Early Impressions: Yagate Kimi ni Naru

Three episodes in, my feelings are as conflicted as the female lead’s.

I had no expectations going into this anime—it being chosen half out of desperation. A high school yuri relationship is not exactly a new and groundbreaking thing, and other yuri titles I’ve seen in the past have not garnered nice marks. The difference here, however, is that (at least by what I assume of the synopsis) the tone is a little more serious. Yuri titles tend to have another genre or shtick stapled to them that somewhat alleviates all the sexual tension between the main couple (one of which may be fighting the urges). With this, I thought, “Oh, they want to take this seriously? I’m down.”

Upon watching it up to this point, I’m not sure what to really make of it. After the first episode, my impressions were generally positive. The presence of pretentious voiceover was a tad concerning, but I shrugged it off. Its production values and general tone were fairly engrossing, and the pacing was nicely set. While there was some confusion over the reasoning for the couple’s spark (“You feel this way, too?! Marry me!”), it was at least understandable from an emotional standpoint, albeit overdone. I had no issues with it (sans voiceover).

Episodes two and three… were something. Hard to say what, definitively, when I was distracted half the time by outside sources. When outside sources can take me away from watching something so easily, it’s normally a sign of dullness; Yagate Kimi ni Naru has a bit of a dry spell to it. Regardless, this is reasonable. The series has a more pragmatic feel to it, with conversations and the overall environment appealing to those wishing for realism. Contrasting with the old yuri titles I’m used to, there are very few attempts at comedy to loosen the mood. Some jokes persist, but they aren’t exaggerated by either facial expressiveness or vocal eccentricity. This does two things: makes the series both more down-to-earth and boring.

Even still, there are individual moments that stand out with each episode with that Shoujo-ish quality of hyping up assertions of romance. Currently, I don’t think the main couple has all that much chemistry, though perhaps this is because one isn’t exactly committed to a romantic bond. As a platonic bond, I still don’t find the two very remarkable, and yet the final minutes of the third episode, where the female lead openly acknowledges the (soon to be) romantic interest as an inspiration to her in front of the whole school, was touching. Most of the time, I’m bored, but then these moments arrive where I’m swept up in the emotions of inspiration, love, and taking risks. I’d say it’s like the old stereotype with eating Lucky Charms: The majority of the cereal is bland and unappetizing, but the marshmallows are lovely and rewarding.

While this post will be slightly shorter than most, it’s only because I have so little to say on it. I’m watching out of obligation most of the time and enamored occasionally with the doki-doki moments. Said moments are likely what’s keeping me going, otherwise this would’ve been a drop after the second episode. I am strangely optimistic, though. I think this series will improve upon the introductory-like situations of its beginning few episodes and will dive deeper into the mental processes of the female leads as they deal with what it means to experience love for the first time(?). If not, it’ll at least be nice to think “What if?” …I’m joking, it’d be a waste and I’d complain about it.