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This weekend saw the start of the new anime season, and with it, what was largely heralded as the big waifu of the season with Shikimori’s Not Just A Cutie, the new rom com about a clumsy boy and his impossible girlfriend who dotes on him.
I should mention that I checked out the manga before the anime came out- I quite liked the premise of just having a really cool girlfriend. After Komi San fed the masses of people wanting some soft girl they can fix, Shikimori seemed poised to be the opposite. Finally, a waifu for those of us who just want to be doted on by a gorgeous girl.
Despite this, I found Shikimori’s Not just A Cutie an absolute slog to go through. It’s core premise isn’t so much its core- it’s the entirety of the episode. It makes sense in the manga, considering how short the chapters are. They’re almost akin to Way of the Househusband where each chapter is just multiple ways to fit the same joke into new angles. But with the jump to anime came the need for adaptation, and the root of the series is just so shallow that there’s really nothing to adapt.
Shikimori *Is* Just A Cutie
This is pretty much my major gripe with the anime and the manga- Shikimori is a boring character. She’s hopelessly obsessed with her boyfriend, Izumi, who’s a lovable clutz that keeps getting into accidents. But outside from him she literally has no personality.
Look, I’ll give the series its props- it’s very clearly the mangaka’s fetish to be doted on by a beautiful girl and watching the anime you can feel that energy. There’s nothing inherently wrong with media just being the fetish of its creator- I mean, I love Helltaker for exactly that
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The problem is is that with all the rom coms around, you need to raise the bar a little. Shikimori is such a dull character and defined by her boyfriend that it’s near impossible to figure out what’s going on in her head that isn’t related to him. This is just the first episode, sure, but I’ve read a little ahead in the manga and it doesn’t get much better down the road, either.
I think the best example I can make of this is Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, which equally feels as in love with its heroine Mai Sakurajima. The thing with that is that while a lot of Mai is defined by her relationship with Sakuta, you actively know she has non-Sakuta thoughts. In Shikimori’s case that simply isn’t true, she’s just a pretty girl made to sell scale figures that you hug to sleep while hoping it will come to life and give you headpats.
It’s not like she only hangs around him either- she has two other friends in the first episode, yet somehow never has a converstation with them that isn’t about Izumi. It’s a bechdel miracle- three women having a conversation and it’s still about a man.
While Izumi isn’t much better as a character, he is still, marginally, better. He’s your typical self insert, dense as a neutron star and clumsy with a dash of bad luck to make sure Shikimori is always there to save him from being isekai’d. Maybe it’s just my age showing but it’s getting tiring to see spineless main characters who never have that issue addressed. You can do great things with these characters, but Shikimori’s refusal to do so just makes it feel like any extra personality traits just came with the setting template.
Still, at least you do get into his head a little- he wants to stop being pathetic and has a fetish for cool-type girls. It’s not much, but at least it’s a neat detail about the character.
Well Produced
It’s not all bad though- a huge draw I can imagine people having for this is the fact that the anime is downright gorgeous. Every shot looks great, and the studio truly took care to execute on the mangaka’s vision- that is, making Shikimori look hot in the various money shots of each chapter.
There’s also the case of the series pacing- the manga, as I mentioned, is a series of short gags. In this case the anime succeeds by actually fleshing everything out with a sense of cohesiveness, and I have to say just for that it’s a great example to hold up of how to bring your manga to anime if the chapters itself don’t suit the format.
The first episode covers the gang’s entrance day ceremony and subsequent bowling trip, with a few in-between gags as well. I really hope the anime continues this level of pacing going forward, because these short stretches of time work so much better for slice of life than trying to cram as many chapters in as possible. Considering how much the manga likes to jump to different settings, I don’t know how they plan to form a cohesive timeline- but the first episode certainly gives me hope.
Closing Thoughts
I honestly don’t know how much more time I want to put into Shikimori’s Not Just A Cutie as a series. As someone who loves banal slice of life rom coms Shikimori somehow consistently feels like a slog to go through. It’s not that I hate one-note plots its just that a lot of them only work because the characters themselves are interesting.
It’s a shame because I want to like it- the idea of a main character just being head over heels for his girlfriend is always sweet, and in the case of the mangaka’s fetish, well let’s just say real recognizes real. But somehow I found myself just unable to actually finish it in one sitting- a terrible thing for a slice-of-life anime to be.
Of course, I’ll probably watch it until episode 3 of Shikimori’s Not Just A Cutie at least for its fair shake. With frequent pauses in between, though.
