The Scoreboard: Kirio Fan Club

As everybody else on this planet, I have an opinion. As many people do too, I like to write about it. Share it generously. And I am excellent at keeping score (mentally), so I will try tallying up my fondness of things according to balance.

Kirio Fan Club

Behind every crush may just be the fondness of the idea. That’s certainly what it seems like to the two main characters in this show, Aimi Miyoshi and Nami Sometani. Two best friends crushing on the same guy seems like it’s a recipe for disaster, drama and heartbreak, and to be fair all those three things happen but not under the circumstances you may expect.

What this series does extremely well is uncovering the feelings for a crush and how they relate to the people surrounding you. For Aimi and Nami, their crush on Ken Kirio is a way to strengthen their bond and explore mutual interests. Early on, you get the idea that crushing is moreso a way of trying to express certain feelings than actually wanting to pursue a romantic relationship. Although her role is somewhat smaller than expected, their younger classmate Satsuki Muraoka plays a pivotal role in cheering for the main two girls, while being a crucial bridge to their love interest as their baseball team coach. For the main male characters, Ken Kirio turns out to have surprising depth beyond being a ‘quiet but nice guy’, and his friend Hayato Momose gets his own troubles to deal with. Awkward Mitsuru Manda rounds out the main cast and though he can be a bit grating in the beginning, it’s shown he has real heart towards the end.

The series basically follows Aimi and Nami as they crush on Kirio and try to get closer in more and less successful ways. However, as the series progresses we see that even though these girls really cherish and care for each other, they have their own secrets which they keep from each other. Their ideas of crushing on Kirio are absurd in a really well-meaning way, and above everything, they pursue with genuine sincerity, even though they seem quite unsure of how things will actually develop or if they want that to happen.

As the series progresses, it manages to build tension effectively, testing Aimi and Nami’s friendship, as well as revealing more behind Ken’s mask and what he’s actually feeling. However, it’s not all high-stakes drama. There are plenty of gags and inside jokes that keep returning, from Aimi and Nami constantly drooling at the idea of everything Kirio, to Manda’s voodoo spells going off the rails. Along the way, these characters stumble but also build real relationships and community. I rate it a very effective in reminding you of how great it can be to make new friends.

The Scoreboard: Interviews with Monster Girls

Interviews with Monster Girls

A succubus, vampire, dullahan and snow woman. This seems more like the setup for a fantasy epic, but this anime series takes these outer worldly creatures in the form of cute girls and a pretty woman, drops them in a high school with a gruff but kind mentor to guide them, and shows how they deal with everyday life.

The fact that Hikari, Kyouko, Yuki and Sakie all are enamored with teacher Takahashi, makes it an achievement that the series manages to avoid feeling like a real harem. Takahashi firmly treats the high school girls as his students, even emphasizing at a certain point he can only see them as students, and shows he’s not that immune at all to Sakie as a full-grown succubus when she lets some of her charms slip.

The three monster girls all have cute personalities and experience some different situations to allow and force them to grow. At the same time, it feels like a missed opportunity to not flesh out Takahashi more besides his teacher/mentor persona, how does he get so buff?, or shows more of their interactions with their respective families, or show more of their interactins with other students. This last pooint is addressed in the second to last episode and seeing how the last episode really capitalizes on it, I’d wish we’d seen more of it.

However, as is the series is perfectly cute and relaxing, albeit a bit repetitive. If you have always wondered how you could function with your head separated from your body, if you sweat ice, need to have a separate blood bag refrigerator or wear training suits to avoid seducing anyone, this series does address these points quite adrquately. I rate it cute but slightly shallow monster girls that provide plenty of entertainment.

The Scoreboard: You and I Are Polar Opposites

You and I Are Polar Opposites

First love is a special thing. It’s not for nothing an endless source of entertainment, emotions and stories. This anime does something special with the standard cliché of opposites attract though. It makes it work without feeling too performative.

Miyu Suzuki and Yusuke Tani are quite the opposites. A bumbly and sociable girl with a quiet and serious guy. However, getting to the romance between these two suprisingly doesn’t take too long and they make for a very sweet but still relatable couple once it happens. The other two couples in the cast take a bit longer to get to a certain level though. Kentaro Yamada and Natsumi Nishi are the opposites of our main characters, but different enough in their own ways, and get some much-needed help from Natsumi’s good friend Rikako Honda and Suzuki. Shino Azuma and Shuji Taiga on the other hand keep circling around, seemingly moving the needle very little. However, looking at where the second season ends with the two of them, it’s clear they’ve also taken some steps of their own.

Over the course of the two seasons, the main couples’ stories are given enough room to breathe. Every couple gets to be in the spotlight from time to time, highlighting their different personalities and how it influences their relationships. Our main couple seems to have it somewhat the easiest, although they do get believable drama in the second season related to university choices and balancing a relationship with your own desires. Yamada and Nishi also manage to become official fast enough, although Honda wouldn’t have minded it happening even faster, and also manage to create a different type of ‘opposites attract’ dynamic that forces them to grow in their own ways. Azuma and Taiga have the least romantic development, which can be somewhat frustrating, but seeing their individual growth from their more self-destructive tendencies is almost equally satisfying.

What’s especially refreshing, is to see some drama happening because characters are nervous, insecure or inexperienced, but it generally gets resolved fairly quickly in a way that seems believable. The awkardness and eagerness of all the teenagers is front and center which can make the viewer laugh in one scene and melancholic in the next. Additionally, all main couples are part of a bumbling friend group and often interact with different classmates in a way that shows their world is bigger beyond their romantic pursuits.

I don’t have particular fondness for my high school memories, but this series made it feel like I could be part of this lovable group of teenagers as they stumble through first love and beyond. I rate it first loves done well.

The Scoreboard: Tamon’s B Side

Tamon’s B Side

This is such a cute series. It takes a pretty boilerplate story in an over the top direction but also manages to make it genuinely touching. The fangirl and idol love story is of course a romantic classic, but by playing into alter egos, something especially prevalent in the idol industry, and by taking the fangirl seriously instead of infantilizing her, the series works wonders.

Utage Kinoshita is a normal high school girl who is a superfan of the idol group F/ACE. To make it somewhat believable she can spend many resources making merch and going to concerts, she has a side job as a cleaning lady. One day she is asked to substitute a colleague in cleaning a certain appartment. This turns out to be THE Tamon Fukuhara, her most beloved idolboy, but instead of his confident and slightly mischievous personality, he turns out to be totally lacking in self-esteem and confidence.

Throughout the series we meet more two-faced people and it’s honestly a joy to see them interact and learn more about their backgrounds. Throughout it all Utage never gives up and firmly believes in Tamon no matter what happens. And even though you can see actual feelings developing from miles away, the series manages to take things slow without it feeling to frustrating.

In the end, this is one of those series where you’d just like to see and know more. Because the characters are well-developed, you just start wondering more about those that are not. Also, the singing is also surprisingly limited for an idol-themed show, so a bit more of that in a next season wouldn’t be bad either. I rate it while watching I can’t wait for the full album and a new season to come out.