AnimeZone

Last time I posted on my blog how In the heart of Kunoichi Tsubaki was my favorite anime of spring 2022. It was fun, exciting, funny and energetic. Exactly what I hope most anime would be like.

Today, I'll talk to you about my least favorite anime of spring 2022 (at least my least favorite that I could pull myself to actually finish): this (dis)honor goes to a TV series called Shikimori is not just a cutie.

Now, before anyone says anything else, I want to point out that this anime TV series was very popular on Crunchyroll. People were talking about it like it was the greatest anime that would drop in 2022. They were saying it was an exceptional piece of art, that nobody could surpass it and that it would be not just the best anime of the season, but the best anime of 2022.

I don't get it.

I watched it, finished it and I will say it's definitely not that. It wasn't the best anime of spring 2022 for me, hell, it was literally my most disliked series.

I actually was at some point, tempted to just drop watching near the end, that's how little interest I had in this show.

Many people say “Give it a fair shot! Don't just abandon a TV series at the first episode. There are many shows that get better over time” and, as much as I hate to admit it, I do agree with these people. But I gave this show not one, not two nor three episodes, but I watched the entire series (at least season 1 of it, as that's the only season that's available as of the writing of this blog post), mainly because I was trying to discover the secret that everyone was already in except for me. I needed to find what was so amazing about this show and I was just dying to discover why people were selling it like it was the next Bleach.

And now, after properly finishing it, I can safely say now “I still don't get it”. What was the appeal of this show?!

The only thing about it that I could find which was above average was the art and character designs. For what it's worth, it was a very pretty and colorful show to look at. I'll concede that much about it. But, if art alone was the only thing that mattered for an anime TV series, Sword Art Online would be considered the masterpiece of the last decade. And it's not, mainly because most people also look at other things in a series, not just the art, to determine how good it is.

What else does it have going for it? The music, while pleasing, is quite forgettable. I finished watching that series just a couple of weeks ago and I can't hum you any song from the show right now even if you put a gun to my head.

The story is just your typical slice of life high school comedy generic story that so many other shows have. The only thing that sets this one apart is that the male protagonist is in an established relationship with the heroine since episode 1. OK, that's kind of cool but that, alone, isn't that incredible.

Tonikawa, Over the Moon for You is also an anime TV series available on Crunchyroll that featured the couple being together from episode 1 and that show was at least 10x better because it followed the life of the main couple and showed how their relationship grew over time, which was actually interesting.

This show, while it follows the life of the main couple, is not as exciting because their relationship feels stagnant, to put it mildly.

Beyond just claiming that they're together and acknowledging this to each other, the main couple doesn't do anything even remotely romantic until, literally, the very last episode. Instead, the show decides to focus on their high school life. Which is boring.

They don't flirt with each other. They don't kiss. They don't even sweet talk to one another. They don't face challenges together that much (or at least not beyond what they're already facing along with their friends) and their relationship doesn't shine through in almost any episode.

What's the story, you may ask?

The male lead of the show, Izumi, is a chronically unlucky individual. Wherever he goes he brings along with him a huge amount of bad karma that causes him to get injured, lose the possessions he usually carries along and, sometimes, even ends up with his life in danger.

Shikimori, his girlfriend, acts like a divine guardian that tries to counteract his bad luck by looking out for him, protecting him and preventing his death, half the time.

She's like his guardian angel, in human form. That's the basic premise of this story.

I have to admit, this premise did sound intriguing to me, at first, and that's the reason I decided to give this show a go. I thought maybe something interesting would happen, some plot point will eventually explain why Izumi is so unlucky, maybe add a fantasy element to it, or maybe it would explain, at least, why Shikimori herself is so infatuated with Izumi in the first place.

For the record, Izumi's bad luck is never actually explained in the show, outside of the barebones excuse that it's simply genetic from his mother. There's no fantastical or mystical element to it.

And Shikimori's reason for her attraction to Izumi is also very barebones as well. They just met, one day, at the beginning of their high school life, Izumi's unlucky nature causes him to lose a slip of paper that's very important to him, that piece of paper gets blown by the wind up a tall tree nearby and Shikimori, when discovering this and seeing how desperate he is to get it back, decides to climb the tree to get it for him.

She succeeds without injuring herself, gives that piece of paper back to Izumi who is very thankful to her but she, internally, is scared that he would see her as very unattractive and unfeminine because of her having climbed up the tree.

Izumi acts kind to her, instead, letting her know that he's impressed by her performance and this causes her to fall in love with him.

That's literally it. You might be mad that I spoiled the plot point of one of the episodes but you have to understand that if this sounds boring and unimpressive to you as you read this, then you'll know exactly how I felt when I watched the episode with my own eyes.

There was no grand backstory to their relationship, she just wanted to be complemented by someone who saw her as feminine. This is something most men would do, which doesn't set Izumi apart from anyone. Why she's so infatuated with him, I don't know.

But she is. And that's the entire premise behind the show.

Everything else is about their friendship with their peers, a possible love rival that threatened to steal Izumi from Shikimori and various shenanigans that take place at their school.

Izumi and Shikimori's relationship should be the highlight of each episode but their very formal interactions and lack of chemistry is absolutely grating to me. I never once thought to myself “These two are meant to be together”. And that's an issue when it comes to romances. You need to have the main couple have chemistry, otherwise, the entire thing falls apart.

Izumi is just kind towards Shikimori. And Shikimori is simply kind to Izumi, in return. That's it. That's their entire relationship summed up in just two sentences. There's nothing more to this.

They never have a quarrel or any disagreements whatsoever. Their relationship is never actually put to the test. They never encounter an enemy or a hardship that makes them question their bond to each other.

They're simply together because the plot needs for them to be together. And that feels so flimsy.

And maybe I don't need that. In fact, I would have been fine with it if they ever evolved their relationship at all.

Don't get me wrong, not all romances need conflicts in them. Even just watching the couple grow together as they discover each other's preferences can be enough to keep me invested. But they don't even do that.

I understand that this is supposed to be their first ever relationship and they're taking things very slowly. I get that and it only makes sense for things to be like that. But I'm sorry, having a virgin couple taking things slowly is not grounds for a good show. It's grounds for a very boring and by-the-numbers show.

The only progress they try to make with their relationship is literally at the last episode of season 1 where, I don't wanna give anything away, they go on a date together and try to take a step further. And without spoiling anything, I will say, the climax is not worth it. It leads you to think that they will do something at least semi-romantic but they cheapen out and decide to half ass it. The climax of the episode is very disappointing.

That episode was not worth the 11 episodes that came before it and, frankly, it was so disappointing that I felt like I had wasted my entire time having watched that series up until that point. I regretted the time I have spent watching all the episodes to that point, saying to myself “Why did I even bother with this show?”. And, I'm sorry, when that's the feeling you're left off with at the end of a season, maybe that show is kinda crap.

Or maybe it's just not for me. I don't know.

The comedy was also weak. It focused entirely on Izumi's unfortunate nature, how he's always unlucky, and on Shikimori's very possessive and jealous personality, even towards Izumi's male friend, Inuzuka, who her boyfriend constantly gets along with quite well.

The idea of having an overly possessive girlfriend be jealous of her boyfriend's best friend is an interesting concept but there's only so far you can go with that idea before it becomes stale. And that's the entire dynamic of their group of friends.

To say that I feel like I should have dropped this show from episode 1 is an understatement. I just don't see the appeal. Yes, it's pretty to look at, but I'd argue that there are much better animes that look pretty that you can watch instead.

You could maybe argue, if you really want to, that this show is “groundbreaking” by the simple fact that it has a very feminine male lead who's constantly reliant on his girlfriend to protect him, challenging the “damsel in distress” cliche and making a point that women can be protective of their boyfriends too, if need be, but that's not enough to make me give it much credit. If that feminist viewpoint sounds nice to you and is enough to justify you watching the show then sure, by all means, go ahead.

But I'd counter argue that the male lead in this show is almost a cliche in itself. He has no personality outside of being polite, weak and extremely unlucky. He is devoted to his girlfriend, true, but he never has that commitment to her challenged ever. It's almost like the author of this envisioned the most cliched damsel in distress you can ever imagine, without any personality or unique traits, but then went ahead and swapped her gender to that of a male and called it a day. There you go, that's literally Izumi. A woman in male's clothing.

Nothing interesting about him, he just is feminine and passive. Hell, Shikimori is more masculine than he is and she's almost just as much a stick figure, the stereotype of a strong woman in anime. Which would be fine if she had an actual character besides simply being Izumi's girlfriend. But she doesn't, she simply is the girlfriend that has to protect her boyfriend from his own misfortune. That's all there is to her.

I think I've rambled enough for one day. Suffice it to say, I did not like this show. Out of all the spring 2022 shows I watched, this is the only one I felt betrayed by, to the point I even regretted having watched it.

If season 2 for this show is announced I'm not watching it. I probably won't even watch an OVA for this, I'm just that burned out on it.

Even if season 2 might contain their relationship advancing to the next level beyond just holding hands, I'd argue it's too little, too late to convince me to watch.

If a show has the best season 2 in existence but has a lackluster boring season 1 before it, I'd argue that, regardless of how good it is, that season 2 is simply not worth the watch