Sit back, relax and grab your popcorn for the annual “Best Waifu” debate as I present to you the anime review for Shikimori's Not Just a Cutie. Let’s begin
Story: 3/10
Our lead protagonist, Yuu Izumi has a case of bad luck syndrome as anything he does, bad luck will sure to follow and entering his second year in high school, he hopes his luck will change because of his girlfriend, Shikimori, being able to protect any harm coming his way. Along with the rest of their friend group, Kyou Nekozaki, Shuu Inuzaka and, Yui Hachimitsu, they enjoy the school life and with Shikimori around, Izumi hopes his bad fortune will change.
That sets the basis for the show and how far the show goes plotwise. Yeah, there isn’t really much of an overarching plot here or any plot for that matter. We are dropped in the middle of Izumi’s and Shikimori’s relationship that is going swimmingly and they have a great group of friends. From there, it’s just going from one event to the next with nothing really getting added. There is nothing that makes the show feel different from the start to the show to when the show finishes. Izumi and Shikimori still love each other and they still have a great group of friends. All there is in between is how they get along. There isn’t really that moment that can make you believe that the state of their relationship is going to change. It stays the same throughout and that leads to the show feeling stale by the end. There is one part of the show that presents a possible love triangle but that doesn’t really go anywhere because that would go against the status quo that the show presents.
That’s another problem with the show’s story, the status quo. It follows a lot of tropes you would expect from School Rom-Coms and seems to use many of the cliché episodes like the school festival and the sports festival. The main thing it doesn’t have is the beach episode but proceeds to have a substitute. While it does do these things right and with good execution, it just doesn’t try anything new. It just does everything we’ve come to expect and that’s a problem when they are trying to present Shikimori as this cute girlfriend who is also a badass and yet they don’t do anything exciting with it. They use what we expect them to use but tries to put Shikimori front and centre and make her the star of the show. Like I said, this anime feels designed to make Shikimori a standout character and maker her best girl of the year, let alone the season. They could’ve used her to make something feel more original, but it feels like we’re watching something we have seen before countless times in the rom-com genre. It seems like it wouldn’t matter if Shikimori ended up being best girl this season...so how do we break it to them?
Characters: 3/10
So we should start with Shikimori first since that’s the character this show wants to display first and foremost. She is presented as this girl who is cute but is also really cool as well and give us the best of both worlds. While She isn’t an absolute perfect girl since she can’t cook and is very competitive, they want to show that she can overcome any challenge thrown in her way, even with a bad luck magnet like Izumi. While that does make for good waifu material, as a character, it doesn’t look like she grows as a character. She remains near perfect from start to finish which itself is a problem because it never feels like she is trying to overcome something. They do show her beackstory where you could say she is overcoming something but since that is set in the past, we already know the outcome. Again, it feels like this character is designed to be best girl and the ironic thing is that I don’t think she is close to best girl this season. You’ve got the other best girl candidates from previous years, Chika, Kaguya, Hayasaka, Raphtalia (quality of season two not withstanding), Komi and Kurumi. But this season, you have Anya and Yor Forger from Spy x Family, Ushio from Summertime Render, Desumi from Love after World Domination and others like Aharen and Eiko. She is among the candidates but I don’t think she is a serious contender because the majority of these characters here have something to overcome whereas we know she can always overcome anything thrown at her. Her only obstacle would be combating Izumi’s bad luck. Speaking of which, let’s talk about him and their relationship.
I would consider Izumi to be a wet blanket of a protagonist. Just a sweet, nice guy with no naughty intentions and wants to just be a great boyfriend for Shikimori. But he is a bit of a fumbler and just too sweet of a guy. He just doesn’t have any characteristics that make him interesting as it feels like he is a one note character with one defining aspect to his character, his constant bad luck and how it affects his day to day life. Without this aspect, he is basically like every other nice guy school protagonist but lacks a thing called a spine to be a bit more tough instead of being, like I said earlier, a wet blanket. His bad luck is mainly used as a plot device though for two reasons. One, the comedy and two, to make Shikimori look cooler when she protects him. While it is quite amusing to start with, over time, it just becomes tedious. It’s like how you expect Shikimori to overcome every obstacle, you expect Izumi’s bad luck to strike whenever he tries to do something. Both become very predictable and your interest starts to dissipate and you know that these will counteract each other so it will make them less significant than the show wants it to be.
Then there is their relationship with one another which honestly feels artificial. There just doesn’t seem to be any chemistry between these two and while we are told why Shikimori likes Izumi, it doesn’t change the fact that what we have on screen is not working. It just only gives context to their relationship. We start the show in the middle of their relationship but it fails to make us invest into their relationship. It doesn’t feel like a relationship where they are equals. It feels like a relationship between a mother protecting her son. They don’t grow from being with one another, they still act the same and their feelings haven’t changed for one another. There’s barely anything to challenge their relationship in this show. Izumi just feels like a plot device in this relationship to make Shikimori look cooler, so they stuck these two together in a relationship but with none of the setup or natural chemistry to make these characters want to be together.
As for the rest of the cast, there isn’t really much to say as they act like one note supporting characters you’ve come to expect and much like our two main leads, they don’t grow as characters. The main group of friends are just there to fill the friendship group quota. They can add some different dynamic to the situation and they do get their own time in the spotlight, but they are so underdeveloped that giving them their own time to shine doesn’t work. There chemistry with one another though is ironically better than Izumi and Shikimori’s chemistry and does do a solid job of making this friendship between these people feel believable.
Animation: 8/10
Well that was a lot of negativity, let’s talk about something positive. The animation for this series is actually good, particularly with the show’s photography. The show does a good job of capturing the right moment to showcase how cool Shikimori is. If you are going to illustrate how cool she is, you need to make sure that you nail how you display it and in that aspect, the show does it well with the animation itself being able to capitalise on it effectively. In terms of character designs, they do an alright job of making sure that the important characters stand out, despite that they have a stereotypical look to them. So they do their best to spice it up a bit to make them look more unique from their rather stereotypical designs.
Sound: 5.5/10
The soundtrack for this series is okay but I didn’t really pay much attention to it due to it sounding simple and standard. It mainly uses a combination of traditional and electronic pianos (played separately from one another) as well as violins. The usual instruments in romance shows. Compared to other shows, it just doesn’t have the same pull, especially when it is trying to ramp up the emotion but it fails to leave an impact. There were only a couple of times I felt it succeeded but not by much. Ironically, it felt doing the trope thing when it came to the show’s music as well when you think about it. They do the standard thing that they know works but don’t put effort in to make it feel original.
The opening is the main bright spot in the sound department. "Honey Jet Coaster” by Nasuo☆ feels colourful, vibrant and has more energy put into making it feel creative than the entire show. It wants to showcase the relationship between Izumi and Shikimori by doing these different things to hammer the message home. Disregarding the problems with their relationship, I think the opening does it well. I main critique is that it can feel like the opening is going too fast and not giving it the visuals to breathe. But other than that, it’s a good opening.
The ED as well is fun to watch with the art style and video game-esque aesthetic. Titled, "Route BLUE" by Yuki Nakashima, is even more colourful than the OP but less vibrant. Through it’s video game vibes, it showcases the lengths Shikimori will go to to protect Izumi from any bad things that get in his way. The visuals are the best thing about this ED and unlike following the status quo where it would probably be a slide show, they put a lot of effort in. Like the OP, it’s also good.
Conclusion
Shikimori's Not Just a Cutie is not a show I hated nor was it a show that I got tired of watching, it’s just a show that felt like it didn’t try to do anything new. It’s a show that felt designed to showcase the best girl of the season and it didn’t feel like they succeeded. Most of the time, you are only as good as the show itself and with the tropy as hell story, underdeveloped characters, a relationship that doesn’t feel believable and a forgettable soundtrack, it just leaves the series feeling bare and uninspiring. The only bright spots were the animation and the OP and ED, that’s it really. Sure Shikimori is a nice character but forcing us to go vote for her being best girl and being so blatantly obvious about it though when compared to everything else about this show makes it less convincing. Very few characters are able to rise above how poor their shows are and Shikimori is a character that really tries to but can’t succeed.
Again, its not a show I hated and not a show I got bored with. It’s just a show that felt like it needed something more than the standard. Instead, Shikimori's Not Just a Cutie is a waifu bait of show that does the bare minimum to make it passable not not enough to make me recommend it. Especially in a Spring and Summer season that had no shortage of Rom-coms, many which have more interesting premises, which makes this show feel worse by comparison. Watch it if you wish, just don’t expect anything that will make you wish for more.
My Personal Enjoyment: 4.5/10
Overall Score: 4.8/10 Recommendation: Don’t Bother
