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EP. REVIEW: The Dangers in My Heart


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Shay Guy



Joined: 03 Jul 2009
Posts: 2093
PostPosted: Wed Apr 19, 2023 8:13 pm Reply with quote
"None can say how long the darkness lurking inside me can remain dormaaawow gosh she sure is pretty Embarassed"
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MFrontier



Joined: 13 Apr 2014
Posts: 10960
PostPosted: Wed Apr 19, 2023 8:22 pm Reply with quote
A chuuni middle schooler with a heart of gold falls hard for a dorky but sweet teen model who notices him! Turning into a surprisingly endearing, cute, and relatable youth romcom!
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nl_TvdL





PostPosted: Thu Apr 20, 2023 3:59 am Reply with quote
I really like how he does these over-the-top things occasionally, like with that bike, to "protect" her from that other boy. But now it seems he revealed a little too much about himself to her, with the drawing.
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njprogfan
Collector Extraordinaire



Joined: 08 Feb 2007
Posts: 1155
Location: A River Named Toms
PostPosted: Thu Apr 20, 2023 5:12 am Reply with quote
I remember reading the first two volumes of the manga and as I was reading the second volume I thought about dropping the series, Kyotaro's thoughts were way too dark and I didn't like him. But as I got to about halfway thru the volume, my thoughts changed. When he realized his feelings, the manga improved tremendously AND Anna's antics and mannerisms had me hooked. In fact, her personality makes the series as you'll see as this anime progresses. He may get all the attention narrating, but she steals the show...well at least in the manga she does...
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Animegomaniac



Joined: 16 Feb 2012
Posts: 4070
PostPosted: Thu Apr 20, 2023 10:44 am Reply with quote
MFrontier wrote:
A chuuni middle schooler with a heart of gold falls hard for a dorky but sweet teen model who notices him! Turning into a surprisingly endearing, cute, and relatable youth romcom!


I was wondering why the reviewer said the middle schoolers were in high school. If the boys are in all black/white shirt in summer, it's usually middle school or the past.

That makes me wonder; if the reviewer thought it was objectionable for high schoolers, does the idea they're borderline preteens made it better or worse? Anna's a model at 15... please be 15... which is... quite a lot of things to be honest. Her body's developed faster than her personality which is the safest way to put it for now.

Typical 7,8,9 grade middle school: Some kids act like they still belong in elementary school, some look like they're already in high school. Kyotaro is amusingly stuck in the middle, having to deal with things he's not ready for.
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ThrowMeOut



Joined: 10 Oct 2018
Posts: 256
PostPosted: Thu Apr 20, 2023 12:14 pm Reply with quote
This show definitely has one of the more accurate representations of teens I've seen. Most anime views teens through these rose-tinted glasses, but in reality they're a pile of awkwardness, angst, and raging hormones. I can also relate to having a loud, proud, and over-active inner voice while struggling to talk over a whisper in real life as a kid.
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DRosencraft



Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 665
PostPosted: Thu Apr 20, 2023 8:13 pm Reply with quote
ThrowMeOut wrote:
This show definitely has one of the more accurate representations of teens I've seen. Most anime views teens through these rose-tinted glasses, but in reality they're a pile of awkwardness, angst, and raging hormones. I can also relate to having a loud, proud, and over-active inner voice while struggling to talk over a whisper in real life as a kid.


But did you, unprompted, fantasize about murdering people in your class for no reason at all? As another mentioned, it can easily be off-putting to have this kid inner monologue a murder fantasy about a girl he didn't know, never interacted with at all, let alone negatively, and be expected to treat it as romantic that he's got a crush on her now. We can talk about how "realistic" the depiction of teens in anime is, but if we're going to paint this depiction with the brush of "realism" then the reality is that kid is a psycho in need of real counseling. Sure if we can set aside his ruminations about murder as just inner-monologue angst, it's easy to say, "ah, it's so cute how he's smitten by her. And she's such a sweet and goofy girl too, not stuck up or mean or anything like that. They make a cute couple." But when you are repeatedly reminded by his own thoughts that this kid's brain sounds like any number of real-life mass murderers and he could be one imagined rejection away from acting out that warped mind state, the cuteness dims.

Heck, if they pulled the usual setup for these beauty and the beast type stories and she was part of the clique that used to bully him, or she used to be rude or dismissive of him, or act like a prima donna, and that explained his initial murder-based animus, that might smooth things over a little. Right now it is just a super cringe part of the show, not in the "embarrassed for the chunni" type of cringe, but the "why is this even a part of the story" sort of way.
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Swissman



Joined: 11 May 2006
Posts: 767
Location: Switzerland
PostPosted: Thu Apr 20, 2023 10:20 pm Reply with quote
As a teacher at a middle school, I can agree with the sentiment that the show represents teenagers in a rather accurate way. I see kids at my school who look and behave like they still belong to elementary school, whereas others are more mature, physically and mentally, so much so that they almost pass as high school kids. In that regard, it’s not that surprising to me that Anna at 14 is physically more developed than other girls in her class. As the main heroine of an anime based on a shounen manga, she‘s of course also quite attractive to look at for the audience (and manga readers). That‘s the fantasy aspect of the show. The same goes for Kyotaro‘s deranged inner monologue. To me that‘s just a hook, a fantasy aspect which doesn‘t put me off because I know it‘s not real nor does it endorse Kyotaro‘s chuunibyo personality.

Besides that, I think this is a fantastic adaption of the manga so far. Things will get even better from here on, especially now that Anna has started to set her eyes on Kyotaro.
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ThrowMeOut



Joined: 10 Oct 2018
Posts: 256
PostPosted: Fri Apr 21, 2023 11:40 am Reply with quote
DRosencraft wrote:


But did you, unprompted, fantasize about murdering people in your class for no reason at all? As another mentioned, it can easily be off-putting to have this kid inner monologue a murder fantasy about a girl he didn't know, never interacted with at all, let alone negatively, and be expected to treat it as romantic that he's got a crush on her now. We can talk about how "realistic" the depiction of teens in anime is, but if we're going to paint this depiction with the brush of "realism" then the reality is that kid is a psycho in need of real counseling. Sure if we can set aside his ruminations about murder as just inner-monologue angst, it's easy to say, "ah, it's so cute how he's smitten by her. And she's such a sweet and goofy girl too, not stuck up or mean or anything like that. They make a cute couple." But when you are repeatedly reminded by his own thoughts that this kid's brain sounds like any number of real-life mass murderers and he could be one imagined rejection away from acting out that warped mind state, the cuteness dims.

Heck, if they pulled the usual setup for these beauty and the beast type stories and she was part of the clique that used to bully him, or she used to be rude or dismissive of him, or act like a prima donna, and that explained his initial murder-based animus, that might smooth things over a little. Right now it is just a super cringe part of the show, not in the "embarrassed for the chunni" type of cringe, but the "why is this even a part of the story" sort of way.


Nah I'm not going to be upset with a kid thinking weird thoughts. Kids are weird, hormones are weird, and at that age new emotions can manifest in weird ways. And while I've never had murder fantasies, I've had invasive thoughts about doing bad things that I would never, ever do in real life. I think most people have.

Now if he actually killed someone, then yeah, I'd bounce out so hard. (Also the story drops the killing thing pretty quickly)

I also think there's a bit of a cultural difference. In the US, a kid deciding to kill his classmates is a very real threat. But for Japan, not so much. So an edgy tween thinking edgy thoughts about murder is more something to laugh at.
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lossthief
ANN Reviewer


Joined: 14 Dec 2012
Posts: 1380
PostPosted: Fri Apr 21, 2023 12:59 pm Reply with quote
DRosencraft wrote:
but if we're going to paint this depiction with the brush of "realism" then the reality is that kid is a psycho in need of real counseling. Sure if we can set aside his ruminations about murder as just inner-monologue angst, it's easy to say, "ah, it's so cute how he's smitten by her. And she's such a sweet and goofy girl too, not stuck up or mean or anything like that. They make a cute couple." But when you are repeatedly reminded by his own thoughts that this kid's brain sounds like any number of real-life mass murderers and he could be one imagined rejection away from acting out that warped mind state, the cuteness dims.

Heck, if they pulled the usual setup for these beauty and the beast type stories and she was part of the clique that used to bully him, or she used to be rude or dismissive of him, or act like a prima donna, and that explained his initial murder-based animus, that might smooth things over a little. Right now it is just a super cringe part of the show, not in the "embarrassed for the chunni" type of cringe, but the "why is this even a part of the story" sort of way.


I get why folks would be put off or uncomfortable, especially with Ichikawa's opening inner-monologue, but what personally made it palatable for me was that it's repeatedly demonstrated that his own inner-monologue is a bluff. He never shows any actual anger towards his classmates outside of exasperation or annoyance. Even during episode two where the other kid is threatening actual violence, Ichikawa's instinct is to de-escalate without so much as a stray thought towards revenge.

It's obvious to the audience that he isn't actually violent or even particularly resentful - he just consumes a lot of morbid media and likes to project his feelings through that lens. When people talk about his portrayal being "realistic" I think that's what they're referring to. He's a kid going through the twin travails of puberty and middle school social life, and part of his attempt at forming an identity is adopting things he thinks are cool from the media he consumes. With Ichikawa, it's the fake-bloodstain phone case and skull shirts and reading "The Encyclopedia of Death" to seem cool or interesting. For me it was Iron Maiden t-shirts and playing my music way too loud on my iPod.

Ironically I think your proposed solution would push this much closer to something uncomfortable, since if Yamada was a bully, his opening fantasy would feel a lot more malicious. He'd have a motive for those fantasies, and a reason to direct them at her specifically, and to me it would seem way more likely that he might actually hurt somebody.
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MFrontier



Joined: 13 Apr 2014
Posts: 10960
PostPosted: Mon Apr 24, 2023 4:04 pm Reply with quote
I continue to really enjoy the natural progression between Ichikawa and Yamada as they get closer to each other and start to get to better know one another, especially when you start to notice the subtle but still clear indications of Yamada's interest in Ichikawa. They're just really cute together.

Also Yukari Tamura as Ichikawa's big sister. I did not see that coming.
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11306
PostPosted: Tue Apr 25, 2023 12:38 am Reply with quote
The best part of Ep 4 was when he raises his hand higher to be more visible while waving goodbye, and accidentally hails a cab. Laughing

The other good scene was when he was trying to gracefully exit the library and suddenly gets yanked to the side by Serina. Surprise is the lifeblood of comedy after all, and this series has its timing down perfectly for the visual comedy.
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Amuro1X



Joined: 02 Sep 2009
Posts: 173
PostPosted: Tue Apr 25, 2023 8:08 am Reply with quote
MFrontier wrote:
especially when you start to notice the subtle but still clear indications of Yamada's interest in Ichikawa.


Yeah, you could definitely tell Yamada noticed Ichikawa was with a girl, and was notably relieved when it turned out to be his sister.
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ItsThatBriGuy



Joined: 27 Jan 2023
Posts: 29
PostPosted: Tue Apr 25, 2023 9:19 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
However, we are getting hints that there is more to her actions than meets the eye. The question is, will those intentions make themselves clear sooner rather than later?


Leaning heavily on "sooner". For no particular reason, I'm sure.
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housingattend



Joined: 26 Apr 2023
Posts: 1
PostPosted: Wed Apr 26, 2023 3:29 am Reply with quote
When it was revealed that the woman with Ichikawa was, in fact, Yamada's sister, Yamada's relief was palpable
word hurdle
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