It’s time for a slice-of-life romance about living life after a set of absolutely terrible circumstances. Douse, Koishite Shimaunda (Anyway, I’m Falling in Love with You) offered up an interesting premise that is a bit different than your typical romance stories. How different is it and is different good enough?
Let’s go!
First Episode Synopsis
Mizuha Nishino has quite a bad string of luck. Her crush is quitting the swim team so she can’t watch him anymore, her parents forgot it was her birthday, and an “unknown disease in the year 2020” (come on, just say COVID-19) is canceling all of the plans that she had made. On top of that, one of the four childhood friends she sees as brothers declares that he wants to become her boyfriend.
Through it all, we follow Nishino from day to day experiencing all of these hardships, wondering if life will ever stop turning upside down. When Kizuki confesses to her on her birthday, she’s not sure how to react because she has only seen him as family and not as a love interest her entire life. Meanwhile, her other childhood friend Shin remains in the background (literally) and observes it while Ai and Shuugo round out the cast.
Worth Watching?
NO – I am saying NO because I dropped it after the first episode due to its excruciatingly slow pacing. I am a fan of slow-burn stories, not slow-paced ones. There are a couple of moments in the episode, such as Kizuki confronting Saito (Mizuha’s one-sided crush) and telling him to back off of her, and another with Saito basically telling her that her feelings for him were one-sided that added some much-needed drama to the nearly still water in the pot but it wasn’t enough. Even Kizuki’s confession didn’t add the spark this show needed to get it off the ground.
However, if you do like stories that have very slow pacing, this might be right up your alley. There, honestly, is nothing wrong with the premise of this story… after all, that’s why I wanted to pick it up; however, first episodes are supposed to make a good impression and when I legit nearly fell asleep twice during Episode 1, I knew that it wasn’t a series I was going to last through. This series might work better as a manga but as an anime… not so much.
If you have better luck with it, enjoy. I’ll be passing for something better.
