An unlikely romance between an Otaku and a popular but broken girl that awakens their heart to the feelings that they have been hiding from
Based off a popular manga of the same name 3D Kanojo real girl better known as Real girl is a romantic comedy anime that gives us the opportunity to look at what will happen if a high school boy shunned by his fellow classmates for being an otaku was to encounter the beautiful but badly reputed troublemaker Iroha and end up receiving a most unexpected answer to a question that he asked merely as a joke. The first episode of the series made quite the impression on me because of its unique premise of paring an otaku with limited social skills with a popular and beautiful girl that would usually be out of his reach and was interesting enough that I kept it on my watch list and I'm glad that I did.
Taking place in a modern-day Japan the overall story of 3D Kanojo girl follows the life of Hikari Tsutsui a high school student that while kind-hearted and decent is shunned by his fellow classmates for being an otaku and his encounter with the beautiful but ill-reputed high school girl Iroha Igaraishi and the surprising romantic relationship that they both embark on thanks to a daring question and a most unexpected answer. As Hikari and Iroha embark on their most unexpected relationship both must learn to break out of the shells that they have hidden behind all their lives and learn that to find what true love is they must first learn to accept the strengths and flaws of both their personalities and overcome the barriers that isolation in society have created in their lives.
Hikari Tsutsui
Hikari Tsutsui played by new voice actor Teppei Uenishi is one of the main characters of the series and is the main protagonist of the series. A high school student and an anime and game otaku Hikari is a quiet, cynical and blunt person by nature that while intelligent and responsible is someone that is shunned by his fellow classmates due to his interests. As a result of this, in the beginning, Hikari was an anti-social person that was overly negative and preferred to stay detached from interaction with his fellow classmates with is sole friendship within the class being with his fellow otaku Itou. As a result of being shunned by his fellow classmates, in the beginning, Hikari had a hatred of real-life girls and relationships with them and limited the interactions that he had with them preferring instead the animated ones that he sees in anime and manga. While a kind and considerate person by nature as a result of being shunned by his fellow classmates Hikari, in the beginning, was a low-key person and preferred to remain in the background where he can avoid any trouble that comes his way.
As the series goes on Hikari’s personality gradually starts to change as a result of not just meeting Iroha but also many people that he befriends along the way. Though shunning and viewing romantic relationships with real girls as being nothing but trouble as the series progresses this view of Hikari gradually changes. While nervous about romantic relationships but at the same time curious about them Hikari’s desire to understand them was let down by the fact that he had no experience with it and more importantly had trouble reading the atmosphere and understand a girl’s feelings. However, as Hikari interacts more with Iroha instead of retreating back to his world Hikari gradually becomes braver and more willing to bond with and befriend other people that would have been outside his circle of friends at the beginning showing his determination to change himself and match Iroha. In line with Hikari’s new found desire to bond with and befriend others is his new-found interest in knowing the affairs of others especially Iroha and his new friends and try to solve the problems that they are bothered with to the best of his ability. While still nervous to a degree and having trouble putting his thoughts into words Hikari gradually learns how to get on with real people and as their bonds deepen show them the care and kindness that had been hidden behind his walls. While often frustrated by his inability to read the mood and his lack of experience in love Hikari does not let that stop him and tries hard to not just improve his own personality but also learn more about what love is showing how much he values the relationship he has with Iroha and how much he wants to improve as a person so as to match her. As the series goes on and as Hikari’s relationship with Iroha and his friendships with his friends improve it can be seen that while happy that his life is improving Hikari is somewhat constrained with the fear that perhaps one day all of this can change and that one day he might lose everything that he has gained by meeting Iroha and his friends. But until that day comes Hikari will make the best of the situation.
Iroha Igarashi
Iroha Igarashi voiced by veteran seiyuu singer Yu Serizawa of Twin Stars Exorcist fame is one of the main characters of the series and is the main heroine of the series. A beautiful and popular high school girl that attends the same school as Hikari Iroha is a kind, quiet and polite person by nature that’s also responsible and dutiful. Unlike most girls though Iroha despite having many classmates that want to know her is someone that seemingly prefers the solitude of being alone and as a result, she like Hikari lacks many female friends her age. While a quiet person that tries to stay away from trouble it can be seen however that Iroha is someone that dislikes seeing people get bullied and indeed is someone that respects bravery and determination which is best shown in her first interactions with Hikari. At the beginning of the series, Iroha and Hikari had a very unexpected encounter with one another that would later have much impact on their lives. Unlike the rest of the students that Iroha had met until that point, Hikari was unlike anyone that she had ever met before. While socially awkward in their interactions and having interests in topics that are unknown to her Hikari’s bravery in confessing to her and his determination to stay out of trouble was something that really touched her. While finding Hikari’s interests to be unique Iroha unlike the rest of the student body did not look down on Hikari and instead treated him with due kindness something that puts her in good stead in Hikari’s eyes and contributed greatly to his development as a character. While respecting Hikari’s determination to stay out of trouble it can be seen that Iroha dislikes seeing Hikari and her friends be bullied and will try to find a way to hit back at the bullies to deal with them when she can.
As the series goes on Iroha’s personality gradually starts to change as she slowly opens up to Hikari and her new-found friends. While a polite, reserved and quiet girl that seems sure of herself on the surface beneath this it can be seen that Iroha actually is a very fragile person at heart. While certainly having more experience than Hikari in matters of love Iroha due to her looks has had to deal with confessions to her on a daily basis which created not just a large amount of stress for her but also an ill-reputed reputation among her schoolmates. As a result, this created within her mind a very negative image of what a proper serious romantic relationship should be like as most people that confessed to her cannot express a reason for why they liked her beyond her looks and thus creating a belief that people only care about her looks and not anything else. As a result of this Iroha while positive and cheerful on the surface is someone that is noted to be very good at creating masks that she wears to hide her true feelings from others something that was necessary in her life until she met Hikari and made new friends. To Iroha while Hikari is unlike any other boy that she has met before they have many issues that they share that enable them to bond easily with one another. The most prominent of these is the isolation that both feel in school and the lack of trust that they have for their fellow classmates due to their past experiences. While both Iroha and Hikari found it very hard to trust each other at first due to Hikari’s kindness to others and Iroha’s struggles to reveal her true feelings as the series goes on and both learn about what true love is this feeling of distrust gradually vanishes as for the first time in her life Iroha is able to place her trust in someone other than herself. While the relationship between Iroha and Hikari may have started off randomly as they interact with each other and learn more about each other Iroha starts to see and understand the true problems in Hikari’s personality but rather ignoring them as most people would start to instead encourage him to be more confident and proactive showing not just her love for him but also in the faith that she has that like her Hikari would be able to overcome the barriers that he has built to protect himself from an unfriendly society. The character of Iroha I felt was an interesting one that was both well designed and developed with her gradual awakening of her true self and of finding someone that will appreciate everything that she has and not just her looks being the best aspects of her character. I felt that her seiyuu Yu Serizawa really did an excellent job at portraying the character of Iroha.
AMV
In terms of animation, I felt that both the school and the areas that the cast visited during the series were both well designed and animated. The character designs for the cast I felt were also well designed and I also liked the designs of the uniforms that the cast wore as they attended school. The character of Ezomichi which is an anime character from one of Hikari’s favourite shows I felt was interesting as his discussions with it matched well with his desire to find a common ground in society and I felt that her actions in the series which was larger than her role in the manga helped greatly in providing advice to Hikari for the many trials that he had to overcome in the series. In terms of music, I felt that the series OST did a great job of conveying the various moods and feelings that the cast felt as their relationships with each other developed. In particular, I really liked the series opening and ending themes which for the series was Daiji na Koto by Quruli and Hide the Blue by Bish with the former being able to create a sense of calmness while the latter being able to convey a sense of anticipation for the next episode. In terms of voice acting for the series overall, I felt that the series voice cast did an excellent job at portraying their assigned characters. In particular, I felt that Teppei Uenishi, Yu Serizawa and Reina Ueda who portrayed the characters of Hikari, Iroha, and Sumie did an excellent job at portraying their assigned characters. The supporting cast for the series while not featured in this review I felt also did a great job supporting the overall story with Minami Tsuda, Shouta Aoi, Takuma Terashima and Sayaka Kanda doing an excellent job at portraying the characters of Arisa Ishino, Yuto Ito, Mitsuya Takanashi and Ezomichi respectively.
Overall conclusion
In overall 3D Kanojo girl was an anime that I really enjoyed watching with its main strengths being its unique premise, strong story, excellent characters, excellent voice acting and its integration of various but related themes into the story. While the premise of having an average guy falling in love with one of the schools most popular girls is itself not unusual within the anime world I felt that the unique premise that the series introduced to the concept made it sound even more interesting than the base concept something that definitely caught my interest. Within Japan, the term Otaku is a derogatory term unique to Japan that is used to label people that have obsessive interests in aspects of Japanese popular culture such as anime and manga. The negative nature that this term conveys means that people often look down on otaku and view them with suspicion and often causing distances to form between them and the person in question. Having the main character as an otaku that falls in love with a girl I felt was an interesting premise exactly because the lack of knowledge on basic human to human interactions is something that’s unknown to most otaku and seeing Hikari not only try to confront this overwhelming wall that stands between him and Iroha but make it work was something that really resonated with me.
The overall story for the series I felt was one of its main strong points with its focus naturally being the relationship between Hikari and Iroha after their first meeting. True to most otaku Hikari, in the beginning, was someone that adored the world of anime and manga and as a result, bore a distinct dislike of human girls and interactions with humans that don’t share his passion which combined with his lack of social skills made him an outcast within the class that he was part off. Until Hikari met Iroha his life had always been stable and revolved around anime and his passion for it and being able to share his passion with like-minded friends like Itou. But the fortunate encounter between Hikari and Iroha resulted in the birth of not just the unlikeliest of romantic relationships between them but also created within Hikari a desire to change his personality and for the first time in his life embrace the world that he had for so long been ignoring and as a result learn what it actually means to be a human being. While the relationship between Hikari and Iroha is anything but smooth sailing seeing them both work so hard to overcome the many challenges both physical and mental that laid in their path as they try to understand each other’s personalities was something that I thought the story handled really well. But understanding comes in many forms especially when related to love and being able to bond and connect with your other half on an emotional level is just as important a fact that I thought the story dealt with relatively well in showing the secret insecurities that both Iroha and Hikari confronted and eventually overcome as their relationship developed and blossomed. While the development of Iroha and Hikari via their relationship was, of course, the main focus of the story with it comes a secondary aspect that’s just as important as the main one which is how the rest of the school and their classmates and later friends view them. With few exceptions, most of their classmates viewed the couple with scorn not understanding why and how Iroha ended up as a couple with someone like Hikari. But as their relationship develops and Hikari and Iroha’s hearts start to gradually open as they overcome challenges this sense of hatred gradually starts to vanish as for the first time they can see that both are trying hard to overcome the many things that were holding them back. Watching the opinions and attitudes of the supporting cast of the series change as they bore witness to Hikari’s evolution as a character and seeing them gradually realise their error and become friends with him instead of hating him was something that I really enjoyed seeing because it meant that Hikari’s attempts to improve himself had succeeded.
Overall 3D Kanojo girl was a series that I really enjoyed watching with its unique premise, story and character development being its best points. The gradual understanding between Iroha and Hikari of the fact that love is not just about physical attraction but also an emotional attachment to the person that you love was something that I really enjoyed seeing and makes you realise just how deep your love for someone can be. As a final score, I would say that 3D Kanojo girl deserves a final score of 10/10.
