Anime Review: [First Impression] Sukitte Iinayo. - 1

Love comes in all shapes, sizes and kicks.

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I needed a shift in genre, and I’ve been missing the shoujo romance for quite a bit. To satisfy this crave, I turned to Sukitte Iinayo in hopes of getting some of that teenage love and angst. And there was no need to wait long before a kiss sealed two fates together in this upcoming bumpy ride through young love.

With tiny hints of what Kimi ni Todoke once presented with the awkward female protagonist, Tachibana Mei (Kayano Ai) isn’t exactly what you’d call a friendly person by any means. In fact, she’s aloof and cold to add to her lack of social skills with peers. (Because her philosophy is, friends are there to betray so why have any?) Mei really does seem like an interesting character though because it’s always the quieter ones that makes you wonder what she is thinking. We get glimpses of what runs through her mind, which I’m hoping will eventually be let out.

The bottle is somehow containing whatever’s making her boil until one fine-looking Kurosawa Yamato (Sakurai Takahiro) happens to uncork it. Call it curiosity, as he calls it, or call it intrusion, as she feels it to be. Either way, they’re stuck with one another thanks to his charm and her desperation.

I’ll be the first one to tell you that I was not totally impressed with that I saw, but I can get hooked on the show just fine. Sukitte Iinayo won’t put you in awe in terms of overall production but I think there’s enough potential to get this moving in full strides. With glimpses of other girls already trying to woo Yamato, including one very chesty Oikawa Asami (Taneda Risa), numerous problems that can get down and dirty may inevitably arise. However predictable they may seem, like the old tacks-in-shoes “prank,” I want to see Mei face them with her personality and see whether Yamato will be caught between being Mr. Popular and Mei’s would-be lover. Based on the pilot, I can guess what kind of guy Yamato really is and that I shouldn’t judge him based on his hairstyle. (Hey, I see plenty of such variety here in Korea.)

For me, I just hope I’m not going to get betrayed to this commitment. Sukitte Iinayo may be a typical shoujo-romance series but the magic is still there. It might take some time for me to see the true potential but I’m going to give it a positive nod and hope for the best. The only real complaint is that the comedy isn’t really hitting its spots but the romance and drama aspects are all set to go.

GO Rating: 3/5