Our Dating Story: The Experienced You and The Inexperienced Me

This is a teenager's romantic show that I think is somewhat useful for boys and young men, but maybe not so much for girls or women. In short you can expect a sugary development, a modicum of drama in the form of misunderstandings, some character development of our couple and enough bitterness to temper the bliss. In conclusion a decent romantic show, mostly generic, low levels of humor and a mediocre production value and performance. The premise is not a new one, nerd boy (Ryuuto) loses a bet and has to ask out the school's most popular girl (Runa - modest gyaru/gal type) and sheaccepts. As the title of the show suggests, she's experienced and he's not. We've seen this before in 'dress-up darling', 'horimiya', 'my first girlfriend is a gal' and several other shows. The premise of this show is not immediately obvious however and the subplot slowly starts to develop as our couple get along. In true soap opera fashion a girl returns from the past who also happens to be related to Runa. Supporting cast is decent but nothing special, the show almost only revolves around the main love interests. Some of the misunderstandings can be a little grating and predictable. Why a 7 (good) instead of a 6 (fine)? Because while a lot of shows milk you for time and just push the conclusion, this one does have a good point to its story and drama and can be more relatable than I think most romance shows, the pair dynamic aside. It's also not littered with fan service and 'kyaaa' peeks, which is a relief. I've already given you the plot summary and what to expect, so go no further if you don't want to know more. The rest from here are my thoughts on how the characters and how the story develops. --- The reason I stated that this is useful for boys is that one of the 'mystifying' elements of girls, when you're young, is that they flip-flop emotionally depending on the social expectations they experience and set for themselves and others. To many Runa is going to be a frustrating character - Despite her investing herself in whomever her boyfriend at the time is, her positive outlook and romantic ideals, she's insecure and very quick to run away from confrontation. Her having had many boyfriends has only given her experiences in a shallow way and when Ryuuto starts mattering to her she gets hurt so much quicker. Insecurity is by no means exclusive to girls, but it is especially prevalent for them since its common for them to ascribe meaning to social interactions that isn't intended or seen by others (something that can continue well into adulthood), which is why women moreso than men are thought of to be prone to drama. Please do not take this as a 'literally all' generalization, all people have some measure of insecurity but because girls mature quicker they experience this faster than boys. Also boys tend to be insecure from a lack of achievement from which they primarily derive self worth. That little tangent aside, the point is that I think the show does a good job of showing you some of the issues you can expect from a school relationship. Not so much repeated impossible timing misunderstandings, but misunderstandings in general and what others might see as an issue even if you don't. And, also to not give up and to figure out what you want and go for it. I don't think Runa is particularly realistic, but I recognize many facets of her behaviour from past relationships and I think it makes for a decently considered story. Ryuuto himself is nothing to write home about, he's mostly an everyman who makes a few good observations and starts steering his life in a long term direction which is admirable and a good approach. I think his limitations are what you could expect from an inexperienced boy, so his weaknesses aren't annoying or particularly unrealistic, at least for a somewhat socially awkward nerd.

There’s almost always one random anime that will get some controversy no matter if for something that is minimal or stupid yet will become the center of criticisms about the show, and in this case the series that got this treatment was KimiZero. For some reason, the main girl made some people go crazy with part of her gimmick, which in this series is that she already had relationships with other boys in the past and even had sex with them. That’s all, and as it was proven in the past by series like HigeHiro where you could complain about basically anything like bad writing,bad animation, badly written characters, etc, but instead people ignore them and whine about a completely unrelated thing, as the main complain there was also that the girl in the cover wasn’t a virgin. Some people will say that the writing of this series seems like it was made by an incel, and I have to disagree, after all, that kind of people are the most likely to complain that the girl had sex before. In fact, I can’t comprehend how such a simple series like a romcom got so misunderstood, the memo that you get from here is not that having multiple relationships and sex with literally anything is good, no, the series paints this in a negative light and Runa regrets it because it happened due to her bad decisions on how to make a significant relationship. The fact that this simple fact gets over so many people’s heads is surprising to me, as it is something very easy to pick up from so many episodes, the one in the festival in particular is extremely blatant about this. This series at least tries to make sense, as some people will have a sexual life earlier than others, and they might regret it later if it isn’t with someone that matters to them in the first place. But now, is KimiZero a good series? Of course fucking not, as much as I want to side with the fans of this series, that simply isn’t possible for me. At the very least, I think this series is commendable for actually having the main girl who is super popular and beautiful interacting with boys, and having had relationships in the past, because in most romcoms God forbid that the main girl has ever interacted with any boy except the MC. The series obviously suffers from average romcom and light novel writing, nothing actually exciting happens, and when it does, it is written like a Mexican telenovela, like, do people think that the twin sister of a girl faking to be her is not something ridiculous? As it happens, the MC is also bland as hell and the relationship came to be in a completely unnatural way, it happened because Tanjiro asked Runa to become his girlfriend after he lost a bet with his friends and she simply accepts like it was nothing, no one in their sane mind would see this and think it isn’t forced, and even if some moments between Tanjiro and Runa were fine enough, it isn’t enough to see this series and think it was anything meaningful. I can stand the telenovela tier writing because I grew up watching a lot of them, so that’s why most romcoms are not something that bother me at all, and this one is not exception, this series is simply boring most of the time and not much more, it isn’t actively annoying, and it was a good enough joke when a character started talking about something they are very passionate about and the other was completely lost without understanding anything. Nicole acting like a bitch towards Tanjiro was always something weird, she constantly told him that he shouldn’t do anything bad about Runa, when he looks so inoffensive and his personality is literally “I’m nice”, I can only wonder if she was doing the same for previous Runa boyfriends or if she saw Runa being hurt so many times she started being overprotective coincidentally with him, I want to believe the second one, especially because Runa seems to ignore a lot of her advices, but there’s nothing to tell me that she isn’t like this because the current guy is the protagonist and apparently she must annoy him. There’s also other romantic relationships happening in the background with Tanjiro’s friends and the other gyaru, but they go nowhere and fail miserably at it. And Maria is probably the side character that is most important, her deal is really weird, she is also in love with Tanjiro and he even confessed his love towards her in the past but she rejected him, so why is she seeking for his love now even after she rejected him before? Is it just to have more drama in the show, as it happens she is jealous of Runa, but at the same time wants to be more noticed by her because of their relationship? She acts like a bitch half of the series and then victimizes herself, she clearly has problems in her, and it all revolves around Runa and Tanjiro. As it stands, KimiZero is basically just a generic romcom with more drama than it should have, but at the same time has a female MC that seems more plausible than other girls from other romcoms, thanks to her not being an untouchably pure virgin. I seriously cannot make an effort to be on either side of the conflict about the series, since I for one think that anyone can have any relationship with anyone they want, so I cannot agree with the haters, but I also disagree with the people saying this is a wholesome show, as nothing about it stands out as actually meaningful or even cute. Thank you for reading.

As an anime fan, I don’t really have a specific genre that I prefer over others. Each genre has its own charms. An anime of the romance genre like "Our Dating Story: The Experienced You and The Inexperienced Me" usually consists of an emotionally driven story focusing on the romantic relationship between two people. The centrepiece of such a work is the process of falling in love and the organic growth in the relationship, which usually resolves into a lovely romantic ending. Our Dating Story is a bit of a departure from the traditions of the genre. The premonitory signs of its arrival are present inother titles from recent times, signs indicating that the Ani-Manga industry is beginning to pick up on emerging patterns in our society. The result is a title that mirrors how our romantic relationships are changing in ways that I do not think is for the better. With this review I will try to explain my thoughts. The Animation Let’s address the least negative aspects first by mentioning its animation. Our Dating Story has a typical romance art style where the characters are the main focus the majority of the time. The backgrounds are either not shown or just blurry and not as detailed as the faces of the characters. One good thing is that there wasn’t any fan service that would have made the show even more awkward than already is. The Story Our Dating Story has the same setting as in any other typical romance anime, pairing up the most popular girl in school, Runa, with our old boring male MC, Ryuuto. How original. Although actually, it is original to a degree. The character descriptions in the title aren't there for no reason: while the girl, "The Experienced You", is famous for having the experience, the young man, "The Inexperienced Me", is about as popular and experienced as ... well, the inexperienced me. And it's this central premise, being an accurate reflection of societal trends, that gives the anime its spark of originality. However, the presentation of how this love story plays out sits uneasily with me, and furthermore raises serious questions and concerns about the romance genre in general. Why has the male role in Anime become so pithless and low on esteem? Why has the standard of the female role become “highly experienced”, degrading and even shameless? There is a sense of disrespect in the whole story directed at both sides. As an example of how it disregards and disrespects the male role, let's consider why Ryuuta fell for Runa in the first place. The anime tried to make it look as though it's all natural attraction, but when you dig deeper, you find the real reason he's attracted to her is because she's famous amongst the other guys - he's basically just a fanboy! In addition, the story propagates the idea that a boring but nice, traditional anime male protagonist would likely choose an experienced, non-traditional girl over an innocent, traditional one. The show does this by presenting a secondary love interest in the form of Runa's sister, Maria. Maria is more in the mould of the traditional anime girl in that she is inexperienced. But the anime made her character manipulative and unlikeable, and I feel like this was done just to make us like Runa more. Our Dating Story also disrespects the female role. While the boy stays somewhat traditional, the girl on the other hand is so lost that it's actually saddening: she doesn't even understand how relationships function, and the anime treats her like a senseless person, using ignorance as an excuse for negligent behaviour. Runa had slept with a few other guys in the mistaken belief that this is what dating and relationships are all about, and the story glosses over it like it's not a big deal. The main message this sends is that it doesn't matter because Runa doesn't know what she's doing. To be fair, she did make some progress towards the end as she slowly realised her earlier mistakes and came to appreciate how dating and relationships really work. However, this progress wasn't particularly deep. The final straw for me came when, at one point in the anime, the boy actually said: “I want to be worthy enough to be your boyfriend.” At that point, I closed chrome, turned off my computer and just sat there for long minutes trying to understand when and how did romance anime end up like this. With all due respect, how is this even remotely entertaining or enjoyable? I honestly feel anger that this type of plot elements are allowed to become the norm. As a sensitive person myself I can easily get depressed by the smallest incidents, gestures and even thoughts, so why would I want this modern generation and everything that is happening in our worn out society to influence the only source of escapism that I have left? I started watching anime because I felt in it a world that was more enjoyable and less stressful than real life. So when an anime brings real events into its premise, it can be demanding and difficult to watch. This anime is just one of myriad attempts within a short period designed to pollute the only refuge from real life left, the anime industry. That said, I am not totally against the dramatization of real life in anime, but at the very least, the drama should be believable and arise from the natural interactions between the characters. In Our Dating Story, the presentation of the drama does not feel genuine: it feels forced into the writing and the settings. Premise / Influences Whilst the premise of Our Dating Story can be seen as a factual presentation on how injured the state of our dating scene and relationships are, as the story progresses it also shows the male MC leading the relationship in a more traditional direction. When Ryuuto was offered sex by Runa early on he actually turned it down as he was on a "mission" to show her how a genuine relationship is built. Although this is a worthy end goal in the story, I still can't get behind the representation and normalisation of the current hookup culture found in the plot, because it sets a bad example for our society. Runa from Our Dating Story is just one of many recent characters inspired by this trend, with other examples including Elina (Mushoku Tensei), Ogiwara Saryu (Hige wo Soru), Himeno (Chainsaw Man), etc. I really believe that women like Makise Kurisu (Steins;Gate), Hyuuga Hinata (Naruto), Yatogami Tooka (Date A Live) are not only great examples of loyal waifus, but their like also exist in real life. Similarly, the likes of Vanitas (Vanitas no Karte), Todoroki Shouto (My Hero Academia), Houtarou Oreki (Hyouka) and Roronoa Zoro (One Piece) are male characters that as a man I feel I can look up to. As their models are exemplary loyal. It's obnoxious when romance is reduced to sexuality, and when any show containing ecchi elements is becoming so increasingly sex-centred that it's not funny or cute any more. I miss the times when talking, a hug or even just a pat on the had were considered romantic gestures; when we waited not for when or how these characters lay down together, but for merely a kiss to seal a relationship. This show on the hand is completely lacking in this kind of genuine emotional chemistry that I consider enjoyable. Conclusion Our Dating Story: The Experienced You and The Inexperienced Me, is the final straw for me thanks to its uncomfortable and distressing plot elements. Although it draws inspiration from reality, to be instructive to the audience it must provide good examples to emulate. Despite some positive progression, in general this anime does quite the opposite. For this reason I cannot recommend it. In fact, I strongly suggest you watch something else, for example these romance anime: - ReLife - Darling in The Franxx - Nisekoi - Plastic Memories (drama) - Snow White with the Red Hair - Date A Live If you are new to anime, please watch Date A live instead of this destructive act on our ani-manga industry. By instilling these characteristics traits as obligatory, Our Dating Story reinforces the current societal trends, sending us on a downward spiral that will devastate our social lives in the future. I am honestly afraid that plot elements like this will be used more and more often, so I felt I had to express my thoughts and feelings for the sake of the Ani-Manga industry. I also know that this is just an Anime, but every media can make significant impressions on our lives. Thus I believe you can judge an anime based not only on its animation and characters, but on its core principles and how its premise influences society. Much appreciation goes to kekekeKaj to his generous contribution on improving my review for submission! Thank you for reading!

Sometimes you watch an anime and think, Ah, so this is what garbage day feels like. This show is exactly that anime-shaped trash pickup. We’ve got our MC: a hopeless loser who literally only confesses because he lost a bet. Smooth. Truly the stuff of romance legends. Every time he opens his mouth, he stutters, blushes, and malfunctions like a broken vending machine. This isn’t relatable awkwardness it’s cringe cosplay. And the heroine? Shirakawa Luna. Aka: “the gyaru who’s dated more guys than a gacha whale rolls for waifus.” Except, of course, the writing tries to paint her as “deep down she just wants true love.” Spare me.Her backstory isn’t tragic it’s just a lazy excuse to slap a redemption arc on a fanservice mascot. Side characters? Don’t bother remembering their names. They’re literal NPCs whose only job is to shove the MC and FMC together like unpaid extras in a discount soap opera. fanservice? Oh, it’s there. But instead of being fun or spicy, it’s awkward and forced like the director couldn’t decide if this was supposed to be a romcom, a morality play, or a cheap gyaru fantasy doujin that lost half its budget. What’s the grand message here? That a socially crippled loser can “save” a so-called experienced girl and make her pure again? Please. That’s not character development, that’s wish-fulfillment fantasy at its laziest. And the funniest part? They actually animated this thinking it’d be “relatable.” Relatable to who? Maybe to a wet cardboard box dating a traffic cone, Even Boku No Pico looks like Shakespeare compared to this. This isn’t romance. This isn’t drama. It’s just an embarrassing self-insert fantasy with the emotional depth of a puddle. If you want to watch a potato date a gyaru while both of them trip over the script, sure, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. Or in simpler terms: “Virgin-kun and Discount Waifu: The Animation.”