I’ve been doing this for a long time now. And over time I’ve come to realize that form usually wills out when it comes to anime. When it comes to genres and subgenres there are those I tend not to vibe with, and even when I like them at first over time some kind of course correction tends to happens. There are exceptions in pretty much every genre of course. But what usually happens is the things that tend to annoy me about them assert themselves over time, and the spell is broken.
I did like the first episode of Kimi to Koete Koi ni Naru. A fair bit, in fact. But already I’m seeing some of the tropes that make shoujo romance grate on me emerging. The lens through which they’re being shown is interesting, which is a partial saving grace so far. But I kind of doubt that’s going to hold. Why this genre is so obsessed with glorifying abusive relationships is a puzzlement to me. But if they didn’t sell, publishers wouldn’t keep churning them out.
Look, Tsunagu is a good guy, that’s clear. But what’s also clear is this – he stepped over a bunch of lines in that storage room, whatever his reasons for it. And Mari blamed herself, which perfectly fits the trope. But what annoyed me just as much was that after Tsunagu warned Yukihiro that he couldn’t control his impulses, that he was a danger to Mari, Yukihiro locked the pair of them in his room. You know, as an experiment. That was shitty to both of them but especially Mari, who he’s treating as a test subject. At least Tsunagu has the decency to try (not very successfully so far, admittedly) and steer clear of situations where he might hurt her.
So all of that side of the series is kind of icky, to be honest. The larger story about discrimination and bullying is interesting and engaging, but it’s in direct conflict with the “romance” so far. The revelation that Tsunagu is himself half-human is a fascinating twist to be sure. He says it makes him immune from the “Forbidden Moon” cycle which turns beastmen into, well, beasts for a few weeks in spring. But immune or not, being locked in a room with Mari is clearly too much for him. It’s a conflict roiling inside him but in the end, it’s still an extension of the classic shoujo romance abusive boyfriend cliche.
I’ve got one more ep in me for sure, but I feel like Kimi to Koete is at a crossroads already. Maybe the better angels of its nature win out and it really does focus on Tsunagu’s problem – and the romance – in a thoughtful and restrained way. But history tells me not to bet on it, and hope is not expectation. I definitely feel like there’s the kernel of something good with Kimi to Koete Koi ni Naru, but it’s swimming against a mighty strong current in trying to realize it.
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