krofire

Silver Link’s 2017 romantic comedy is a likable show with strong characters that most people will enjoy. High Schooler Masamune Makabe is hell bent on seducing the beautiful, but strong-willed, Aki Adagaki in a tale that resembles Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew”. Makabe is a good-looking boy and popular with the girls. Yet he is driven to date Adagaki because he is a boy with a mission. He is out for revenge. She cruelly broke his heart when she rejected him several years earlier yet she doesn’t recognise him now that he has newly transferred to her school. The reason? Earlier he was an overweight child and he blames his physical condition for the rejection. Since his chubby childhood Makabe has grown in stature and with the help of a rigorous diet and workout routine he is now the very model of youth and physical beauty. His plan now is to make her fall in love with him then cruelly dump her. He is aided and abetted in his plan by Adagaki’s close cohort Yoshino Koiwai who has her own devious plans for Adagaki’s love life.

The story has a few twists and turns to keep you awake. Notable of these are the sudden introduction of new characters to shake up the story. This is normally quite formulaic for manga and anime. Yet the execution here is text book perfect. First, we have the addition of the mysterious Neko Fujinomiya (in episodes 4 and 5), a new girl who transfers to the school and claims to know Makabe intimately although he doesn’t know her. This new protagonist makes Makabe’s mission even more difficult yet Fujinomiya’s story arc has a life of its own and reaches an emotional conclusion in episode 9. At this point a new protagonist enters the fray, Kanetsugu Gasou, a chubby boy who is apparently Asagaki’s husband-to-be due to some arrangement between their families. Gasou seems to have tamed Adagaki who is quite submissive around him much to Makabe’s frustration. The reason for this is that, in a confusing and complicated plot twist, Gasou is masquerading as the grown-up Masamune to take advantage of Adagaki’s affections for the younger, chubbier version of Makabe. Confused? Well, there are a lot of plot undercurrents here and the audience will slowly become aware of the fact that Makabe’s recollection of his earlier bust-up with Adagaki doesn’t seem to resemble her remembrance of the same event. Add to this the fact that Makabe may genuinely be falling in love with her makes it all the more interesting.

The result? The tale is fiendish and keeps you holding on through each new plot twist. The story has its fair share of High School cliches, as you would expect, but they do not distract from the plot. A word of caution about the English language dub: avoid. Makabe’s sister is portrayed in full American bimbo mode. Switch quickly to sub and this annoying distraction quickly vanishes. The series is slated now for an up-and-coming sequel season so hopefully fans will get to learn what the outcome of Makabe’s mission is. Despite the nature of things, the audience will genuinely sympathise with both the lead characters. She is certainly more complicated than her reputation suggests whilst there is more to him than just revenge. They are surrounded by a small cast of school friends of which Koiwai and Fujinomiya turn out to be the most sophisticated of characters. This brings a certain depth and weight to the story-telling that is sadly too often lacking from High School romances. We await Season Two with great interest coming as it does over five years after the original show aired. This may reflect the fact that the manga by writer Hazuki Takeoka and Korean female artist Tiv continued to be produced from 2013 through 2019. A thoroughly entertaining anime that, whilst hardly being truly profound, certainly excels in delivering best-of-breed entertainment in a crowded field. Recommended.