Animisery – A Blog About Living Miserably with Anime (Among Other Things)

It’s (probably) Valentine’s Day and love is in the air unless you’re in a major metropolitan area then that’s smog in the air! Don’t breathe in too deep, you don’t want to die of love inhalation.

I’ll be like everyone else on this planet and talk about love on the love holiday because there’s nothing better for me to do and I’m watching a romance anime right now so love is on my mind (and the unquenchable rage from my job trying to destroy my life but that’s a special kind of love except it’s actually hate). The big thing that makes me wonder though is why do I think romance anime just absolutely rule while every single other entertainment form of the romance genre (like books and movies) just bore me to tears? I almost never manage to finish any sort of romance novel barring a very very VERY select few and I’ve never even been that big of a fan of romance movies even if they try to cohabitate with comedy in a very flawed house made of mediocrity. I’m just not engaged with them. That said, if you slap 12 episodes of high schoolers discovering love for the first time then I’m absolutely sold to the highest bidder and will watch it in a single session. Why is that? I have some thoughts (and opinions)!

We’re no strangers to (anime) love. You know the (anime) rules and so do I. Some anime suffer from a long burn out of “will they, won’t they” ultimately to culminate in a noncommittal ending or an open ended finale to set up for another season a la Dress Up Darling. In anime, it’s about the emotional journey a lot more of the time rather than the impacting culmination of feelings reaching a boiling point. I’m sure some of you who float around in anime discussion areas know that some fans just cry a romance anime to be god tier because the main characters actually make a modicum of progress and they declare that to be the value to which we should hold quality. I, however, declare that isn’t what I think romance anime is about. I think anime, as far as romance stories go, thrive off the burn. I’ve seen several TV programs where the romantic subplot is so hinged off the connecting moment where our star crossed lovers finally declare themselves a couple and I get it. We wait in anticipation for the moment just for it to arrive and we’re content usually. I think that romance anime needs that slow burn to initiate the objective of instilling that literal “doki doki” feeling.

If you don’t know (and I’m not going to make assumptions), “doki doki” is a Japanese language onomatopoeia for the sound of a heart beating. Usually in your favorite anime, it’s used when a character has a racing heart from some sort of heart pounding situation being inflicted upon them like senpai noticing them or their unwanted harem member making equally unwanted sexual advances on them.

Side note, since I’m speaking on harems and should probably mention it, I don’t really consider harems a “pure” example of the romance genre barring one extreme exception. I’m not really well versed in romance (I’m typing up an anime blog while a parade of plastic anime women stare at me from the shelves in my room, like COME ON) but harems usually have too much in the nature of competition and indecision that detach me from believing them to be actual romance. If you can’t decide on who you love then do you really love any of them at the end of the day? Note: I’m not polyamorous so I can’t talk on behalf of the fine folks who are in those kinds of relationships so take my words as me speaking from my own benign ignorance.

Getting back to “doki doki” and why I think it’s the important factor to romance anime, I think it’s an essential part of what entertains and gets me personally invested. I mentioned at the start of this blog post that I’m watching a romance anime and said romance anime is the delightful Pseudo Harem which, funnily enough, is not a harem but rather comedic slice of life about two high school drama club members.

It resonates with me as an anime that thrives off my aforementioned “doki doki” feeling because we, the audience, are fully aware that it’s not about “will they or won’t they” but rather a “when will they?” sort of thing. That’s the heart of the “doki doki” to me that makes romance anime thrive in my heart for sure. It’s every little scene with our main characters as they slowly bond and actualize their feelings that leave me wanting. Are they about to kiss? Does he know for certain that she does love him now? How is she going to feel now that he’s graduated? It’s all these little flames on the massive anime candle that light the flame in my heart. I love the feeling of love when it blossoms at a slow pace. Television anime gets to burn low but the flames cook through my heart and I love that.

I think about some of my favorite romance anime and they’re always stories about what I’d call a transformative love where two people are in relationships that manifest a (usually) positive change in them. I absolutely adore that because there’s juts nothing like the bloom of romance that spreads a fragrance of positivity into the lives of those inflicted. One of my absolute favorite romance anime is actually a BL series called Sasaki and Miyano and it’s because it’s a romance story about two people finding what they lack in each other and how that makes them better. These are the love stories that tear my heart asunder and I can’t gush about them enough now that I have the empty canvas of my dumb blog laid before me.

Some of My Favorite Romance Anime/Manga So You Know What I’m On About:

• My Love Story!!
• A Sign of Affection
• Sasaki and Miyano
• His and Her Circumstances
• Kimi ni Todoke
• The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You (it is what it is)
• Ouran High School Host Club (I guess this is kind of a harem)

I also think love should be fun usually. Healthy relationships about enjoying the time and making each other better and I love the anime relationships that highlight that experience. One of my all time favorite ships that I’ll never let go of is Ichigo and Rukia from Bleach. They aren’t canon (EXCEPT IN MY HEART, YEAH I’LL SEETHE HARDER) but they personify what I think a “good” relationship is. Ichigo, at the start of Bleach, has a loving family and the ability to see ghosts but doesn’t really have the means to protect his beloved family when the time warrants it. Rukia, meanwhile, is a soul reaper with power that does her job out of objective responsibility to her esteemed adopted brother Byakuya who seemingly hardly tolerates her. Ichigo and Rukia by meeting each other are able to complete each other by giving the other one what they long for: for Ichigo he gains the key to access power to protect those close to him from Rukia and Rukia is given the experience (after like 60 episodes or so but whatever) to see that her adopted brother does care for her, he’s just a jackass about it.

They’re a couple that lift each other up… but they’re just friends in the end and stuff happens and they basically end up with their respective groupies. Even in your final hours, you couldn’t resist hurting me more, Bleach.

So what am I even getting at outside of that I have terrible taste in shonen ships? I’m trying to say that romance anime warms the cockles of my heart because it seemingly thrives on the slow anticipation of momentary progress. I can’t deny that I’m not a huge fan of when romance anime stagnate and nothing happens for twelves episodes outside of cute little moments of flirtatious flee but sometimes that’s what I have to be there for. It’s about embracing the slow turns of the gears and not the big sweeping motion of the entire machine. You can have anime like that for sure that are great but I think romance anime will always be my favorite because I want to chase the “doki doki” feeling myself. I want to watch senpai barely make it to the festival date and the cute romantic touches of two awkward kids figuring it out. It’s just nice, you know?

Thank you for reading my blog! It means a whole lot! I’ll hope that you’ll tell me some of your favorite romance anime in the comments below or maybe just some of your favorite couples as well? If you want to hear me talk more anime stuff then go check out my podcast, the Anime Brothers podcast, wherever you get your shows (except YouTube)! We just did an episode on our favorite relationships in anime so you can get all the love you need for this holiday! I hope to see you soon!!!