuka. It's based off of a manga by TOBi. So, I've never heard of the studio or the mangaka before and I have no idea what to expect. But let's have a look.

Story:

Basically the OVA consists of four short stories with a romance focus that all centre around girls with glasses. Very basic, slice of life stuff but without the strong comedic elements that make so many slice of life series good.

The inherent problem with the series is that it's dull and trite. The romances are very short, not even close to well ... developed and tying all of them into the ladies wearing glasses just seems like a desperate bid to give it some kind of defining characteristic. Like someone told the author that their writing was generic and they thought making all the stories focus on girls with glasses would somehow counter that criticism. Or maybe they just have a glasses fetish. Either way, the writing is insipid.

A big part of that problem is that every episode focuses on a different relationship. So, instead of having a single romance with some decent development, we have four with zero development.

Characters:

The characters are extremely bland and one note. We have a girl who loves her glasses and a guy who likes her but hates glasses... because he had a lousy teacher who wore them. We have a famous idol who uses glasses as part of a disguise and a dim-witted guy who can't recognise her when she wears glasses. We have an awkward university couple who connect thanks to their glasses. We have a girl who wants to be more confident and her old friend who reminds her of the days when she was more socially inept. And none of their romances have any chemistry or interesting elements.

Art:

The artwork is, by far, the best part of the series and even that isn't great. It's pretty decent. The character designs are fine, albeit a bit mundane. The animation flows well. The backgrounds have some nice details even if they aren't all that interesting.

Sound:

The acting is passable. It's not anything particularly good but it's not bad either. The issue comes down to the characters being less interesting than a discarded bubblegum wrapper. You can get Hanazawa Kana, Hirakawa Daisuke and some other highly talented people, but when they have absolutely nothing to work with they aren't going to give their strongest performances. The music is forgettable and uninspired. Which, in all fairness, does suit the series.

Ho-yay:

There isn't any. Not that queer representation would have saved this series. We'd just have some really boring queer characters to go with the boring straight ones.

Areas of Improvement:

1. If you only have around an hour of run time, cumulatively, don't try to squeeze in four different relationships. Just focus on a single one.

2. Just having a romance isn't all that interesting by itself. You need some kind of drama or comedy to enhance the viewing experience. With the length of this, comedy would have been the way to go.

3. You can't produce flat characters and expect talented actors to just imbue them with depth.

Final Thoughts:

This anime isn't bad. It's incredibly boring and provides nothing of value, but there's nothing about it that stands out as outright awful. My final rating is going to be a 4/10. It's a sub-par romance that only a connoisseur of the genre should bother with. For the rest of us, there are much better, more compelling romance works out there.