Romance/Rom-Coms are my favorite genre, and anime and manga. When I had the pleasure of reviewing the Class de 2 banme ni Kawaii Onnanoko to Tomodachi ni Natta (I Became Friends with the 2nd Prettiest Girl in My Class) manga, I instantly fell in love with it. That must mean that I’m automatically giving this a YES to watch, right? Well, not so fast! Because reading something in black and white and watching it animated are two completely different experiences. So, the real question is… did the anime adaptation capture the magic and the spirit of the manga series that I have been loving so far?
Let’s go!
First Episode Synopsis
Maehara is a lonely otaku. He enjoys staying home, playing video games, and watching cheap, horror B-movies. When he’s called upon in class to tell everyone else about himself, he’s timid, shy, soft-spoken, but a bit lethargic… and somehow, this captures the attention of Umi Asanagi, the second prettiest girl in the class, right behind her energetic and extroverted best friend, Yuu Amami.
When Maehara stops by a movie store, he runs into Umi, who admits she told Yuu a half-lie about having plans today. Those plans were to follow Maehara, corner him, and get to know him better because it turns out that the two of them have a lot in common, and seeing as how they both came from different schools and are starting over, she figured that she would try to become friends with him.
So, every Friday when Maehara’s mother is out at work, they gather at his house to eat pizza, chips, and drink soda while Maehara pounds her…. In video games. Things take a different turn when she leaves that night, though, when she suggests that they go out into the real world next Friday, which doesn’t sit right with Maehara, but he agrees to it anyway. Before they can get there, however, Maehara overhears a student confessing his love to Umi! What makes it worse is that Yuu and Nina (a friend of hers) see Maehara, walk over, and all three of them bear witness to what could be the end to Maehara’s hopes and dreams of making a real friend!
Worth Watching?
MAYBE – I’m honestly on the fence with this one. Yes, I love the manga series… how much do I love it? I named it my 2025 manga of the year. So, why am I on the fence about the greatest manga of 2025 (of those I read and, of course, of personal opinion)?
Well… first off, when I read the manga, I had envisioned these characters sounding much different. The voices, to me, don’t exactly match their personalities. Yuu’s voice fits perfectly, but Maehara and Umi just don’t sound like I envisioned them to. In fact, Maehara looks and sounds like a generic protagonist from just about any high school anime series.
Second, I’m not exactly thrilled with CONNECT’s job handling the artwork. While Umi does look a bit like her manga counterpart, Maehara looks way off. Not only that, there seem to be consistency issues from scene to scene, and sometimes, the characters look different. Some of the other characters have perspective issues with them.
Yeah, I know… I’m probably splitting hairs here, but when I name this my manga of the year, I have high expectations, and everything I watched today just fell short of them all. I guess I’m disappointed in the adaptation more than anything.
The pacing seems fine as the first episode adapted about half of volume one, so it has that going for it, but the problem is, as I sat here and watched this, I wanted to like it. I really, REALLY tried to enjoy this, but at the end of the day, I feel this series is just far superior in black and white, but I’m still going to give it a chance. I may continue to watch this out of pure fandom, but then there is the other side of the issue… because I am reading and reviewing the manga, once the anime catches up and surpasses it, that’s going to suck a lot of fun out of reading the manga, so I have that to consider as well.
As for the rest of you, I’d say that if you have no prior knowledge of this series, keep watching. The story is quite good, and it gives you a healthy dose of otaku-style romance. If you’re craving something like that, this show will give it to you in spades, and then some, but for those like me who have read the manga and can’t help but compare, it falls short of expectations, which is why I put this into the MAYBE category, as much as it hurts me to do so.
