Bocchi na Bokura no Renai Jijou

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Bocchi na Bokura no Rennai Jijou is a nice little gem.

Sure, it's predictable. You can foresee how it would have ended from the synopsis alone but does that really matter?

It's the process of how Bocchi no Bokura came to that conclusion which makes this manga shine. It did not really do anything radical or unbelievable (no aliens, superpowers or over-the-top drama here), it just worked within it's constraints (characters and setting) to craft a very sweet ordinary love story.

What really helped Bocchi na Bokura is that it starred two non-abrasive protagonists, Hajime and Chitose. They were very believable characters. Chitose wasn't cast as some blank-dere ... character, she was a normal girl. Same with Hajime, he was a normal boy. And in the context of Bocchi na Bokura, they were a very snug fit.

If you're looking for a good, innocent love story, give Bocchi na Bokura no Renai Jijou a try.

Most have already expressed their opinions about the series itself.

Initially, I would give this series an 8/10. It's simple, and it's clear that it never intended to be more than that. But a simple story by itself will not warrant a 10/10, hence the initial 8/10.

But then we see the main guy, Hajime, and this series goes down to 6. I absolutely hate the character. He has no redeeming traits all throughout. He is just constantly rude. He's smart, but that actually counts against him because of how inconsiderate he is with other people. Granted, he's just a high school boy, but he is a ... severe and unexplainable outlier with the other characters surrounding him who all seem smart as well but considerate. They brand him a loner but he clearly doesn't seem to be since he talks with a lot of his classmates and already has the witty chops to retort. The whole setting just doesn't justify his character being so rude and unlikeable. While a good story will have characters, circumstances, and dialogue to steer the story, the main pair got together ENTIRELY because the mangaka willed it to be.

"Just f*ck already"

That's it. That's literally the plot. An entire class who yells those same words at the protagonists for 14 chapters until they finally give up and ends up together.

I mean, the art is actually good, and the main characters in just 14 chapters have some kind of developement. But the whole concept of "You HAVE to end up together otherwise you're a loner/loser" is just sad and pretty terryfing too. Like this is an Abe propaganda to convice the japanese Otakus that they must find a girl or else they'll be alone and useless.

So, in short, in the span of a ... summer everyone in a random class of highschool has got a boyfriend/girlfriend (and for the japanese standard that's as irrealistic as a chocolate rain or something) but one guy, who immediately gets yelled as a loner ecc. But obviously there's a cute girl who transfer in their class that same day, and she's single. So, from this point on the plot is literally the whole class that keep telling these two "Just go out already. I mean, there's only you two that are still single in the class so you have to, or we'll just call you loner", since every sentence from the boy's classmates has that word in it. That's...dreadful, seriously. I'm not against the concept of love and going out of course, but how can you possibly enjoy a love story where the two protagonist are forced together by every other character, parents included? Imagine that you're stuck in a sealed room with a girl you've never seen before, and then every friend/parent/classmate you know from the outside tells you "You have to end up with that girl, or we'll keep mocking you for the rest of your life". Wow, such romance, very heartwarming.

I can't give this nightmare more than 2/10, a point over 1 just for the nice art.