As a heads up: while three episodes have been released on Crunchyroll this impression will only be covering what was seen in the first episode!
The first episode of Rikekoi is a good time. It has fun with its premise and it doesn’t seem like it will take itself too seriously. Going into this anime I was expecting for a light-hearted romantic comedy between our two main characters and they’ve certainly got the comedy part going for them (because they’re still trying to prove the romantic part of it lol). Just from this first episode I have a feeling it will be cut, light-hearted, and probably the anime you’ll want to watch when the you get stressed out about the other anime you’re watching for this season. Personally, I’m not expecting it to the anime of the season, but I do expect that it’ll satisfy the need to watch something both charming and funny for the season.
From this episode, I was definitely getting Kaguya-sama from our two main characters… except you know instead of trying to get the other person to confess it’s about the other proving whether or not they actually have feelings through science. But the “competitive nature” of the two to come to some sort of conclusion is what ultimately has me make that comparison. I mean, these two are essentially on the same page instead of trying to out wit or beat the other. Plus, it’s kind of funny when they both realize they don’t have any romantic experience so they have to rely on the outsourced internet for their experiences. I liked that we got a confession right out of the gate! For some reason I thought it was going to be the two doing the typical “have you ever been in love? what does that feel like? how do we know?” type set up, but just to have one of the characters straight up go “I think I’ve fallen in love with you”, is great. I like it. It’s straight to the point and we can get right into the bulk of the plot.
As far as characters go, I think they’re pretty good so far… and by that, I mean there isn’t anyone that I particularly dislike. The dynamics are enjoyable and they were fun to be around. I love the duality of Himuro. I mean she can easily go from being the sexiest person in the room to being as cute as a puppy at the drop of a hat. Her pony tail wags are just really cute and it makes her more endearing. It’s the little things :’). But as far as the other characters, I think I’m a little more indifferent towards them. Kaede is the sensible senpai and hasn’t really had her chance to shine. Yukimura, well… I think that I like him, but to be honest, I can’t really think about anything exciting or grabbing that he did. Everything that he did in this episode just played off of what Himuro or Kaede set up. But hey! I’m sure he’ll grow on me as I continue to watch the series. (Also! Mysterious sleeping girl? I hope we see more of her!)
This anime is fast paced and jokes will come out of left field. Personally, I feel that I’ll miss something if I look away, but at the same time, it’s possible that they’re reusing something funny from earlier in the episode. I did feel that some of the jokes went a little bit longer than I would have liked. But like any type of comedy, some of these jokes will be hit or miss, so I really can’t complain. My biggest worry for this anime is that the gimmick might get old pretty quickly and they’ll just be rehashing the same “here’s our hypothesis let’s test it out” joke for every episode. It’s too early to tell what will end up happening, so I’m not going to try to predict the direction of the remaining episodes. Another minor complaint that I had with the first episode is that it got really text heavy, especially in the bit about the crows. I get that it sets up the whole reason for the two doing 100 Kabedons in row. TBH I zoned out mid way through the explanation, so I hope going forward these are a little more engaging, but it wouldn’t make or break this anime for me if all explanations were like this.
Overall, I’m pretty excited to watch more of this anime, but I’ll have to watch a little bit more to decide if I’ll be invested enough to continue blogging it. It might be a bit challenging to talk about something new for each episode.
Possibility of Watching: Pretty High!
Possibility of Blogging: Moderate
I was actually looking forward to this, but in contrast to you, QuietCupcake, I was left feeling a little empty and disappointed.
I enjoyed Ore no Monogatari, Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-Kun, and Wotaku Koi from the get-go but this one failed to grab my interest- I was either spacing out or getting lost with all that analytical dialogue. Something’s missing- the spark isn’t very noticeable.
The biggest problem I had was I could fast-forward a little, and I wouldn’t care. I felt like I was missing out on nothing by skipping around whereas in the other 3 I would most definitely miss out a lot if I even dare to skip.
I did watch all 3 episodes in the end and at least for me, Quietcupcake, the concerns you listed here didn’t disappear.
Oh! Thanks for sharing! At the time of writing this impression I had only seen the first episode.
Now that I’ve caught up on the available episodes, I see where you’re coming from. I’m not super invested in any of the characters in Rikekoi so I don’t really find myself wanting to cheer any of them on. I don’t have anything or anyone to invest in. Where as in Nozaki-kun and Wotakoi (I’m sorry Ore Monogatari is stuck on my backlog!!) I was invested in the development of the characters and the circumstances they found themselves in.
I felt like making it through all the available episodes was a bit of a slog. My attention was constantly being pulled else where, but even then, I wasn’t really interested in backtracking to see what I missed. So, I agree, I feel like if I were to skip or even just look away for a few minutes, I wouldn’t miss anything I care about. At first I attributed it to not being a “science-type” person myself and just not getting all the jokes and content, but now I think that this gimmick just isn’t implemented well. Maybe the 4th episode will shake things up?
Plus, and this might just be me, but I don’t really see the point in what they’re doing? They both already have feelings for the other and they’re just trying to quantify it, so their experiments don’t really have any impact on me. In the three available episodes…. their relationship hasn’t gone anywhere. However, I do think there’s still a chance that it might turn around and become something more memorable, but I won’t get my hopes up.