Make no mistake, Kore Kaite Shine is cheesier than a pallet of Chicago-style pizzas. If you’re looking for subtlety and depth, honestly, this is probably not the series for you. That makes it all the stranger that it won the Manga Taishou to be honest, though to be fair there’ve been a few head-scratchers there that don’t match the perception of what that award is supposed to be.

The truth is, though, all that is really the source of this series’ charm. It’s completely earnest and heartfelt, a heart it wears very much on its sleeve. And it’s extremely straightforward, one of the simplest stories you could dream up. It’s basically two things – cute girls doing cute things and a love opus to manga. As such it tends not to get in its own way, which definitely works to its advantage. Kore Kaite Shine is exactly what it appears to be at first glance, which is both its weakness and its strength. And that’s something you could say about all of its distinguishing characteristics.

That said, Ai is a lot to take. She has no brakes, this girl. And then we have her best friend Akafuku Sachi, who appeared in the premiere but is far more prominent this week. Frankly she annoys me much more in anime form, which points in the direction of the seiyuu (Fujimura Kanon, a newbie as far as I can see). Between the two of them they start to grate on me, which is why the extended flashback sequence with Teshima-sensei was so welcome. Teshima is the one with the really interesting story here if we’re honest. And obviously the author’s avatar too, which definitely comes through in the passion levels of the writing.

Teshima refuses to answer any of Ai’s questions about why she quit drawing manga. And refuses any notions of teaching her how to draw manga. It’s Sachi who gets the bright idea of a manga club, not because she cares about manga but because she craves an air-conditioned clubroom (her dad refuses to use the AC). She tries to blackmail Teshima-sensei into being the club advisor by threatening to rat out her moonlighting at Comitia, and to put Ai off Teshiima tells her to draw a manga and come back in a week. She expects that to be the end of it, but not in this story it’s not.

The message here comes across loud and clear – drawing manga is really, really hard. Even crappy ballpoint-pen manga. Ai’s manga is terrible (of course it is) but a pro like Teshima-sensei can tell that it’s imbued with love (extra cheese, please). And when Ai tells her it was Pokota (i.e., her) that allowed her to keep going and finish, the reluctant mentor’s resistance finally wears down. Because Ai is nothing if not persistent.

Again, none of this is subtle or remotely surprising but as long as you like what you’re expecting Kore Kaite Shine to be, that’s fine because it’s always going to be exactly that. Next up is the drama over finding a third club member to make this an official club. And we’ve already met Kokoro, who’s going to be that third member, though we didn’t hear her name until this week. What’s her role going to be? Well it’s not hard to figure out if you’re remotely paying attention, but I’ll let the story get there on its own just in case.