So, I figured that this might be like your typical shoujo,
but with some teeth (which shoujo needs, so I watched it willingly). It certainly is that, but it’s also quite
unpleasant to watch.
Firstly, it’s physically unpleasant to look at. Guys and girls are your bog-standard shoujo
designs, with the guys also being awkwardly angular, with a lot of
unnatural-looking straight lines. The
designs themselves have a decent amount of detail, but that could not be said
for the backgrounds, which were occasionally blank enough to look unfinished.
Secondly, it’s still bogged down in clichés. While this anime actually understands that
teenagers are perverted (unlike most anime, which think that they are bastions
of purity), it doesn’t do anything interesting or thoughtful with this
idea. It instead switches out the anime clichés
for some chick-flick romcom clichés. Being someone who doesn’t enjoy chick-flick romcoms, I really don’t find myself
getting all worked up over an animefied one.
Oh, the main character is a girl
who’s never experienced love who is in
a relationship with the hottest guy in school and high school relationships are really important.
Third, the main character is dumb. Her only dream, apparently, is to make
friends with dumb teenagers that she doesn’t even like much just so that she
can hang out with them in class (even though she already has a friend in the
school, so it’s not like she doesn’t have anyone). She apparently has no other dream or goal, so
she’s completely willing to demean herself and go to ridiculous levels, again,
to make people who she doesn’t like much (and are kind of bitchy to her on
occasion) hang out with her.
Fourth, the relationship she has with the male lead is… ugh,
it’s awful. I’m all for romances with a
jerk-with-a-heart-of-gold guy (it’s better than having them be bland and hot),
but this anime kind of forgot the heart-of-gold part and just made him a total
asshole. He literally emotionally abuses
the girl, bossing her around and blackmailing her whenever she says she is
unwilling to demean herself just to amuse him.
Seeeee-xy, amirite, ladies? Who
doesn’t want their boyfriend to be a manipulative asshole?
You see, this relationship could have been less cringe
worthy if the main girl could hold her own against him. If the two had fun interactions, and humorous
interplay. If she had some sort of control, or at least was
smart enough to figure him out. If he
showed off that he had some sort of sympathetic qualities, or at least if he
had a few good lines. But no.
Fifth, of, course, the main girl is going to fall for
him. This is basically Stockholm
syndrome (she’s already getting worked up over him doing the slightest nice
thing to her). We, the audience, are
supposed to like this guy, sigh over him, and the like. Unless the writers are going for some really
fringe teenage girls who are into being dominated, this holds appeal to no
one. And even then, I doubt it appeals
to them. Their relationship isn’t
interesting, flirty, hot, amusing, or anything like that. It’s just uncomfortable to watch.
TL;DR: If you think you want to watch this, don’t. Go and read Watashi ni xx Shinasai! (Still a contender for worst title ever)
instead. I can’t in good faith call it a
great manga, but it does what this anime is trying to do so much better. At the very
least, it’s the best example I can find of a shoujo-about-people being-assholes-to-each-other. And the main couple doesn’t give you an
abusive-relationship vibe. Also, this anime's title is false advertising, because there was no black Prince anywhere to be found.
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