Blkittykat

I certainly hope better than Hiro and Natsuo did.

From the very beginning, this was such a unique set up. The idea of "I hate him, so I'll date him" is the stuff of my enemies - to - lovers dream plots, but wait! This execution of the trope has an additional clause because one of our leads Hiro decides, "I date him so I can dump him". A revenge plot.

However, once again, from the beginning it was very obvious that this was no revenge plot. He wanted it, but he just got sidetracked. Like when you play a video game and forget to do the main quest because you were too busy harvesting a special limited edition crop. The two of them begin dating, they go on dates and the story teeters between being a simple rom-com and a story about growth and self confidence. It did the rom-com better. Because while I was able to believe in their romantic connection, I didn't quite see much depth to either of their characters, which made it harder for me to connect to them.

We do get a lot of glimpses to their past as high schoolers, during which time so much happened that the entire present day plot is a repurcussion of those incidents. We had a ton of side quests that added no depth to the plot or the characters, it all felt very superficial, because with every scene, you can kind of see what they're trying to say, but emotions don't quite reach.

The finale was easily the best episode - we got a payoff to the romantic relationship they built up in the first seven episodes, there was reasonable closure for all other parts of the story, but it came a bit too late to create much impact.

Now I did read that the story is based on a two episode (?) manga, a very short iteration, and in hindsight, you can absolutely tell that they didn't have a lot of story to work with. Because eight episodes based on a short story is long ask, and in adapting it, they tried to fill in the gaps by repeating and recreating the same scenes over and over. Again, teetering between taking the story and expanding upon it, or keeping it as is and making a shorter version, they decided to keep it as is and make a long version.

I thought I would enjoy this more, the actors did a great job, and like I said, the premise was very interesting. It was a very rare instance where the misunderstanding didn't feel frustrating and this had potential, a lot of lost potential. I wouldn't wholly recommend it, but if you're in the mood for a rom-com with tiny glimpses of some emotional depth, sure, give this a try.

Also! Check ID before you date someone! This one was insane, like if you know someone's address but not their last name, that's red flags all around! Ask to see their ID!