Tonikaku Kawaii had been hyped up by the community as a cute, wholesome, and fun little show that focused on the romantic relationship between Nasa Yuzaki and Tsukasa Tsukuyomi. As a manga reader myself, I was quite excited for the release of this show. The studio behind Tonikaku Kawaii, Seven Arcs, has had its fair share of older shows, many being mediocre at best so I was a little bit concerned when they were announced to be leading the Tonikaku Kawaii anime project. However, Seven Arcs managed to produce for the community a wonderful example of what a simple romantic comedy can be.
Most romantic comedy anime, especially the more recent ones that have been coming out, have a typical start with the main character having their first meeting with the main love interest who most people can assume will be the winner once the series completes. There’s not much wrong with this type of approach besides being extremely cliche. However, it’s what comes after that becomes the main problem and one that causes a lot of viewers to get tired of the characters and even drop the series entirely because of it. The rising action of the series gets way too long, causing the show to feel like an endless climb to the top as we get repeated conflicts and drama between the characters and even at times extra characters being added to forcefully extend the plot and add love rivals to further complicate things.
Tonikaku Kawaii doesn’t do that. Instantly from the first episode on you are shown two characters who have fallen in love with each other and married without any sort of long, extended rising action that most romantic comedy anime follow. There is an instant romantic payoff. No frustrating love rivals or back and forths between the main characters as they try to sort out and understand whether they have feelings for each other or not. The show gets straight to the point without taking any overly complicated routes that end up boring and frustrating the audience. The show also proves that a series doesn’t need to end simply after the characters get together. You can still get cute, wholesome, and exciting moments between the two main characters, Nasa and Tsukasa, despite them already being married. You can still have moments just like Nisekoi without the constant dragging and love rivals that often keep the audience disengaged. The audience can enjoy a simple, straightforward story that still contains problems and conflicts, many that are vital for the character development of both Nasa and Tsukasa as well as not feeling so forced.
The art, to many, does not necessarily look good as some viewers find some of the character angles and designs to be either overly-simple or lazily drawn(the former being a bit too common in some cases) but it still serves its purpose and at times even supports the show. A simple art style helps to complement the straightforward and simple story. The colors are bright and help to bring out the comedic value of the show. It’s not the most perfect art, but as long as it serves its purpose and helps to complement the plot and characters rather than contrast and compete with them, then in my eyes that is perfectly fine. This is the same for the soundtrack of the show, which matches with the comedic and romantic tones of the story despite not being overtly noticeable. It’s background music for a reason, helping to support the romantic and comedic moments that are happening rather than overpowering them.
However, Tonikaku Kawaii is not a perfect show. For a story that is meant to mock popular character archetypes and cliches used in romantic comedies, it does not help that the main reason the two got married was because of “love at first sight”. Despite the show trying to convince the audience that Nasa and Tsukasa were a match-made in heaven, it doesn’t seem rather convincing when all the two characters, especially Nasa, say about why they love each other is because they’re “cute”(however, Tsukasa does go into more detail why she is in love with Nasa, which helps to make this flaw not as significant as it could be). And as aforementioned, there are moments where the art is rushed and lazily done. At moments, characters are drawn in weird angles and look very unnatural.
Yet with the few flaws Tonikaku Kawaii has, Seven Arcs has done an excellent job at producing for the anime community a breath of fresh air to the romantic comedy genre, proving that you don’t need overly complicated and lengthened plots with characters being added over and over again for the sake of developing the two main characters. With a simple plot and two lovebirds, Tonikaku Kawaii has shown us how to make some of the most sweet, heartwarming, and memorable moments of this anime season.
