Kimi Ni Todoke takes social awareness a level or fifty too far. Sawako is simply not a likeable character. I get that she's supposed to be and that her innocence is supposed to be endearing, but she doesn't work as a character because her flaws go far beyond just social awkwardness. She lacks a number of very basic human traits, like a complete inability to get angry or offended, regardless of how unfairly she's being treated. In fact, she lacks even the ability to understand when she's being treated unfairly - something most humans learn to understand while we're still toddlers.
Any good story depends on its ability to suspend the disbelief of its audience. But Sawako is not a believable character. Even 14 episodes in, she still gets flustered and red faced when people who have been friendly with her for the past 10 episodes are still friendly toward her. She keeps stuttering and blushing around Kazehaya, regardless of how much time they've spent together. She keeps seeing the best in everyone, regardless of how badly they treat her. She never, ever stands up for herself. She's like someone who fell from the Moon without ever having interacted with humans before.
It's not that I expect anime characters to be 100% realistic, but any good fictional character must be relatable in some way for us to bother. Sawako fails the test. While most of us can relate to social awkwardness, few of us can relate to being so utterly estranged from the most fundamental social cues that a small tree dwelling gibbon could outwit them. And since she's the focal point around which all the other characters act and develop, they too become unbelievable through their interactions with her. And since the entire story is predicated upon misunderstandings based in the above mentioned unbelievable social defects, it falls apart at the seams because it fails to suspend disbelief.
I barely managed to sit through 14 episodes of this. There's lots of good anime out there that manages to tell a coherent and compelling story, complete with full character arcs and satisfying conclusions, in just 12 episodes. I'm less than halfway through season 1. And I've read that season 2 is even worse.
I'm dropping it. Sawako defeated me through sheer annoyance.
