Love, Chunibyo and Other Delusions Series Review

Posted on by Karandi
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Love, Chunibyo and Other Delusions Overview:

In Love, Chunibyo and Other Delusions, Yuuta Togashi suffered from a condition known as Chunibyo in middleschool where he pretended he was the Dark Flame Master and had magic powers. Now he’s going to high school and he’s chosen one where no one from his middle school will know him looking for a fresh start as a ‘normal’ student.

Unfortunately for him, on his first day he meets Rikka Takanashi who not only seems to have Chunibyo, she’s determined to drag him into her delusions as she searches for the Unseen Horizon.

Love, Chunibyo and Other Delusions Review:

If you’re thinking from the overview that this is another high school kids learning how to grow up and find out who they are anime, you aren’t entirely wrong. That is at the core what this show is about. How we grow as people and what we give up or choose to hold onto as we transition between being a child and being an adult. In that sense this show is truly wonderful because it looks at this idea from a number of different views that I’ll get into later but that isn’t all the show has on offer.

  • Love, Chunibyo and Other Delusions
  • Love, Chunibyo and Other Delusions - Rikka

I actually watched this anime after watching an AMV someone had put together about it. I knew nothing else going in so was kind of surprised about the more serious topics in the anime. The AMV had essentially clipped every scene of make believe, the visual representations of Rikka’s fights against the Priestess (her older sister), and other ‘delusions’ the characters have throughout the series and it made it seem like the show actually was a fantasy.

Actually, even watching the show, at times you had to question whether the twist at the end was going to be that these characters actually did have some unseen power because they intensely believe and buy into their own concepts at times and the way these play out are quite brilliant. But no, not a fantasy. And the characters aren’t actually all that delusional given at their core they know the difference between reality and their dream but at times choose to take refuge in the dream. The only difference between them is how strongly they deny certain aspects of reality.

So this show offers some fairly complex questions about characters, how we perceive and accept reality, and also some excellent visual spectacle resulting in some truly awesome fight sequences that bring quite a bit of excitement in short bursts throughout the series.

Love, Chunibyo and other delusions

Still, the selling point of the show is undeniably the characters themselves. Yuuta and Rikka are absolutely charming in their lead roles. While Yuuta has decided to accept the world’s definition of normal at the start of the series and has packed away all of his paraphernalia collected during middle school into boxes, Rikka is truly still embracing the world she herself has created.

The contrast between the two and their initial clashing as Rikka tries to convince Yuuta that as the Dark Flame Master he is essential on her quest and his insistence that she act a bit more normal plays out well. And the series could have left it as being that simple. Guy who previously strayed from being normal guides weirdo girl back into the world, thus saving her from social ridicule. But that isn’t where this show chooses to leave its narrative.

Yuuta’s vision of what it means to be normal might more firmly align with the rest of the world, but it is a vision he has constructed of a ‘normal’ high school life. It is every bit as delusional as his idea about being the Dark Flame Master. It’s a new role with a new costume and new rules, but it is just another role he is playing, and even he realises at times that his insistence that Rikka is in the wrong early in the series is unfair.

At the same time, he doesn’t allow himself to all totally back into the delusion because he does have to function in society. By the end of the series, Yuuta very clearly takes on the role of a bridge between Rikka and the rest of the world. He understands where she is coming from but finally realises that imposing his view of normal upon her is equivalent to destroying or denying her very identity.

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This isn’t a transition that happens instantly and Yuuta sways back and forth between the normal and delusional poles crafted by the show. Early on he’s convinced not to throw away all those boxes and he puts them back in his room. Later they get opened and some of the objects get put back into use. He isn’t entirely casting aside a highly significant part of who he was.

The thing is, he’s happier as he accepts his past and those aspects of him that still feel the need to strike a pose when holding a toy gun or sword. Rikka may be ‘weird’ but by being with her, he finds a way to accept himself and some of those parts of him that others might deem childish or delusional.

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In contrast, Rikka stays true to who she is for most of the series. However, the final act delivers the inevitable. The understanding that to get on with others (in this case her mother) and to move on in the world, Rikka realises she needs to be ‘normal’. What follows is a truly bizarre couple of episodes where this once vibrant person becomes a shell of who they are.

Questioning everything they do and say and trying to determine what is normal anyway. Seeing Rikka in this state is distressing and watching Yuuta encourage her efforts while being inwardly torn (because while he understands this is part of growing up – or at least he thinks it is – he actually misses Rikka being Rikka) is almost heart breaking.

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For Sanae, one of the supporting cast and another character who has fully embraced Rikka’s delusions, she is genuinely heart broken by this transition. Seeing this enforced and highly artificial normalcy and the impact it has on these characters sends a truly powerful message about our expectations of people and how we view the world.

It is a shame that we view Rikka’s internal struggle through the eyes of Yuuta. Admittedly, the story would have been far too fractured to be affective from her perspective, and we would have already known why she chose to embrace her particular delusion if it had been from her point of view, but in this sequence seeing her thoughts on this process would have really hit hard.

Still, Yuuta’s own inner conflict as being the catalyst for a lot of this pain has a pretty powerful impact and it takes away the potential argument that Rikka wanting to return to how she was is a selfish act. If it had been her perspective, it would have been too easy to write her off as willful. Viewing the conflict externally and through others really allows you to feel true sympathy for her as a character.

This theme of everyone embracing a delusion to a certain extent is carried across most of the support cast and becomes part of a conversation between two characters toward the end of the season. I honestly think the show would have been better without that conversation as it kind of took a message that had been powerfully demonstrated and hit us over the head with it like a blunt instrument, but at least thematically this show is very cohesive.

I haven’t touched on many negatives with this anime. They exist. Some of the characters will wear on your nerves at times while others you’ll find charming. Development of characters outside of Yuuta and Rikka exists but to a far lesser extent and some characters remain very much a one line descriptor. Certain events early in the show really do end up being just filler and there’s a few obligatory high school anime moments that don’t really add much to the overall narrative.

Overall, I had a lot of fun with this show. It won’t be for everyone because it is a high school anime with cute girls and all the usual tropes, but I think the overarching narrative here had enough solid ideas to really keep my interest and the visual spectacle of the delusions playing out certainly keep things exciting.

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I’d strongly recommend at least giving the show a go though it won’t be for everyone. There are some very cool moments, some very funny moments, and if you make it through to the end of the season you will probably cry at least once. There is a season 2 of this which I will review after another rewatch (I’ve only watched season 2 once so need to watch a bit more carefully). I don’t like it as much but it actually does take Yuuta and Rikka’s relationship a bit further and continues the overall idea of what growing up is like.

If you’ve seen this anime I would love to know your thoughts so please leave a comment below.

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Karandi James

One Week Friends Series Review

Posted on by Karandi
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One Week Friends Overview:

Hase has been interested in Fujimiya for awhile but when he finally finds the courage to ask her to be friends she bluntly rejects him and then runs away. Later, he finds her on the roof and for a week they start to talk and get close before she starts to push him away again. Turns out Fujimiya forgets her friends every single week (total reset). After learning this, Hase becomes more determined than ever to make friends with her, every single week.

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One Week Friends Review:

I often wonder where writers for manga and anime get their information about how amnesia works. While it isn’t totally impossible someone would forget part of their memories each week, nor is it totally impossible that they would just forget what aspect of their life, but to forget just one specific set of memories every single week on the exact same day is probably pushing the notion just a bit for the sake of a cheap plot device.

And it is a cheap plot device. They can go through the same sequences of events over and over, the conflict is built right into the premise, and there’s all sorts of things that can go wrong for the main pair. Everything about this story is designed to make you feel for their plight but the question remains of whether or not it succeeds.

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One Week Friends succeeds at being an interesting take on the troubles of teen friendship. Why do people make friends? What stops them from being friends? How much work does it take to actually become a friend? And at what point are you friends rather than just acquaintances?

It also succeeds relatively well at being an okay slice-of-life drama thing with the gimmick of memory reset just being the device that stops us from getting too gushy as Hase and Fujimiya get closer and closer.

Where it fails to succeed is at making either of these main characters actually likable and as a direct result while there is interest in the premise the actual steps on their journey kind of lacks emotional impact.

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Hase is too nice. He just is. He wants to be Fujimiya’s friend for whatever reason. I know he explains it and he justifies it to his friend (particularly when his friend points out that this particular friendship is more trouble than it actually seems to be worth at the time), but I never buy his attachment to Fujimiya other than he’s the nice guy who can’t leave the puppy out in the rain. The side-effect of not really getting his drive is that some of his actions become questionable.

For instance, when Fujimiya loses her journal (in one of the most contrived ways to ramp up tension in a story I’ve ever seen) and also knocks the sign on her door that tells her to read her journal down, Hase ends up spending days looking for said journal in the long grass by the river where he’s convinced (despite a lack of any evidence) she must have lost the book. There’s optimism, there’s plot convenience, and then there is sloppy writing that we’re supposed to forgive because isn’t it sweet how they made up.

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Conversely, Fujimiya is just kind of dull. At first she’s stand-offish and you get that she goes through the pain of forgetting people each week if they get close to her and her friends act all horrified the next week when she can’t remember them so it is easier to avoid people.That part of her character is totally understandable and is by far the most interesting part of her character.

Once she starts with Hase though she quickly becomes just a nice girl. She’s incredibly passive, allowing the uncertain Hase to drive almost every encounter and step they take as she works toward recovery of memories, and mostly she does not seem all that interesting. Instead, Hase and Fujimiya start doing all the usual high school things as though they are dating but they are just friends. Hase asks her to be friends each week. It’s all very, “What’s the point?”.

Saki and Shougo as support characters fare better but Shougo is pretty laconic so while he does drop a rare gem of a common sense line of thought into the story he is far too often silent and merely watching the action. Saki is irritating in every way as a character but she balances out Shougo and her appearance in the story very much helps make Fujimiya just a little bit more bearable so all and all she’s kind of a necessary introduction to the cast.

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I’m not going to talk about the trauma that caused Fujimiya’s condition or how this story resolves but to be honest there are better shows out there if you just want to watch someone’s heart get stamped on week after week. There are better shows for manipulating the audience with contrived plots, and there are better shows for developing teenage characters. Other than the gimmick itself of memory loss there’s just nothing here that is new or fresh or interesting.

One Week Friends - I'd like for us to be friends

That doesn’t make this bad. If you ignore the limited possibility that anyone could have such a condition, the story plays out as it needs to and moves along at a slow but steady pace. It isn’t particularly flash but it gets the job done and there are some good scenes that genuinely make you think. So it isn’t bad, but it isn’t great. Your enjoyment will largely come from whether you find Hase’s relentless desire for Fujimiya’s friendship appealing and whether you accept the overall premise that the show lays out before you.

If you’ve seen this one I’d love to know your thoughts.

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Domestic Girlfriend Anime Series Review

Posted on by Karandi
Domestic Girlfriend Series Review
Domestic Girlfriend Episode 1 Natsuo

It Just Sort of Happened

I’m still not sure why exactly I watched Domestic Girlfriend from start to finish. High school romantic drama isn’t exactly my favourite, relationships between students and teachers definitely aren’t something I jump into watching, and relationships between siblings (even step siblings) equally aren’t exactly an appeal (even if I don’t blanket drop them). Domestic Girlfriend has a whole bunch of elements that are questionable right off the bat and some viewers will walk away, and that’s fine. For whatever reason, I decided to give this train wreck a watch though and found that while it is definitely a soap opera and like watching a train derail in slow motion, there’s something quite compelling about that.

Domestic Girlfriend Episode 3 Natsuo and Hina

At the heart of the story is Natsuo who after a group date ends up having a one night stand with Rui. He’s suffering from an unrequited love for his teacher, Hina and Rui is a suitable distraction with something about her reminding Natsuo of the girl he likes. Rui seems to be a serious girl but for whatever reason has decided she needs to know what it is like to be with a guy and so the two have their one night and then they both move on with their lives. Only, as so often happens in fiction, their single parents have apparently been seeing each other and are now moving the whole family in together on first meeting. Naturally, Hina also turns out to be Rui’s sister. Awkward.

Domestic Girlfriend Episode 1 Rui

What follows is a round of secrets, misunderstandings, teenage angst, emotional repression, poor choices, and occasionally sweet moments where characters are actually open and honest and momentarily have a real connections before it all gets swept away by the next poor decision. By the time Hina and Natsuo actually start a relationship, which is definitely a bad idea given the circumstances, things are already spiralling down and when they are inevitably found out by the school there’s no surprise at all.

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What is more surprising is that despite these characters being forced along by the drama of the plot and essentially never getting to make the right choice because that might actually help things get to a pleasant resting point, I don’t hate these characters. They work in their roles and in each moment their actions seem true enough based on what has come before. Okay, if these were real people they would probably always be dysfunctional because they don’t think things through anywhere near enough, but in the context of this story they work and there is real chemistry between them. Particularly the trio at the centre with Rui, Hina and Natsuo.

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Domestic Girlfriend Episode 9

There are a few moments where the anime does go for more sexualised content and not the usual played for laughs anime kind. This may put some viewers off but honestly if the fact that both sisters are pursuing their step brother and one of them is his teacher didn’t already put you off it seems unlikely over-hearing a woman masturbate is going to. Still, it is worth putting the warning in there that if you don’t like that kind of content then maybe Domestic Girlfriend just isn’t going to work for you.

I will however bring this to a close with the biggest positive of the series. That is, the OP. I absolutely loved this opening song. It just feels so raw and emotional and absolutely fits the feelings sitting underneath the actions of these characters. Seriously, if you missed this OP during the Winter 2019 anime season you should give it a try because it was amazing. While that might not be enough to make you watch the show if melodrama isn’t your thing it is still worth talking about. Particularly as it hits the one minute mark.

Okay, Domestic Girlfriend isn’t an anime I’d absolutely recommend, however if you are looking for a romance anime and you don’t mind one that doesn’t exactly get its happily ever after, then Domestic Girlfriend isn’t bad. While it certainly won’t work for everyone, the story does roll along nicely and in the one season we get a suitable amount of development and a reasonable amount of closure by the end. The characters could have spared themselves a lot of the drama that unfolds by making a few more sensible choices but we could say that about a lot of shows.

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Overall, I actually enjoyed this one. It wasn’t brilliant but for twenty minutes a week it was kind of fun to get into a more soap opera style story.

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Hitoribocchi no Marumau Seikatsu Review Episode 10

Posted on by Karandi
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The Student Becomes The Master’s Friend

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Hitoribocchi Episode 10

I kind of knew I was over this series when, in a week where I was tight for time, this was one of the first episodes I just skipped watching with the intention of getting back to it. Now the anime is finished and I’m only just watching episode 10 with two more to go and to be honest, I’m kind of indifferent as to whether I finish it or not.

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Oh, don’t look at me like that.

That said, Hitoribocchi did deliver a pretty solid tenth episode where we finally deal with the master-student dynamic between Bocchi and Sotoka after Bocchi makes friends with the pancake girls from last episode and Sotoka gets really jealous. Okay, it’s kind of silly but it does force what little plot we have here forward. It also pushes Aru and Nako into supporting roles that allows them to both operate at their best bringing a few genuine laughs to the sidelines of this episode.

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Outside of the progress on the friend quest, we get the usual high school antics with the closing ceremony, followed by a shrine visit for New Year’s, and morning greetings. There’s nothing overly new to be seen but if you are enjoying the cast than seeing them in the different situations will be fun enough.

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My takeaway was that Bocchi has some pretty incredible origami skills (then again I think most people who can actually do origami are incredible given I tend to get stuck midway through the directions of most creations). Her new style Shuriken are pretty cool and watching Sotoka and Bocchi running from the room to throw it together as friends was very smile worthy.

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Even my cynical self admits that is pretty cute.
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Senryuu Shoujo Review Episode 11

Posted on by Karandi
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Fireworks and Festivals

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Senryuu Shoujo Episode 11

They are very keen on this summer theme and this week we are hitting the festival with a firework display in Senryuu Shoujo. I do have to wonder if these last few episodes haven’t just been Haruhi Suzumiya’s endless eight spread out over more episodes and not repeated. Either that or it feels like the happy days of Higurashi before the slaughter. Or literally any high school anime that has a summer vacation where they all hang out together.

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None of that is actually criticism of what Senryuu Shoujo has been doing. More just acknowledging that we aren’t getting anything new. If you are after mind-blowing and original, look elsewhere. Here is the comfortable standard for high school club anime and it is doing it with a reasonable amount of care. Again, not redefining what a summer sequence is or blowing the audience away with any kind of exceptional standard, it is just like an old pair of slippers. They fit and they are warm and comfortable, and that’s all they need to do.

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This time we have ditched a lot of the support characters to simply focus on the core of Eiji and Nanako with the third wheel of the club president at the festival. We’ll get a fairly standard montage of festival activities before the real ‘drama’ begins.

This is perhaps the first time the anime has really acknowledged that Nanako not speaking is actually a problem. While she’s waiting for Eiji and the president, some classmates find her and drag her off to see the fireworks with them. Unable, or unwilling, to speak, Nanako gets dragged away. In that situation, stopping to write a poem to express herself is a little difficult, and more importantly she doesn’t actually really try to resist the other girls. She simply goes along.

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However, we do get a very pretty reunion, a firework display, and the usual saccharine conclusion to the episode that we’ve come to expect from this series. The one sour note is Eiji’s fierce denial that Nanako and he are together because with one episode to go that kind of shatters any hope that we might get them officially together before the end of the season.

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Senryuu Shoujo Review Episode 10

Posted on by Karandi
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Ghosts and Fireflies

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Senryuu Shoujo Episode 10

We’re sticking with the summer vacation theme this week but here we hit the super cute button as the characters make a plan to go to watch real fireflies. Of course the club president isn’t happy just to let it rest with that and makes alternate plans that involve scaring Nanako and Eiji by creating a ghost tunnel. It is the usual summer break silliness from school characters in a slice of life and yet there’s something just kind of adorable about this episode that makes it work and feel memorable.

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Part of this is the great chemistry in the cast. Despite each character being a walking gimmick they each bring something cute to the table and together the group dynamics are just kind of perfect. Art girl continues to be a personal favourite (and I promise I will remember her name by the end of the series, though we are running out of episodes) and the fortune teller girl adds enough cynicis to the mix to take the edge off of the sickly sweet.

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However, the real highlight of the episode, as is the case most episodes, is the relationship between Eiji and Nanako. The two are very sweet together and whether it is Nanako admiring the bug Eiji caught, their genuine delight at the plan to look for fireflies, or Eiji’s efforts to protect Nanako in the tunnel, they are just too cute to watch.

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I’m really hoping these two become an officially acknowledged couple by the end of the season because it wouldn’t make a lot of sense not to acknowledge what has become very clear from watching these two. They have a genuine mutual like of one another and they are both sweet people. Now if only they would act on it.

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Kono Oto Tomare Review Episode 8

Posted on by Karandi
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The Distance Yet To Travel

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Kono Oto Tomare! Episode 9

There’s a lot that Kono Oto Tomare doesn’t get right in terms of adding tension or antagonists to their otherwise slice of life, high school club story, but one thing it consistently lands are those poignant emotional moments between the members of the club themselves. With the episode this week focusing almost exclusively on the inner workings of the club and Takezou trying to overcome his lack of confidence as the club president, we had a nice show case of the best Kono Oto Tomare has to offer.

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Throw in the musical performance by the other school and it was a pretty good episode. Even if every character from the other schools that spoke seems to exist just to becoming another stumbling block later on in the story and they are still handling antagonist’s roles with all the deft handling of a duck trying to spread butter on a slice of bread.

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Likewise, Takezou’s family is another red-mark against the series. Prior to now they’ve been little more than background but this week the father gives Takezou a pep-talk after learning he’s the club president and his mother congratulates him on telling his brother off. Saying how happy she is when Takezou normally says nothing. If the parents are aware one child belittles another continuously and have done nothing to rectify the problem while said child gets emotionally ground into the dirt continuously, it doesn’t exactly make me feel warm and fuzzy to see them congratulating the child who has finally had enough.

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Despite my annoyance at the family situation, I was still nearly reduced to tears when Chika and Takezou finally had a conversation and ‘made up’, even though they weren’t fighting. I managed to hold them in, but it was a close call. And seeing the club members making a new sign for the room and passing the pen, while it is clearly trite and contrived, hit just the right emotional high note that this episode needed to cap it off.

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At the end of the day, I parts that work in this anime stand out a lot clearer than the parts that don’t, and it continues to be relatively fun to watch even if I feel like I’m not going to remember much about it at all after it finishes airing.

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Heartfelt Moment Undermined By ‘Humorous’ Conclusion

Posted on by Karandi
Kaguya Sama: Love is War Post Title

Kaguya-Sama Love is War Episode 12 Review

For the first half of this episode I thought this was an absolutely brilliant way for this series to go out. Really was loving it. And then… well, then we got to the second part. See the whole way through this series I’ve really loved the moments where the characters have been allowed to just be characters and interact rather than the contrived matches between the main pair, so seeing Shinomiya genuinely upset by not being allowed to go to the fireworks and Shirogane and the others rallying to help her was really a great emotional moment with a lot of pay-off.

Kaguya-Sama Episode 12 - Shinomiya crying

This was each of the characters at their best. No forced humour or awkwardly intrusive narration. Just a girl upset and the overly dramatic solution with her escaping her house and then her frantic rush to reach the wharf in time, only for it to end in failure. That was so incredibly sad and they held that moment just long enough before Shirogane turned up and delivered such an incredibly overblown line and yet it was utterly perfect for the moment.

Kaguya-Sama Episode 12 - Shinomiya and Shirogane running

Watching them run together, meeting up with Fujiwara and Ishigami and getting in the taxi. Even the taxi driver going all out and probably breaking multiple road rules in order to get them to their destination in time all just worked. It was a well paced, well executed, fun and emotional climax to a series that I’ve found very hit or miss.

And I haven’t even talked about how on point the music was during this episode or how beautiful the fireworks were.

Kaguya-Sama Episode 12 - Fireworks

And then…

Well then we go back to school.

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The president is freaking out because he thinks that he acted foolishly in the moment. Shinomiya is all nervous because she wants to say thank you. The narration is back. The forced conflict is back. Its all just awkward and painful to watch and really about as far from amusing as you can get without actually just sitting in a room full of socially awkward people avoiding eye-contact for ten minutes.

Kaguya-Sama Episode 12 - Shinomiya and Shirogane crossing paths

For a brief span I thought episode 12 was actually going to be the episode that made me think overall I liked the series more than I didn’t. But that second half reminded me of everything I find irritating about the entire set up and mostly while there are some great moment overall I’ve mostly found this one misses the mark for me. I’ll be going back through my episode notes and thinking about my final review of this series a lot, but the bottom line is going to end up being that this just isn’t my kind of show.

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Foolish Hearts and Foolish Choices

Posted on by Karandi
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Domestic Girlfriend Episode 11 Review

The drama continues in Domestic Girlfriend but as each of these characters insists on making fairly short sighted decisions I’m more at the point of just kind of watching to see what wrong turn they take next. Rui, for her part actually gets out of this episode fairly unscathed making a number of reasonably sensible choices. The biggest one being to simply push Natsuo away from her thoughts and not hold a grudge against her sister. That could have gotten ugly and certainly would have strained the family relations and so Rui is actually acting the most sensible of any of these characters right at this point.

Rui - Domestic Girlfriend - Episode 11

Unfortunately, Rui being reasonably sensible doesn’t help Natsuo and Hina who are apparently just born to be stupid in love.

Still, before I tear Natsuo down too much, he did do one smart thing this episode (which if I said he’s stupid in love but not actually stupid). Shaken when Rui wins an honourable mention in the writing contest, Natsuo decides he needs to start taking writing seriously if he ever is going to pursue a career as a writer. Fortunately he’s more than determined enough and actually willing to work for it, so the progress made on this front is actually kind of pleasing to see this episode.

Advisor - Domestic Girlfriend - Episode 11

While I still find the adviser guy a little creepy and honestly hard to get a character reading on given he seems to fluctuate in whatever mode they need for the scene, his offering Natsuo advice is actually kind of nice to see and you could actually see these two developing a nice mentor/student relationship. Assuming of course he doesn’t flick back into creepy mode.

Natsuo and Hina - Domestic Girlfriend - Episode 11

However, Hina and Natsuo together are a terrible idea because they both just stop thinking. On a school trip, Hina invites Natsuo to her room to talk. There’s a whole lot of stupid just in that decision. Then Natsuo declares he wants to get more serious with her at the same time that she says they should break up. She then outlines some fairly clear and logical reasons why they should and he just rejects them out of hand. Why worry about reality when you have true love on the table, I guess is the reasoning but it just sounds so dumb. And she accepts it.

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Next thing they are making out and discussing when they fell in love and he even reveals he saw her masturbating that one time… This is while they are on a school trip and she is there in the capacity of the supervising teacher.

But it is all sunshine and roses because he asked her to marry him one day. It really is just a disaster you can’t look away from.

Natsuo and Hina fireworks - Domestic Girlfriend - Episode 11

By the time the end of the episode rolled around you’re just waiting for it and when Hina is called to see the head-teacher you more or less know what’s about to happen. Of course they end it there and I know I’ll watch it next week anyway because this is some great pop-corn worthy melodrama. It’s just terrible and yet unmissable all at once and the only question left is what stupid choices will they make next week?

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Natsuo, If You’re Going To Lie, Cover Your Tracks

Posted on by Karandi
Domestic Girlfriend Post Title Image

Domestic Girlfriend Episode 10 Review

Getting caught in a lie seems to be a theme this episode. First we have the literature club adviser away ‘sick’ for multiple days prompting his oh-so-concerned-students to go visit him at his home. Turns out he’s not sick. He’s actually an author, one that Natsuo is a fan of, and he’s just behind on his deadlines. He openly tells his students this while puffing on a cigarette and blatantly says he hasn’t told the school that he’s working on the side.

Um…

Domestic Girlfriend Episode 10
Model Teacher

Are any of the teachers at this school actually going to have any kind of moral or ethical standard?

However, that isn’t really a drama. It is more just foreshadowing lies coming apart which Natsuo, being a wannabe writer, should have paid more attention to given he’s been lying to Rui about where he’s been going for dinner and it is going to bite him.

Domestic Girlfriend Episode 10 Natsuo fall down stairs

The next day at school he’s teasing the girl who like the literature teacher a little bit and she elbows him in the ribs, at the top of a staircase, sending him flying in a way that defies any kind of physics unless Natsuo actually launched himself backwards at the same time as she elbowed him, but let’s ignore that part of the story for now. After falling down the stairs he breaks his leg and so begins Rui in care-taker mode.

Do we even need to discuss how breaking a leg doesn’t prevent his hands or brain from working so why he really doesn’t need his step-sister to share a bath with him? This story has gone for a lot of contrivances in order to create drama and fairly uncomfortable situations like the one we get where Rui is reaching for the soap in the dark bathroom (yeah, you can see where they go with that already). While usually these aren’t too intrusive, the way they blow a broken leg out of proportion here is insane.

Domestic Girlfriend Episode 10 Rui
Pouting Rui is still pretty cute.

Yet, despite how many things he apparently can’t do on his own in this scene because of a broken leg, later on his father apparently has no issue with his son going out in the rain and one crutch to find a missing step-sister.

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Anyway, Rui ends up at the cafe and finds out that Natsuo hasn’t been going to his friend’s place and so calls Natsuo on it, and he lies again. Not only that, at the next opportunity he lies to Rui again saying he’s going to apologise to his friend and off he goes to Hina’s house, where Rui later finds him having confirmed he isn’t at his friends house.

So, drama.

Domestic Girlfriend Episode 10

Despite how idiotic the plot is here and how overblown everything is, I can’t say I actually dislike it. Outside of the bathroom scene, I actually quite enjoyed watching the train wreck that is Natsuo’s life right at the moment. Still, wondering how exactly this one will wrap up.

Domestic Girlfriend Episode 10 Anime Maids
Also, random maid montage at the beginning as part of the school festival because why not?
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