Once again, I have been jebaited by high MAL ratings and hype on reddit. This anime in my opinion, is way overrated. It never really lived up to the expectations that I had for it, and looking back, I don't think I would've missed much had I just dropped it from the first episode. Which I shoulda done to be honest. But since I've finished it, I might as well give a fair warning for those who decide to spend their time watching this piece of work....
The two major problems I had for this series was its story and its character development. The sad excuse of a plot this show has, is explained by some random crap called the "Adolescence Syndrome", which really isn't anything else but fancy talk from the writers for "we're not gonna make a cohesive plot because we don't want to". It drives all the mysterious happenings such as Mai's disappearance in the beginning, to Kaede's memory loss and so on. But my problem with this is, there's literally no connection from one event to the other. One minute, Mai is unable to be seen by society and Sakuta has to work to help her. Oh what, now that she's OK Futaba has split into two? Crap. Wait you're done helping her? Gdi now Mai and her sister has swapped bodies. You see what I mean? There's literally zero way any logical viewer could come up with these sequence of events. Meaning it almost feels like the author was just randomly coming up with events, throwing them at the viewer one after the other in the hopes that they wouldn't be bored out. There are so many "arcs" where it gets to the point that after one is solved, you aren't even impressed or invested because there has been so many already. Come on, you guys can do better than that.
Other than that, we have the two most boring leads I have ever seen in a romance anime. People on reddit raving about how great their romance was, god, please stop overlooking the flaws in it. Both characters were unrealistic af. For one, Sakuta is literally as boring as it gets. A no-talent, ordinary looking high school boy suddenly gets all the girls in a one-mile radius of his house for absolutely no reason. Brilliant idea, definitely hasn't been used before. But at least other male leads are tolerable. Sakuta constantly makes sexual jokes and is proud of the fact that he has lewd thoughts about Mai, and even asks if he can go bath with her at least twice in two different episodes. Like come on, surely you can do better than that in the humor department. He's a douche to his only friend, who actually still tolerates him for being deadpan half the time due to not being able to see Mai. On top of all this, he pulls some Subaru crap towards a younger girl who actually seems to care a lot about him, and only has fixed eyes for Mai.
One part especially pissed me off, it was when Mai and her sister swapped bodies. When the younger sister was walking into the ocean wanting to commit suicide due to being in an inferiority complex, Sakuta stopped her. At first you think, oh good guy Sakuta is going to convince her that her life is worth something. But then the most garbage line comes out of his mouth along the lines of: "Don't do this, you are important to Mai and I love Mai". Like ???, why would you say that to someone? Don't you know its not about you and your crush, but about them? It comes across like oh, I only wanna save you because you are the sister of my girlfriend. That makes no sense whatsoever. Like if I was the sister I just woulda killed myself to be honest, that only pushes the fact that everyone loves Mai and not me. All around just a boring character, who isn't concerned with anything else but getting Mai's attention almost like a dog.
Then we have Mai, who pretty much is a perfect girl with no flaws the whole series. The one flaw she might have is that she has no friends, but she clearly doesn't care about that since apparently just having Sakuta is good enough for her. She literally gets pissed about the fact that a random girl left a note in Sakuta's apartment in the final few episodes and overreacts to it like this anime is some kind of drama, only pushing the fact that she thinks she's some kind of queen. Overall she comes across as arrogant and insensitive. The only interactions she has with Sakuta are just pinching his cheeks and flaunting the fact that she's pretty, making Sakuta say "I love you" and then just saying "I know" to make herself feel good. Other than that, she has no personality or character, and is just another girl who just so happens to be a world-renown model and also the love interest of our ordinary male MC. Great.
The only character I actually appreciated throughout this whole anime was probably Kaede. At least her story was interesting, and she wasn't unlikable. The last three or so episodes on their own, I would give an 8 or a 9. But the rest of the series, averaged a 6 or even a 5.
Seriously, if you enjoy anime that I did (feel free to check out my profile) and are looking for a great romance anime (*cough* watch Toradora you won't regret it) with an interesting plot and a lovable couple, DON'T WATCH THIS. Save your precious time.
Really. I'm not being overly harsh. I don't like giving bad scores. I believe I am a very fair reviewer. My average is well above 8, and the lowest score I've ever given is a 6. But this one deserves that 6, or even worse, and you can trust me on that one.
Hope this review helped.
