Makoto's review of Tonikaku Kawaii

Pass

The hard part about writing straight romance, is that you are usually only familiar with the workings of one gender (yours). Although it is easy for me to bash on Romance written by men, unfortunately a lot of romance written by women also present male characters that are so idealized they become less than human and more of a blob of fetishes and power. There are, however, unicorns. Authors that manage to imagine their opposite gender characters as humans with flaws, wishes and other reasons to exist besides being a romantic partner. The result are works that can be appreciated by anyone, even if not equaly. Tonikaku Kawaii is not one of these shows. But it goes beyond that. It manages to be ofensive for both genders. Tonikaku Kawaii is ofensive. It is ofensive to couples, it is ofensive to males, it is ofensive to women. There isn't a single emotion in this show because there are no characters. There are two avatars. A creepy, obsessed intrusive loser, and a yamato nadeshiko house keeper that for some reason loves it. Loves it in the sense that a cute vacuum cleaner can love it. Mind you. She is, after all, not human. In case you are wondering, "Tonikaku Kawaii" roughly translates to "Anyway, she is so cute". Which is a phrase Nasa uses frequently. It's in the name. He did not like her for any other reason but her appearance. That is not romance. With that out of the way, how does the technical elements perform? Technical elements are supposed to facilitate story telling. So if I were to ignore them and end this review here, I would not be wrong. But I won't. This is a good chance to try to be impartial on technical aspects when I know the end result is absolute garbage. Director Ikehata Hiroshi does a fine job Motoyama Satoshi (sound), however, does not. Enoki Junya and Kitou Akari do a good job. Art and animation department do a good job. This show's target audience is people who wished they could remove the relationship part of romance. I'd say if you are the kind of teenager that is attracted to that, go for it. It was a waste of my time to watch it. It was a waste of time to research and write this. And I blame Crunchy Roll.