You Can't Be In a Rom-Com with Your Childhood Friends!

If you've seen a review of the anime called "Girlfriend, Girlfriend" by me, then you know what I'm about to say. Yup! I love this kind of shit. You see, I'm very open to many anime genres. RomCom is one of the genres I always seek. You know why? A lot of hidden gems are from this genre. It's a genre that makes you laugh because of how ridiculous the plot is. You can't take this shit seriously; you just enjoy the ride. Anyway, let's start the review. How did I find this? Kito senpai promoted it on his YouTube short. Not only that, but Chibi Review also shoutedthis anime up. I was curious. Appealing (Why did I get into the anime?) It has come to my attention that the RomCom harem sub-genre that has a childhood friend in the story never wins. So, hearing all of the girls in this story are, in fact, the MC's childhood friends made me even more curious. Platform Animax Korea (South Korea), Aniplus Asia (Southeast Asia), Bahamut Anime Crazy (Taiwan), and Crunchyroll. The review; Plot/Story Simple harem RomCom story, but the girls are all the MC's childhood friends. The girl with blue hair, Shio, loves teasing the MC, Eiyuu, with his own fantasy. She teased him by doing a reenactment of a romcom that he read. The girl with orange hair, Akari, is a Tsundere. Though I felt like it was really forced tsundere. I don't know how to describe it. The purple-haired girl, Runako, is the sister type. Well, she is literally one year younger than Shio, Akari, and Eiyuu, so she is, in fact, feels like a little sister. And the last is the airhead girl with magenta hair, named Haru. She is the tomboy character of the roster. Those are the girls of this series. The plot? It's your average/typical story. I don't think I need to spell it out for you. It's silly enough to get me interested. Character Charming. In this kind of story, I don't really think much of the character growth, since it's a heavy comedy series. Unless there is a major plot, like TQQ. OST/SFX The OP just grabbed me, man. The catchy lyrics are dangerous. It felt like pulling me inside. Out of the OP from this season's anime, UIPolOps, and this has to take the lead. The ED is very charming, too, in its own way. The OST/SFX in the anime itself. Two Thumbs Up! Animation Tezuka... Oh, buddy, we meet again. I can just feel it! If this gets another season, they will throw it to another studio. Please! If this anime gets another season, please treat it like Terrace Goddess. Don't you dare do it like TQQ or GF, GF! You already get the charm for the series; I want you guys to maintain it. VA Two Thumbs Up! The conclusion; Enjoyable For me, yeah. This is also one of the anime that I watch weekly and never miss. It's just a great feeling watching it. Worthable Not really, especially for the "modern audience". I have to say this because it will validate my opinion if people ever want to use that confused emoji on my review. Delivery Average. I mean, it's watchable and has minimal animation, so I don't really have any problem with it. OG Sauce It was in K-Manga if you don't know. I might want to pick it up. I'm curious about what it will become after the anime. Overall 8.7/10 A great time waster. I like it more than I expected.

Let me start out first and foremost by saying that i am not a fan of harem anime. i much more lean towards grounded mature romances between two characters (wow that sounds so pretentious but i cant word it any other way so oops). This show is pretty much the exact opposite of what i want in a show. someone with different taste than me might feel differently. with that all being said- I'm using this as an outlet for my frustration with this show. OH MY GOSH THEY'RE ALL SO ANNOYING. How do you possible create a show where every single character is this frustrating towatch? So purpose built specifically to PISS ME OFF. the whole premise is that the MC is obsessed with rom-coms (same) but doesn't feel like he could ever have a romance with his childhood friends. there. thats the whole show. at the end of the first season we are in the same spot as when we started. This leads to every single character having little to no growth and feeling as frustrated as when the show started. they're all aware of each other's feelings towards MC and yet no-one has the gonads to actually do anything about it. they'd all just rather sit around with their thumbs up their butts than do a single constructive thing. I was rooting for a certain girl to win (as we all do) and my choice was the Tsundere ginger girl whose name i thankfully can no longer remember. (it has been no more than 3 days and the character's names in this show are so thankfully gone from my memory). long story short she ends up in the most intimate situation of anyone in the entire show thanks to some tusndere antics which obv we all love to see. at this point im thinking "oh wow there is literally no possible way for someone to barge in and ruin this moment. their phones are dead, they're in a hotel far away from home, and to my utter shock tsundere makes a move. YIPPEEEE i think to myself. a fatal error. never expect movement in this show. she snuggles up to MC and says those fated words. "I love you". MC hears and is confused. says they could never be in a rom com together and they fall asleep in each others arms. Long story short again tsundere tsunderes and we have arrived back at square one. nothing happens. nothing changes. they simply move on like nothing ever happened. all this to say your choice of who to root for to win is pointless. One of the girls doesn't even show up until the shows practically over. MC feels flat and like a self insert for those anime fans who can't find the courage in their hearts to talk to a real life woman. the full roster is full of tropes and more than a little boring. i saw a comment before i started the show about how "the childhood friend can't lose if they're all the childhood friend". and yet somehow they all manage to lose, but the biggest loser was unfortunately me for getting my hopes up. *Thank you for coming to my ted talk.*

If being different were all it took to be great, then this would be peak. You Can't Be In a Rom-Com with Your Childhood Friends! is a fun little series that goes out of its way to be unique not in its premise but rather in the dynamics and characters' reactions to generic romcom triggers. The setup between 4 girls and 1 boy is reminiscent of Nisekoi, down to their personalities. Unfortunately however, it does not have the same charm as it. The main issue this series runs into is the cheap execution as a result of chasing originality. There are several instances where the charactersare having a moment only to be ruined by a sloppy excuse of a payout in order to tug at the viewers' heartstrings. Much of the charm for a romcom lies in the slow and arduous buildup as they come to realize the situation they're in. The formula for romantic comedies has more or less been solved, so while I can acknowledge the author for their attempt, they should've stuck with the cookie cutter. It's not without its good points, though, because the series is more than watchable and (dare I say) enjoyable if you're willing to overlook the flaws. The opening is bubbly and whimsical, the designs perfectly fit the personalities, and the 1-on-1's the characters have are surprisingly nice. I did take a look at the manga up until the anime's current point and I think the manga does a better job for the most part because the animation can be a bit off at times. Although I'm not waiting patiently for a new season, I'd probably watch it if they did release one; a sign of palatable slop.

The first anime I watched while it was airing. Every week I'd come back and think "Surely it will turn around" but no it didn't. It's not a "generic harem" it's not a "hidden gem" and it's certainly not good. I sometimes watch shows others label as bad, because they could maybe be entertaining in their own way, or are dismissed because people can be stickler's for one type of show for no good reason. This however falls into the so boring it's bad category. Here are my thoughts, hopefully they help you decide to pass on this show. Story: ---------- The premise is that Eiyugrew up with various childhood friends revealed in flashbacks once they're introduced and they're all young ladies now. He has also matured and now, as a teenage boy, has feelings for girls. The girls like him back, but he feels he never has a chance. Shio (supposedly) and Akari are trying to show him how they feel about him and to get something serious going. This is one of those shows that resets to the status quo always. It's not like a sitcom where the episodes are self contained and funny. It's linear, occasionally funny, but yet goes nowhere. The finale was perhaps the worst I've seen in any anime (even my most hated) because it's just so bizarre and feels like filler despite being the show's culmination. A big problem is that girls never compete with each other over him. There sort of exists this "Gentlewoman's Agreement" if you will that pursuing Eiyu can only occur within a set of vague rules, or with the consent of the other heroines. It's kind of uncanny how passive they are, and how concerned they are with each other's feelings over it. Akari and Shio in particular want to make sure they're competing on an even playing field. The show seems to be priming a "full harem" ending, but since it never goes anywhere, we don't get that. The show doesn't really do anything offensive, we don't have yarns connecting fetishes to characters or ship fuel and speculations. So there's never a moment of disgust in it. It's relatively wholesome compared to other ecchi harems. So I guess it has that going for it. Characters in order of how much I liked them: ----------------------------------------------------------- Haru: The token tomboy, She comes into the show far later than she should just to pad out the harem. She's supportive, likes to have fun, and wants the plot to resolve, which is how I also felt by the time she was introduced. It's unclear for most of the time she is on screen if she likes the protag despite her arguably getting more intimate with him than others. Unfortunately, it's not exciting. The show teases they they're going to do "It wasn't weird when we were younger and you thought I was a boy" type stuff initially, and you think it's going to be one of those "Relax, I'm just your bro...unless?" things, but it never goes there. A sort of low tension chill, friends to lovers is what the tomboy appeal is all about but the show refuses to lean into that. Isn't going to win any waifu awards, but was the tolerable character in the series. Akari: Token Tsundere. She actually seems to be the only one who seriously cares about dating Eiyu, but is far too passive about it. In real life, or with a smarter male lead, the show would have been over before the half way mark due to her being direct with her feelings. However, when she feels her feelings are not reciprocated, she backtracks them too early, allowing us to reset to the status quo which is frustrating. Another problem is She's way too tsun and not enough dere and the beats of her tsundere personality are way off. When she's dere, she's actually a nice character, but the dere moments come sparingly, last a long time when they do (it feels like the tsun is all an act) and the rest of the time she comes across as very bitchy and annoying. Still, she's probably second best since she's the only one that does anything meaningful. She also feels like a bit of a cuck. Other girls move in on the guy she likes while she obeys the apparent "off screen rules" I mentioned above, and when she finds out about it, doesn't seem to get super angry or upset, or even determined to make him like her more. She's sort of surprised by it and then laments that she hasn't gotten as far with him. There's even one point where it seems like she might win, but decides to make sure Shio is okay with it first and agrees to share the romantic moment with Eiyu with Shio as well. The girl is a few scenes away from setting up a stool in the corner to watch. Oh boy, these next set of characters are like dropping down from a 60/100 to 30/100 on your test scores. There's a huge gap between Haru/Akari to the other characters. Runa: Token Imouto. Now, this character I wanted to like when she was introduced. She comes in like a wrecking ball early, basically all but saying she's moving in with Eiyu and thus has claim to his virginity. She makes some aggressive first moves, causing Akari and Shio to try to get in the way of her and distract her from her goal (which isn't that hard), and you think she's going to be the main competitor since she's the next room over from Eiyu. She's in middle school however, and so the show decided that the idea of her being a serious competitor felt too weird even for them. So she's reduced to a side character, who on one hand, encourages Eiyu to "pick" one of them, but on the other hand, does nothing for herself and off screen seems to be content to wait. She's the standard harem "I show affection when the MC is down but am not seriously considered by him" type character, which makes her a bit more likeable since she seems to unconditionally love Eiyu even when the other girls think he's acting weird. Still to go from an 8 on the harem aggression scale down to a 1, is incredibly annoying. Shio: Token Deredere. At first it seems like she's going to be the driving force of the show, a dedicated Deredere bent on recreating scenes from Dating Sims Eiyu likes to play to get with him. She's shameless in a way where she has no issues with getting groped or grinded on if it means Eiyu gets bricked up and can just make her his woman already. However, she drops this approach fairly early on when she seems to decide off screen with Akari that neither of them are allowed to make any serious moves anymore. She breaks these rules every now and then though, and when she does make moves in a few arcs, it's like she doesn't even care about him. Without spoilers, the best I can say is that she's essentially a tease and not in an ecchi "flash panties" kind of way by the end of it, but a "just get out of the way and let Akari end up with him then" kind of way. She wants all the attention from Eiyu but doesn't want to actually care to be with him it seems, but neither is any other girl allowed to either. I never read the manga, but if it turns out that she's a cockblocking villain, or doesn't want Eiyu to put his time with her on the backburner by having a gf, I wouldn't be surprised. Eiyu: He makes other self-insert blank slates look like socially aware chads. The one, funny thing about him, is that he says the show's title all the time as an excuse for why he can't advance the plot. Eiyu has Shio and Akari throw themselves at him, and Runa is all but telling him to pick one and despite the most direct statements and hints literally a hair away from "Be my boyfriend", he just doesn't get it. He's just like "You can't be in love with your childhood friends" after every single direct move. It would be funny if he wasn't treating the whole situation like it requires deep contemplation and constant "But what does that mean though?". He even maybe tries making moves, gets interrupted, and then just sort of shrug his shoulders trying to forget about it. His feelings are treated seriously when it really shouldn't be. On that note, It's also unclear as to his exact feelings towards the girls. On one hand, it seems he only really loves Akari and Shio, but on the other hand, it seems like he wants to sleep with all four of them. It's also unclear why he seems romantically attracted only to Shio and Akari or why. I get him being sexually interested in all four girls (I was a teenage boy too), but I don't get why Shio or Akari are special to him and not Runa or Haru. You could say it's because they're 13 and a tomboy respectively, but I think if he's willing to spend the tissues, he should at least consider them. Art/Sound/Blah: --------------------- The art for this show is surprisingly good in my opinion. I like the character designs, the outfits the girls wear are stylish and the OP was surprisingly really good. I liked the ecchi when it was present at the beginning (it falls off mid series). I'd say this show is strongest in this department, the studio should never have turned this manga into an anime, but the art department did their very best. Final thoughts/Summary: ----------------------------------- The show has a boring story, bad ending, characters that aren't interested in fighting for the MMC, An MMC unsure of what he wants, status quo resets, ecchi falling off halfway through, and a damn good attempt by the art department. Watch the OP for this show, and you'll have gotten the best part. 2/10.