What’s a better way to cap off my weekend than with another episode of this wonderful anime?
The good…
— Uh, the screenshot above was unintentionally kind of funny.
…the bad…
— Hearing what Kyouya had said to Yuu, Erika decides to “break up” with the Black Prince. They were never really together in the first place, but still, you might wonder why is this in the bad category. It’s because her decision won’t last. She’ll come crawling back to him by the end of episode anyway. I know it, you know it, we all know it.
— Afterwards, she cries and calls herself stupid. After all, she had wasted so much time with Kyouya. Meh, she’s a teenager. Teenagers can afford to waste time. I would love to see a show where the shoujo actually has a realistic love life. In other words, she dates maybe three or four guys over the course of her high school career, and even though there were plenty of good times with each of them, those relationships eventually ended one way or another because few people ever meet their SOs in high school. Along the way, she matures, she changes, she discovers herself, she realizes what she wants, so on and so forth. What would be wrong with this story? It’s not depressing. It’s life, man. You form connections, you get to know a lot of people, you learn about them, you love them, and then you go your separate ways because the two of you are ultimately not compatible. And that’s okay. It’s not the end of the world. It’s just life. For God’s sakes, live it. Embrace it. Life is supposed to be a journey.
— I’m not telling anyone to go and dump their SOs right now so they can go flirt with a bunch of people. But at the same time, our stories don’t always have to be like this. Hell, most of our personal stories are not like this. I’ve been with the same girl for years now, and I’m not giving her up for anything. But even then, I’ve dated others before her. I’ve had painful breakups before her. No, I’m not saying that anime has to emulate my love life, but right now, it seems like they’re only emulating the same story over and over anyway. So y’know, it wouldn’t hurt to change things up a bit.
— There are so many coming-of-age stories in anime where heroes or heroines go on adventures, screw up, and learn from their mistakes. But they almost never, ever make a mistake about love. If anime characters fall in love with someone, it’s usually for life and this is so goddamn silly. Love should be one of those coming-of-age things where you do screw up, and you do learn from your mistakes. But you know right from the get-go that our Wolf Girl and the Black Prince will be together forever. So the only mistake here is Erika even “breaking up” with Kyouya in the first place. See, she’s sad about wasting time, but if their fates are intrinsically intertwined anyway, she’s only wasting time by leaving him in the first place! And that’s just sad.
— According to Erika’s “friends,” she downgraded by moving from Kyouya to Yuu. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not rooting for Yuu. Timid people like him personally annoy me. But I do acknowledge one thing: he actually respects Erika. That doesn’t mean she owes him her love or anything like that. She can love whoever she wants, and if she doesn’t feel it for Yuu, then so be it. But let’s assume for a moment that our heroine and Yuu are dating. The only way Erika would be downgrading is if — and this might sound crazy! — is if she is unhappier with Yuu than she was with Kyouya. Shocking, I know. It’s almost as if our boyfriends and girlfriends are actual people and not trophies to be lorded over our peers.
— Oh no! Kyouya’s vibe has totally changed recently! Is that because he actually cares about Erika, or is his ego just hurt because she dumped him?
— Yuu tries to ask Erika out on a date, but he’s not direct about it. As a result, she invites her actual friend to come along with them. Buddy… she’s just not into you. Besides, even if she was, I’d still tell him to give her some space. Real boyfriend or not, she just broke up with someone. It’s kind of weird to just swoop in and try to date the girl, no? C’mon, you never want to be the rebound.
— So we get to watch these characters do mundane things like play ping pong. Every damn anime couple does these same, boring activities every time they go on a date or a date-like event. Is that literally all you guys can do? Play the claw crane?
— Emboldened by their fun day, Yuu now tries to ask Erika out for realsies, especially since White Day is coming up. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s like this… on Valentine’s Day, the girls give candy and treats to the guys. One month later, the guys return the favor. I think it’s kind of cool. In the West, it’s usually just assumed that the guys have to be the romantic aggressors all the time. Anyway, Erika agrees to the date for now, but…
— …her real friend knows what she’s really like. And Erika’s been trying to hide her true feelings by being over-the-top happy all day long. This is why you’re supposed to give people space after a break-up, real or not. Because the truth is, Yuu probably isn’t the right guy for her. He’s nice, but… he’s boring too. Ah well! We only have a season to get this shitty story over with, so Erika doesn’t get the luxury of time!
— Erika: “Kusakabe is a good person. He really cares about me.” Yeah, but we all know that’s not enough for love. Our friends are usually good people too. And they really care about us too. We still don’t date them.
— So the truth comes out: “Right now I’m at the stage where I’d really like to fall for him some day. And Kusakabe said he’d wait patiently, too.” This has disaster written all over it. Luckily, there won’t be a disaster, because we know Erika’s truly in love with the Black Prince. As such, she won’t even get the chance to string Yuu along until she realizes she can’t love him. She’ll be wearing Kyouya’s collar before she knows it.
— As usual, Ayumi is the only mature and level-headed person on this show: “You know very well how much it hurts, waiting that long in anticipation, right?” In other words, don’t pretend as though you can just fall in love with someone you never had any chemistry with.
— Please, stop… you’re making me want to throw up.
— Of fucking course… Yuu ultimately decides to take Erika to the aquarium. According to anime, aquariums are the most romantic places in the goddamn world. If you’re in an anime relationship, you just gotta go to one! It’s the law!
— But we all know where Erika’s heart lies. Even though Yuu is talking about their upcoming date all excitedly, she literally stops dead in her tracks to watch Kyouya turn down a girl in the distance. Then somehow, she trips and scratches up one of her knees in the process. Okay then.
— Yuu goes to fetch the nurse, so this gives Kyouya an opportunity to drop by and check up on his former pet. Uguu, he totally cares:
Oops. Guess not.
— There’s nothing to talk about here. Kyouya questions whether or not she can really love Yuu, so the girl doubles down and insists that she can. Whatever. It’s just filler, because the episode isn’t ready to be over yet. It’s filler because nothing Erika says here will matter by the end of the episode.
— Oh boy, exciting aquarium action follows. There’s barely even any dialogue, so you know they put a lot of effort into this.
— Elsewhere, Takeru is hanging out with his bros on White Day. What’s with the impossibly tall dude behind them? Is he an NFL linebacker on vacation or something? Anyway, Takeru sees Erika on a date, and immediately feels compelled to ring Kyouya up and tell him all about it. Hilarious.
— At the end of the night, Erika thanks Yuu for the fun date. Naturally, he’s the type of guy who turns around and thanks her as well. This makes Erika feel all guilty, because she knows she can’t ever love him. So on their way home, she immediately tells the guy that she can’t be with him. RIP, Yuu x Erika (2014-2014)
— What’s even worse is what Erika ends up confessing: “It seems I’m still obstinately in love with [Kyouya].” What a shocker. In the end, she comes crawling back to Kyouya anyway. She doesn’t literally crawl her way back to him, but mentally, she was doing it the entire time she was on this date. Not only that, she’s still a compulsive liar. She still tried to lie about her true feelings not only to Yuu but herself as well. There are few if any positives to take away from this anime.
— Yuu basically tells her that the grass is greener where you water it. She’s not even trying to forget Kyouya. Her reply? “I think that deep in my heart, I want to be in love with Kyouya.” Ah well. Yuu tried!
— So how does Erika end this difficult conversation? By bidding each other farewell, right? Nah: “I’ll work so hard! To make him love me! No matter how many years it takes!” Yeah, what jilted guy wouldn’t want to hear that…? Oh, you rejected me after only a date, but you’ll take all the time in the world to make that asshole fall in love with you? Well gee, I’m so happy to hear that!
— Then right on cue, Kyouya shows up, grabs one of Erika’s wrists, and literally jerks her away from Yuu. All Erika can do is blush like a fucking idiot.
Uguu, I get to be his dog again!
— Barf.
— The ending is dumb. Kyouya reluctantly tells her that he loves her, then they kiss a couple times. Pfft. There’s still a month’s worth of episodes left, so let’s see how he breaks her heart next.
…the ugly.
And your moment of zen:
Moe Sucks 
lol that guy really is tall! I didn’t pay attention when I watched it.
“RIP, Yuu x Erika (2014-2014)”
This made me laugh!
I thought his popularity would go down when he told that girl to go away when she tried to give him something. But she was only hurt for a few seconds then she likes him because he seems cool anyway he acts…
It would have been interesting if the students all started talking about how rude he was to someone, and just started to find out how he really was.
The show has so little respect for any of the female characters. Most people would be turned off by Kyouya’s behavior. Not in this anime, though…
I really can’t wait for the Ore Monogatari anime. I know there’s an oasis in the sea of shoujo shit, and its coming.
It’s interesting in that it has a non-typical looking hero. But will we see an adaptation with a non-typical looking shoujo?
Given how hard people waifu the Watamote girl I could see someone toning her down a bit and making bank.
Pochamani has a chubby girl as a protagonist. And the best is: she is not just a ambulant joke about fat people, she is a real character. https://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=78395
I said adaptation. I don’t believe her story would make it to anime, and I’m not really interested in reading manga in general.
Nana has a pair of protagonists, one of them is a punk girl. Does it count?
Not really.
“I wish I knew how to quit you!”
Didn’t know people still used this old and tried joke.
Kyoya isn’t even tsundere, he’s just an asshole.
I’d be interested in a long running shoujo with a lead that goes through many boyfriends, that’d be more interesting. The run of the mill shoujo lacks spice because you know they’ll end up together no matter what happens, and that’s not fun. I’m saying this as a shipper lol, I like my ships with the uncertainty of canon, it makes the resolution more satisfying…but that’s just my take on it.
It’s weird because everything always has to be ideal even when the situation is bad. Even though these two characters seem mismatched, their outcome as a couple still has to be ideal, i.e. they’ll end up together. There’s this strange obsession with happy endings that ultimately holds these stories back. People can relate to and identify with sad or melancholy endings too. Haruki Murakami’s writings demonstrate this. There’s nothing very happy about Norwegian Wood’s ending, but it touches people because it captures relationships as they are: fraught with difficulties. These shoujos, on the other hand, feel immature because they force these characters to have a happy outcome no matter what. It’s silly.
This show man.
The main characters are so dislikeable that I wonder if there will ever be a time when they can move up the ranks, meaning I can start to like them even if is just a tiny bit.
I think Kyoya is supposed to be the reluctant male interest that looks like he doesn’t care (poker face) but he does, and I said “supposed to” because he totally fails.
I can only remember one shoujo manga that attempted this and succeed, and that is High school début. Both leads were a bit strange but likeable. So it can be done, but not like this.
On a side not, so far I have seen only 2 shoujo manga stories where the girl end with the second love interest, and some other where there is something more like dating several guys and moving on (not at the same time) so if the waters continue to move this way you might get your real life like romance story eventually.
Do you remember the name of those mangas?
Yes I do, but I wouldn’t recommend them… maybe just one of them. Also I would be spoiling the ending of said stories.
Hirunaka no Ryuusei and Tonari no Atashi are the ones with spoiled endings.
And Mairunovich is the one where the girl dates different guys, however I didn’t go very far that one so I have no basis for recommending it.
Read at your own risk.
Oh, I really hated Mairunovich’s message (at least what I understood from the first few chapters). Maybe I’ll check out the others.
Peach Girl also I think she ends up with the second love interest. If you’re interested.
I just think the author couldn’t strike a proper balance between a reluctant love interest and an asshole to make the story catch people’s interest. There’s always this feeling that I gotta stand out. I gotta get people to notice me. I know! I’ll have the love interest call the shoujo a dog.
Sigh… this show man… this show is an excellent example of abusive relationship without psychical violence. Breaking up all the time, don’t let the other person go because you need to have control over her/him are clearly elements of an abusive relationship. I’m gonna leave here two excerpts of a real article about abusive relationship.
“An abuser is morbidly insecure. S/he (yes, potentially, she) has little sense of his/her own social value and makes an effort to gain or re-gain some semblance of that value through domination and control. The fear that feeds that insecurity has two fronts: fear of not being lovable, and fear of appearing weak. The paradox here is that the abuser is, in fact, weak, which is why s/he abuses — to maintain a sense of control — in the first place. The perceived inconsistency on the part of the abuser by the victim is that the victim is not submitting to the abuser’s domination.”
“The pathological need to control on the part of the abuser and the pathological need for attention on the part of the victim is a match made in heaven. We are all just a bunch of neurotic habits that tend to find a fit with our opposite to create a psychosocial balance. Abusive relationships are one of the most extreme cases of this dynamic.”
It’s very creepy how accurate these excepts describe the dynamic between Erika and Kyoya. The worst for me it’s not how wrong everything is in their relationship, but the fact it’s being portrayed as something desirable. But hey it’s supposed to be a love comedy, so the problem is not with the anime but with me who is over analyzing it, right?
Ps: On the next episode Yuu is gonna complain on twitter how Nice Guys like him doesn’t make success with the girls because they only like jerks.
The problem is that people think you should fight for a relationship. To a certain extent, this is true. Like if two people are compatible, but their schedules conflict… they fight to keep the relationship. You don’t fight to keep a relationship, however, if both parties are toxic to each other. And that’s the problem. People take this generalized notion that we should fight for what we love, and apply it to everything. It stops making sense when you start applying the same mindset to someone like the Black Prince.
Shakespearean comedies are a lot like that. It’s a shame. If they do have to go with the one true love story, then maybe the should tone down the conflicts, so they don’t come off as abusive?
“shoujo actually has a realistic love life” Wait, Nana totally counts in that regard. Most of the girls move on from their initial crushes.