My Love Story!! – Never Give Up

Production

I usually like MADHOUSE productions and this was no exception. Not that anything really stood out to me. It’s a pretty well-made anime that looks like a pretty well-made anime. I would say that the most interesting thing about the visuals is Takeo’s character design simply because we rarely see that particular body type for leading characters, especially in a shoujo. But that’s more a virtue of the plot than of the production.

I should point out that the voice acting is very charming. I’ve liked Takuya Eguchi for some time now. I think he has a very impressive range. And he captured both Takeo’s innocence, his charming dorkiness and his nobility quite well. There is a lot of inner monologue in this series and through it, Eguchi managed to utterly convince me that Takeo was a good friend who deeply cared about others around him and that he really loves his girlfriend. Like a lot. Honestly, I don’t know that My Love Story would have held together without that.

Story & Characters

Ore Monogatari is a show that relies entirely on the strength of its characters. The events are not really that important, it’s all about the people. Also, it’s the type of love story I like a lot. Let me explain.

In essence, the two romantic leads meet in the first episode when Takeo saves Yamoto from a groper on the train. They both have a crush on the other but don’t realize it. There’s a little will they won’t they for…3 episodes. That’s it. In episode 3, Suna who clearly sees what’s going on decides to help his friend out and they confess their feelings to each other and start dating. They then proceed to have a happy, respectful relationship for the other 21 episodes. No breakups, no crazy misunderstandings that leave them in tears, whenever someone else tries to interfere with their relationship they discuss it honestly and openly and resolve the issue without conflict.

Yup, that’s the romantic content I’m here for! I honestly really liked it. It was so sweet. And it reminded me of what can be so attractive about a nice romance. When it’s written in an optimistic and sincere way, it really is a celebration of love and that’s heartwarming. To me, at least.

Beyond that, there are in fact two love stories in My Love Story!! Talk about an amazing deal! Of course, there’s Takeo and Yamoto who we follow as they proceed to have a relationship so sweet it would give any reasonable person diabetes. I loved it! But there’s also the deep and eternal bromance between Takeo and Sunakawa that’s treated as just as important and meaningful to Takeo as his budding romance. Sure, those feelings may be platonic but there’s no doubt these two love each other and that was great to see.

Since fiction is such a streamlined and simplified version of life, we often see characters only have room for a single relationship for some reason. And if there are more, either one takes a backseat and doesn’t really get any screentime or it creates pressure for the other. Not here though. Apparently, you can have friends and a girlfriend and everything’s fine. Generally, if you choose to be with someone you have a lot in common with your friends will like them and if they have a lot in common with you, your partner will like them. Funny how that works. And that’s precisely what happens in My Love Story. Suna and Yamoto get along really well. They are friends in their own right even if they are not that close yet.

I find that too many romances focus on the romance itself to the exclusion of all else. And I do understand that there’s an element of time. Not all series are going to have enough episodes to develop much more than their main romance. But then again, My Love Story did it in 24 episodes, mostly by not putting any time on melodrama or contrived obstacles. I encourage more romances to follow that route!

So in case I haven’t made it clear, I really liked Ore Monogatari. It made me smile a lot. Although there is a definite connection between episodes and you should watch them in the proper order, the structure is still more or less slice of life which makes this an easy anime to just pick up once in a while, when you’re in the mood for lurve!

You might like this anime if:

You enjoy happy love stories!

I save all my screencaps on my Pinterest and you can find more there if you are interested. But I still like to show you a few in the post. If you’re like me, screencaps are something that really helps you decide to watch an anime or not.