Premise: MC is obsessed with the school goddess to the point of "stalking" her by everyone's (including his own) definition. Goddess continually tells him to leave her alone, which he doesn't. This continues for years. One day MC wakes up and decides to stop, because he's become a "realist" about her being out of his league. From there, the story is a series of reasons why this was a bad thing and a journey towards true love. Harassed goddess girl now seems to miss being harassed but acts in the typical anime trope of the girl who cant express feelings (that only manifested once he stopped) and gets angry when he talks to other girls, goddess girls friend keeps trying to get MC to interact with her again, MC is teased by everyone else for now being a normal guy after being a caricature stalker for so long, and the guys sister who spent years telling him the girl was out of his league now feels bad and and says its dumb to give up on love. It's essentially an obsessive otakus wet-dream for justifying their inappropriate treatment of the objects of their affection. "See, they really want it, they're just playing hard to get". I'd say I'm not surprised since this is from Japan after all, where they have a real issue with this behavior and yet need to pander to the demographic most prone to it for sales. It's usually not so blatant though. The one salient point they made, about his behavior alienating her from others and leaving only loneliness in his sudden absence, was squandered by validating the Stockholm syndrome result rather than both of them building meaningful relationships with others. There's still 9 episodes to go, but it feels like the trajectory is set from story flow so far. With the way this is going and fact its billed as a romance, its essentially looking to turn into the anime version of Family Matters where anime Urkel finally wears down his prey after years of obsessive annoyance.
Absent that, the art, animation and soundtrack are decent. However this appears to be an average slice of life anime focused on high schoolers that doesn't really distinguish itself outside of its problematic messaging. I typically enjoy the school slice of life shows, but the nature of this one has me torn on whether to finish it or not since there are plenty of others that fill the same need without the questionable messaging. I'll likely give it a few more episodes before deciding.
EDIT after watching Episode 4. Perhaps the Japanese wasn't as bad, but the subtitles were.
Friend "Maybe hes one of the people you feel you can belong with"
Girl "Huh? Hes not who I belong with. He stalks me and its annoying!"
Friend "Whether it makes you feel comfortable or uncomfortable, doesn't it make you feel happy that there's someone who likes you?"
WHAT?! Yeah No. This is 100% stalker apologist propaganda. I cant do this anymore. Dropped.
