Drinking up the Honey Lemon Soda Premiere at Anime Frontier

I very nearly didn't get to see the premiere of Honey Lemon Soda at Anime Frontier. Both it and Anyway, I'm Falling in Love with You were in the same round of premieres, and the first two episodes of Honey Lemon Soda (henceforth HLS) were the ones playing first. The room would get filled to capacity, and I only barely got in. After a while, they had to start turning people away at the risk of overfilling the room and becoming a fire hazard. The result was a room where every last seat was full, and there were a few people sitting on the floor along the wall, too (that's where I was; I wasn't kidding when I said I only barely got in!). Suffice to say, in case you had any room for doubt: yes, this anime has a lot of people who are really excited to watch it. So, are the first two episodes worth the hype?

HLS follows a new highschooler named Uka Ishimori, whose middle school life was pretty rough. She was bullied for being so quiet and reserved, and she froze when she was taking the entrance exam for the high school she wanted to go to—needless to say, she didn't get in. But in the midst of all this misery, she meets a boy with hair as yellow as the lemon soda he can often be seen drinking. His name is Kai Miura, and he's also a student at the high school Uka ends up at. HLS is primarily a story about Uka coming out of her shell, learning how to stand up for herself, and to make friends. It got some cheers from the audience a few times (in particular, a scene where we see Uka playing basketball). And in the midst of all this, she finds herself falling in love with Kai—whom she vows, as tears well in her massive anime eyes, to one day confess to, once she becomes confident enough in herself.

In many ways, this feels like a completely by-the-books wish fulfillment high school romance series: a handsome boy almost randomly taking an interest in a bullied every-girl, he magically knows exactly what to say and do all the time, always seems to show up at the right place at the right time, and also he has a great friend group who more or less immediately welcomes Uka with open arms. But honestly, there's nothing wrong with wish-fulfillment. The heart wants what the heart wants, and if that sounds like the kind of story you'll enjoy, I have no doubt you'll enjoy HLS. But as for me, I had a harder time getting into it. I didn't feel strongly about either of our main characters, Kai's interest in Uka feels so out-of-the-blue and unlikely that I can't find it in myself to sense any real chemistry between them, and I think I would've felt more compelled to enjoy a story about self improvement if the story if it wasn't first and foremost a romance—much less a romance I can't bring myself to care about. Neither of these first two episodes really stood out to me, but if you're into shoujo and high school romance, you'll probably get a lot more out of these two episodes than I did.