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Why You Should Be Watching My Love STORY

It satisfies my sweet tooth in more ways than one.

lstory

Not too many people understand Takeo Gouda very well. Or at all, really. He’s a towering uberbeast of an eighth grader with the face of a wrestler who happens to have the rock-hard internal core of a golden retriever puppy with a chocolatey coating (that is, until something threatens him or something he cares about, as we quickly discover). He likes people and sweets, and always shows kindness when possible. Unfortunately, Gouda can’t help but feel a little lonely, considering others don’t particularly care to get close to someone who can barely text with their bear fingers and accidentally intimidates strangers on the regular.

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Gouda stands in stark contrast to his best friend Suna, who is the physical Japanese bishie ideal, yet doesn’t outwardly care for everyday interactions towards his legion of suitors. This all changes, however, when fate brings Gouda and Rinko Yamato together on a train where she’s bothered by a groper and he’s able to use his talents to… persuade the dude away from the poor girl. Rinko’s a soft-spoken girl who just happens to have seen a very special side of Gouda.

Aesthetically, the show is bound to give you as many cavities as its narrative. Eyes are big and colors are bright and soft, with character designs as cute as they are occasionally funny (Gouda has the best faces and Rinko achieves that doe-eyed look without appearing or acting too infantile). The diegetic sound mainly consists (predictably) of cutesy bird chirping and typical classroom banter, accompanied by sweet (if somewhat repetitive) romantic piano pieces. But a few cutesy character designs and nice production value are by no means the only things going for this show.

I’m not normally the biggest fan of fluffy rom-coms; they typically have a weak overarching narrative paired with overdone archetypes that usually fail to keep my interest for more than a few episodes. But that’s where this show gets you with its cleverness – it’s simple, but deceptively so. Dig a little bit beyond its fluffy, bright, pastel watercolor exterior, and you start to see a brilliantly-integrated story about adorable people whose lives are limited by societal expectations in one way or another (cleverly thematically framed by the story of Red Ogre and Blue Ogre).

Gouda doesn’t understand at all why Rinko would show any sort of interest in him, even after he winds up directly saving her life – partially because he’s gone his entire life with his big-hearted gestures constantly unreciprocated by people he likes due to his looks, which has subsequently shaped his expectations of social interaction based on his internalized disappointment. With this sort of mental gymnastics coming into play, Gouda tries setting Rinko her up with Suna – who gets it bad for Rinko pretty much instantly. This is especially ironic considering Suna has always been the only one who’s ever sacrificed his heart for Gouda’s benefit, always rejecting girls that the poor hulk has shown interest in. As a matter of fact, all this talk of fairy tales, reciprocal empathy, and bashing unhealthy societal views/gender coding is reminding me of Satoshi Kon’s Tokyo Godfathers more than anything, if the ogre framing didn’t tip you off already. A bit more then you bargained for with your everyday romantic comedy, I’d say, and fairly laudable.

The brilliant play between these saccharine characters, the evolution between their relationships, and overarching (strangely feminist) narrative is what really has my eye on the show, and I absolutely can’t wait to see how things advance along the season, preferably while snacking on something sweet to help me keep up with all the spilled sugar the show has to offer. Even if the title is a wee bit boring.

Overall rating: 4/5

Overall reaction:

cute

Rachael’s a student at a Florida university that frolics regularly in Disney parks and has an entirely too extensive collection of stuffed animals. If you wanna follow her other random musings on cartoons (or just stop by to say hi) there’s her blog https://lotsofframes.wordpress.com/.

 

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Author
Sam Maggs
Sam Maggs is a writer and televisioner, currently hailing from the Kingdom of the North (Toronto). Her first book, THE FANGIRL'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY will be out soon from Quirk Books. Sam’s parents saw Star Wars: A New Hope 24 times when it first came out, so none of this is really her fault.

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