Say "I Love You" Anime Review
When you have a streak of bad friends, you stop wanting friends. When that happens, sometimes we need someone to come and pull us out of that slump.
PRODUCTION INFO
Say "I Love You" is a shoujo manga written by Kanae Hazuki (Ai no Koe, Love Capsule, Suki o Choudai). It started running in 2008 and it is currently ongoing. Fall 2012, an anime adaption aired in Japan, and was animated by studio Zexcs (Legend of the Legendary Heroes, The Flowers of Evil). The anime was directed by Toshimasa Kuroyanagi (Shonen Hollywood). July 2014, a live action film was released.
SUMMARY
Sometimes we start life with some bad connections. Those people we're connected to may continue influencing us for many years to come, making us wary so as not to experience a repeat of a bad event. Mei Tachibana in Say "I Love You" felt that way when she was tricked by some classmates as a child. She was fooled into feeding the class rabbit some bad food, and it died. Since then, she has worked hard to keep up an unsocial air so that she could avoid making friends and being betrayed by them. When a couple of boys bump into her in the school corridor, she finds herself a new unexpected connection; Yamato Kurosawa, the most popular guy in school. Yamato claims to be completely taken with Mei, and forces his way into her life. Who knows how Mei will react to Yamato? She has yet to experience love, let alone true friendship...
WHAT TO EXPECT
This show feels more like it's directed at an older shoujo audience... Not quite josei, but the romance sure does get pretty heated! There's quite a bit of drama in the show, but it's slow starting. It's definitely intended to be watched by teenage girls, as Yamato has that "perfect guy"air to him with a hint of "bad boy". It's a bit hard for me to describe since I'm not a fan of characters like that, but it's definitely a thing. If you've seen Kimi ni Todoke, this is like a slightly older audience version of that anime.
CHARACTERS
Mei Tachibana is a high school girl who's more than just your average introvert. She has zero friends, and zero intentions of gaining any. She would have continued on that way if Yamato's friend Kai had not bumped into her in the hallway. Ever since that moment, Yamato became intrigued with her, following her everywhere. She finds it hard to get along with new people in that it's difficult on her, what with her built-up social anxiety from over the years of avoiding people, but she can tell when she meets someone whether or not she likes their personality enough to get along with them. She's got a thick shell, but thanks to Yamato's help, she can slowly poke her head out to see others.
Yamato Kurosawa can't seem to go five minutes without someone cutting into his alone time with Mei, whether it's through a phone call, text message, or even being asked out in person. Some people refuse to believe that Mei is with Yamato, simply because of the extreme contrast between a popular guy like him and a girl with no friends. Rumours spread all around the school about Yamato, but he doesn't care. It's probably that huge difference from what he's used to that attracts him to Mei so much.
OPINIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS
To be honest, I was not too big on this anime at first. I didn't think it was bad, but it felt a bit late in that Kimi ni Todoke has already done something very much like this, and I felt they did a better job as well. I thought Kimi ni Todoke was much more innocent, though, and that side of Kimi ni Todoke really charms me. Say "I Love You" on the other hand, starts off with a feeling that this is not going to be so innocent. It took a few episodes for me to realise that this is the type of show that gets better over time. It actually got really cute really quickly, and also really enjoyable! I couldn't seem to find a way to talk about many of the characters without spoiling the story, so I decided to leave it at just Mei and Yamato.
I was a bit confused about Mei opening up to Yamato, and vice versa. Well, with Yamato it makes sense, since he's a social guy who seems to want to know everyone. He's already met all the normal people, so of course he'd fall for someone abnormal in comparison. As for Mei, she's not very tolerant of new people. Yamato did so many things that Mei would normally turn people away for, yet she continues to hang around him. I feel that it is probably because of the circumstances under which he came to her outside of school. (You'll see if you watch it.) It probably left a mark on her heart when he betrayed her expectations and really did come to help her. A good mark, like one of those smelly stickers you got on your homework for acing it as a kid. Do kids still get those...? Anyway, the point is, I think she was so shocked by his loyalty that she began opening up to him. It's actually really interesting how much psychology you can find in a romance like this...
As you've probably guessed, I highly recommend Kimi ni Todoke to fans of this show, and probably also The Wallflower, which is another shoujo that involves the transformation of a grubby unsocial girl.
RATING
7/10
