Apart from okay direction, decent animation and nice looking art (especially when it comes to close-ups), I don't see anything unique about this show. There have been plenty of romance stories following exactly the same pattern, I mean stories set in high school, with flashy and popular female student getting into a relationship with male one, who's rather unpopular, nerdy even. Following patterns popular in certain genre is nothing wrong or uncommon, but with each next episode of Kimizero I couldn't not think about how gradually clichéd this show is becoming. Even the supporting characters feel bland and hollow, as if they were to follow specific tropes in their most basic variants.
What I can see special about this anime is the concept itself. While I'm not into the romance genre, I can't recall when was the last time, if it ever was, when I saw one of - let's call them - generic seasonal romance anime placing huge emphasis on one of character's sexual past and making it one of the driving forces of the romantic relationship described in the show. Here, in "Keikenzumi na Kimi to, Keiken Zero na Ore ga, Otsukiai suru Hanashi.", as the title suggests, we have a situation where one main character is sexually experienced in a promiscuous way, which causes fellow students to gossip about, and the other one is - surprise - not experienced at all in this sphere. Sexual intercourse happening in a relationship is nothing unusual, but this anime, at least in my opinion, offers the worst possible way of portraying it and makes social degeneracies look like they were actually nothing wrong at all. I know at the end of a day it's just a cartoon, but come on.
It's not an anime dedicated to adults, but mostly to the teenage audience. That kind of message feels quite unfortunate to appear in such show and will surely be a reason for many to just drop this show early on. That's while I find the aforementioned element as "special", it doesn't have be equal with considering as something undoubtedly positive.
While I find this controversial way of handling romance as weird, even if this anime has had a few cute scenes so far, the rest may see it in a different light. Some people will surely find it as outrageous; others might be neutral or even enjoy it, calling this relation as wholesome. What group will you, dear reader, belong to? I can't tell. Everyone must see with their own eyes whether this series clicks with them or not.
Anyway, as for me, I don't see any reasons to continue watching this show. That's why I will just pass on it, just after watching its first 3 episodes. I was moderately entertained with what I've seen so far, but due to reasons mentioned before, I can't leave any other recommendation than "Mixed Feelings". Still, I think it's worth of checking out. Just out of curiosity. Who knows? Maybe someone reading this review will enjoy it way more than I did.
