Give it more time, It will shine

Well they better give a really good explanation because Hananoi is genuinely insane. He’s obsessed with Hinase to an unhealthy amount and it gives me the creeps.

So many people have absolutely no ability to interpret fiction. They see Hananoi's red flags and think "omg, I can't believe this show is portraying this behavior as cute when it's actually creepy". Hananoi being creepy is the entire point of the story! People can't seem to make the mental leap that, just because a story is showing something, that doesn't mean the story is saying those actions are good. Same goes for Hotaru. She's definitely being charmed by Hananoi, but she's a self-admitted beginner at romance and doesn't know any better. And even Hotaru is catching that a lot of Hananoi's actions are questionable. She's always noticing when he pushes himself too hard or goes way too far, and it bothers her. Meanwhile, she's making plenty of her own mistakes, like how she keeps dismissing the depth of Hananoi's feelings by stringing him along without realizing it.

This is a story about two deeply imperfect people who are figuring out what love is. Hotaru admits she doesn't know. Hananoi thought he did but, at the beginning, he didn't really know what love is either. He just had an idealized version of it where he found a soulmate and they were 100% devoted to each other and everything was perfect. That isn't actually what love is, though. It was clear to me by the end of episode one that this was what the story would be about, so it's sad seeing so many posts here where people don't seem to realize it.

These two are on a bumpy road towards finding out what love really is, and I personally am finding their story fascinating. It's nice to see an anime actually explore the pitfalls of dating (as opposed to the hundreds of shows about schoolkids in eternal stasis where, if you're lucky, they finally confess to each other in the final episode). It's nice to see a story where the characters are realistically flawed. Everything that Hananoi does is something I can easily see a misguided teenager doing and thinking it was the pinnacle of romance. Everything Hotaru does is something I can see a clueless teenager doing because they didn't know any better. These two are wonderful characters, and it bugs me that more people can't see that because they don't bother thinking for five seconds about the themes of the show they're watching.

yea I agree it is genuinely very good as u progress and I can really see it getting better with each episode so yeah give it time it might turn into a pretty good romance anime.

@Westerlyn
Thank you, you really understand my POV.
I further illustrated what you said in my above reply and happy to share the same opinion with you.
but you don't need to be aggressive with the way you address people, i made this whole topic just for more people to understand that this anime is actually trying to tell something deeper than a lame story about a creepy boy that loves a clueless girl.

I like mediocre romances anyway lol my only issue is with the art, it's so ugly 😭 it's making me seriously consider reading the manga, which is a good thing lol

I understand perfectly well what you want to say and I support it, but it is better to write about this in the discussion of the episodes than to create separate topics. Because people don't like it when people who read manga try to spoil things, even if not maliciously.

@RobertBobert
I'm not trying to spoil anything, it just bugs me that people see very wrong perspective of the story(with the very low rating for now).
and I want them to give the manga a try, I really enjoy it.

i watched 2 episodes and found it lil boring. worth continuing? its been on hold since ep 2aired

@TsutanaiFuun No, I watched episode 7 and it's still the same thing

I am a manga reader and, in my personal opinion, Hananoi is a character who falls really badly after the school festival arc (chapters 39 - 43/ Vol. 10 - 11). I'm not going to provide any spoilers, but I'll just say that Hananoi reveals an extremely dark and toxic side in order to "protect" Hotaru.

Hananoi is a very complex character. Many people love him but, at the same time, many people hate him (regardless of whether he has trauma, that often does not justify why he should behave like that). Still, after that dark arc I just mentioned above, you really begin to see a small significant change in Hananoi (opening up more this time on its own terms).

In my opinion, I think Hananoi would "shine" (in many quotes) if the anime were an adaptation of 24 - 26 chapters. However, being only 12 greatly limits our ability to truly appreciate significant progress both in her actions and in her personality (the same goes for Hotaru, who in this adaptation feels like an extremely generic and empty girl).

@RobertBobert
I'm not trying to spoil anything, it just bugs me that people see very wrong perspective of the story(with the very low rating for now).
and I want them to give the manga a try, I really enjoy it.

Not saying you are right or wrong but give it more time 7/12 episodes in is absurd. Like, someone should probably know if they like the show by now. If it takes a show 8 or more out of 12 episodes to get good then that's a very hard sell.