Kawaii dake ja Nai Shikimori-san

Yuu Izumi leads a high school life filled with one mishap after another. No matter how improbable the situation, unfortunate events strike him at every turn. In possession of such terrible luck, Izumi enters his second year with a single wish in mind—to spend more time with his affectionate girlfriend, Micchon Shikimori.

Cute, athletic, and caring, Shikimori is immensely popular at their school. But since they began dating a year ago, Izumi has witnessed a surprising side to his otherwise adorable girlfriend: when the need arises, she turns incredibly cool! His misfortunes are easily avoided when she is there to protect him with an awe-inspiring look on her face. Charming in every way, she never ceases to make his heart skip a beat. Unfortunate as he may be, Izumi is sure to see his days of bad luck end thanks to the cute yet cool Shikimori.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Shikimori, Miyako Main

Oonishi, Saori Japanese

Izumi, Yuuki Main

Umeda, Shuuichirou Japanese

Kamiya, Ai ing

Fukuhara, Ayaka Japanese

Hachimitsu, Yui ing

Hidaka, Rina Japanese

Izumi, Motoko ing

Shinohara, Emi Japanese

Inuzuka, Shuu ing

Okamoto, Nobuhiko Japanese

Shikimori, Fuji ing

Shimono, Hiro Japanese

Nekozaki, Kyou ing

Matsuoka, Misato Japanese

Izumi, Akisada ing

Kusumi, Naomi Japanese

Shikimori, Miyabi ing

Park, Romi Japanese

Motonaga, Satoshi Producer

Furukawa, Shin Producer

Kobayashi, Ryou Producer

Kamata, Hajime Producer

Reviews

Jul 9, 2022

BaronBrixius

Recommended

I'll start by saying this - Kawaii Dake ja Nai Shikimori-san is a fluff romcom. Nothing more, nothing less.

The premise is very simple - an extremely unlucky boy has an extremely cute girlfriend who can switch to "cool" mode and be his knight in shining armor when his bad luck strikes again, and a group of friends who they both hang out and do mundane things with. It's nothing groundbreaking. There is no depth to it. Its whole purpose is to give you a dose of fluff.

So then, why a 9/10?

It's simple - because Shikimori succeeds at fulfilling that exact purpose with flying colors and ... more.

If you truly enjoy these types of shows, then Shikimori has it all - a huge amount of cute couple moments, a vibrant color palette, high school shenanigans, festivals, and most importantly - a fun ing cast, consisting of both a group of friends with high chemistry between them, and surprisingly alive and kicking parents, whose interactions with the main couple are often even more fun to watch than the friends group shenanigans.

If I had to give a rating to the ing cast alone, it would be as high as a 9.5/10 - even if you're less invested in the couple for one reason or another, every moment the side characters are on screen is a joy to watch. Whether it's the MC's mom inadvertently seducing her son's girlfriend or Hachimitsu delivering her deadpan one-liners, each of them made me look forward to watching the show every week just as much as the main couple.

And regarding the elephant in the room, Izumi - the male MC who I'm sure you've heard negative things about at one point or another before reading this review - his only "fault" is that...he's not very masculine. Other than that, he's just a regular, social guy with a small group of friends that includes his girlfriend. He's nowhere near the cringy loner MC that starts stuttering whenever a girl enters his line of sight, if like me that is what you first imagined when you heard the rumors. At the same time, he's also not a deep layered character, he's a run-of-the-mill romcom MC - but his only "fault" is, again, that he is more feminine than masculine. You could say that this is a gender-reversed romcom, but that'd be mostly wrong - Shikimori herself is just as feminine 90% of the time, when she's not protecting Izumi from whatever tried to kill him that day.

To sum it up, I recommend this show if :

- You enjoy fluff romcoms.
- You like girls being badass.
- You are looking for a chill slice of life show to just laugh and turn your brain off to.
- You like deadpan characters/Kuuderes. (seriously Hachimitsu alone makes this show worth watching)

I do not recommend this show if :

- You expect strong character development.
- You expect plot/romance progression, and are bored by "mindless" fluff.
- You expect My Dress-Up Darling like a lot of people did when starting this. (Why?)

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Jun 2, 2024

FatoTouchGrass

Mixed Feelings

Well-written

Look, I ain’t got no problems with strong women in romance anime and shit, in fact I believe that we should have more of that, but this straight up feels like some propaganda material serving the feminist agenda or something. Like, the power dynamics are hella off, even nasuo, the artist for the OP, addressed this by saying 「なんか僕よりも彼氏みたい」which roughly translates to “you look more like the boyfriend than me”. You get what I’m saying now?

The story goes like this, Izumi Yuuki, who’s been under an umbrella while God was making luck rain from the sky, pulls Miyako Shikimori, the baddest girl one can ask ... for. Yet both of them have some screws loose for real. Miyako be trying to be more feminine, as if her looks ain’t enough for that. My friend Ediz (a.k.a BRUHLAS) actually had some shit to say about this. “Bro I’d get it if her hair was short, but which tomboy has long ass hair like this?” And I agree with him, because that bomboclaat hair of hers is longer than then Hindu goddesses, like what the hell? Izumi’s case is already obvious, so I ain’t saying shit about that.

The only thing that was nice about this bomboclaat anime is the “gang”, i.e. Inuzuka and the others. They were legit entertaining and that’s one of the reasons why I wanna give some extra points, the other being the fact that Miyako has pink hair. Since we don’t really have room for development as the ship has already sailed, the only thing that gets the story going is Izumi’s god damned luck and Miyako just trying to deal with all that shit.

Speaking of Miyako trying to deal with all that shit, let’s talk about the realism of this whole saga. I’m telling you, if a couple had Miyako and Izumi’s dynamic and the situation, then the girl would most likely dump the boy, I’m not saying she’d break up or shit, she’d fucking DUMP him. But hey, the author be simping for some V-Tuber ass that is virtual, as the name implies, so no wonder why he can’t write something realistic.

We can actually see Izumi try to grow some balls, yet his attempts fail miserably by his bad luck. Take Izumi trying to carry Miyako on his back during the fireworks festival episode. I vaguely it as I watched this shit way back in December 2022, but my boy straight up got VIOLATED by that bad luck over them stairs.

Although I ain’t gonna lie, Izumi’s mom be bad as fuck, yet again, his dad wouldn’t normally be able to pull someone like her, if he wasn’t actually hot back in his youth which we have no bomboclaat idea about. It’d be nice to see Motoko and, what was Izumi’s dad’s name again? Whatever, it’d be nice to see an arc that covers how their parents met, like in Horimiya. Although, I must say, I think this ability to pull bitches despite having the worst bomboclaat luck is genetic in Izumi’s fam right there. After all, the author gotta live his pipe dream somehow, right? Lastly, like ravend, a Turkish rapper, said, “may all them chicks burn, fuck the firefighter who gives them water” if all them chicks gonna be like Miyako is.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Jul 9, 2022

SingleH

Not Recommended

Anime openings truly are magical, aren’t they? The excite us, inspire us, and stay in our memories for years. Just this season, the OP for SPY×FAMILY, where it begins looking like a hyper-stylized spy thriller, but then quickly devolves into children’s artwork perfectly encapsulated the charm of the series; the OP for Summertime Render was so slick and atmospheric; and Paripi Koumei’s OP was a brilliant modern classic for obvious reasons, but the two runner-ups have to be Shikimori-san and Love After World Domination. They were both absolutely stellar, and Shikimori’s was so delightful, it almost successfully gaslighted me into thinking I was actually watching ... a good anime.

They say 70-93% of human communication is non-verbal, and I stand by these findings completely. This show has one of those OPs where, whether the show delivers on its promise or not, it at least suggests a level of personality and energy which I personally find so endearing and infectious. Like, even if the show has no personality (which, spoiler, it doesn’t), then the expressiveness and artfulness displayed throughout the OP can successfully brainwash me into thinking it does. It feels like a mixture of the Engaged to the Unidentified OP and the After the Rain OP, and no matter how shitty of a day I was having, no matter how fucking miserable I felt, it always made me smile.

The problem with all of this, of course, is that after the OP ends, the show starts, and it’s not great. The OP would make me think, “Oh, gosh! These two are so CUTE! Everyone looks so happy and expressive, the animation is astoundingly beautiful, and the artistry the director used to illustrate the trials and tribulations and the clumsy, invigorating course of their budding love is all just so invigorating! I just can’t wait to see this show with these characters and this artwork and this direction and—oh the show is boring as fuck………okay…great.” Generic, bland, banal, whatever word you wanna use, anything works. It’s just a boilerplate teen romcom with gimmicks that get old instantly.

There are definitely some things to like about this show. It’s a Doga Kobo project, so no matter how bland the art direction and character designs are, and no matter the fact this is clearly one of their lower effort productions, nothing ever looks unacceptably bad. The main couple are in a relationship at the start of the show, so you don’t have to deal with the usual melodrama involved with getting together, which itself is assuming you’re lucky enough to be watching one of the very few anime where the two main love interests actually at some point do fucking get to together. However, other than those few concessions, the entire show has very little in the way of redeeming qualities.

The gimmick is that Shikimori isn’t just a cutie. She’s also the female equivalent to the domineering ikemen in shoujo manga, and she endearingly protects her effeminate twink boyfriend, Izumi, all the same. I found it cute enough for a while, but my breaking point was already reached by episode five. Each stock friend character is just standing around doing their ONE thing, saying their ONE line in their ONE tone. Contrary to the bustling, energetic opening, the show itself has lifelessness leaking out of every orifice, including its fucking voice actors. As far as other, more recent waifu-bait shows go, Shikimori is comparable in quality to My Dress-Up Darling, an anime which I gave a 4/10.

…clearly should’ve put some more thought into that one.

Thank you for reading.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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