I have so many things I want to say at this point that I don’t know where to begin. That’s been a common occurrence with me and this adaptation, but all the more so after the final episode. For now. That part is obviously really important, and you know my policy on burying the lead. Yes, we’re getting a second season, thank goodness. It was something I always suspected was likely, though I tried not to let my hopes go unchecked by cynicism. In fact I think it was probably pre-approved, given how soon (Winter 2024) it’s coming. Nevertheless, it’s an enormous flood of relief not having to worry about it.
There are downsides to that schedule, though I always suspected winter or spring of next year was the most likely. It means a longer wait for Season 3, which I think is also very likely given that S2 will break the internet. But that’s a first world problem if ever there was one. The Takagi-san adaptation followed the same pattern, and there are ways Shin-Ei could shoehorn a movie into the equation with Boku no Kokoro no Yabai Yatsu if they wanted (to say more would be too spoilery). The truth is, all the signs of exploding popularity are out there. The BD volumes are all charting well for pre-sales, the manga has spiked in both print and digital forms, merchandising (including doujins) has exploded. It’s all happening, and if it wasn’t already greenlit I think S2 would still have happened, as the production committee is getting what they wanted.
Is it nice to be right? Damn straight it is. But I take no credit – that all goes to Sakurai Norio, who I’m thrilled for. I knew BokuYaba was a series that had that rare combination of depth and subtlety and the commercial Midas touch. Sure I groaned when the series started out under 7 on MAL, but I knew the pattern from the manga. Impatient viewers would misread the prologue and bail, just as happened with manga readers. Popularity would grow and grow as the full scope of Norio’s brilliance became clear. We’re at almost 8.2 on MAL (higher than the manga, ironically) and climbing, and the series has exploded on social media.
Norio’s brilliance is indeed the headline here, though Akagi-sensei and Shin-Ei did the great job I fully expected them to. He ended right where he needed to, and completely stuck the landing. I wish more of the extra chapters had made it in, yes. And I wish the budget had been a bit higher – which is where stuff like BD sales will matter for S2 and eventually probably S3. But all in all the anime did justice to the manga in all the ways that count. You should still read the manga for all the things Norio can do in print that you can’t do in anime, but Akagi used what only anime can offer to bring this incredible story and cast to life.
A couple things stood out to me in watching this finale. First, I think it was Sakurai-sensei’s courage to not whitewash or sanitize anything that made the emotional payoffs (most of all this week) so powerful. Ichi is so real, so layered, so gloriously messed up yet noble. Yes, he is Norio’s avatar – and Anna is based on her tastes in idols. But sometimes it’s almost hard to believe Ichi wasn’t created by a guy, because the way Norio captures the male adolescent experience feels like she was inside my head.
There is no holiday more important and powerful for the Japanese than New Year’s, in ways both spiritual and material, so it’s a fitting place to wrap up the season. Kyou has double-booked his Hatsumode with the intent of ditching his family and covertly meeting up with Anna. But Anna can’t not be early when Ichi is the prize awaiting, and his plans go out the window (as they often do). And she’s anything but shy, promptly approaching the Ichikawa clan when she spots them. Dad expresses some keen curiosity, and Kana does a bit of a spit take when she finally lays eyes on the rumored Yamada-san. Anna is invited along for the first prayer of the year, and the madness begins.
Kana is the star of this sequence in many ways. She’s a meddler, a teaser, yet also profoundly loves her brother. Kana – like everyone in this cast – is complicated. She’s more socially comfortable than Ichi but shares some of his scar tissue, and there’s indisputably a part of her that feels jealous of the fact that her hopeless little brother seems to have hooked up with a gorgeous girl while still in 8th grade. So her actions are kind of a mix of wingman and tormentor. She’s gleefully curious to observe what happens, but she also tries to give Kyou and Anna the chance to spread their wings.
Having to do things without your dominant hand can be rough (the manga was more blunt about this than the anime), but a one-handed shrine prayer is pretty well impossible. It was very Anna to help Kyou out the way she did – one of my favorite visual moments of the series, too. Here’s where Kana takes total command of the situation, ditching the ‘rents and inviting Anna to come over to the house. In a way this is incredibly mean of her, and Ichi is aghast at the prospect, but she’s also giving them a big push in her own artless way. When she notices the Akita strap that Ichi is so desperate to hide from her, Kana immediately groks the truth of the matter and surreptitiously gives hers to her brother to complete the set.
That whole yearbook thing – woof. Ichi’s agony here felt so real. And then when Yamada invited herself up to his room, I can’t even. “Mortified” hardly covers it – and again, Norio pulls no punches in setting the scene in terms of why. And Anna finding a copy of “Ciel” on the bed is an obvious disaster, resulting in Kyou’s first kabedon (bed-don?) of the relationship. But those embarrassing concerns aside, what’s really happening here is that Anna is seeing a side of Ichi (like the boy who ditched his school trip) that he desperately tries to hide from everyone. And in its way, that’s more embarrassing than even the obvious stuff.
The title of Episode 12 is the same as the chapter than concludes it, #57 – “I want you to know me”. But it’s hard to overstate how hard it is for Kyou to get to that point. That figure from elementary – the one with all the science and art awards – is indeed a far cry from the skittish and semi-feral figure he is now (or had been until recently). Left behind by his friends, ashamed at having let his mother down, using chuuni pursuits as a shield to keep anyone from getting too close – this was Ichikawa Kyoutarou before Yamada Anna came into his life. The child was on a path – not of popularity and ease, but one that made sense to him. When he was knocked off that path, he felt completely lost and alone. And no one who’s ever felt lost and alone should fail to empathize with him.
Yamada has no delicacy, no decorum. She barges into Kyou’s room (you should never barge into a 13 year-old boy’s room), she invades his personal space. Yet she doesn’t judge him – she accepts what she sees, and her love is undiminished. That’s why this works, because Anna too is so different than the image the world has of her. She’s awkward and insecure and aware of her flaws, and she understands the pain Ichi is feeling (to an extent, at least). She puts “Ciel” down, snaps some pics of the yearbook Ichi, and lets herself out of his room. That’s the real headline here, story-wise. Having Anna accept him for who he is allows Kyou to take the first halting, painful steps towards doing so himself.
That journey is not easy. It’s not supposed to be easy, especially for someone as neurotic as Kyou. He’s at the very beginning of it here, not the end. And being in a romantic relationship at this age is not easy either. Just as Norio-sensei sanitizes nothing, she takes no shortcuts. This couple never gets from here to there without her showing us every step in-between. That may strain the patience of some in a modern audience used to very different romance series, but as with her lack of whitewashing, her lack of narrative cheats makes the payoffs that much more satisfying.
Manga fans knew as soon as it became clear we weren’t rushing through the series that Akagi-sensei would end with that scene outside the school. It was the only place he could end (and indeed, there’s really only one place S2 could end). I can confidently say if you felt nothing there (well – why are you still watching?) BokuYaba will never capture you. The sheer magnitude of the gift Kyou and Anna are exchanging here – acceptance – is what powers the emotion. You can feel how much it means to him that she loves him as he is, when he can’t even love himself, and even now I get emotional thinking about it. And Moeko’s “Ya did it!” (in a way, she was right) was the perfect middle school goof to put it all in context.
I love this series so much, and I love these two just as much. They may very well be my favorite couple in anime and manga, and Ichi may very well be my favorite romantic comedy character. To have the world finally start to appreciate BokuYaba feels quite surreal to me – it was like a secret club for so long, but now the secret is out. And that all this was only the appetizer may be the most remarkable thing. If Season 1 was a breakout hit, Season 2 will break the internet – new fans have no idea what’s in store for them. Boku no Kokoro no Yabai Yatsu is a glorious anomaly, a unicorn, and not a day goes by when I’m not grateful to have been one of the ones who discovered it right at the very beginning. Welcome aboard.
End Card:
Brian Guy
June 18, 2023 at 3:37 pmNothing that happens is unimportant.
The seeds planted here…I could go on for days. It’s almost impossible not to spoil. Heck, as a fan of the work as a whole, I WANT to spoil because what’s coming is so amazing, people should know. So many beats will repeat with different sounds, different meanings.
Anyway, I wanna focus on one tiny part of this entry: Kyou’s mom. Very little gets by her. She broke Anna’s composure a few weeks back just by mentioning her son (and he further piqued her curiosity by immediately knowing who she was talking about). One of the few extra chapters that was chosen for adaptation was her subsequent run-in with Yamada during Icchi’s illness where she observed his classmate acting nothing like a mere classmate.
And, here. Here she sees Yamada again. Alone. Waiting. At exactly the same time and exactly the same place as they’ve arrived. Now, I may be wrong, but I doubt greater Tokyo lacks for busy shrines at Hatsumode.
And, yet, right there, right then.
It’s not outright stated, but can there be much question she instinctively reads the situation in calling to Yamada and inviting her to join the family? And in shooing away the rest of that family to let the two of them pray together alone? Maybe she’s still a bit stunned by it all, but she’s conscious in the choices she makes here to encourage…this…whatever this is… that’s made her son decide that “school is more fun now”.
I don’t know that she realizes some of Kyotarou’s emotional baggage comes from guilt over letting her down at entrance exams, but she knows he’s finally starting to recover, she knows a fair chunk of the reason why and she’s gonna do everything she can to keep quietly nudging that recovery along from the background.
Nothing that happens is unimportant.
Guardian Enzo
June 18, 2023 at 3:57 pmYeah, both his parents are very smart (it runs in the family). I don’t think Mom is fully cognizant of the depth of the relationship, but she knows her boy has been isolated and silent since entering middle school (which by this point has been like 21 months). She knows Anna is friendly with him, and she’s seen some evidence that he’s opened up to her a bit. So whatever their relationship is, her “motherly intuition” reads it as a positive for Kyou and she acts accordingly.
The shrine thing is not necessarily a tell, though, because Tokyo is huge but it’s really a city of neighborhoods. Meguro will have its own popular Hatsumode spots, just like any other town in the 23 wards, so it wouldn’t be surprising for neighbors to meet each other there on New Year’s Day.
ruicarlov
June 18, 2023 at 7:09 pmAs if Kyou wasn’t relatable enough already, between last episode and this one I also fell stupidly and broke something, only it was a foot in my case. So, yeah, I’ve been needing this final ep, and it delivered in spades. I can hardly imagine what can break the internet any more than these last episodes, but if you say so…. see ya in January.
Romy
June 18, 2023 at 8:26 pmOk this last episode left me full of emotions…. Ichikawa is just too relatable and what happened between Anna and him at the end of the episode just had me in a puddle…..too much goes through my head watching all of this. I’m so glad the second season is announced and thank you for your recs ….this one hit the bull’s eye !!
Guardian Enzo
June 18, 2023 at 8:48 pmI think in my whole animanga life the two most relatable characters for me are Nanba Mutta and Ichikawa Kyoutarou, albeit for different reasons.
Romy
June 18, 2023 at 9:37 pmGood choices! (I would add Mashima, Taichi to my list, but that’s me)
Brian Guy
June 18, 2023 at 8:32 pm“There are downsides to that schedule, though I always suspected winter or spring of next year was the most likely. It means a longer wait for Season 3, which I think is also very likely given that S2 will break the internet.”
We’re likely still a good 45 chapters (nearly two years at current publication frequency) away from having enough source material for a third season, so I’m more than willing to be patient on that front. What I do worry about is the possibility that what we think of as the final Season Two arc might get broken off into its own movie to fill the gap.
Guardian Enzo
June 18, 2023 at 8:46 pmThere are those suggesting that. You could adapt Vol. 4-7 in 12 episodes if you use all the extras (which wouldn’t be terrible), and 8 would be a good choice for a movie. I’d still rather see 4-8 all adapted in 12-13 eps as the fit is just right and that’s yet another perfect place to stop. You could also do an original movie to bridge the gap – not ideal but hey, Takagi-san did OK with (mostly) this team going that route.
Let’s do the math. We’re at 122 now, and S2 would go through Chapter 114 (or maybe 113) if it follows the same pattern. S2 will finish airing in March of 2024, approximately 39 weeks from now. By which point the manga, barring hiatuses, will be at around chapter 141. That would give it a 27-28 chapter lead on the anime. If you assume the anime won’t start production on material until the material is published, that’s roughly a year from the end of S2 that S3 could begin production, which means you’d probably be looking at roughly the start of 2026 as an aggressive target premiere date.
That wouldn’t be unusual. Different production committee but with this studio and director, Takagi S2 ended in Fall 2019 and S3 premiered in Winter 2022 (and the movie came after). It managed fine, didn’t lose its audience.
Rob Barrett
June 19, 2023 at 12:16 pmAs long as I get my fox mask sequence, I will be happy.
Guardian Enzo
June 19, 2023 at 1:05 pmIt’ll be there.
Zol
June 18, 2023 at 10:03 pmI wouldn’t have expected a romcom series to get me in emotional turmoil like that, but it really did happen. I also can relate very much to Ichi. Like probably many other people that really “get” this series, I was somewhat of an outsider in my schoolyears. I would have given a lot to have had my personal Yamada Anna back then.
I mean, I’m 40+ today and have a family, but watching this anime, I felt like my 13-15 year old self again. What great series and a great season finale.
Now, the very hard part will be to not read the manga and spoil myself of all the great things yet to be animated…tough.
Guardian Enzo
June 18, 2023 at 10:42 pmSomehow, with this series knowing only makes the anticipation stronger for me.
Joshua
June 18, 2023 at 10:29 pmFirst off, massive Crunchyroll L that they lost the best romance anime of this season, if not this year. Both of them in fact. I intend to go further in detail when Oshi No Ko concludes this month, but well, when they are being outbidded by a struggling company like AMC Networks of all companies on anime licenses, and that this show is somehow more *profitable* than Blue Lock for TV Asahi, what does that tell you about CR’s troubles? How is it that nearly all of the best shows airing this year are *not* available on what’s supposed to be the biggest anime streaming service that’s not Netflix? https://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2023/06/04-1/the-dangers-in-my-heart-tv-anime-records-highest-global-sales-for-numanimation
Second, this is deeply subjective, but this series having a “polished” look to it is incredibly ill-fitting for the source material. The relatively crude panels for the characters in the manga were what helped reflect their messy nature and humanizes them as a result (just look at Home Movies for an example of this). Having a polished look to it was fine for a simpler looking (and narrative-wise) series like Takagi-san, but I would’ve preferred a series that was as messy as the characters themselves. Instead it just makes them look less likeable as a result and the adaptation decidedly more generic looking. It almost feels like an “I Can Fix Him” series at a glance.
Stöt
June 19, 2023 at 7:18 amThis review makes me want to rewatch the episode and the series again. Lovely series, just lovely. I didn’t go down Ichikawa’s path, but damn if this whole thing isn’t relatable, vulnerable and adorable.
I’m very grateful that this series is allowed to exist
Raikou
June 19, 2023 at 2:54 pmMagnificent series.
Reminded me of my junior high/senior high school years, and has a character that I can deeply relate to.
This series is worth our time. No argument.
Now if BokuYaba got the Takagi treatment it would be perfect.
Guardian Enzo
June 19, 2023 at 4:59 pmThat may be the model, even though this one has a different production committee. Relatively quick 2nd season, then a 3rd after a longer wait. Maybe a movie or OVA in there somewhere.
MFF
June 21, 2023 at 6:53 pmWatching this and then reading the just uploaded translation of the short story of Ichi’s journal just hits different.
Guardian Enzo
June 21, 2023 at 8:28 pmYeah, that’s painful stuff.
slazer
June 28, 2023 at 1:47 pmEnzo, damn straight. Thank you so so so much for this recommendation. It’s been more than a bit since I’ve watched an anime while airing but after near a decade of following this blog I knew it would be a big whiff to not follow up on this particular one. And wow, wow, and wow. Thanks for cluing me in, man. You’re a mensch.
Guardian Enzo
June 28, 2023 at 3:00 pmROFL, you’re very welcome. I am an evangelist for BokuYaba, unapologetically so. It’s very special indeed, and the 2nd season should be even better than the first.
Abs
July 4, 2023 at 1:07 pmThanks for the recommendation. Just binged the whole season. Overall really liked it with a cpuple of asterisks. I was wondering if these asterisks are explained in future seasons.
The first issue is that Ichikawa appears really dense. I mean I get at that age you lack confidence but it is pretty rare for a girl at that age to hold your hand, come to your house when your sick, pull you in a changeroom with them etc., if they’re not interested in you.
I wonder if this is explained by this hinted at issue in Junior high?
The other asterisk is I don’t get what Anna sees in Ichikawa. The show is so realistic in depicting a middle school romance but except for why an apparently beautiful, popular and somewhat famous girl is interested in a guy who is portrayed as below average in terms of appeal. I get she has flaws and insecurities but they weren’t presented strongly enough for me to understand why she likes him.
Does the Manga go into her insecurities and better explain what she sees in Ichikawa?
Apart from what feels to me his denseness and me not understanding his appeal to her I thought this was an excellent romance series and as you mentioned above really is an accurate depiction of teenage boy psychology. I’d say this along with the Inbetweeners (completely different type of show) are the best depictions of how boys at those ages can think and act.
Heart-warming and lovely, going to start the manganese now 🙂
Guardian Enzo
July 4, 2023 at 5:15 pmThere is more explanation on why specifically Anna is interested in Kyou later on, as we get to know her family situation. That said, I never felt like it wasn’t well explained TBH. Anna is very insecure, I think that’s already obvious in the anime. Ichi is totally unlike most guys his age. He doesn’t make crude comments about her or try and nampa her constantly. He’s also plainly smart and she learns pretty quickly that he’s funny.
As for his denseness, well – he’s 13 (in the anime) with absolutely zero self-esteem. The idea that a girl on top of the food chain could be interested in him romantically is just too far outside his range of realistic outcomes to compute. And through most of the period the anime covers, Kyou doesn’t really realize that Anna is almost as messed up as he is.
Abs
July 4, 2023 at 5:45 pmAwesome, that all does make sense. I guess it will also become more apparent as we find out more about him and the reasons for his insecurities.
I can see why you love this series.
Guardian Enzo
July 4, 2023 at 6:10 pmHonestly I can see where the obvious reaction would be, “why would the tall, glamorous, popular girl go for the short social outcast?” It’s natural, especially with how anime conventionally operates. But for me at least, if you look deeper, it makes sense. It clicks. Plus, TBH I think Norio drew Ichi with the intent that he be kind of a bishounen in an unconventional way.
Joshua
July 5, 2023 at 3:08 amBetween this, KimiSomu and Oshi no Ko, it astounds me how badly Crunchyroll screwed up this season by not only being outbidded by AMC/HiDive, but how two of those shows have become considerably more popular than any of the shows that they’ve licensed (with the exception of a few outliers like Kimetsu s3 and Gundam, but even OnK was far more popular). Hell, it seems like BokuYaba was more profitable too, and OnK clearly is going to do greater business (as seen in the OP dominating the Billboard top 100).
I’d argue that losing OnK (certain to be the most popular show of the Spring season, if not this entire year) may even be the first domino to fall for CR. They need to do something to avoid such a humiliating loss next season and beyond.
Guardian Enzo
July 5, 2023 at 6:46 amTheir market position is strong enough to where they can survive quite a few screwups yet. But it’s nice to see cracks in their attempted monopoly.
Joshua
July 5, 2023 at 11:25 amI have seen their lineup for this season and next season, and yeah, they are trying to make preparations much earlier just in case AMC or Disney strike again, but even still, they are losing potentially huge shows to their competition. Undead Unluck is going to be Hulu exclusive (at least in the US, it may be different elsewhere), Disney still has several huge anime they grabbed that were already well into production (even as they’re culling their streaming shows left and right) and them grabbing ToMan was a massive L for CR, Netflix still has Pluto as a huge upset come awards time, and AMC has Ragna Crimson as their big bet for this fall (as well as any new show airing on MBS).