As a young girl, Mei Tachibana experienced friendships so
toxic, it’s caused her to hate the very thought of making friends. Now in High School, Mei is a social outcast,
walling herself off and making herself one of the most despised girls in
school. That all changes when she
accidentally strikes Yamato Kurosawa, the most popular boy in school. Yamato finds himself drawn to the isolated
Mei and wants to become her friend. It’s
been years since Mei’s had anything resembling a positive friendship. Could Yamato break that spell…and could more
blossom from this newfound friendship?
Well we’ve crossed into February, aka the Month of Love
and Romance.
This year, I’m already set
to look at the mega popular hit Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai…but
at the request of a good friend of mine, I’m gonna tackle another romantic
Anime as well and this one…hmmmm this is definitely outside my wheelhouse.
I’d never even heard of Say, I Love You until
my friend kept bringing it up in conversation.
Seeing as how I had some empty review slots to fill (thanks in part to
me not doing Katsucon this year) and I haven’t done a review request from this
friend, why the heck not.
So, Say, I
Love You…interesting premise for sure.
How does a romance work between the most popular boy in school and the
most anti social girl in existence?
The answer…is
complicated.
Let me start by saying I truly feel for Mei and her lifes
situation.
Being burned by toxic
friendships so hard that you cant imagine a genuine one existed is
heartbreaking and incredibly sad.
It was
enough to put the thought in my mind that like 80% of the people in Say, I Love
You, are absolute jerks, prone to jealous gossiping and trying to ruin the life
of anyone who might be more popular than they.
Mei tries to stay under the radar but her personal defensive bubble is
pretty wide so anyone would take notice.
Watching this bubble get smaller and smaller is one of the best parts of
the show right now.
The more Mei is
around Yamato, it’s clearly having a positive effect.
She’s being far more vocal about her feelings
and even stands up for a rival before the end of this opening set of
episodes.
We even see Mei is super
competitive at sports…truth be told Mei’s kind of a bad ass, even delivering a
solid round house kick to Yamato, the kick that endears her to him super
hard.
If for nothing else going forward,
it’ll be great to watch Mei only get stronger as a person and I hope she forms
a few solid friendships outside of Yamato…and I guess Kenji and Asami, theyre
cool right?
Yamato…is a whole other story.
He’s the exact opposite of Mei, popular and
in demand.
Yamato never tries to flaunt
his good looks or popular status, he’s surprisingly humble for a Shoujo
lead.
Dude is a literal babe magnet with
girls hovering around him at any given minute hoping they have a shot at dating
him or at least netting a kiss.
The
latter seems far more likely since rumors of Yamato kissing pretty much every
girl in school are abundant and constantly circling Mei’s mind.
My problem with Yamato is that he has a
“Because I want to” mentality that doesn’t paint him in the best light in the
first two episodes.
He’s enamoured with
Mei cause she kicked him down a flight of stairs (granted that kick was meant
for his perverted bestie), then stalks her, eventually gets her number…and
later when Mei pretty much cant handle the rumors of Yamato’s free love
approach to life, Yamato kisses her several times to show Mei “this kind of
kiss means this”.
That is not ok in my
book.
There is such a thing as consent
and early on, Yamato isn’t about that.
He’d just kiss Mei when he wanted to and it doesn’t paint him in the
best light at first.
I mean yeah, he did
kiss her to stave off a potential stalker who was following Mei with some
pretty sinister intentions…but yeah, Yamato’s hard to read.
Granted we do get explanations for why Yamato is so open
to basically being a “Yes Man” and I can get behind it: Basically his best
friend in middle school was bullied hard and Yamato didn’t stand up for him,
causing the kid to change schools.
Yamato doesn’t want a repeat of that soul crushing event so he’ll do
anything for anyone, no matter what it seems.
Him sleeping with Aiko, I’m glad Yamato admitted he was young and kind
of stupid for doing that (there are better ways to handle what Aiko was going
through).
It all leads to one of the key
themes of Say, I Love You: What would you do for the one you love?
For Yamato, it’s being there no matter
what.
For Aiko, it’s changing her
appearance in very unhealthy ways hoping to win Yamato’s heart.
For Mei…its being able to open herself up to
trusting other people and having faith that not every friendship she makes will
bite her in the end.
In fact, Mei
probably got the best line of the opening set, “Friendships based on looks
don’t last. You need to have more faith in them”.
Four episodes in and she’s already showing
amazing growth.
Now if only Yamato can
grow out of his “Yes Man” qualities, then we have a strong couple.
As they stand now…Mei and Yamato are ok.
After that not ok kiss scene in Episode 2,
they have better scenes that show the romance is growing and it’s being taken
more at Mei’s pace than Yamato’s quick to jump into things approach.
Some other odds and ends before we wrap up, there are a
few supporting characters to go over.
First up is Kenji, Yamato’s best friend, who should really be kicked out
of school for all the skirt chasing he does.
His pervertendess does come in hand why defending his crush, Asami, who
has a big chest, and, on the advice of Mei of all people, he successfully asks
Asami out.
Asami herself doesn’t do much
and I wonder if she’ll be more important going forward, it would be nice to see
Mei interact with a nice girl when every other one wants to end her existence
for being with Yamato.
Speaking of,
Aiko, yeesh this girl.
Heartbroken for
trying to make herself look more pretty for a boy who cheated on her and
crushed that she lost weight for Yamato only for him to end up with Mei, Aiko’s
tried to do a lot for the ones shes come to love and sees nothing in return.
She started off as a serious and potentially
dangerous rival for Mei but after Mei stood up for her against another jerk
classmate, they seem…ok, I guess?
I’ve
gotta say that this show is absolutely gorgeous.
Not quite up to par with Kyoto Animation but
Studio Zexcs is animating the hell out of this show, it’s a beautiful looking
love story to be sure and the music matches too, especially the slow and heart
warming opening theme.
Say, I Love You’s
sense of humor is also…well weird.
Sure
there are light hearted moments but when the show looks as mature as it does,
scary Anime eyes on Mei when she goes into total competition mode kind of feels
out of place…but that’s just me.
Idk,
hearing that Mei accidentally his a teacher with a folded map when he tried to
take a bracelet Yamato made for her was pretty funny.
This is…an odd one for me, like I said.
For my friend though, I’ll see this one
through.
Mei’s a great character to
follow and it’d be great to see her stand her ground more against a school that
like 90% hates her for being with the unattainable Yamato.
Yamato himself still needs some work but
maybe Mei will have a better, more consistent effect on him in the long
run.
See you back here Friday for more
Say, I Love You, right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.
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