Time to write about Sukitte Ii na yo while I take a break from massive studying due to the upcoming Final examinations. What I just saw in this series’ content was totally expected of the genre, but the visuals and audio were totally unexpected! First episode has a right balance of slice-of-life, romance, drama, and shoujo writing themes. Fellow staffer, FukuWija, told me that this series would later have comedy as part of those themes. Let me try asking ourselves; is this title a Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun beater? Let’s find out in the following paragraphs!

Whenever I sum-up my thoughts about a particular media text, I make it a habit to go through them at least thrice. I had to watch this six times before I got comfortable to write about this as I the first time I’ve watched this was shortly after I wrote my post about an anime whose visuals are insulting to connoisseurs of visual arts. Well yes, this series appears to have just “very good” first rating for its visuals. Character designs here are unmistakably shoujo, down from faces to the bodies. It’s a little shame, though, that there are scenes where the eyes aren’t symmetric and equal in size. Detailing is excellent but sharpening for the lines are lacking. Thankfully, those aforementioned errors aren’t present in some SHAFT-esque scenes, like the one on the leading image. Background art has average detailing, however. Animation is also “very good” and this is one of the unexpected from this show and Zecxs; each scene is animated properly, but seamlessness (or smoothness) still has a lot of room for improvement.

Audio quality is another thing not expected from this particular series and studio. It’s rare for me to praise shoujo series on this particular aspect. Why? Because most shoujo series have voice acting that irritates, rather than relay the emotions of the scenes. Sukitte Ii na yo‘s voice acting is definitely great. Who would have thought Kayano Ai would sound too convincing like how she does Tachibana Mei? This role should define her skill, one way or another. The others in the cast do their jobs almost perfectly! Moods in the scenes are totally relayed through the voice acting. This show’s background music is the best bit of the first episode. It doesn’t beat the stick-in-your-head mood-setting background music present in Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun nor in Sakamichi no Apollon, but it does the BGM’s purpose well — to paint and set the moods of the audience according to the tone present in a scene.

Connoisseurs of shoujo manga and writing themes would be highly familiar with everything on the first episode’s content. The path of the narration stuck to the shoujo writing formula, and the start of the character development a little predictable. The drama and intrigue however was on tolerable levels — you’ll either be bored or hang-on with the pacing. Characters introduced have depth and interactions partially make-up for the plot being formulaic. Also, the story is something nothing remarkable. Proper balancing of the genres, however, gives some good entertainment value for those disinterested with this demograph and genre. Watch this if you’re a fan of genre, or if you fancy the story of most-popular-guy-in-high-school protecting the least favoured girl from her stalker.

Images Used are under Fair Use.