What show doesn’t start off slow nowadays only for it to actually become better overtime? Unfortunately many anime viewers are impatient and if they don’t like what they see on episode 1 it’s dropped from their viewing schedule. A good example for this would be the Fall 2011 series “Kimi to Boku”. It had to deal with the consistent comments of “OMG TEH GAY DO NOT WANT (an exaggeration but still..) and “It’s boring”. Now i can talk in depth about the latter criticism. As a hard-core slice of life fan, even i had the urge to call KtB “boring” after the first two episodes. It was almost too realistic: a group of high school boys doing what high school boys usually do. No mechas, no ecchi, no outlandish premise but an everyday look at a regular group of friends. For most people this is just too mundane to give a watch but if you’re open to a slice of life series or this series is your first slice of life experience then watch till episode 3 and then you can drop this series if it still bores you. The hero who saves the show from total boredom and who also breaths life into these group of mundane characters is the boy with the straw-colored hair: Chizuru Tachibana. Chizuru brings more energy to the show than the entire cast combined and it takes a bit to get used to his personality especially in contrast to the more easy-going twins Yuuta and Yuuki, effeminate Shun, and Kaname the typical megane character. But after a while, the show becomes so much better: the cast really works well together, the stories are more heart-warming and the music works really well at times. At times i want to call Chizuru a walking plot device but his own personality gives the show life which spreads to the other main characters in due time. The stories are very heart-warming and you may think “Oh, wow i did that too!”. It’s a series about high schoolers, so expect to relate to one of more of the stories presented in this series.
What really surprised me had nothing to do with the anime itself but the company involved with the production of it. If you were to tell me a year ago that J.C. Staff was going to animate a slice of life series with an all male-cast, i’d laugh at you. J.C. Staff is the biggest abuser of the tsundere anime character and the mascot promoting such characters (Rie Kugimiya) and most of their works are criticized for being unfaithful to the original source, bad pacing or sub-par animation. Most of their series are about tsunderes or moe characters with little or no originality (tell me Hidan no Aria doesn’t resemble Shakugan no Shana?) and i was really fearing for the worst with news of this adaptation.
Luckily it seems that my fears were quickly dashed and i commend J.C. Staff for doing a great job with this series even if it’s obvious they didn’t really put a lot of effort into it: the production values aren't anything special, the occasional CG sakura petals notwithstanding, and the character designs take a bit to get use to but it's nothing horrendous of the sort.
I really love the voice acting in this series. Yuuta and Yuuki’s voices are so scary similar you actually think they are voiced by actual twins but in reality kudos goes to Kouki Uchiyama (Yuuta) and Ryohei Kimura (Yuuki) for doing a splendid job. Of course the real star is Miyu Irino as the spunky Chizuru, balancing a tight line from being too dull and too annoying. Other notables are Toshiyuki Toyonaga (Shun, also Flit from Gundam AGE and Mikado from Durarara!!) and Yuuki Ono (Kaname, many minor roles). The insert songs used in the series are also timed perfectly in most cases, and surprisingly the singer of those songs is a guy! But the real treat for me is the OP/ED: I really liked the cheerfulness of the OP with contrast with the more reminiscent feel of the ED.
To wrap it up, Kimi to Boku was a sweet surprise that managed to pull itself out of the weak first two episodes to become a great watch for us slice of life fans and a good watch to anyone willing to give this show a chance.
2011 was the year to not judge a book by its cover, and Kimi to Boku is one of the many examples of that rule.
