Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun
Series Length: 13 Episodes
Genre, as Perceived by Dogy: Slice of Life, Comedy, Romance,
Dogy's Score: 75/100
Would I Recommend it: -thinks- ... sure
Who Would I Recommend it to?: Anybody looking for a romance series, though I don't think I'd recommend it to a real romance head.
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Tonari was one of the two super oddballs for me to watch this season as it's a romance anime. Moreso that it's NOT an action and not really much of a comedy. Needless to say, this one was kinda awkward to watch, but actually pretty enjoyable.
For all intents and purposes, the story is about two socially challenged geniuses, though I like to call them both idiots to make things easier. Just like anything about this implies, they fall in love. Obviously it wouldn't be that simple or it'd be an OVA, but that's the main part of what happens.
Being unbiased about this series, I do have to say I enjoyed it. I wasn't really sure what I was getting into by watching something of this nature, but I wasn't bored out of my mind. Even though there isn't a really thick plot, enough happens that it's easy to forget that all that's happening is "some kids are being kids." Everything is fairly lighthearted, so it's not like you get bored or sucked down by some "I'll die for you" stuff and everything. To a person uneducated on the subject, it seems that Tonari ultimately adds up to an "above average, but not amazing" entry in it's class.
There were a few things I kind of questioned, though. But I don't really fault the series for it because I -think- it'd happen in most animes of this type, especially if they were only 13 eps.
First off, almost every side character doesn't have a real role aside from being the 2 main characters' friends. That sentence alone sounds like ".... um... what's wrong with that Dogy?", but the writers add in a bunch of side stories that really don't add up to anything by the end of the series. If there's more (which.. I think there's going to be?) then there's obvious room to go with it. But for the time being, it just seems like a lot of time was wasted trying to develop a supporting cast that wasn't horribly important.
The other big thing that kinda rubbed me wrong is the lack of conclusion to the whole thing.... Well, I guess I can't specifically say a lack of conclusion, maybe just a lack of clarity. (It's possibly something that's a norm to this series, and I'm just not used to it). However, I figured that the series would pretty much when reach the climax of plot when both main characters were on the same page... yeah that... um... uh... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I dunno. You could say it happened for a moment, you could say it didn't (I think). But either way, what it adds up to in the end is fairly large "well... are they kool with each other?" kind of scenario. Again, I can't fault it if there's supposed to be more, and it seems like there should be. It just felt really awkward to believe that's the end of a series.
___
In conclusion, I think the series is ok for what it's supposed to be. I enjoyed it, but I shouldn't be used for any real judge for a slice-of-life, romance series. Stuff happened and I was entertained, but I feel like there wasn't too much of a point. A lot of stuff can easily be lost in the fluff that went down. Regardless, if there is more to it, I'm more-than-willing to give it a shot just to put a conclusion on this.
Until then.
Series Length: 13 Episodes
Genre, as Perceived by Dogy: Slice of Life, Comedy, Romance,
Dogy's Score: 75/100
Would I Recommend it: -thinks- ... sure
Who Would I Recommend it to?: Anybody looking for a romance series, though I don't think I'd recommend it to a real romance head.
___
Tonari was one of the two super oddballs for me to watch this season as it's a romance anime. Moreso that it's NOT an action and not really much of a comedy. Needless to say, this one was kinda awkward to watch, but actually pretty enjoyable.
For all intents and purposes, the story is about two socially challenged geniuses, though I like to call them both idiots to make things easier. Just like anything about this implies, they fall in love. Obviously it wouldn't be that simple or it'd be an OVA, but that's the main part of what happens.
Being unbiased about this series, I do have to say I enjoyed it. I wasn't really sure what I was getting into by watching something of this nature, but I wasn't bored out of my mind. Even though there isn't a really thick plot, enough happens that it's easy to forget that all that's happening is "some kids are being kids." Everything is fairly lighthearted, so it's not like you get bored or sucked down by some "I'll die for you" stuff and everything. To a person uneducated on the subject, it seems that Tonari ultimately adds up to an "above average, but not amazing" entry in it's class.
There were a few things I kind of questioned, though. But I don't really fault the series for it because I -think- it'd happen in most animes of this type, especially if they were only 13 eps.
First off, almost every side character doesn't have a real role aside from being the 2 main characters' friends. That sentence alone sounds like ".... um... what's wrong with that Dogy?", but the writers add in a bunch of side stories that really don't add up to anything by the end of the series. If there's more (which.. I think there's going to be?) then there's obvious room to go with it. But for the time being, it just seems like a lot of time was wasted trying to develop a supporting cast that wasn't horribly important.
The other big thing that kinda rubbed me wrong is the lack of conclusion to the whole thing.... Well, I guess I can't specifically say a lack of conclusion, maybe just a lack of clarity. (It's possibly something that's a norm to this series, and I'm just not used to it). However, I figured that the series would pretty much when reach the climax of plot when both main characters were on the same page... yeah that... um... uh... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I dunno. You could say it happened for a moment, you could say it didn't (I think). But either way, what it adds up to in the end is fairly large "well... are they kool with each other?" kind of scenario. Again, I can't fault it if there's supposed to be more, and it seems like there should be. It just felt really awkward to believe that's the end of a series.
___
In conclusion, I think the series is ok for what it's supposed to be. I enjoyed it, but I shouldn't be used for any real judge for a slice-of-life, romance series. Stuff happened and I was entertained, but I feel like there wasn't too much of a point. A lot of stuff can easily be lost in the fluff that went down. Regardless, if there is more to it, I'm more-than-willing to give it a shot just to put a conclusion on this.
Until then.
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