The Fall Anime 2025 Preview Guide - Yano-kun's Ordinary Days

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Tsuyoshi Yano is a perennially unlucky high school boy, and Kiyoko Yoshida, his classmate, constantly worries about him. Yoshida sees Yano come into school injured, and Yoshida begins following Yano out of concern for him, observing his unlucky daily life, and resolving to support him.

Yano-kun's Ordinary Days is based on the Yano-kun no Futsū no Hibi manga by Yui Tamura. The anime series is streaming on Crunchyroll on Tuesdays.

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Caitlin Moore
Rating:

Watching Yano-kun's Ordinary Days, I had an inkling that they were using the manga as a storyboard. There was something about the way the shots lingered, how some frames were detailed and others were a bit blobby, that spoke to me of manga framing rather than intentional anime-driven timing. So I looked into things, and it turns out nope, the manga moves way faster and has consistently detailed art, unlike the anime! That means there are two probable reasons for the anime's slow pace: to stretch two manga chapters to fit into the episode instead of chopping and screwing to cram a third one in, or to give the proceedings a more gentle pace. Maybe both.

The gentle pace works… sometimes. Instead of embracing the slapstick of a boy who can't seem to take five steps without getting injured, the episode focuses more on Yoshida's feelings toward Yano. Perhaps that's for the best; he's a sweet kid, and it wouldn't feel right to cackle at him falling into a manhole or running into a wall. However, that means that this romantic comedy doesn't have a whole lot in the way of jokes. There were a few moments that made me chuckle, like Yoshida's haunted expression and sleepless nights when she realizes she has a crush on Yano, because whomst among us hasn't had a similar reaction to a pathetic man? And the two can be sweet together, they're just rarely funny. However, the parts between the occasional jokes and emotional connections make things feel distinctly stretched out as the episode meanders lackadaisically through its 22-minute runtime.

The animation works similarly, with some brilliantly detailed and expressive cuts, but with a lot of simplified, borderline slideshows in between. The style is grounded, with realistic proportions and muted colors throughout. As a result, when the camera focuses on Yoshida and Yano's faces and subtle expressions, the show is outright beautiful. On the other hand, whole minutes can go by with zero or minimal animation beyond the characters' lips flapping. The voice actors possess sufficient skill to carry a significant portion of the burden, particularly Kōhei Amasaki's gentle tones as Yano. I just couldn't help taking issue with one aspect of the framing – Yano usually has an eyepatch on, and Yoshida consistently sits on that side. If you're talking with someone who is blind in one eye, you generally want to sit on the side where they can see you. I'm speaking from experience here.

I'm sure for some people, Yano-kun's Ordinary Days is a nice series to relax to, especially if the chill isekai du jour isn't to your taste. If you like your men pathetic and in need of being cared for, all the better. It's just a little too slow for my taste.

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Bolts
Rating:

I'm sorry, Milo Murphy's Law was all I could think about when I was watching this episode. The only difference is that Yano-kun's Ordinary Days is an anime, and it runs at about half the speed of what you would find in that Disney cartoon. We all know people who are accident-prone, and it's entertaining when shows introduce side characters who get into wild shenanigans simply because they were born incredibly unlucky or lack exceptional self-awareness—making a character like that an object of affection and having that disposition be the catalyst for a blossoming relationship sounds like a pretty solid idea. The way that the show introduces the two leads and generates that excuse for them to spend time together actually worked for me. There is also a comedic edge here, with Yano's various accident-prone tendencies. The sort of off-key harmonica music that drones in the background also conveys his laid-back but unsteady demeanor.

However, maybe the show is a bit too laid-back. I love slice-of-life anime, and I will sing them to the hilltops, but now and then, we get a show that somehow pushes even my patience to the edge. This episode felt about twice as long as it actually was because every scene is drawn out to the point where I feel like I'm staring at a wall. I don't just say that because the color palette is incredibly muted, but I feel like you could've cut out about a third of this episode and hit the same emotional impact.

This premiere didn't feel slow in an overly deliberate way, as if it was building up to something. It just felt slow because the characters aren't allowed to act with any enthusiasm. The characters' movements are slow, the scenes unfold slowly, everyone's reactions are slow, and even Yano's injuries are slow to occur. If the show can get the pacing just a little bit faster or maybe hit a few more comedic beats to break up the monotony, there can be a lot more charm than what's on display in this premiere.

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Richard Eisenbeis
Rating:

You can judge how bored I am by something by how hard I start searching for “the dark twist” that would turn everything on its head and make it interesting. I spent nearly half the show's runtime hyper-focused on Mei, the protagonist's best friend. While the two are following Yano—attempting to figure out if he's being abused at home—we find out that Mei is unable to tie her neck scarf. This left me wondering how she could not know this. Surely, this is something her parents would have taught her—unless of course they didn't for some reason. Maybe this was a sign that it wasn't Yano suffering from domestic violence but Mei instead—and that her best friend never noticed. Oh, the tragedy!

But, of course, there is no dark twist by the end of this episode. It's exactly what it appears to be on the surface, a light-hearted rom-com about a boy who is prone to injuries and a girl who instinctively takes care of people. We watch as Yoshida discovers, to her own surprise, that she has a crush on Yano. Meanwhile, Yano is so used to being alone that he totally misses her overtures at a deeper friendship (and possibly something more). This is all wrapped up in a little story about communication—that it's better to be direct than make over-complicated plans to seem nonchalant.

And it's fine. ...Really. While it's not my cup of tea and I was perpetually bored throughout, that is more the nature of the beast than anything the series did wrong specifically. The story made sense, the animation worked well, and the voice actors fit their roles. I'm sure if you love these fluffy high school rom-coms where the stakes are low and the drama is easily overcome, you'll like this one. But as for me, I won't be giving this anime a second thought.

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