My Love Story With Yamada At Lv999 (Spring 2023)
This romance surprised me. I wasn't a fan of this anime at the start. It looked like a shallow romance, with a desperate main character and a heartless side character. The good-looking character designs didn't help either, given that I already thought the romance was shallow.
I was wrong though. This was actually a pretty good romance. I like anime that can change my opinion about them during the season.
I really liked learning more about both these characters and seeing them fall in love with each other. Especially Yamada, I was really surprised with how I view him as a character now, compared to how I viewed him when the show began. They did it pretty subtly too. Just like Akane, I realised that if Yamada doesn't smile that much, it just makes his rare smiles have a lot more meaning. I even grew fond of Akane's character and understood why she acts the way she does.
The anime had a very unconventional style of direction, with some very fast cuts during comedic sequences. That made the anime more charming. The side characters are really sweet too. And studio Madhouse did a pretty good job on the soundtrack and the animation in particular.
Is it perfect though? Not really. I think it's just a tad bit too slow. Not very slow but just a bit slow.
Towards the end, they introduced a love triangle. Now, I'm not a fan of love triangles. Rarely do I feel that they had a point in the story. One of these characters is always going to get their heart broken. And a viewer might grow fond of the third side of the triangle and end up losing some interest in the main romance. But at the same time you can't just treat characters as tools to become obstacles in your romance. So love triangles can always be always emotionally messy, for the viewers as well.
I thought this anime handled it fine. I still didn't like witnessing a very heartfelt story of the third character, but the triangle did give a push to the main romance and the character of Yamada.
Overall, I had a good time with this anime. It's a light-hearted wholesome romance. I hope it gets a season 2 (it probably will though).
