If I understand correctly, Our Dating Story: The Experienced You and the Inexperienced Me, is a show about characters with such cripplingly low self-esteem all growing up together and trying to overcome that. On top of a story about a group of people who are all the same on the surface but so wildly different on the inside. This is a concept I can get behind. However, this is a show that feels like nothing goes as the Author intended. Moments that were supposed to be emotional character moments feel unintelligent. Like Ryuto saying "I'm so disgusting for this" because he disagreed with Runa about the color of a flier. Almost all the "drama" in this show could've been avoided with a talk and a little maturity. The characters self-deprecation is hard to watch, it reminds me of my 14-year-old self. I highly doubt that's what the Author intended. To say nothing of Runa's greatly criticized character, the characters in this show top to bottom feel shallow and unintelligent. I don't mean that as in they're idiots or anything, unintelligently written. Although some are idiots too.
In terms of comedy, most of the jokes were just your run of the mill anime gags. I can't say the jokes in this show caused me to laugh much, but for what it's worth, I did laugh a decent amount during this show. Most of it just happened to be at how ridiculous the actual plot was. I kept switching between laughing at it and getting genuinely frustrated. It was hard to pick. In general, the actual comedy was generic.
It all feels somewhat generic. It somehow feels like both a generic romance with no interesting dynamics and a nonsensical melodrama that made you feel like you were missing something from how ridiculous it was. Like the core message behind the show is "Teenagers are fucking stupid". It actually makes "My Stepmoms Daughter is my Ex" look like a well thought out drama. On top of that there're about 0 meaningful twists in this entire story after the first episode. It all goes exactly how you'd expect. I had to force myself through the later episodes.
Personally, never has animation quality been a factor in enjoyment. However, it is worth noting that the animation here is subpar. It's normally not enough to be a bother though, besides in the "Survival Games" episode. That was embarrassing to watch.
To say something positive, I will mention the peppy opening is very good. Maaya Uchida continues to impress.
In conclusion, Media is subjective. Everyone is moved by different things. But to me, "Our Dating Story: The Experienced You and the Inexperienced Me" Is an anime that maybe had a semi-interesting concept, but one that just never got going. Started slow, was nonsensical and frustrating throughout, and had an ending that wasn't "bad", but it didn't make up for having to watch all of this. Perhaps it has to do with my past issues with low self-esteem, but I did not at all like how this was portrayed here. I appreciate the intent, but it just wasn't executed well. 4/10
