This one is right there with Otome Kaijuu Caraméliser for me – a manga that I consider solidly in the “good, not great” camp. As it turns out, they also share having gotten really good premieres. That was wholly expected with Kore Kaite Shine, given that it comes from Shin-Ei Animation and Akagi Hiroaki and his usual crew. To wit, the Bokuyaba team – which is also the Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san team. In other words absolute rock stars of smart manga adaptation. In fact Takagi-san makes a couple of cameos here, not surprisingly given not only that connection but that both series are set on islands.

As I mentioned in the season preview Draw This, Then Die won the Manga Taishou award in 2023. That’s as big an honor as manga has, but in my view the best series doesn’t usually win and so is the case here. But it’s a lot of fun, and the anime (as Akagi did with Takagi-san) levels up the manga significantly. I also mentioned that the mangaka here is Toyoda Minoru, whose Love, Roma was actually kind of formative for me as an early manga reader. The thing is I had no idea of that when I started Kore Kaite Shine for our podcast episode on Taishou winners – I only discovered the connection later (in my defense, it had been a long time since I read Love Roma).

The story here is that of Yasumi Ai, who lives on the island of Izu Oshima. It’s about 90 minutes from Tokyo by the fast (and expensive) jetfoil, or six hours by the slow ferry. Even on a sleepy island Ai is a loner who struggles with social interaction. One day she discovers a rundown manga rental shop while chasing a ninja cat, and in said shop she discovers a title called “Robota and Pokota”. She immediately falls in love with it – which is unfortunate, since it was cancelled after one volume. Ai makes the rounds of other classics like Doraemon, Ushio & Tora, and Inuyasha (I’m impressed at all the permissions this series managed to get) but “Robota and Pokota” remains her first and deepest love.

At its heart, this is basically a cute girls doing cute things series. A very good one but that limits its upside considerably. Secondarily, it’s a love letter to manga. And if you love manga (as I obviously do) that part of it will probably speak to you. Toyoda writes about how manga was a lifeline to Ai in childhood in a way only a person who experienced that possibly could. Ai borrows “Robota and Pokota” endlessly over the years, and in fact Pokota – a robot tanuki – becomes her imaginary friend. He gives her advice on how to navigate social situations, which is exactly what he does in the manga with Robota. Who, as you might guess with that name, is also a robot.

Ai moves on to high school and her nemesis is Teshima Rei, a teacher who constantly scolds her about how manga is nothing but lies and should be avoided at all costs. But Ai knows from personal experience that when Teshima-sensei says nothing good can come from manga, she’s wrong. You can probably guess where this is going – I certainly did when reading the manga – but Teshima-sensei is of course actually the mangaka of “Robota and Pokota”. Ai finds this out when she discovers that “Hoshino Rei” has written a “Robota and Pokota” doujin all these years later, and will be selling it at Comitia in Tokyo (one of the biggest doujinshi events of the year).

It’s a big deal for a 15-16 year from a remote island to sneak off to Tokyo (where did she get the money?). And as you’d expect, it’s a transformative experience. Especially discovering that all these people actually drew what they were selling, and realizing that drawing manga is actually a thing someone could do. Someone like her. And once that dream takes root, it’s not going to be yanked out of her. Again, one suspects that the young Toyoda-sensei, who was born and raised on Izu Oshima, had a similar revelation at some point in his youth.

I won’t spoil, but Kore Kaite Shine is not that the sort of series that scores points by surprising you. If you buy what this premiere was selling and find where you suspect it might be headed appealing, I’m pretty sure it’s not going to disappoint you. With Akagi directing, everything I like in the manga is amplified – all the things that make me feel good make me feel even better. This premiere had great energy and wit, and was visually interesting from start to finish. Akagi doesn’t need to transform this series the way he did with Takagi-san, but it’s not a masterpiece like Bokuyaba that just needs a faithful adaptation to be great. What he can do here is enhance what works, and he’s doing that. But one also has to be realistic about what Kore Kaite Shine is, and what it isn’t.