I could draw similarities to other romances, but the whole theme of this anime is one character does not know how to love and the other loves her. I could draw similarities to Sakura Trick, but only that one of their main characters shares the name Yuu and is the hesitant one in the relationship, well the one who is the most amorous is the long-haired one. But, I will be more blunt.
The romance idea is interesting, but if this anime really has the twelve episode curse (always call the thirteenth episode a "bonus" episode since most anime typically have twelve for the sake of a better naming convention for the curse) going for it, then I have to say the ending was incredibly unsatisfying. But before we go there, let's go back.
The anime establishes the main characters pretty quickly. We have Koito who does not know the concept of love and Nanami, who shares this feeling. Nanami is the typical popular school girl rejecting every confession she receives and is the head of the student council. I always thought it would be funny if there was an anime where somebody just straight up accepted a random confession, but I digress. She does great student council work and is accompanied by her equally "gorgeous" friend, Saeki. Koito is told to join the student council and witnesses Nanami rejecting somebody. Later on, she asks for advice on how to reject somebody. And eventually, Nanami finds out Koito does not know how to love somebody. So, well comforting her as she is on the phone by holding her hand, Nanami abruptly falls in love with Koito right off the bat. Suppose with such a short amount of episodes, we have to be thrown into this right way and this really hints at believing there will not be another season.
From here, this is the entire anime. Nanami loves Koito, but Koito does not love Nanami. The anime is so adamant on this theme that Nanami literally tells Koito at one point that she is not allowed to fall in love with anyone else, but it is okay for her to still love Koito. Very strange romance, but whatever, it could work. We find out later that Saeki harbors real feelings for Nanami, but suffered a horrible experience in middle school with a girl who wanted to date her in middle school and went on to say it was a phase. I can relate pretty well to this feeling and that episode was very sad to watch, especially when said friend confronts Saeki later on and harbors no guilt for what she did to her. This is basically setting up the triangle, though. Saeki loves Nanami, but Nanami sees her as a friend and loves Koito, who does not love anyone. Feels more like a conga line to me than a triangle.
Now, here are where my struggles begin. As I said earlier, had this season simply acted as an ending for a new season, this could have worked out very well. It is too soon to say that this isn't acting as that necessarily, but it is rare for an anime about high school girls to garner another season unless it really pushed the ratings. I want to point out this is going off the anime alone, since I know the manga is rated a lot higher, so maybe it has a much more satisfying conclusion. But for now, the anime just ends with them getting off the train and we do not even get to see the stage show they were setting up for the whole anime. On the other hand, I dislike an anime having a bad ending, so no ending is at least better than that, I suppose. But, if the anime does end with just them getting off the train and you are expected to indulge yourself into the manga after that, then I guess it did a good job since, again, it did not really "end" per se. They just left the story and we have to hope it gets another season.
Subtle negatives are the fairly bottled setting and support characters not getting enough screen time, but you expect that of the twelve episode curse. At least I can say they explored a bit more than a lot of high school anime do, since well they had a lot of time in school and the standard walking home, they explored other characters' homes and even some unique places. Not particularly unique for anime, but unique for the genre. They also really loved using the train for serious moments, but it started to make the scenes feel cliché and that is unfortunate. I can count out the serious scenes that used the train for the classic slow motion effect. Koito being kissed for the first time by Nanami, Koito finding out Nanami would rather die than be herself and one where the memory is vague, but Koito was starring at Nanami well thinking about something.
I suppose we rarely got to know about the characters beyond the serious moments, but it happened sometimes. We did not even know Koito liked marine life so much until the last episode. We find out Kanou is a writer and it serves to setup the plot for the stage show. Which, speaking of, with how much buildup the stage show had, if the anime really does stop here, then that really is the worst to not even get to that part. Hyuuga is basically the comic relief of the friend group of her, Kanou and Koito, but she is not explored at all beyond knowing she likes sports and a male senpai.
I do not have a whole lot else to say but the positives. I suppose I should go over the most glaring score difference of all my ratings, the soundtrack. This is the most interesting opinion I have ever had of a soundtrack yet, but I believe it does not fit this anime at all. I do not mean that in a bad way at all. The soundtrack sounds amazing, but the trouble is it feels out of place in this particular anime. The more serious score works great in serious scenes and fits nicely, well the more happy score feels like it belongs elsewhere. The happy score sounds very enjoyable outside the anime and the orchestra did an amazing job. You rarely hear soundtracks given so much love with the high school genre, so it is very welcomed. This might sound very sad to say, but I really believe the soundtrack drew me into the anime. Without it, I may have gotten bored. Not that I solely rate certain anime on here by that alone, but a mediocre scene with a great soundtrack can make that scene into a good one sometimes. It is easily where the most praise goes.
If I had more subtle praise besides the score, it would be with the blunt nature of the anime. I admire Koito sticking with her guns to the very end and being open-minded throughout, since this did not make it feel like her blunt nature was just a trait to lure in the audience for it to be swept under the rug once she started to fall in love with Nanami. However, she does eventually start to harbor feelings for Nanami, but it is very late into the anime. It shows signs during the sequence of them being outside a building during the rain and at its most prominent during the second-to-last episode no less, when Koito is finally smiling back at Nanami with her heart after receiving her kiss as usual. If there is a second season, it may be finally exploring Koito beginning to understand what love is. But, I did agree with her. Nanami is selfish for telling her to not love what she hates.
Likewise, it seems like everyone else could get their points out very quickly about situations and it did not feel like something took too long to be resolved. I dislike the majority of romance anime for the characters either becoming "closer friends" or having strange romance development that means nothing in the grand scheme of things. This anime at least has a satisfying ending in regard to it not feeling like we were not moving forward at all. But, it is a poor stopgap if nothing more comes of it.
Last thing is I enjoyed that the anime did not only have the main characters as the only homosexual pairing. It was not afraid to introduce somebody else liking Nanami and even have another couple introduced later on that are already dating. It calmly brought forth the idea that some people can have more to know than you think. When Kodama and Hakozaki kissed, that caught me off guard. It was a nice build to the story, especially since Saeki would later confide to Kodama and figure out that she was dating Hakozaki and ask for help with her crush. You feel so bad for Saeki, to have been screwed over and can not be with the one she loves because of it. That is where I noticed the theme of the love conga line. Everyone has shackles of their own. Koito is apathetic, but wants to love. Nanami is in love, but does not want anybody to love her. Saeki is altruistic, but is willing to sacrifice her well-being for it.
I do not recommend this anime at all. Since it most likely will not receive more seasons. Rather, I would recommend reading the manga instead. It has a much higher score and will give you the conclusion you want. I primarily watch anime and have only truly had one manga I wanted to read because the story was just so curious and another because the anime was way too short. I am not a manga person, so if the anime lets me down, that is it for me. People constantly rave about manga being better and Yagate Kimi ni Naru is definitely not an exception. You are much better off reading the manga. But please, listen to the anime soundtrack. It sounds great.
