It doesn’t make the show great or anything (still pretty trashy), but at least now it’s more engaging. While normally I’m not fond of meta-jokes, it works in this case because the show uses our old knowledge of such cliche to twist around the head. The fun of watching Ore wo Suki is to see how it establishes obvious tropes and then slowly derails from these. Also, the character animation is shit and the design work is even worse. The only difference between the two was a different girl watching him each time, staring at him with tears in her eyes as though this fucknugget’s emotional display was the most pressing concern of her life. At this point I was done with Ore wo Suki nano wa Omae dake ka yo, but I clicked through the rest of the episode at random and discovered two nearly identical, pitifully animated scenes where a male character cries and softly bonks his head against a wall.
I pressed on, undeterred by the show’s upfront admission that characterization was not a priority, and watched with horror as the series used GBA-era sound effects to accompany the appearance of two female characters’ tits and asses. The main character introduced himself by saying that, apart from his name, there was “nothing remarkable about me.” This was a clear sign that the show could be disregarded, as it’s the laziest possible means of creating a relatable protagonist, and also the least effective. I watched the first three minutes of this and had to bail. Short Synopsis: A literal potato fails to earn the affections of two anime girls wearing tacky flower accessories. Houkago is your average “cute girls playing games” show and doesn’t offer much more than that. The other aspect of the show, the board games, does a decent job of introducing various board games and that might be the only selling point I find from this show. The plot also goes pretty much aimless in the first half and only starts to form once the girls get into the board game store. She’s too uninteresting that I feel the way the other girls “assist” her to be forced. I blame it on the plainness of the blue hair main girl, who was literally starting to cry while playing a freaking board game. Too standard that it fails to register to me in any way. It doesn’t feel natural in the least, and I doubt the show will take its foot off the gas in that respect. The board game they play during the second half of the episode (“Marrakech” – shoutout to Crosby, Stills & Nash) is charming in its simplicity, but that too is sullied by the other characters investing way too much of themselves into helping Shy Girl have fun.
Most people will need to head home in the evening, so of course you can get lost, regardless of your immediate goal. Shy Girl operates on “wears headphones to school” levels of anxiety, while Genki Girl’s philosophy that you can never be lost if you don’t have a destination soured me on her character. The same can’t be said for the characters, who are the same shy/genki/strict trio we’ve seen before in anime. The layouts are imaginative, and the digital coloring is appealing. Seriously, the background art looks really nice, especially during the exterior scenes, with plants and streams that feel as though someone drew them, rather than using digital assets or slapping some filters on top of a referenced illustration. This series has two things going for it: pretty backgrounds and the allure of a new board game or two to be unveiled each week. Short Synopsis: A shy high schooler stumbles upon an out of the way hobby shop and bonds with other girls over board games.