Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: There's No Freaking Way I'll Be Your Lover! Unless...
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LinkTSwordmaster
 Posts: 823 Location: PA / USA |
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I liked episode 4, felt more or less like it was exactly what was needed!
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John the Dark Lord
Posts: 317 |
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Fun fact: During a fan event in Taiwan, both the author and the illustrator of the Light Novel were asked about their favorite scene in the series, and both answered the underwater kiss in this episode.
https://www.reddit.com/r/WatashigaKoibito/comments/1m987c7/sharing_my_experience_and_thoughts_from_the/ |
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Covnam
 Posts: 4398 |
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I agree with the review and also thought it was a bit off at times.
Early in the episode it felt a bit like Renako was being gaslit a little about how she felt and I agree that she shouldn't have needed to apologize. Mai seems like she was ultimately rewarded for her actions without fully be clear on what was wrong. She also treated Satsuki pretty poorly in regards to her feelings. I think if Mai was a guy she would be treated harsher in a similar scenario. Curious to see what happens with Ajisai. It was a bit funny and surprising that she leaned in for a kiss after accepting the "confession", but it does seem to fit with her personality that she might do something like that in that situation. Honestly I think I'd rather have her and Renako get together with Mai getting turned down... |
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One-Eye
 Posts: 2322 |
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Florete
Posts: 466 |
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Justice for Ajisai! Poor girl was ready for a kiss after what she thought was her reciprocating a confession of love only to be met with, "Anyway, see ya."
I don't like Mai. I agree with all of the review's mentioned problems, but I think my reaction to them has been more negative. |
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BaronViolet
Posts: 512 |
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Should have just ended the story right here. Because after this, it all goes downhill. Everyone just becomes unlikeable and annoying and plot more contrived and ridiculous.
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leetailor
 Posts: 41 |
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I don't understand this reviewer's perspective because I also started watching the series without reading the source material, but there is such a thing as being unreasonably naive about what kind of anime you're watching.
I don't just mean that WataNare is a sloppy yuri harem with little in the way of aspiration to depict relationships with psychological and emotional realism (and it's hardly packaged in a misleading way). But also that it's adapted from an ongoing light novel series. I don't think it's reasonable to be concerned about any romantic pairing solidifying within the story that the anime will be able adapt, never mind about Renako 'choosing' Mai over the other girls. Even looking at the anime on its own, everything from the openings and endings to the way Renako views the four heroines should suggest that Renako will fool around a bit with each of them before making any decisions on who to go out with for real (if anybody at all). And if we consider the principle of narrative efficiency, there would be no point for the series to introduce three other prospective lovers besides Mai if Renako just went ahead and 'chose' Mai before getting to know the other three more closely.
If Renako is just the girl version of a straight boy pursued by several girls, then by the same logic we could call any fictional lesbian pairing the product of gender-flipping the male lead of a straight romance. I could just say that it sounds a little homophobic to dismiss a female character as being little more than the offshoot of a straight guy, simply by the virtue that she is interested in girls and girls are interested in her... But I don't think that's enough here. For one, WataNare is hardly the only or even first yuri harem series, it just may be the most well known or most successful. Of course yuri harem necessarily takes some cues from the straight harem formula (yuri did not exist as a concrete genre in publishing before the 2000s, so straight harem had a massive head start), but the fact that the protagonist is female also makes it similar to 'reverse' harem (female lead pursued by multiple males)! Even assuming that Watanare is the product of the straight harem formula being reconfigured as yuri (as opposed to Watanare simply being the type of yuri series where one girl is pursued by three or more other girls), if you turn the male protagonist into a girl, that has deeper effects on the rest of the formula. The most obvious consequence is that, regardless of who is paired up with who, only same-sex (F/F) pairings are possible. And a crucial difference between the girls in a straight harem vs the girls in a yuri harem is that in the latter virtually none of them can be straight. The specific dynamic of each emerging pair is also strongly influenced by the fact that both characters are female (because we live in a sexist world where women and men are not equal). Well, that's a lot of words to say that a yuri harem is yuri. It's gay. Even thinking of the ways WataNare attempts to be sexy or romantic, we have already seen scenarios that would come across as unusual if Renako was a guy. For example, in the hotel she agrees to get in the bathtub with Mai because both of them being girls provided her a thin excuse to deny its implications. And in the most controversial event so far (where Mai tries to have sex with Renako), Renako is the one lying on her back with her legs spread open. In that scene in particular, Renako is treated very differently by the narrative than if she was a boy. While the fact that she is pursued by a beautiful girl like Mai is meant to be enviable, the narrative still affords her vulnerability, and does not make fun of her for saying no when Mai tries to get in her pants. A male harem protagonist in this situation (rejecting a woman's sexual advances despite being attracted to her) would be subject to at least some gentle ribbing, due to the sexist logic that men are not supposed to say no to sex with an attractive woman, especially when it's an opportunity to lose their virginity. WataNare also acknowledges the fact that same-sex attraction between girls is not considered the norm, which I did not expect (though this is not uncommon in yuri, and I don't consider the lack of such acknowledgment inherently a flaw). Mai asks Renako if being asked out by a girl makes her uncomfortable, and Satsuki (who also has feelings for Mai) assures Renako that she has no problem with the concept either. In episode 5, Renako even says "it's not like I like girls or anything", bless her heart. This is all to say that while calling Watanare trashy makes sense, dismissing the concept of yuri harem as just straight harem with a different paint job does not, if you spend even a little bit of time thinking it through. spoiler[While I won't assume that the person I quoted had bad intentions, I can't help but suspect that this kind of argument is often based on various prejudices, rather than sound logic and experience with the given material.] Edit: clarified the source of the quote + spoiler tagged the part of my response that in hindsight might not be relevant here Last edited by leetailor on Fri Aug 22, 2025 8:19 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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ANN_Lynzee
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 3282 Location: Email for assistance only |
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This line of thought is so detrimental to the critique and writing space because it backs people into a corner. They either have to show their credentials, i.e., publicly state their sexuality, gender identity, or where they fall under the LGBTQ+ umbrella, or risk being painted as a bigot over disagreement over categorization or interpretation. I will not out my freelancers. How open they want to be about their own personal identities is entirely up to them. Some have discussed it in their editorial writing, others have not. You had an overall point that was worth considering for most of this comment, and then you chose to end it on this. |
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BaronViolet
Posts: 512 |
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I won't spoil anything but as someone who has read the manga chapters after episode 4 let me warn you now that things will only go downhill from here.
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John the Dark Lord
Posts: 317 |
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Heavily disagree. I think LN volumes 3 and especially 4 are when this series got really good. We are still a few episodes away from it, but my opinion of volume 2 is that is starts slow, but has a great climax. |
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LinkTSwordmaster
Posts: 823 Location: PA / USA |
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Episode 5 is the first one that didn't really resonate. It felt like they had Satsuki re-explain her motivations like two or three times this episode, and the whole thing seemed to meander due to it.
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IronWish
 Posts: 256 Location: Ukraine |
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I think we all should have gotten the memo about what kind of show this is the second MAI JUMPED OF A BUILDING, CAUGHT RENAKO MID-AIR, AND LANDED ON A TREE WITH A PERFECT SITTING POSTURE! Sorry for yelling, I just don't think that realistic depiction of anything could be expected here.
Doesn't really seem that way, there was pretty much nothing that would suggest that this is the case. It's more like Renako is so overwhelmed with having proper friends for the first time in her life that she doesn't think she has capacity for romantic relationships at the moment. |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4287 |
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From the first episode, Renako has reminded me of something from the male Harem series Girl's Bravo, a line I won't repeat here but it has to do with a straight girl being described as catnip.
Do I think Renako is gay? Since she is looking more for girl friends, not girlfriends, I'm going to respect her wishes and decline to answer for her. Sena remains her best option for either though, I wonder how that will be ruined. Episode 5. Even despite her reasons for even choosing to be a friend, Satsuki is easily better than Mai. Better friend and lover option, still not a great person. |
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One-Eye
Posts: 2322 |
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Clarste
Posts: 445 |
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Trashy Yuri Harem Anime Somehow Misunderstood As Thoughtful Slice of Life
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