This was very sweet and all, but you know, sooner or later you have to choose.

No, there was no S2 announcement with the end of Otaku ni Yasashii Gal wa Inai!?. That’s not to say it won’t happen (the anime used less than a third of current chapters) but it wasn’t a de facto split cour, anyway. I gather Otagal was reasonably well-received but I don’t see any huge spike in manga sales. If this is where it ends it does so in a pleasing if completely indecisive way, but I’m not at all sure the manga will be any different.

What I can say for certain is that this was a romcom with its heart totally in the right place. It took a lot of heat for being a wish-fulfillment premise, and I don’t think it can be totally cleared of that charge. But so what, I say. The fact is popular girls can be nice to shy kids sometimes – yes, it really does happen. And within the context of the premise, the interaction between Takuya, Kotoko, and Kei was actually pretty grounded. As in common ground, and more generally as well.

Of course Ichiji won the “Miss Festival” contest – she is the #1 gal after all. But also of course the series had to hedge by saying Kei lost votes to the “Mister” contest. This whole thing – as all beauty/popularity contests do – had a bit of an ick factor to it, especially after their “friends” tried to cash in afterwards. But while Kotoko-san is obviously more comfortable being the center of attention, you could tell neither of the girls was really into this. Especially as they were stressing over O-Taku-kun, who was in the midst of a self-pity driven sulk.

People love to bitch and moan about twists like this, but it played pretty authentic to me. An unpopular guy probably is going to feel like he’s an anchor weighing down two popular girls who should be enjoying life more. It is genuinely hard for people in his position to accept that people like Kei and Ichiji actually want to be with them. But this is something O-Taku really has to work through on his own – if it had all come down to reassurance from the girls that would have sent the wrong message. That’s why the way the series handled it was the right way.

Indeed, things could have gotten pretty dodgy in the reconciliation scene in the hands of clumsier writing. Takuya apologizing for wanting to be with the girls was distressing, but I’ve seen plenty of series where it would have been considered the natural order of things. Here Kei and Kotoko nipped it right in the bud. You do like to be assured that a writer knows which end is up, and as such this turn was extremely welcome. O-Taku learning that it was OK for him to actually want things was an important step in his growth. And I heartily approve of the way they shut down his “I’ll prove I’m worthy of you” nonsense.

One could even say it went as far as being a confession – but then, was he confessing to two people? “Daisuki” is pretty unambiguous – and they even pushed him on it, and he seemingly confirmed.  This is all in fun, I know. We’re not going for photo-realism here. Otagal has a strain of fantasy in its DNA, and it defaults to the positive any time it’s teetering on the brink. That, to be fair, is why it’s so charming. But I mean… One can argue about whether humans are biologically inclined to be monogamous, but whether they are or not, modern society has expectations.

In spite of them guys like O-Taku do something like two girls. Not because he’s a two-timing dirtbag, but because they’re pretty and nice and he’s human. One would assume that if push came to shove, Kotoko and Kei would not be OK with him dating them both. And while it seems obvious to me, even in this finale, that the energy with Kotoko is ten times more “relationship” than it is with Kei (I mean, she was the one who noticed he put wax in his hair – a tell that she looks at him in a different way than Kei does) it’s clear that’s not meant to be taken as a given. So as lovable as these three goofs are, this is all still kind of a cop-out.

Well, if that’s the worst thing I can say about Otagal, it’s in pretty good shape. In the preview I noted a romcom “field” sleeper – one of  Aishiteru Game wo Owarasetai, Ponkotsu Fuuki Iin to Skirt-take ga Futekisetsu na JK no Hanashi, and Otaku ni Yasashii Gal wa Inai!? was going to be good (and you could toss Class de 2-banme ni Kawaii Onnanoko to Tomodachi ni Natta in there too). Otagal was the one. Thoroughly likable, breezily positive, and surprising well-produced. Every season can use a couple of romcoms like that – though it doesn’t always get them.