The following contains spoilers for Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie Episode 1, “My Girlfriend is Super Cute,” now streaming on Crunchyroll.
The spring 2022 anime season has introduced anime fans to many new and returning romantic comedy anime series, from the charming Aharen-san is indecipherable to familiar faces like shonen in shojo style Komi can’t communicate and the romantic battle of wits of Kaguya-sama: Love is war. then there is Shikimori is not just a cutieanother new series that fans of romantic comedies are sure to enjoy.
In many aspects, Shikimori is a mainstream romantic comedy high school series like Horimiyabut while he doesn’t reinvent the wheel, his center partner is unusual in a way that fans of TONIKAWA: Over the moon for you I’m sure you recognize it. In Shikimorithe main lovers are already in a solid relationship, so any conflict must be external, and already, Episode 1 proves that to be the case.
episode 1 of Shikimori is not just a cutie goes to great lengths to establish Izumi and Shikimori’s characters, as well as their interpersonal dynamics, and everything should feel familiar to you. TONIKAWA fans. To begin with, Izumi is a gentle and caring male lead similar to Horimiya‘s Miyamura Izumi, who has the same name as by Shikimori male lead. Both boys are notable for bucking the trend of being outspoken and aggressive male leads, which can provide some much-needed respite from that archetype.
In a way, male leads like Izumis and even Gojo Wakana are written for the “female gaze,” making them ideal partners for girls who want a sensitive and caring partner rather than a bad boy. Kind leads like Izumi won’t appeal to every anime fan, but they help prove that male leads aren’t all the same, and several anime seasons ago, TONIKAWA I knew it too.
Yuzaki Nasa, the male lead of TONIKAWA: Over the moon for youHe was a responsible, humble and generous boy who only cared about making his new girlfriend, the mysterious Tsukasa, happy and comfortable. Some anime fans may find characters like Nasa and Izumi boring, but their fans will appreciate how generous and conflict-free these characters can be in their arcs, and it makes for an unusually stable central romance compared to series like Todora! Y Nisekoi.
Similarly, Shikimori is not just a cutie Y TONIKAWA both feature female co-stars who are “stronger” than the male lead by having more skills and a more proactive personality, and are the ones who drive each scene and episode. These girls greatly appreciate their male partners for who they are, and this further stabilizes the relationship. So if the main couple is frictionless, the conflict must come from somewhere else.
Every story, even a bland anime series about life needs some kind of conflict as this is what drives a story and its characters in any genre or sub-genre. In romances, the two main lovers can have a number of conflicts with each other, from infidelity to a clash of personalities to simply not agreeing on how quickly their relationship should develop, among other potential obstacles. Examples include the romance between Kyo and Tohru in Fruit basquet or the main couple in dispute of Nisekoibut Shikimori‘s main couple lacks conflicts like that as they get along very well. If anime doesn’t want to bore its viewers, it can and should borrow from TONIKAWAPlaybook.
TONIKAWAThe main couple of has zero friction, so the conflict was purely external, such as the main characters’ apartment burning down in a freak accident and other characters testing or even doubting the validity of their marriage. For NASA and Tsukasa, it was an “us versus the world” conflict, and at this rate, Shikimori is not just a cutie could do the same. After all, many of the students doubt if Izumi really deserves a star girlfriend like Shikimori, and Shikimori and Izumi are a bit unsure about their respective roles in the relationship.
If other characters take advantage of this while acting as antagonists, Shikimori is not just a cutie it will have all the conflict its viewers can handle. Challengers may appear soon, and Shikimori and Izumi must prepare to team up to fend them off; otherwise, their seemingly perfect relationship is doomed.
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