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Apr 12, 2023
This is a show about "limerence," something that gets misunderstood as love or infatuation, but it's neither of those things. Limerence is characterized by intense feelings of obsession, usually about a person you don't even know all that well. Even more, it's admiration gone wild due to you wanting something they have, or because they are someone you want to be yourself. You end up thinking you love them, as a result.
That's Akira’s situation, the protagonist, in a nutshell. She's very limerent on her boss, a middle-aged man who has nothing going for him, while she is a second-year high school student who formerly ran
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track better than anyone until she was sidelined by a serious injury. She sees something in him that no one else sees. But, that's the funny thing about limerence. What we're really doing is coveting something our limerent object has or is because we feel the lack of that same thing in our own lives. It's about that lacking thing more than it is about the person.
Spoilers: the show never once touches on why Akira is so drawn to her boss, Kondo. If a 17-year-old girl were in love with a middle-aged man old enough to be her father, I'd immediately assume she sees him as a father for her. And that's what I think regarding Akira. We never see or hear about her actual father in the show at all. He's missing entirely from her life. She lives alone with her mother and we see her a few times, but it's like her father doesn't exist. The only clue we get about him is from Haruka, Akira's oldest childhood friend who constantly mourns her quitting the track team. In one scene, Haruka sees Akira with Kondo from a distance and notes that when she first glimpses him, he is not her father, as if he even resembles him a bit. So, we know her father is alive and probably looks somewhat like Kondo.
When Kondo has to take a day off of work due to coming down with the flu, Akira gets so triggered, she gets “abandonment mélange,” something traumatized adults who suffered neglect as children will get. She even goes over to his apartment while he’s sick because she’s so afraid he’s rejecting her, as she assumes she’s not good enough to have her love returned by him. All of this points to her father probably abandoning her for reasons she doesn’t even understand, but she likely has assigned the reason for it as being her lack of worthiness.
Kondo himself appears to be limerent about her in return, but he seems to understand his feelings about her better than she does her feelings about him. He comprehends that he admires her for being young, talented, and having her whole life ahead of her, unlike him, who has to live with far too many regrets at this stage in his life. Because he is a thinking man, one who is intelligent and willing to comprehend the deeper meanings of things, he doesn’t jump at the chance to hook up with a beautiful high school girl who keeps throwing herself at him. He is a man and he is attracted to her because she’s wickedly beautiful, but he never allows himself to see her as more than a neat young lady way out of his league—someone to admire almost from a distance, as is appropriate.
By the end, the two of them come to realize they are both hiding in their lives, trying to be small because they have both been traumatized by life. Kondo is traumatized by his divorce from his son’s mother because he neglected her too much and she left him. He gave up his writing because his obsession with it hurt her. Akira was traumatized by her sprinting injury and would rather not rehabilitate it, especially after she meets Kondo, who makes her want to fill the void sprinting left in her life with a kind father figure who accepts her, something very much missing from her life.
Kondo decides to try to improve himself in life a little bit and return to his writing. When young, he had dreams of making it as a published author and he slowly returns to that old dream. We don’t get a firm confirmation that Akira is returning to the track team, but it is implied that she’s considering it. It’s her old childhood dream and she is a natural talent as a sprinter.
People say this anime is just a different kind of love story, but it’s really not a love story, at all. It’s a limerence story about two people limerent about each other who shouldn’t be, which is interesting since that doesn’t happen often in real life. It’s about WHY these two are limerent about one another, which makes it truly brilliant. The story doesn’t leave it at “love,” or “infatuation” between two ill-fitting people, but comprehends that what the two people are actually feeling is that which is missing from their own respective lives, and we see them both recognize that fact and begin to reach for those missing things. It’s quite thought-provoking.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jan 17, 2017
I had never seen an anime centered around music and musicians before, so I wanted to see one that seemed to be popular here on MAL. Unfortunately, I won't be able to compare it to any of the others out there, so my review is just about how I feel about this story as a story, in general.
I'm no musician myself so I have no idea how realistically competitive the musical world is, but I felt this was really well portrayed in this anime. I felt bad for all these kids for pressuring themselves so much to be such incredible musicians already. It's probably how
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it is in real life. There's always going to be that one kid whom all the others try to beat and that's our protagonist, Kousei.
I do relate to Kousei's struggles with playing the piano and not being able to "hear" the notes he's playing. I struggle with a ton of anxiety as a writer of fiction. The struggle is real and definitely enough to sideline me, too. Also, why he suffers in this way is so well portrayed, too. I have to give this anime a lot of credit for humanizing Kousei so well and developing his traumatic childhood that is the source of his anxiety problems.
I suppose the real area I struggle with (I give this anime only an "8," after all) is with Kaori. She's a bit too much of a trope-fest for me. The literal "manic pixie girl" meant only to help uplift and heal the total downer of a protagonist--that being Kousei. Because of this, I feel she is quite underdeveloped as a character. In fact, we never find out what [minor spoiler] her health problem actually is. Why don't we get this information? Because she only exists for Kousei to feel certain things and overcome his own malfunctioning brain.
While I think Kaori is a nice character and all, she should have been an independent being with more than just typical concerned parents. And, what we discover in the end about the real reason why she and Kousei became friends lends itself hugely to my argument that she literally exists for Kousei's own growth and development.
This leads me to what does sort of bother me about Kousei. I like this kid, I really do. But, he's a bit too much of a Gary Stu--the male version of a Mary Sue. He's the most important character to not only himself (sometimes not even to himself at all), but is the most important character to literally EVERYONE else in the story. What, is he Japan's Emperor now?
In this story, this phenomenon keeps getting worse and worse to the point where I can't figure out why everyone feels this very skinny, shy, super super quiet kid is so damn special. Even in his world of concert pianists! It's very strange. I get that they see him as some sort of legend, but why? He literally only plays the music as it is written with NO emotion whatsoever until this point in his musical journey, and most of his legendary status is based on his past, not the present. I don't see how anyone playing like a robot makes one so special when it's emotions that makes music matter to human beings.
I wanted to really love this anime, but it fell short of impressing me enough. It has tremendous potential, but it made too many foreshadowings that ruined any surprise events that ended up happening, which would have been more impactful had they not been telegraphed so obviously and so often. The ending fell flat because I knew exactly what was going to happen. By that time, I just didn't care all that much. I had been prepared since, like, Episode 2, or something, and so many more times along the way.
The music is the best part of this story and that seems appropriate. It's so well done. Bravo. This story just tries to have meaning, but falls a bit shy because none of the characters are as well-rounded and realistic as they need to be to create that impact. They are too cliche for the most part, besides Kousei. Kousei could have benefited from a few great friends who came off like real people, I think. No man is an island and this show is supposed to be all about friendship.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Dec 22, 2015
This anime is so simple, yet so compelling. It's about as stripped-down in terms of world building and characters as you can get without going too far. At least what you do get is exactly what the storyteller wants you to receive, which is a lot of funny and cool stuff.
I don't feel like the story in One Punch-Man is necessarily amazing, but it works for what the message is meant to portray: Saitama, the protagonist, is so powerful, his superheroing is boring. He somehow got so overpowered, the joy of the fight, the struggle to survive and the "kill-or-be-killed" is utterly erased from his
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life. Try to find a story about this sort of character elsewhere and you probably won't find it. Thus, we have a very original, unblemished premise.
This premise is born out of the cliched tropes used over and over again in your typical superhero storytelling in order to turn it on its head. Most of what happens is the opposite of what usually happens in a typical hero's journey.
Usually, the hero is young, especially in anime/manga, and he starts out weak, but grows stronger and stronger as the story progresses through loads of training. He's usually not the most powerful character in his story world. His antagonist usually is. But, Saitama is 25-years-old and just IS the most powerful right from the beginning; there is nary an antagonist who can withstand being punched by him more than one time.
With a story premise like this, where do you go from there? It might seem like it would dead-end, but that's why this anime is so great. It actually goes into that territory to reveal that it doesn't have to be a dead-end, after all. We find that our hero is not the picture of perfection, thus we can have conflict, after all. He is very strong, but not a perfect human being. He's a good guy, but he has no job and he's not the smartest guy out there, nor is he the most handsome. Hardly. He even has a totally bald head, which is about as opposite the typical anime/manga hero as it gets, with their usually trademark crazy green/blue spiky weird hairstyles.
On top of that, his sidekick disciple, Genos, is younger, better-looking and cooler than he is! (Well, Genos is a cyborg, so....) Genos is so much more the hero-in-progress than Saitama, but he is the support role in the story, not the main character. Again, a typical trope turned upside-down. He is also one of the few characters that recognizes Saitama as the over-powered being that he is.
Which leads me to the next interesting aspect of this story: Saitama, while being ridiculously strong and regularly saves people and the world from destruction, never really gets the recognition or praise he is due by other people. In fact, he is barely known by anyone and is even sometimes despised by others because he allows other heroes in the Registry to take credit for his accomplishments. (Talk about a humble guy.) And, because of this, he is often shown sporting some jealousy of Genos when he is opening up the packages of fan mail he regularly receives, full of gushing praise for how "kakkouii" he is. All Saitama gets is a thank you note from another hero in the Registry, if not some hate-mail.
In this world, there are hundreds of Registered "heroes" and they are all ranked according to video game standards, "S" being the highest, while "C" seems to be the lowest rank. A "C"-ranked hero is basically a regular human being who is just brave enough to intervene in stopping purse-snatchers and muggers as they are in the act of committing their crimes. There are hundreds of these guys, and we see how cut-throat it is being in the Registry.
Mumen (Licenceless) Rider, who is just a guy on a bicycle, stands as the Everyman. He is brave, but powerless, and will fight against his own anger at himself while trying to defeat a monster beyond his scope. You realize you relate to him the most because he is a metaphor for every human being whoever tried to live their life in this rat-race of a world we live in. It is merciless and we are powerless to control what happens, and to even do anything about it. Those few who are capable rise to the top (like the higher-ranked heroes with real superhuman abilities), whether they deserve it or not, and they usually do not. Neither do the higher-ranked heroes, as they are self-centered egomaniacs only concerned with how popular they are, just like real people who do well in life often are.
I see a lot of Gintama in this anime. Gintama fans should totally dig this, but where Gintama parodies specific animes/mangas and Japanese culture, One Punch-Man parodies this one section of anime/manga/comics tropes, which results in a masterful parody of modern life itself. Check this out for the laughs, the turned-on-their-heads tropes and the fantastic characters who grow on you very quickly.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Dec 9, 2015
Shirayuki, why are you so special and so loved by everyone you meet? This is the question I cannot help but ask with each episode I watch of this anime. The specialness of this very bland, boring, ordinary girl with a supposedly unusual hair color just goes way too far. If I'm not feeling it, then why are all of these idiots in her world?
Those who claim this anime sidesteps the usual shoujo anime tropes couldn't be more wrong. It falls awkwardly and unawares into most of them and sloshes around in the ditch water like a pig wallowing in its own filth. We have
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a very cliched protagonist, Shirayuki, who is the Mary Sue of anime.
First, she has a very unusual name in any culture, "Snow White." If that doesn't scream "Mary Sue," then I don't know what does. Second, she has a rare hair color for NO story reason in order to force her to be considered special by the other characters, but it doesn't convince the viewer who is not impressed with this unrealistic display. Third, she is so special, the prince of her own kingdom wants to make her his concubine, but she decides to flee the country instead, only to run into none-other than the SECOND prince of the neighboring country. A coincidence for you, and one coincidence for YOU---coincidences for everybody!
But, wasn't Shirayuki escaping a horrible life when she ran away from home? That's why she ran, right? Well, no. In fact, she was very well loved by everybody in her own kingdom and she literally threw it all away simply because Prince Raj got horny and decided he wanted to pamper her like a wife without actually marrying her. I'm not saying this is okay, but there are worse fates out there.
So, now she's in the kingdom next door as the very special friend of Prince Zen, a young second prince she meets immediately upon leaving her own kingdom. Because she had already worked as an apothecary, she took naturally to this whole herbs business and easily passed the test to become the palace's apprentice herbalist. Well, nothing's hard for this girl, other than being so beautiful and revered. Life is hard, indeed.
And, that's just the problem. There really is nothing about Shirayuki's life that is a problem. She was happy before and she is happy now. She was pretty before and she is still pretty. She was hardworking before and she is hardworking now. She stood up for herself before, and she does it now, too. What is the point of even watching this anime when the story is nonexistent and she has so little conflict in her life?
It comes off like a wish fulfillment fantasy that gets so carried away with making the protagonist's life perfect, it's BORING AS HELL. There is no character development whether in Shirayuki, Zen, or anyone. You cannot have meaningful anything or anyone if you have nothing at stake. There is nothing at stake here, and it is a story about a really fortunate girl, with perhaps a bit too much fortune, finding a very fortunate love match. Perhaps this would be more interesting if there was some struggle and some real growth in Shirayuki and Zen, but it doesn't exist.
Watching this can be a way to pass the time if you're bored, but I found myself becoming bored while watching this. If a story about everyone getting along with everyone else and only having to deal with minor misunderstandings sounds like a blast to you, then dig in. I ain't got no time for this lightweight storytelling crap.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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