Kimi to Boku Review

As promised, here is my review of Kimi to Boku. =)

Kimi to Boku Series Review

If I had to sum up my impression of the series in a sentence, it would be that the series reminds me of a gentle breeze on a warm sunny day. Nothing great but it does provide some form of relief.

Although the series never really breaks out of it’s laid back tone, it does deliver some relaxing entertainment that makes this an easy show to watch.

Plot Summary:

About 4 friends, twins Yuta and Yuki Asaba, the cute and girly Shun Matsuoka, and the class head Kaname Tsukahara, who have known each other since kindergarden. When a half-Japanese transfer student named Chizuru Tachibana joins their group, he brings a new dynamic to their friendship. – ANN

Genre: Slice of Life, Comedy, School

Review

The Plot:

The series follows the group of friends as they go through high school whilst they mature from the experiences that they are put through along the way.

If one were to check the user ratings of the series on ANN, it would indicate that the series is terrible. Most of the time, I would agree with the user ratings on ANN, but this is probably the first time where I am going to have to disagree with it. The show did get off to a slow start and had borderlined on being as interesting as watching a comatose patient. However, ever since the introduction of Chizuru’s character, the show had definitely managed to break out of it’s “slump” and has proved to be a nice relaxing watch. This is of course not to say that the series has manage to completely rid itself of it’s previous shadow. All Chizuru’s character had provided was a new dimension to a bunch of average and normal(aka boring) characters as they go about their “youthful high school days”.

I know that I have associated the word relaxing with this series multiple times, but that is just how I feel about the series. The show never really becomes “great” or unexpectedly fun to watch, but the characters do grow on you and the show is pretty much an observation on the minor things we go through in everyday school life. From small budding romances to harmless “bullying” amongst good friends, the series takes on a nostalgic note in it’s presentation of the content.

The Characters:

As I had mentioned previously, this show focuses on the group of boys as they go through their high school lives. Along the way, they make new friends and whilst most of the focus is centered on the guys, there is another character that does find a way to integrate herself into the group by clinging onto Shun.

One pretty obvious thing about the characters is that they love to reminisce about their past relationships and experiences. As I am a person who can appreciate a good dose of nostalgia, I can appreciate the character’s tendencies to “cling” onto the past. However, unlike most series that takes on the nostalgic note, this series never once had me feeling nostalgic nor had me reminiscing about my past and I find this to be one of the key downfalls to the series – the ability to connect with it’s viewers’ emotions.

Back onto the characters… Chizuru is definitely the heart of the series, without his character, the series would be as entertaining as watching paint dry. His character brings the much needed “spunk” and whilst I love his character the most, I find it really sad that the rest of the characters seem to love to dismiss him as being just another fool/clown.

As for the rest of the “boy band”…:

• Kaname
  The typical bespectacled studious “cold” character that tends to treat his friends like idiots/fools that can’t be taken seriously. He also plays the role as the butt of the group’s jokes as they find a person such as him to be fun to tease.
• Shun
  The girl *cough*, I mean guy, of the group that is the peace making character which has the ability to connect with every character new or old. It is funny to see the rest of the characters making fun of Shun’s feminine personality as I myself couldn’t help but talk about his overly feminine “aura”. This is one of the rare on-going jokes that the viewer would be able to share with the characters.
• The Asaba Twins
  Just like the way that they look, they are pretty much flat characters that don’t have much of a personality except for the character trait of being dull in a “cool” manner.

The Animation and Soundtrack

The animation of this series takes on a pastel color palette with simple and average character designs that doesn’t really add much to it’s plain and simple vibe. Although there is nothing special about the animation in this series, there is nothing wrong with it either. The most interesting aspect of the show would have to be the odd appearances of the cats. I know that at one point in time, I had started to count the amount of times cats had appeared on screen. If you are hoping for the cats to have some form of major significance in the show, you would be disappointed. The only thing that the cat’s really have in relation to the characters is the fact that they are used as a tool to mirror the situations that the characters are in. The cats don’t really do much else other than to amuse us in a really random fashion.

The soundtrack of this series is something that I had really liked a lot. The soothing notes of the opening and ending songs were nice even if they aren’t anything memorable. Towards the beginning of the series,  I had found myself really annoyed over a particular song which had incorporated a Japanese singer singing in English. I don’t mind English songs, but I do mind it when the language sticks out like a sore thumb due to it not being the singer’s native language. Thankfully, I don’t remember hearing that song towards the second half of the series.

Overall

The show is as interesting as the word “nice”. You can take what I had just said in a couple of different manners. One way of seeing it is that the show is above average but nothing note worthy. The other way of seeing it is that the show isn’t great. I, for one, had enjoyed watching the series even though I did get close to dozing off a couple of times.

After having seen these 13 episodes, I am actually craving for more Kimi to Boku episodes as it feels like we have only begun to learn about the characters as they mature. I honestly doubt that we would be seeing a second season of the series as there doesn’t seem to be too much love out there for the show. The up side is that at least there is the manga to turn to if one is curious about the future developments the characters go through. The good thing about the end of this series is that next season has Natsume Yuujinchou to fill the gap in the Slice-of-Life genre, and when pitted against each other, Natsume is going to win hands down.

Series Rating: 6.5/10

Best Moment: The first half of the manga episode  (Episode 8) where the gang has to each draw a page of manga that is meant to follow the previous page drawn by another member of the group.

Recommendation: If you are looking for something laid back and “soft” (go figure, I couldn’t think of another word to describe the show) to watch on a lazy afternoon, this is the show for you. Amidst all the action series out this season, this series is definitely a refreshing change in pace.

-ra