Maybe it’s because I’m watching it more or less back-to-back with Kuzu no Honkai, but Masamune-kun no Revenge doesn’t seem all that dark or sinister these days.  It’s almost quaint and cute, really, or at least it’s feeling that way now.  Comparatively speaking Masamune and Aki are hapless oddballs whose problems are almost entirely self-inflicted, and whose biggest crimes (though in Aki’s case especially, they’re considerable) mostly come down to pettiness.  They’re misguided, but in the larger scheme of things they’re nowhere near as formidable as either of them thinks they are.

I don’t dislike this show for that, though – now that I’m seeing it in a less ominous light it works passably well as light entertainment.  And compared to most teen romances Masamune-kun actually is fairly dark.  I’m even starting to feel a bit of sympathy for Aki, though that only goes so far.  She certainly clueless and rather pathetic, but I don’t think anyone would be as egregiously cruel as she’s been to the boys who’ve confessed to her unless there was a big part of them that took pleasure in it.  And that represents a real character flaw.

The character whose role in all this might just be the most interesting is Yoshino.  I’m fairly certain she’s playing both sides against the middle here, but what’s her endgame?  Does she feel any sense of loyalty to Aki, or affection for Masamune, or is she simply enjoying torturing them both?  It’s hard to tell, because the advice she gives Masamune in his pursuit of Aki is actually relatively sound – better than he’s getting from reading shoujo manga, anyway.  And it’s certainly succeeding in getting in Aki’s head – though not as well as accidentally having Aki eavesdrop on one of the counseling sessions and mistaking it for a conversation between lovers.

There’s a new figure of mystery here, this girl.  We meet her when she almost runs over Aki (who’s lost in her thoughts about Masamune’s odd behavior), though Masamune pulls her out of the way in the nick of time.  Who the heck she is I have no idea, and Masaume seems to be in the same boat – apart from the fact that she seems to know who he is all that’s apparent for certain is that she’s a Christian.  Is that relevant?  Who knows – but I suspect we’re going to find out soon enough.