Of course, if there is a slice-of-life romance, I’m going to check it out as I am with Hananoi-kun to Koi no Yamai (I’m Addicted to You.) The synopsis seemed rather cute as it’s a journey about discovering what it means to feel love for the first time and I’m typically a sucker for stories such as those… sounds like a match made in heaven, right? Well, I’ve been burned by an interesting synopsis before but the key to a good love story is its setup. Did Hananoi do enough to make things interesting?
Let’s go…
First Episode Synopsis
Hananoi has everything going for him in the looks department; however, even good-looking guys can go through tough break-ups; however, Hananoi was the one who initiated the break-up with his soon-to-be ex-girlfriend. She didn’t take it very well and stormed out of the café they were at. Within earshot was Hinase, a girl who doesn’t care about love because she doesn’t know anything about it (and doesn’t have any ambition to find out), and her friend Hibiki who is over-the-top and just really… well… loud about everything.
After Hinase leaves the café in the snow, she spies Hananoi sitting alone on a bench. She goes over and holds an umbrella for him and the next day at school… he asks her out! She rejects; however, he’s determined to have her get to know him and take it a bit slower. That’s a bit considerate of him until he takes things to the extreme… such as coming to see her every chance he gets, eating lunch with her, and even spending an evening in the snow at school trying to find a hairpin that her friend lost when she lent it to her to the point where he almost got frostbite.
Sensing he was doing too much, he decided to stop bothering her but his gestures got through to her and made her wonder if she could truly discover what love feels like. At that moment, she accepts his confession and they begin dating!
Worth Watching?
MAYBE – This first episode struck me oddly. I can completely relate to Hinase as a character but Hananoi… I honestly don’t know what to make of him. He’s very soft-spoken, and he seems considerate, but he’s WAAAAAAAY too pushy. Asking a girl out just because she held an umbrella for you less than twenty-four hours after you broke up with your last girlfriend, only to call your new possible girlfriend your soulmate is a MASSIVE red flag. In addition, hanging onto her, cutting your hair because she said she likes short hair (she meant her own), taking out your earrings because you think she might not like them, etc. etc. is a sign of desperation… yet another red flag.
Plus, he knows she doesn’t know what love is, how it feels, or even if she wants to be in a relationship, and rather than give her space, he kept pestering her. Red flag number three. The only saving grace is that he realizes how pushy he was and then backs off… and he would have, too, had Hinase not decided to explore the possibilities.
To me, I think there is more to Hananoi than meets the eye and the huge clue they give us is right there in the first episode when he said that girls judge him by his looks and make a lot of incorrect assumptions about him. Since he’s introduced as a hot-looking guy, and with Hibiki stating “What? You don’t know about Hananoi-kun?” we, the audience were also made to feel the same way. What if, in reality, Hanannoi is very inexperienced at dating? What if the girl he broke up with was his first girlfriend and he just didn’t know what to do and was too embarrassed to keep the relationship going? Maybe she didn’t appreciate his over-the-top kindness or found it too needy or creepy. What if, he too, is learning what it’s like to feel loved?
If that’s the case, then this first episode was WAY more in-depth and interesting than its face value and that’s why I’m giving this show a MAYBE because of that possibility. If this is about TWO people discovering what love it together, this could be amazing but if Hananoi is experienced and this is how he is, he’s a smothering type and that’s kind of offputting for me and something I may not enjoy.
Time will tell since I haven’t read the source so I can only make assumptions… but the first episode was decent. Not truly a fan of the payoff of accepting a confession happening in the first episode but if the journey is what I hypothesized above, then the ship happening now doesn’t matter as we’ll still be rewarded in the end!
