You know my motto, don’t bury the headline. The premiere of Make Heroine ga Oosugiru! was really good. Like, startlingly good. On multiple levels. I expected to love the character designs, because those are by Imigi Muru and he’s one of my favorite artists in manga. He illustrates the light novels (I know) Makeine is based on, and the kids he conceives are just so gorgeously expressive. I lament that he seems to have lost interest (at least I haven’t seen a new chapter in months) in Konobi, which is so great partly because he’s the writer as well as the artist. But more Imigi is never a bad thing.

As for the direction and other aspects of the production, I had an inkling they’d be good because the previews were pretty striking. But this A-1 production doesn’t have huge names behind it, so the extent to which this premiere was visually stunning (including the ED) caught me off guard. Most of all, though, I really didn’t expect to like the story and cast as much as I did. I know nothing about Amamori Takibi, the novelist (this is his first series). But I can only be blunt – while I can’t absolutely say “if he were good, he wouldn’t be writing light novels in the 2020s”, my personal experience gets us pretty close to that.

Still – here we are. The writing here was pretty darn sharp, and the characters had some real snap to them (I vehemently argue that Imigi’s magic is part of that). I have to keep my enthusiasm in check, because a good start for a LN adaptation is not a complete unicorn but finding one that can keep the pot on the boil beyond that is. My full expectation is that Makeine will flame out after a few episodes at most, because that’s what happens with almost all LNs which grab me with their opening salvos. But hope springs eternal.

Even by the standards of the LN anime that I start out liking, this one was above-average. The protagonist is a high schooler named Nukumizu Kazuhiko (Umeda Shuuichirou, as noted earlier something of a seiyuu it boy). He’s a bit of a loner who loves romance LNs and the drink bar (though all teens love the drink bar, to be fair). One day at the family restaurant he sees a couple of classmates having an argument a few tables down. This is Yanami Anna (Tohno Hikaru) and Hakamada Sousuke (Ohsaka Ryouta, wow). They’re childhood friends, and Anna is urging Sousuke to be with someone named Karen (even though she’s in love with him herself).

Eventually Sousuke bolts to do just that, and Kazuhiko spots Anna stealing an indirect kiss (“So desperate!”) from his straw. Eventually she latches on to him to vent, orders ¥3000 worth of food and sticks him with the tab. Thus begins a rather unlikely friendship, if you can call it that. Mostly Anna bitches to Kazuhiko about Karen and Sousuke (who keep inviting her along to third wheel, which she feels she can’t decline). He insists she pay him back, she obviously can’t, and eventually talks him into accepting daily bentos until the bill is paid off. Anyone who doesn’t see that turning out badly for him hasn’t been paying attention.

Needless to say, justice for osananajimi is the theme here. To Anna there are only two types of girls – childhood friends and homewreckers. She has a little circle of comrades it seems, similarly jilted girls from the title. For his part Kazuhiko is a rather laconic passenger on Anna’s loser express, though he does start to find himself being drawn to her. Frankly it’s not as if his social life is so wonderful that it’s any great sacrifice to have Anna intrude on his time, and she naturally starts to see him as a confidante since he mostly just takes her diatribes in impassively.

Does that have staying power, especially as the harem elements inevitably kick in? That’s the question, Jimmy – as always with LN adaptations. But for one week at least I really enjoyed the Makeine experience. I like the two leads even if Anna is annoying, and no one really grated on me (even the little sister was OK, shockingly) except maybe the dojikko teacher. And the little gags like the Lit Club president hiding BL in the Dazai and Mishima section mostly worked. Plus, what’s with the girls uniforms all having four bow ties? That was random enough to really make me laugh (I’m assuming Imigi deserves the credit for that).