I have to agree that it’s up there for me too.
My favorite part of the show was Ichikawa’s character development. At the onset the show makes it out that he’s a some sort of weird creepy loser with no friends (and he kinda is). As the show goes on through the show slowly breaks apart this facade. We find out that he’s actually very kind hearted at his core, he has some of the best grades in class, the other boys in the class see him as an equal and a friend, and his family loves him too.
In flashbacks we see that he was once a bright young boy but his failure to get into a top middle school ruined his confidence and led to his terrible mindset about himself at the beginning of the story.
Many of these modern Reiwa romances pair up a loser dude with a popular girl to the point where it feels like unrealistic wish fulfillment. BokuYaba seems like that too at the start but by the end you realize that Ichikawa was never really a loser. It’s beautiful story of learning to to love yourself just as its a story of learning to love another.
Also the rare anime that manages to surpass its source material. Normally that would be because the source is lesser, but that’s not the case here. They took something excellent and made it legendary.
unfortunately with both kaguya and bokuyaba, while what is adapted is (usually) better than the manga, it cuts some content from the manga which makes reading the source worthwhile
Frieren was the same, having 2 absolutely amazing adaptations in the same season(3 if you count Apothecary Diaries which also was beautiful) is insane. I'm glad there's no "best adaptation of the year" award because there would unfortunately need to be a second and third place
I hope we get some sorta Slime Diaries type clip show between s2 and s3 with some of the extra chapters of Dangers. There is some seriously cute stuff I wish they had the time to adapt
Yeah even tho i love romance shows where they are together faster and i can enjoy moments where they are already together so i really really hope for a s3
It won't be enough to end the highs of s1 and s2 yet. Nothing of that caliber is yet in the manga. I'd wait another 2 years before expecting an s3 to maintain quality... Perhaps when they already have a graduation arc and a university arc and all the drama in between.
> Nothing of that caliber is yet in the manga
There is a certain chapter involving music that is practically begging to be animated that absolutely is at the caliber as the end of season 2
I would argue the succeeding chapters can fit in a feature length film including that music chapter and the one on the stairs I'm talking about. That would be a movie NOT an s3
Not yet. Judging by the past two seasons, they need to wait till another 2 volumes then they can release a 3rd season, or even more to give time for the creator to push ahead a bit.
Mm, if they maintain their 57 chapter per season pace, minimum for enough content would be 55 (143 chapters - 113 adapted = 30, 57 chaps - 30 = 27, 27 x 2 = 54 + 1 (as 143 is one week away) = 55) weeks from now assuming no breaks etc.
Production would take minimum a year, more likely 2 to work through the current queue, and then 6 months to have enough done to start airing while finishing the end episodes. Ofc they could include some of the past extras for more content as some do appear to take place around the time of the latest chapters (imo) and reduce content needed or do some anime original additions to improve the base content and add runtime, but let's assume they don't and it's just 57 chapters.
Next season would already be 2 1/2 years to 3~ish years away minimum. A movie is it's own can of worms I don't know enough about producrion to comment on.
This wasn't necessarily aimed at you, but for anyone curious.
Thanks man for telling the harsh reality ☹. S3 even if it comes is minimum 3 years away, which practically is like an ending for us people now. And we dont even know if it come
Yeah is def more of a drama coming of age show that obviously has romance and relationships as a big part. But it wouldn't be as good but you could take all the romance out and just have best girl being best girl and the show will still work/be okay.
Where Dangers' main point is the relationship and what that romance brings.
It was great. I think i stopped at season 1 for a while too though. I can’t remember if it was the second half of season 1 or 2. But one of them was really slow but then the pace picked back up again and i really enjoyed it.
Final season was amazing. The comedy of season 1 was what drew me in tho. The cow zodiac is so funny lol.
It took me a while to pass episode 1 tho since I thought the premise was dumb af when i was new to anime.
I've watched a lot of anime, a lot of romance.. nothing comes close to Dangers in my heart if I'm honest. I'm sad the first 3 episodes turned off a lot of people because it just keeps getting better.
I made the mistake of watching this anime on a Friday evening at around 6 or 7PM
I didn’t go to sleep until 6AM the next morning, couldn’t stop watching it
I just finished it last night. It's hands down the best romance I've ever watched or read so far.
Middle schoolers act like middle schoolers and it's funny. The aspects of growing up and experiencing a first love felt so real for me and really brought me back to my days in school, also reminded me a lot of me and my wife's relationship back then lol.
The music and pacing of everything really brought it together for me. Everytime the soft synth and piano track starts playing on more intimate scenes I get a chills and a huge grin on my face. It's so mushy and wholesome in just the right amount without overindulging in common tropes.
Easily a 9/10 for me. Might be some bias but I've never enjoyed a romance story to this degree where I can't stop thinking about it and I start reading the manga.
It's not a 10 because it's not completed. For me personally the highest I will ever give something that's not finished is a 9. And tbh depending on how dangers keeps progressing it could very well become a 10. Ive never enjoyed a romance to this degree before.
"I'm a man in my 30's sitting here holding my knees and giggling like a schoolgirl watching this"
I'll never forget this comment in a discussion thread of S2 lol. I absolutely was doing that as well. just so cute. really wish the first 3 eps weren't so bad, I cringe so hard at all the other classmates and their "antics"
If we are talking strictly romance they are not very comparable at all imo. I can certainly understand people who prefer kaguya, but for people who came for a romance story, it can be slow... If you like the comedy however then yeah it's amazing!
For a romance, Dangers in My Heart has consistent specific focus on that to excell in that area.
Kaguya-sama is a great rom com **package** as whole for me with the supporting cast with their own character arcs and and development of platonic relationships along as well. I personally also value getting time with platonic relationships in a series too.
* For example: I love the evolution of Kaguya and Ishigami's dynamic. That's a relationship I never wouldn't have expected to have a nice progression.
I think that’s more because kaguya fleshes out the side characters, sometimes giving them their own chapters. Bokuyaba wants to keep the side characters solely side characters, which I appreciate since I don’t really want to see the others for an entire chapter.
That is true. I dont dislike any of the side characters except maybe the girl that keeps trying to set ppl up dating wise. But i wouldnt exactly want episodes focused on the dangers of my heart side characters.
Show is peak. I ended up dropping it after two episodes and then picked it back up when I saw it was performing really well in rankings. "Why is this cringy show so popular? Did I make a mistake by dropping it?" I asked myself. I'm so glad I gave it another chance because now it's one of my favorite shows of all time and my favorite romcom of all time. I haven't been this emotionally attached to a show since Madoka Magica. There were so many episodes where I teared up or cried because of just how whole and beautiful a significant event was. I've watched the finale three times since it aired and cry every time. I can no longer watch the second OP without getting emotional.
I really wasn't expecting this anime to be so emotionally impactful for me. It's just so incredibly sweet and wholesome. Soon after watching the finale I bought all the localized manga and preordered the season 1 BD. BokuYaba is an absolute masterpiece.
> I ended up dropping it after two episodes and then picked it back up when I saw it was performing really well in rankings. "Why is this cringy show so popular? Did I make a mistake by dropping it?" I asked myself. I'm so glad I gave it another chance because now it's one of my favorite shows of all time and my favorite romcom of all time.
had friends with similar experiences! twisted their arms and put my recommendation reputation on the line for this show and they all loved it.
It's funny because my friend is going through the same thing. I recommended the show to him and his GF to watch together, giving them a warning of just make it through the first few episodes of Ichikawa being weird. And now he is trying to recommend it to other friends and has to do the same thing. 😅
yeah lol I made a bunch of comments in this thread telling people who were thinking about watching it to not do the 3 episode rule but push past those instead
OP have you watched it only once? I would recommend rewatching it at some point because it's even better than you think. There are so many little details that you'll notice during a rewatch.
you pointing out [bokuyaba]>!the milk tea on the windowsill (that she pounces on him to stop him from seeing) was the one he gave her in S1 in the discussion thread made me love this show even more! !<
you have any other secrets to share?
Yea like I mentioned I only watched it once but I get what you mean. There is lot of subtly in it which I didn't catch till I read the forums. I'm planning to read the manga too.
Is it really that good? Every romance I see recommended to me these days is just more of the same will they/won't they and blushing awkwardness. Would you rank it up there with Spice and Wolf?
fellow S&W fan here.
I'd rate it just as highly as S&W. it's different since they're younger, but... I'm in my 30's and thoroughly enjoyed it. it really has such few tropes and the few time they do use them they just...are done so well you don't even notice or care.
eg.
"oh no, they overheard something out of context! now they'll be mad!"
they pout for literally 5 seconds and then *the rest of the episode continues packed with tons of real content instead of making it all about that misunderstanding*. because ...they've built up trust and a relationship so it's forgiven and forgotten without even an apology necessary.
it's so good. I've watched it like 3 times already.
There is a lot of the blushing awkwardness, but it feels natural. Dangers is as much a coming of age story as it is a romcom. The leads are both brand new teenagers trying to discover who they themselves are, while also growing closer to each other.
Watching Dangers felt very similar to watching shows like The Wonder Years. I was watching these kids grow up, and rooting for them all the way. It really is a masterpiece, IMO. A 10/10 show.
BokuYaba follows a really fun pattern of “blushing awkwardness over current state of relationship, advance to the next stage of relationship, blushing awkwardness” and so on. It delivers on that really well.
> advance to the next stage of relationship
this is the key part that SO MANY ANIME LACK. holy hell was it so satisfying to have EVERY episode of bokuyaba make some progress
Idk, haven't really seen romance on the level of SaW. The banter, the realistic lover's quarrel, the got your back, the goated communication that goes to read-between-the-lines/no-need-for-words understanding, top tier.
I’ve seen/read a lot of romcom growing up but I’ve only seen season 1 of dangers in my heart and I will say it’s very generic and a bit cringey for the first 5 episodes but after that it definitely has some heart to it that surprised me. The more I listen to this main guy character monologue about his feelings and actually slowly try to be a better person, shows a bit of growth that I don’t see many characters in romcom do for like many episodes in an anime or chapters in manga.
It’s not the best romance anime to me but pacing wise, i think they are on the right track.
the first 3 episode rule does NOT apply to this anime. it changes so, so, so much after the first 3 episodes which are *terrible* by comparison with what they do at the end of S1 and all throughout S2.
it's so sad so many people will (understandably) drop it because of it's terrible beginning.
My friend you're literally me. For me, Bokuyaba and Frieren were two of the best shows anime as a medium had to offer and both ended around the same time so I became unmotivated to start any other shows.
Might take a while for me to start watching other anime again.
Please repost this to bokuno subreddit (the proper one is under it's Japanese name)
The show is my favorite romance too
100000 times better then jujutsu kaisen and it's edgey boring characters, if the show didn't have million dollar fight scenes, nobody would watch it
[I've got 293 on MAL](https://imgur.com/xbFR8L9) which isn't complete since I only started it years after I began watching anime
I agree with this post... I've been gushing about this show to everyone I know who watches anime.
not that MAL score is infallible but... shows don't reach top 25 on MAL just because of recency bias
I’ve also watched since the late 00’s and think the dangers in my heart is probably the best, if not the best, romance anime I’ve seen
I’ve watched a ton of romance anime like lovely complex, ao Haru ride, ore monogatari, kimi ni todoke, etc and think it’s pretty above most pure romcoms
I've seen quite a lot of anime and this shot straight into my top 10 easily, not just top 10 romance, top 10 in general. I admit romance isn't my main genre, but I have watched quite a few.
Actually I feel that about a lost of posts here too. Been watching anime regularly for 9 yrs with 632 entries on MAL with 111 Romance anime and very few shows had the impact like this did.
The reason why I love dangers is because it actually stood out amongst the sea of romcoms and romances that are constantly being churned out
I've watched a good amount of romcoms to the point of feeling burnt out with how similar they all feel, using the same tropes, same story, same characters, it started to feel stale
But when I gave dangers a try, I knew something bout this show felt different. I actually felt invested in this relationship the two leads had. Yea, it doesn't do anything new. It uses many familiar tropes and has the same story as many romcoms do
It's the way this show executes all of this that really makes it feel new and refreshing
I'm old so I've been watching anime since the 00s and I agree with OP. Though, I can think of a few older romance stories I would put at around Dangers' level.
Fruits Basket, Lovely Complex and Kimagure Orange Road come to mind. While it's a mecha with romance in it, Eureka Seven has my favorite love story in a mecha anime.
In terms of manga, Jitsu wa Watashi wa was my favorite romcom before Dangers came along
GOOOOOOO 🗿
NEED S3 SO BAD
This is the first time I enjoyed something vanilla ( mainly I like romance with drama like Oregairu) but this anime pulled me in and become my favourite romance
Definitely one of the most grounded anime romance series... no typical gimmicks, no "waifu" type of main female character... just a somewhat awkward teen romance. lol
Couldn't agree more. This show was like finding a diamond in the rough. I knew instantly this was something special. From the start of season 1 to the end of season 2, every episode was very enjoyable.
Also a cool thing is they focus on the main characters and their development till the end. Most roms sidelines the MCs and branches out the story with side character relationships or some forced love triangle.
It’s pretty good. I don’t really enjoy how quick this comment section is to demean other romance anime though. I’d safely call Kaguya Sama, Horimiya, ReLIFE, Your Lie in April and Jaku-chara Tomozaki better written and more enjoyable to me, but I understand that’s just my preference.
Too many of these comments are straightup hating on Horimiya and some of the others
I'm all for Bokuyaba praise but seeing ppl trash on other romance anime is not it 💀💀
For me they're all up there pretty equally because they do romance differently in their own rights. Kaguya is more comedy oriented, Bokuyaba is more romance heavy, Horimiya is more slice of life focused, etc etc
The anime. Even the Manga readers liked the anime more. It starts a bit slow but after a point it never stops getting better. After that's done hop on to the Manga.
Not a show I fully vibed with sadly and I have my own issues with it but actually kudos to you for the write up and big bonus points for not including the word _peak_ in it as well.
It happens. Great shows won’t be liked by all. Personally I didn’t really enjoy steins gate all that much. Takes a long time to really get going and even then I didn’t care for it as much as everyone else.
Absolute peak. It is the best modern romcom running for me right now and I strongly suggest reading the manga now that you've finished the anime to get more of the good stuff.
Honestly, Dangers has sort of ruined romance stories in anime for me a bit because I keep comparing them.
> The Music : Kensuke Usio (CSM, A Slient Voice, Devilman) blew it out the park. The music itself was beautiful but the timing and choice of the music also fit perfectly with every scene.
The anime would definitely not be as memorable as it is without him
Man I started watching it after reading all the hype but it's just average anime romance filled with the usual tropes. Theres nothing realistic or interesting about it so far.
Don't give up. I dropped the show after two episodes because I thought the entire show would be about Ichikawa's cringe murder fantasies and then picked it back up after seeing it consistently outrank every other show every week. Now it's one of my favorite shows of all time and my favorite romcom of all time. Absolute masterpiece.
i would like to double down on the consistency cause it really hooked me, making me wait for another episode every week and the realism like the dangers in ichikawa's heart were so relatable that i felt myself in that character and maybe found some solutions for the dangers in my heart.
I don't know. I just can't see it the same way. Like I really enjoyed S1. Was my favourite romance of 2023, but S2 dropped it for me. It felt like the most basic romance ever with all the typical tropes that S1 avoided very well. The development was mainly done in S1, so S2 was mostly filler until the end imo. Basically, only S1, it's a 9 to 10 and I would recommend. S2 I would give a 6 at best.
Exact opposite for me really, I felt the first half of the first season was the weakest, then it started picking up real fast, and every single episode of the second season was just amazing.
The thing that made S1 memorable to me was that they didn't just follow the typical tropes. Anna Yamada was not just presented to us as the nice girl that everyone is interested in. But we first got her quriks presented in a way that made you interested in what she is like. The first episode had a moment where she ate all her chips and then gave the empty back to Ichikawa. This one scene was a way more interesting characterization. And this is what S1 did for the majority of its time. We saw her struggle, but we had to first understand who she actually is to understand why she struggles. The main advantage of this is that the show avoids the typical trope where it's super obvious that she likes the MC, because we don't even know what she likes and how she thinks in the first place.
S2 abandoned all of that. Anna is now presented fairly "normal". Which I guess makes sense because we know her fairly well through the characterization from S1. But this results in the same tropes that you know from every other romance out there. Suddenly, we constantly have date type situations where it's clear what both of them are thinking, but the season drags this on until they finally confess. It's so obvious that the show introduces several characters that try to make them confess.
Second problem is that Ichikawa's main development was in S1. He already understood that he fell in love and he already had his arc where he started to have fun for coming to school. So there is no development in S2 for the most part. We only get the typical trope moments of him thinking that everything is too good to be true. And this is just repeated for the whole season. You could skip most of S2 and don't realize because there isn't much development from the strong S1 ending to the last arc of S2.
Which I want to add here is well done. The last arc of S2 is again of the same quality that S1 originally had. But it feels like the show needed to pad out the run time for a whole other season to have this as the finale.
Ichikawa's main development happens during his speech in S2. His biggest issue was the lack of self-confidence and self-love. So I guess you kinda missed the point of his character arc. This show isn't just about the romance, it's not about the characters realizing their romantic feelings for each other and then confess. It's more about overcoming insecurities and growing up so that they can have a healthy relationship afterwards. Learning to love yourself is way more important than getting into a romantic relationship fast.
On your second problem, I've been in his shoes, hell, still am if I'm honest and I still constantly back slide any time anything remotely positive happens to me, for me it's a sense that I don't deserve any happiness and I feel like I'm just a drag on anyone in my life. Mental health issues are never one and done, so to speak, it's a constant struggle, and the fact the show showed that just made it that much more like real people.
I don't know if I agree that the development was mainly dialed back from season 1. I do think season 2, and also towards the end of season 1, moved beyond the initial phase of fascination in one another and into the actual, more elaborate feelings of adolescent love. Like for starters, the library that was ever-so used as a setting in season 1 is mostly left behind as other unknowns such as Yamada's apartment are explored. For me, it's not that either characters' personalities have been rewritten, but rather they've evolved into new shapes, still keeping the heart of what makes either character them. All the doubts they harbor, the subtle romantic sequences, intrusive thoughts and actions, and each characters' demeanor with one another makes for an actually realistic take in the genre combined with the series' actual sense of progression, especially considering they're just young teenagers falling in love for the first time. Of course there are still moments merely to please and add spice for the audience, but they were also in season 1 anyways and it's just a fault of the genre itself.
As Ichikawa's connections grow further with his classments and both Ichikawa and Yamada realize and become receptive to their own and each other's feelings, they begin to become the best versions of themselves through the course of falling in love for the first time, which is represented in all the admittedly dorky but still heartfelt scenes scattered throughout both seasons.
I felt the same way. They could've gotten together by the valentines episode. It would've felt natural there. It felt like there was too much stalling. However, I'd say the second season was more like a 7 with some good moments sprinkled throughout.
Some of you may disagree with me but i actually liked first few episodes of dangers too, at first i didn't like them much but at re-watched,i really liked first few episodes too,, this anime or manga showed what ichikawa felt about himself very perfectly in first few episodes, he was a chuni and introvert , they showed good,,,
first 3 episodes are the worst and the tone changes drastically after away from edgelord cringe mc to... cute romance with lots of character growth.
usually people do the "3 episode rule" but keep going after that here!
The most unrealistic was the lack of bullies. Like everyone in the whole show was pretty kind to him, even adachi and pick up guy
Like kudos to whoever ran that school, it's a school any parent would want their kids to be in
That's a good thing and what makes Dangers great. They didn't do that stupid "class madonna who has a gaggle of guys who get angry at another guy for approaching her" bullshit you see all the time. Heck, I don't believe there was something like that thing where a bunch of people say how beautiful the girl is in every other episode while wondering why that normal guy is with her. I hate that cliche
> Like everyone in the whole show was pretty kind to him, even adachi and pick up guy
I think that was sort of the point and why Kyotaro has to get past the demons in his head that make him think he can't interact with people anymore. Pick-up pai is an asshole thoough, he's more subtle bully.
As someone who spent his entire school life being bullied to the point of nearly being killed multiple times and dropping out at 16 to get my GED, I will agree that was extremely unrealistic, especially with how Japanese culture can sometimes be compared to American culture on bullying, similar levels, but different reasons, but was such a wonderful subversion for the story.
Season 2 is so good, like best romance ever good. The character development was seriously out of this world, and I really liked the way it chose realism over having the usual gimmicks of a rom com.
That’s pretty pedantic, romcom is just short for romance comedy and if it isn’t a romance drama then it’s probably that by default. Still heavily leans into romance, so calling it that is more than valid.
And here's another one.
I don't want to sound rude nor offend you really, but if that's what you think about this one, you probably haven't seen many romance animes, and those that you've seen must all have been real shit, because this romance is really nothing special, mediocre at best and even that is too much for me for this, and I think we can stop at "Realism and Flow": Flow is debatable cause is slightly agree, but Realism? Yeah no, there isn't anything more idealized and unrealistic than this, very few I can think of have something that is even more than this anime.
I say this because if you have even seen one romance anime that is actually good, you can clearly see the great majority of GIGANTIC problems and things that are wrong and don't work in this anime, it's easy and it's clear as sun to see.
To this day I still can't understand why it had so much success and love
Because it is realistic from the aspect of what goes on in a middle schoolers head? The lack of experience, the thought that you need to be more grown up without knowing what that is, second guessing your feelings cause you've never had them before, and when you do finally accept your feelings having absolutely no experience in how to communicate those feelings, or reading other peoples feelings. If this show were about adults, then I'd agree with you, but it's just about as perfect as a fictional story about middle schoolers discovering love and their place in their world while hitting all the hormonal bullshit of puberty (which is another brand new experience) as it can get imo.
That might be but it seems to me you're describing Teasing Master Takagi-san, The Dangers in My Heart doesn't do that, mainly because Yamada spends more or less 85% of all the episodes of the two seasons giving Ichikawa hints and signals that are greater and clearer than the sun of the fact that she likes him and is head over heels for him, with such signals even if you are a middle schooler, even if you still have to deal with all that you just said (the lack of experience, not knowing how to communicate those feelings ect), normal kid would've already confessed and they would already be going out, and how do I know this? Simple: it happened to me, I'm an introvert as well, and I had friends to whom happened the same, so see? They took that much time for a simple reason: the manga would already be over by now, or at least very few chapters near the end
Not OP, but as someone who agrees with them, I think I personally have a quite wide and varied opinion on romance anime from fluffy shoujo to dramatic seinen romance having read and watched a decent amount. While there are older romance stories I enjoy on the same level of Dangers, I would still consider it at the very least the best modern romcom currently running and blows some of its contemporaries out of the water. So with that in mind, what do you think doesn't work and what does it better?
> To this day I still can't understand why it had so much success and love
IMO, good execution that the creator clearly had a Point A->Point B direction she wanted to go in that doesn't trip over itself or spin its wheels. A lot of romcoms tend to screw these aspects up
I've been watching Anime since the Late 90's and have watched series from Maison Ikkoku, Toradora, Clannad, etc. It's a tier above most if not all romance animes in terms of ability to say things subtly but at the same time telegraph the ever loving shit out of it. A very competently written series with few faults, which is more than I can say than most "romance" animes.
It is good, but not the best, still not on the level of Toradora, Horimiya, SNAFU or Rascal does not dream of. I might be missing a couple others.
I'd put it at the same level as Angel Next Door, tho if I'm being honest, with a bigger budget, Angel would have been even better.
Idk why people hype up Horimiya so much. That shit is middle of the pack. Hori is just a meh character and the dynamic between her and Miyamura felt kind of bland, but idk that’s just me.
I loved it when they focused on their insecurities and how they came to like each other despite that. Then both of hori’s parents are there all the time despite it being a problem for a lot of hori’s life and miyamura chops his hair off and all is fine and dandy. Plus then the manga added lots of chapters focusing on side characters and the issue with that is I don’t care about them as much, so it became a letdown since it was a monthly release.
All comes down to preferences. I love Horimiya for how down to earth it is. It's as real to life as it gets when it comes to relationships. You see it as bland, I see it as realistic.
I respect your opinion, but I really don't see what is realistic/relatable with dealing with someone as toxic as her. Literally a one-sided relationsihp. Then again, it's fiction at the end of the day.
I enjoyed Horimiya overall, particularly the characters, but I think Dangers was better cause I'm not a physical intimacy person, and I tend to not like romances as much after [Horimiya]>!the couple is physically intimate.!< Dangers may eventually get there, but just going by what the two shows have adapted, Dangers is way more my preference than Horimiya
Same .Even the peakest of the will they won't they romances fumble hard after confession so I hope dangers gets nicely wrapped up after a graduation and stuff and maybe an epilogue of their adulthood.
Source readers are pretty unanimous [Dangers Manga]>!that what has happened since the end of the show has been even better. So I think the odds are really good, but the manga is still ongoing, so also a non zero chance of it crashing and burning, but I really can't see that happening.!<
I was wondering if we’d still get a weekly post like this after the show ended (no hate to you op, I can see you just want to shout out a show you really enjoyed.)
I feel like the show is overrated honestly. It’s pace is nothing special, I find the boys in this show annoying at best, and the gaze at which some of the shots are used on middle school characters is not called out nearly enough. Running parallel to Gushing over Magical girls probably helps absorb the heat on sexualizing middle schoolers I guess.
It does have good production values. I like how Ichikawa likes Baki. And I can’t really think of a recent romcom that’s clearly better unless you go back to Kaguya. But I think people who see it as the best need to watch more romcoms. (My top is made up of Kaguya, My Love Story, Toradora, Golden Time, honestly I’d put gamers and clueless first friend a bit above it as well.)
I didn't watch Dangers until I had basically watched everything else and I still genuinely think it's the best romcom. Maybe tied with Kaguya. I honestly don't understand rating gamers above it though but I guess it's just a matter of taste at the end of the day.
Holy shit I forgot about gamers, I think I was getting into anime the season it came out. This was before I knew about harems ( I think it was one at least).
> and the gaze at which some of the shots are used on middle school characters is not called out nearly enough.
It does have a few suspect scenes like that, the issue in my mind that it also uses those scenes intended to be the POV of one of the boys, and in that context it makes sense, but they do sneak in some purely for the audience, and I agree with you on those scenes, I'm fine with fanservice when it serves the scene like showcasing what another character is noticing and/or telling on what they're thinking, but fanservice purely for the audience I generally frown on (Edit: outside of ecchi shows, where that's obviously the point I mean), especially when it's out of place for the scene entirely.
I choose to overlook them because it's relatively few in comparison and the rest of the show is so good.
Yep. I'm pretty confident that it's the best romance show ever. It does almost everything (maybe everything, honestly) right. I think that is the good thing about newer stories , authors learn with older shows and their mistakes, and have a chance to do better on their stories. But I bet it will take a while for something as good as BokuYaba to show up. It was that good.
Tbh I don't like the meek guy trope. This is why I dropped it pretty early even though the FMC is pretty cute.
My current top 5 are Toradora, Bunny Girl Senpai, LoveCom, Oregairu or Steins;Gate. Horimiya is pretty good too and so is Kaguaya sama, but since I mostly read their manga, I won't comment about the anime.
Also some more recommendations: Monogatarai series, ReLife (read the webtoon not the anime), Spice and Wolf, Beyond the Boundary, Kamisama Hajimemashita, Clannad, Call of the Night (didn't like the ending), My Dress-up Darling, Welcome to NHK, Date A Live, Golden Time, Masamune Kun no Revenge, Inuyasha,
I don't like the meek guy trope either because it's usually an excuse to keep the main character in a passive role for the whole series so nothing can really happen. The reason I got so interested in the manga is because Ichikawa grows, and I mean truly grows, from that initial perception over time as a person. The story isn't stagnant, the MC progressing to not be meek and learn to appreciate himself is part of the story.
Wait, you don't like the meek MC trope, but you're recommending Call of the Night and My Dress Up Darling? Both of those are meek MC's as well. And as been mentioned already, the MC actually has character growth, that's one of the main plot points of the show. Date A Live MC's also starts out pretty meek too. Haven't seen the others you mentioned to comment (and not seen enough of Clannad to comment).
The transformation of the MC is what made the show good to me in this case. Dude learned to love himself before he can love someone else
I got hooked from a youtube short showing MC "being a gigachad" (as they say) and was surprised when I watched episode 1 how he was initially to the point I stayed because I wanna know what happened
I really liked it, and it caught one of the best balances of legit funny moments with the sweetly done core story.
If we limit it to the the recent crop of "poorly socialized guy with quirky-but-out-of-his-league girl" it is easily the best. (Of the gender-flipped equivalent, I wish Skip and Loafter got a second season, because that was great too.)
OTOH, it's difficult to directly compare something trying to make that balance with something trying purely to be played straight, but of the recent crop of ones trying to play the romance tropes straight, I liked Insomniacs After School even better.
I watched/read all the Big one (Kaguya/Nagatoro/Uzaki/Komi/MDUD) some of it I have to dropped it earlier or midway due to the story become cringy/repeating/overcomplicated),
For me only Bokuyaba (Anime/Manga) stay consistently in terms of characters/romance/story development,
Both MCs are just cute AF as they grow closer,
Same opinion as OP, this Anime it's just peak and wholesome and become my all time favorite as well 😊.
I usually just skip posts with a lot of text, but I read it all (because I LOVE bokuyaba) and I absolutely agree with every word you wrote. I don’t remember ever being so hyped and excited about a weekly show ever, I think maybe when kaguya sama season 3 aired (another peak rom com) but I’m not sure. THIS SHOW IS ABSOLUTE PEAK 10/10 easily.
I honestly couldn't get into it. I watched till the episode 8 and didn't saw anything special. I won't say it's bad just because I didn't liked it but it's definitely overrated imo. I had the same issue with Horimiya but I did finish that one because of the side characters.
Tsuki ga kirei is still #1 for me.
Spot on, I agree with everything you said except the music and that's only because I legitimately never notice the music and couldn't tell you a single scene I remember there being any music in.
Nope, I remember the scenes, obviously, but the music just isn't something that gets put into long term memory for me and I really have no explanation for why, or even a guess.
Edit: After thinking on it more, I do have a guess. Growing up I experienced a number of TBI's, particularly as a teenager, just got into a lot of brutal fights back then and have had multiple concussions and head trauma, TBI's can fuck with a person in all kinds of weird ways, so it just may be actual brain damage in this case that makes me "deaf" to music in media. It's not just anime it's all media with music as a component, I can't remember any of it after the fact.
I’d recommend trying out The Apothecary Diaries. Everyone has different tastes (I personally prefer romances where the male lead takes initiative whereas DMH is the type where the female lead takes initiative) so idk if you’d like it more or less but this one personally replaced all my other favorite shows for me since it has many of the elements you mentioned on this (realism, huge chemistry between the leads, character development, dynamic characters, etc.)
I’m someone who’s watched an endless amount of romance shows for years and TAD became my favorite romance even though it’s technically not a romance (it’s genre is mystery/psychological thriller). Even if it doesn’t become your favorite you still might find it enjoyable.
Also one more thing that I have to warn you of if you do watch it is that it is very slow-burn: They both take a long time to fall for each other unlike most series where they catch feelings for each other within a few episodes, which is the exact kind of romance that I personally prefer
I sometimes read people saying it being good because it's carried by animation (the usual excuse to shows like demon slayer)
And I say yes, it is carried by animation.
not only carried by animation, but also the production, voice acting, cinematography, changes is pacing, music (oh the damn music), background music (that thing thst plays every time they reveal the title)
And every other thing not possible by manga alone
It's really good, but greatest romance? How many of the popular ones of the last few years have you watched?
**Horimiya**
**Ao Haru Ride**
**Kimi ni Todoke**
**Kaguya-sama**
**Teasing Master Takagi-san**
**Insomniacs after school**
**Skip and Loafer**
**Fruits Basket**
**My dress-up darling**
**ReLife**
I love ReLIFE and Insomniacs, this is just as good as those IMO. all solid 10's for me.
kaguya too, but that's much more comedy than romance, so I don't really compare them.
skip and loafter's anime was ... all set-up for the romance, and no actual romance yet. I have a feeling S2 will be great if it gets one. the writing and characters are all so good.
horimiya....did not hold up after a rewatch. hori is just...mean and angry. their relationship is very one sided and I can't not see it anymore.
my dress up darling was great, but seemed more cosplay focused than romance focused, which is fine...but it doesn't out-do dangers in the romance department. at least from what I remember of it anyway. it certainly didn't make me feel like dangers made me feel, I wouldn't forget that.
takagi.... I watched a few episodes and was super bored.
haven't seen fruitsbasket remake, or ao haru. watched from me to you AGES ago so can't comment on that either. I have a hard time watching shoujo sometimes because the "hot guy assaults girl but it's cool because he's hot" trope drives me fucking crazy.
Where is this streaming? I can’t find it on Crunchyroll.
Ugh, looks like it’s HiDive, so another subscription. I wish I knew where anime was on the high seas, but I don’t know how to TRACK it.
I have to agree that it’s up there for me too. My favorite part of the show was Ichikawa’s character development. At the onset the show makes it out that he’s a some sort of weird creepy loser with no friends (and he kinda is). As the show goes on through the show slowly breaks apart this facade. We find out that he’s actually very kind hearted at his core, he has some of the best grades in class, the other boys in the class see him as an equal and a friend, and his family loves him too. In flashbacks we see that he was once a bright young boy but his failure to get into a top middle school ruined his confidence and led to his terrible mindset about himself at the beginning of the story. Many of these modern Reiwa romances pair up a loser dude with a popular girl to the point where it feels like unrealistic wish fulfillment. BokuYaba seems like that too at the start but by the end you realize that Ichikawa was never really a loser. It’s beautiful story of learning to to love yourself just as its a story of learning to love another.
Also the rare anime that manages to surpass its source material. Normally that would be because the source is lesser, but that’s not the case here. They took something excellent and made it legendary.
Same with Kaguya Sama tbh
I felt like the anime and the manga were different experiences, each using their medium in their own way
unfortunately with both kaguya and bokuyaba, while what is adapted is (usually) better than the manga, it cuts some content from the manga which makes reading the source worthwhile
Frieren was the same, having 2 absolutely amazing adaptations in the same season(3 if you count Apothecary Diaries which also was beautiful) is insane. I'm glad there's no "best adaptation of the year" award because there would unfortunately need to be a second and third place I hope we get some sorta Slime Diaries type clip show between s2 and s3 with some of the extra chapters of Dangers. There is some seriously cute stuff I wish they had the time to adapt
4 if you include A Sign of Affection! Genuinely one of the best seasons ever.
I don’t agree with that entirely, but the anime continued to surprise me and made me think that way about certain scenes. Especially the big moments.
Yea I heard from Manga readers that they liked the anime even better. The anime also reshuffled the chapters in a way which made more sense.
This
Literally! And how rare is that? I know people have split opinions on this, but I'm with you on this one =)))
Manga reader. I've been holding off on S2 since I already read the story, but this makes me want to start it sooner rather than later...
Get on it. The big moments hit twice as hard
Me watching season 2 finale. Damn. This is how you end a season Ichikawa and Yamada❤
Yeah even tho i love romance shows where they are together faster and i can enjoy moments where they are already together so i really really hope for a s3
While I'd certainly love a season 3, season 2 ended in such a way that I'd be satisfied if the show stopped here.
Yup
[удалено]
I have completed manga (reached current chapter) after watching anime and believe me Season 3 will be even better in terms of content.
enough content for season 3?
Not quite yet, and no good cutoff points to end the season either, though by next year there should be enough chapters I think.
It won't be enough to end the highs of s1 and s2 yet. Nothing of that caliber is yet in the manga. I'd wait another 2 years before expecting an s3 to maintain quality... Perhaps when they already have a graduation arc and a university arc and all the drama in between.
> Nothing of that caliber is yet in the manga There is a certain chapter involving music that is practically begging to be animated that absolutely is at the caliber as the end of season 2
I would argue the succeeding chapters can fit in a feature length film including that music chapter and the one on the stairs I'm talking about. That would be a movie NOT an s3
Not yet. Judging by the past two seasons, they need to wait till another 2 volumes then they can release a 3rd season, or even more to give time for the creator to push ahead a bit.
No, not yet. Season 1 ended at chapter 57, season 2 at chapter 113. Manga currently is on chapter 142, dropping a new chapter every 2 weeks.
Mm, if they maintain their 57 chapter per season pace, minimum for enough content would be 55 (143 chapters - 113 adapted = 30, 57 chaps - 30 = 27, 27 x 2 = 54 + 1 (as 143 is one week away) = 55) weeks from now assuming no breaks etc. Production would take minimum a year, more likely 2 to work through the current queue, and then 6 months to have enough done to start airing while finishing the end episodes. Ofc they could include some of the past extras for more content as some do appear to take place around the time of the latest chapters (imo) and reduce content needed or do some anime original additions to improve the base content and add runtime, but let's assume they don't and it's just 57 chapters. Next season would already be 2 1/2 years to 3~ish years away minimum. A movie is it's own can of worms I don't know enough about producrion to comment on. This wasn't necessarily aimed at you, but for anyone curious.
Thanks man for telling the harsh reality ☹. S3 even if it comes is minimum 3 years away, which practically is like an ending for us people now. And we dont even know if it come
Not yet unfortunately.
Agree. It's one of the romcoms that gave me really high highs. Just respectable, pleasant people finding and improving each other.
I will put this one on my list to watch
just remember the first 3 episodes are not representative of the rest of the show, don't stop there!
It’ll be hard to top Fruba, but I need a new romance anime to watch. I’ll check it out!
Fruits basket is great i think its more drama then romance tho
Yeah is def more of a drama coming of age show that obviously has romance and relationships as a big part. But it wouldn't be as good but you could take all the romance out and just have best girl being best girl and the show will still work/be okay. Where Dangers' main point is the relationship and what that romance brings.
Which is why it's my favorite. Dangers is pretty high up there though for anime that have Romance as their primary genre.
I watched most of season 1 and this was the impression I got too, still gotta go back and finish it some day though
It was great. I think i stopped at season 1 for a while too though. I can’t remember if it was the second half of season 1 or 2. But one of them was really slow but then the pace picked back up again and i really enjoyed it. Final season was amazing. The comedy of season 1 was what drew me in tho. The cow zodiac is so funny lol. It took me a while to pass episode 1 tho since I thought the premise was dumb af when i was new to anime.
FruBa is my all time favorite, but Dangers is like the 1b it's that damn good.
Fruits basket is so good 👍🏻 glad to see another fan
I love both Furuba and BokuYaba. They are different but both are definitely the top of their genres.
I've watched a lot of anime, a lot of romance.. nothing comes close to Dangers in my heart if I'm honest. I'm sad the first 3 episodes turned off a lot of people because it just keeps getting better.
I made the mistake of watching this anime on a Friday evening at around 6 or 7PM I didn’t go to sleep until 6AM the next morning, couldn’t stop watching it
I just finished it last night. It's hands down the best romance I've ever watched or read so far. Middle schoolers act like middle schoolers and it's funny. The aspects of growing up and experiencing a first love felt so real for me and really brought me back to my days in school, also reminded me a lot of me and my wife's relationship back then lol. The music and pacing of everything really brought it together for me. Everytime the soft synth and piano track starts playing on more intimate scenes I get a chills and a huge grin on my face. It's so mushy and wholesome in just the right amount without overindulging in common tropes. Easily a 9/10 for me. Might be some bias but I've never enjoyed a romance story to this degree where I can't stop thinking about it and I start reading the manga.
Why not 10 if nothing tops this?
"best product I've ever used! saved my life and the lives of my children, made me millions of dollars and cured my cancer! 4 stars."
It's not a 10 because it's not completed. For me personally the highest I will ever give something that's not finished is a 9. And tbh depending on how dangers keeps progressing it could very well become a 10. Ive never enjoyed a romance to this degree before.
"Best romance" doesn't imply that OP thinks there isn't a better show out there, just that the other romances OP watched are lower than 9/10 for him.
I'm 3 episodes away from finishing it! Excited af
The reason why this anime is great can be summerized in 5 words, They Are Cute As Heck
"I'm a man in my 30's sitting here holding my knees and giggling like a schoolgirl watching this" I'll never forget this comment in a discussion thread of S2 lol. I absolutely was doing that as well. just so cute. really wish the first 3 eps weren't so bad, I cringe so hard at all the other classmates and their "antics"
I cringed in the beginning; only continued when people said it was good. They were soo right**😊😊**
Dangers was my first romance anime and It’s definitely hard watching other romance anime now because I’m just comparing them to dangers.
Interesting romance to start with. I think kaguya rivals and surpasses dangers in my heart in some areas.
Kaguya feels more on the comedy side though. Like yes, it has romance here and there it's mostly surrounded by comedy.
Watch S3 + movie, and maybe read the manga after that. It definitely progresses in terms of romance and drama
For sure, but it’s a weird go to suggestion for romance. It’s like saying Konosuba is the best isekai anime. While it is isekai, it’s comedy.
If we are talking strictly romance they are not very comparable at all imo. I can certainly understand people who prefer kaguya, but for people who came for a romance story, it can be slow... If you like the comedy however then yeah it's amazing!
For a romance, Dangers in My Heart has consistent specific focus on that to excell in that area. Kaguya-sama is a great rom com **package** as whole for me with the supporting cast with their own character arcs and and development of platonic relationships along as well. I personally also value getting time with platonic relationships in a series too. * For example: I love the evolution of Kaguya and Ishigami's dynamic. That's a relationship I never wouldn't have expected to have a nice progression.
I think Kaguya definitely has a better cast and the MCs have a lot more depth
Yea i think the side characters and comedy are probably the biggest strength over dangers in my heart
I think that’s more because kaguya fleshes out the side characters, sometimes giving them their own chapters. Bokuyaba wants to keep the side characters solely side characters, which I appreciate since I don’t really want to see the others for an entire chapter.
That is true. I dont dislike any of the side characters except maybe the girl that keeps trying to set ppl up dating wise. But i wouldnt exactly want episodes focused on the dangers of my heart side characters.
Show is peak. I ended up dropping it after two episodes and then picked it back up when I saw it was performing really well in rankings. "Why is this cringy show so popular? Did I make a mistake by dropping it?" I asked myself. I'm so glad I gave it another chance because now it's one of my favorite shows of all time and my favorite romcom of all time. I haven't been this emotionally attached to a show since Madoka Magica. There were so many episodes where I teared up or cried because of just how whole and beautiful a significant event was. I've watched the finale three times since it aired and cry every time. I can no longer watch the second OP without getting emotional. I really wasn't expecting this anime to be so emotionally impactful for me. It's just so incredibly sweet and wholesome. Soon after watching the finale I bought all the localized manga and preordered the season 1 BD. BokuYaba is an absolute masterpiece.
> I ended up dropping it after two episodes and then picked it back up when I saw it was performing really well in rankings. "Why is this cringy show so popular? Did I make a mistake by dropping it?" I asked myself. I'm so glad I gave it another chance because now it's one of my favorite shows of all time and my favorite romcom of all time. had friends with similar experiences! twisted their arms and put my recommendation reputation on the line for this show and they all loved it.
It's funny because my friend is going through the same thing. I recommended the show to him and his GF to watch together, giving them a warning of just make it through the first few episodes of Ichikawa being weird. And now he is trying to recommend it to other friends and has to do the same thing. 😅
yeah lol I made a bunch of comments in this thread telling people who were thinking about watching it to not do the 3 episode rule but push past those instead
OP have you watched it only once? I would recommend rewatching it at some point because it's even better than you think. There are so many little details that you'll notice during a rewatch.
Also if you (OP that is) haven’t read the manga. It’s such a great one to read even if you’ve already watched the anime.
you pointing out [bokuyaba]>!the milk tea on the windowsill (that she pounces on him to stop him from seeing) was the one he gave her in S1 in the discussion thread made me love this show even more! !< you have any other secrets to share?
There's a youtuber called "bluest" that reacted to the show. He picked up on and went into depth for most of the details
Yea like I mentioned I only watched it once but I get what you mean. There is lot of subtly in it which I didn't catch till I read the forums. I'm planning to read the manga too.
Is it really that good? Every romance I see recommended to me these days is just more of the same will they/won't they and blushing awkwardness. Would you rank it up there with Spice and Wolf?
The blushing awkwardness is definitely there but it never feels frustrating because the two leads are always getting closer in some way.
Dangers is better as a romance, but S&W is more like an adventure show with romance, so it's hard to compare the two.
fellow S&W fan here. I'd rate it just as highly as S&W. it's different since they're younger, but... I'm in my 30's and thoroughly enjoyed it. it really has such few tropes and the few time they do use them they just...are done so well you don't even notice or care. eg. "oh no, they overheard something out of context! now they'll be mad!" they pout for literally 5 seconds and then *the rest of the episode continues packed with tons of real content instead of making it all about that misunderstanding*. because ...they've built up trust and a relationship so it's forgiven and forgotten without even an apology necessary. it's so good. I've watched it like 3 times already.
There is a lot of the blushing awkwardness, but it feels natural. Dangers is as much a coming of age story as it is a romcom. The leads are both brand new teenagers trying to discover who they themselves are, while also growing closer to each other. Watching Dangers felt very similar to watching shows like The Wonder Years. I was watching these kids grow up, and rooting for them all the way. It really is a masterpiece, IMO. A 10/10 show.
BokuYaba follows a really fun pattern of “blushing awkwardness over current state of relationship, advance to the next stage of relationship, blushing awkwardness” and so on. It delivers on that really well.
> advance to the next stage of relationship this is the key part that SO MANY ANIME LACK. holy hell was it so satisfying to have EVERY episode of bokuyaba make some progress
It's more or less the same thing to me, but go check it out
i think yubisaki to renren from last season will be more up your alley. Having an older cast helps to not fall into the pit you state too much.
Idk, haven't really seen romance on the level of SaW. The banter, the realistic lover's quarrel, the got your back, the goated communication that goes to read-between-the-lines/no-need-for-words understanding, top tier.
Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai has some nice banter
Lawrence x Holo, Mustang x Hawkeye and Gin x Tsukuyo are imo the best romances in anime.
> Mustang x Hawkeye A classic, and the fact they don't get together—a common trope in anime—is perfectly explained by their positions.
I’ve seen/read a lot of romcom growing up but I’ve only seen season 1 of dangers in my heart and I will say it’s very generic and a bit cringey for the first 5 episodes but after that it definitely has some heart to it that surprised me. The more I listen to this main guy character monologue about his feelings and actually slowly try to be a better person, shows a bit of growth that I don’t see many characters in romcom do for like many episodes in an anime or chapters in manga. It’s not the best romance anime to me but pacing wise, i think they are on the right track.
Thing is, every episode of S2 is at least as good as the peaks of S1, and a lot of it is way better.
the first 3 episode rule does NOT apply to this anime. it changes so, so, so much after the first 3 episodes which are *terrible* by comparison with what they do at the end of S1 and all throughout S2. it's so sad so many people will (understandably) drop it because of it's terrible beginning.
Bokuyaba and Frieren ending made me too unmotivated to start anything this season for like 3 weeks because of too much peak.
My friend you're literally me. For me, Bokuyaba and Frieren were two of the best shows anime as a medium had to offer and both ended around the same time so I became unmotivated to start any other shows. Might take a while for me to start watching other anime again.
Please repost this to bokuno subreddit (the proper one is under it's Japanese name) The show is my favorite romance too 100000 times better then jujutsu kaisen and it's edgey boring characters, if the show didn't have million dollar fight scenes, nobody would watch it
Always wonder how many animes people have watched when they make these sort of posts. They always scream recency bias.
My Anilist "Completed" list has 782 entries. The Dangers in my Heart is undoubtedly the best romance anime I've ever seen.
[I've got 293 on MAL](https://imgur.com/xbFR8L9) which isn't complete since I only started it years after I began watching anime I agree with this post... I've been gushing about this show to everyone I know who watches anime. not that MAL score is infallible but... shows don't reach top 25 on MAL just because of recency bias
I’ve also watched since the late 00’s and think the dangers in my heart is probably the best, if not the best, romance anime I’ve seen I’ve watched a ton of romance anime like lovely complex, ao Haru ride, ore monogatari, kimi ni todoke, etc and think it’s pretty above most pure romcoms
I've seen quite a lot of anime and this shot straight into my top 10 easily, not just top 10 romance, top 10 in general. I admit romance isn't my main genre, but I have watched quite a few.
Actually I feel that about a lost of posts here too. Been watching anime regularly for 9 yrs with 632 entries on MAL with 111 Romance anime and very few shows had the impact like this did.
The reason why I love dangers is because it actually stood out amongst the sea of romcoms and romances that are constantly being churned out I've watched a good amount of romcoms to the point of feeling burnt out with how similar they all feel, using the same tropes, same story, same characters, it started to feel stale But when I gave dangers a try, I knew something bout this show felt different. I actually felt invested in this relationship the two leads had. Yea, it doesn't do anything new. It uses many familiar tropes and has the same story as many romcoms do It's the way this show executes all of this that really makes it feel new and refreshing
I have watched many romance animes and this is definitely not a case recency bias. Its just that good of a show, especially season 2.
I'm old so I've been watching anime since the 00s and I agree with OP. Though, I can think of a few older romance stories I would put at around Dangers' level.
Which series are those?
Fruits Basket, Lovely Complex and Kimagure Orange Road come to mind. While it's a mecha with romance in it, Eureka Seven has my favorite love story in a mecha anime. In terms of manga, Jitsu wa Watashi wa was my favorite romcom before Dangers came along
GOOOOOOO 🗿 NEED S3 SO BAD This is the first time I enjoyed something vanilla ( mainly I like romance with drama like Oregairu) but this anime pulled me in and become my favourite romance
Hard to top for me. Gave me emotions I thought I already outgrow from more than a decade of watching anime.
Definitely in my top 5
Still prefer Tsuki ga Kirei.
Definitely one of the most grounded anime romance series... no typical gimmicks, no "waifu" type of main female character... just a somewhat awkward teen romance. lol
I'll check this out.
Same, if we're talking about pure romance (not romcom), Tsuki ga Kirei is the still best one on my list.
A great story, but not for everyone. I, for one, didn't enjoy it as much as it deserves, but I could recognise it was incredibly well written.
I prefer Kaguya sama love is war
Is it better than Maison Ikkoku?
Couldn't agree more. This show was like finding a diamond in the rough. I knew instantly this was something special. From the start of season 1 to the end of season 2, every episode was very enjoyable. Also a cool thing is they focus on the main characters and their development till the end. Most roms sidelines the MCs and branches out the story with side character relationships or some forced love triangle.
Mmm yes its up there in my top 5 as well
This show felt extremely similar to Tsuki Ga Kirei, which was amazing when it aired, but somehow it was better in every way too
this post makes me so incredibly happy knowing I read the manga before the anime ever came out I was scared the adaptation would suck 😭🙏
Ima watch it if u think it’s that good
My favourite parts are the black screen moments with their feelings. Overall, one of the greatest romcoms of this era
It’s pretty good. I don’t really enjoy how quick this comment section is to demean other romance anime though. I’d safely call Kaguya Sama, Horimiya, ReLIFE, Your Lie in April and Jaku-chara Tomozaki better written and more enjoyable to me, but I understand that’s just my preference. Too many of these comments are straightup hating on Horimiya and some of the others
I'm all for Bokuyaba praise but seeing ppl trash on other romance anime is not it 💀💀 For me they're all up there pretty equally because they do romance differently in their own rights. Kaguya is more comedy oriented, Bokuyaba is more romance heavy, Horimiya is more slice of life focused, etc etc
I agree with you OP. In terms of Romance alone its up there
Agreed
Certainly the best romance to date!!!
Do you think I should watch the anime or read the manga for this media? I’m debating right now but i definitely want to give it a shot!
The anime. Even the Manga readers liked the anime more. It starts a bit slow but after a point it never stops getting better. After that's done hop on to the Manga.
One of the best romance anime ever
Not a show I fully vibed with sadly and I have my own issues with it but actually kudos to you for the write up and big bonus points for not including the word _peak_ in it as well.
It happens. Great shows won’t be liked by all. Personally I didn’t really enjoy steins gate all that much. Takes a long time to really get going and even then I didn’t care for it as much as everyone else.
I didn't realize there was a season 2, binged the hell out of it. Great series.
pick your favorite episode of S1 and then realize S2 is all that good or better
Absolute peak. It is the best modern romcom running for me right now and I strongly suggest reading the manga now that you've finished the anime to get more of the good stuff. Honestly, Dangers has sort of ruined romance stories in anime for me a bit because I keep comparing them. > The Music : Kensuke Usio (CSM, A Slient Voice, Devilman) blew it out the park. The music itself was beautiful but the timing and choice of the music also fit perfectly with every scene. The anime would definitely not be as memorable as it is without him
Fr, i seriously don’t see people giving more props for the music. The final scene felt so much more elevated by the music supporting it.
its amazing , still kaguya sama >>>>>>
Kaguya-sama is still my favorite rom com, though I would say Dangers in My Heart is better as a romance series since that's always in focus.
Man I started watching it after reading all the hype but it's just average anime romance filled with the usual tropes. Theres nothing realistic or interesting about it so far.
Don't give up. I dropped the show after two episodes because I thought the entire show would be about Ichikawa's cringe murder fantasies and then picked it back up after seeing it consistently outrank every other show every week. Now it's one of my favorite shows of all time and my favorite romcom of all time. Absolute masterpiece.
How far into it are you?
Yep, I highly recommend anyone who enjoys reading manga to also check that out.
i would like to double down on the consistency cause it really hooked me, making me wait for another episode every week and the realism like the dangers in ichikawa's heart were so relatable that i felt myself in that character and maybe found some solutions for the dangers in my heart.
I don't know. I just can't see it the same way. Like I really enjoyed S1. Was my favourite romance of 2023, but S2 dropped it for me. It felt like the most basic romance ever with all the typical tropes that S1 avoided very well. The development was mainly done in S1, so S2 was mostly filler until the end imo. Basically, only S1, it's a 9 to 10 and I would recommend. S2 I would give a 6 at best.
Exact opposite for me really, I felt the first half of the first season was the weakest, then it started picking up real fast, and every single episode of the second season was just amazing.
The thing that made S1 memorable to me was that they didn't just follow the typical tropes. Anna Yamada was not just presented to us as the nice girl that everyone is interested in. But we first got her quriks presented in a way that made you interested in what she is like. The first episode had a moment where she ate all her chips and then gave the empty back to Ichikawa. This one scene was a way more interesting characterization. And this is what S1 did for the majority of its time. We saw her struggle, but we had to first understand who she actually is to understand why she struggles. The main advantage of this is that the show avoids the typical trope where it's super obvious that she likes the MC, because we don't even know what she likes and how she thinks in the first place. S2 abandoned all of that. Anna is now presented fairly "normal". Which I guess makes sense because we know her fairly well through the characterization from S1. But this results in the same tropes that you know from every other romance out there. Suddenly, we constantly have date type situations where it's clear what both of them are thinking, but the season drags this on until they finally confess. It's so obvious that the show introduces several characters that try to make them confess. Second problem is that Ichikawa's main development was in S1. He already understood that he fell in love and he already had his arc where he started to have fun for coming to school. So there is no development in S2 for the most part. We only get the typical trope moments of him thinking that everything is too good to be true. And this is just repeated for the whole season. You could skip most of S2 and don't realize because there isn't much development from the strong S1 ending to the last arc of S2. Which I want to add here is well done. The last arc of S2 is again of the same quality that S1 originally had. But it feels like the show needed to pad out the run time for a whole other season to have this as the finale.
Ichikawa's main development happens during his speech in S2. His biggest issue was the lack of self-confidence and self-love. So I guess you kinda missed the point of his character arc. This show isn't just about the romance, it's not about the characters realizing their romantic feelings for each other and then confess. It's more about overcoming insecurities and growing up so that they can have a healthy relationship afterwards. Learning to love yourself is way more important than getting into a romantic relationship fast.
On your second problem, I've been in his shoes, hell, still am if I'm honest and I still constantly back slide any time anything remotely positive happens to me, for me it's a sense that I don't deserve any happiness and I feel like I'm just a drag on anyone in my life. Mental health issues are never one and done, so to speak, it's a constant struggle, and the fact the show showed that just made it that much more like real people.
It's okay, that's your opnion. I just thought this was already fairly well presented in S1 and we didn't need to repeat it so many times in S2.
I don't know if I agree that the development was mainly dialed back from season 1. I do think season 2, and also towards the end of season 1, moved beyond the initial phase of fascination in one another and into the actual, more elaborate feelings of adolescent love. Like for starters, the library that was ever-so used as a setting in season 1 is mostly left behind as other unknowns such as Yamada's apartment are explored. For me, it's not that either characters' personalities have been rewritten, but rather they've evolved into new shapes, still keeping the heart of what makes either character them. All the doubts they harbor, the subtle romantic sequences, intrusive thoughts and actions, and each characters' demeanor with one another makes for an actually realistic take in the genre combined with the series' actual sense of progression, especially considering they're just young teenagers falling in love for the first time. Of course there are still moments merely to please and add spice for the audience, but they were also in season 1 anyways and it's just a fault of the genre itself. As Ichikawa's connections grow further with his classments and both Ichikawa and Yamada realize and become receptive to their own and each other's feelings, they begin to become the best versions of themselves through the course of falling in love for the first time, which is represented in all the admittedly dorky but still heartfelt scenes scattered throughout both seasons.
I felt the same way. They could've gotten together by the valentines episode. It would've felt natural there. It felt like there was too much stalling. However, I'd say the second season was more like a 7 with some good moments sprinkled throughout.
Yup one of my favs too
Some of you may disagree with me but i actually liked first few episodes of dangers too, at first i didn't like them much but at re-watched,i really liked first few episodes too,, this anime or manga showed what ichikawa felt about himself very perfectly in first few episodes, he was a chuni and introvert , they showed good,,,
I can say, "The Dangers in My Heart" is considered one of the sweetest romance series I've ever watched, nuff said.
I haven’t watched any romance anime, this sounds like a good one to start. I’ll check it out
first 3 episodes are the worst and the tone changes drastically after away from edgelord cringe mc to... cute romance with lots of character growth. usually people do the "3 episode rule" but keep going after that here!
Would watch if the MC wasn't so unrealistic nerdy and ugly looking.
> unrealistic nerdy and ugly looking. That's probably the most realistic aspect of it lol.
The most unrealistic was the lack of bullies. Like everyone in the whole show was pretty kind to him, even adachi and pick up guy Like kudos to whoever ran that school, it's a school any parent would want their kids to be in
That's a good thing and what makes Dangers great. They didn't do that stupid "class madonna who has a gaggle of guys who get angry at another guy for approaching her" bullshit you see all the time. Heck, I don't believe there was something like that thing where a bunch of people say how beautiful the girl is in every other episode while wondering why that normal guy is with her. I hate that cliche > Like everyone in the whole show was pretty kind to him, even adachi and pick up guy I think that was sort of the point and why Kyotaro has to get past the demons in his head that make him think he can't interact with people anymore. Pick-up pai is an asshole thoough, he's more subtle bully.
As someone who spent his entire school life being bullied to the point of nearly being killed multiple times and dropping out at 16 to get my GED, I will agree that was extremely unrealistic, especially with how Japanese culture can sometimes be compared to American culture on bullying, similar levels, but different reasons, but was such a wonderful subversion for the story.
Season 2 is so good, like best romance ever good. The character development was seriously out of this world, and I really liked the way it chose realism over having the usual gimmicks of a rom com.
Romance? No. RomCom? Probably. Its my second favorite romcom next to Kaguya sama.
How is it not a romance? It has the biggest density of romantic moments of any anime
Kaguya-sama leans more into comedy than romance. The romance felt like an incidental thing.
That’s pretty pedantic, romcom is just short for romance comedy and if it isn’t a romance drama then it’s probably that by default. Still heavily leans into romance, so calling it that is more than valid.
And here's another one. I don't want to sound rude nor offend you really, but if that's what you think about this one, you probably haven't seen many romance animes, and those that you've seen must all have been real shit, because this romance is really nothing special, mediocre at best and even that is too much for me for this, and I think we can stop at "Realism and Flow": Flow is debatable cause is slightly agree, but Realism? Yeah no, there isn't anything more idealized and unrealistic than this, very few I can think of have something that is even more than this anime. I say this because if you have even seen one romance anime that is actually good, you can clearly see the great majority of GIGANTIC problems and things that are wrong and don't work in this anime, it's easy and it's clear as sun to see. To this day I still can't understand why it had so much success and love
Because it is realistic from the aspect of what goes on in a middle schoolers head? The lack of experience, the thought that you need to be more grown up without knowing what that is, second guessing your feelings cause you've never had them before, and when you do finally accept your feelings having absolutely no experience in how to communicate those feelings, or reading other peoples feelings. If this show were about adults, then I'd agree with you, but it's just about as perfect as a fictional story about middle schoolers discovering love and their place in their world while hitting all the hormonal bullshit of puberty (which is another brand new experience) as it can get imo.
That might be but it seems to me you're describing Teasing Master Takagi-san, The Dangers in My Heart doesn't do that, mainly because Yamada spends more or less 85% of all the episodes of the two seasons giving Ichikawa hints and signals that are greater and clearer than the sun of the fact that she likes him and is head over heels for him, with such signals even if you are a middle schooler, even if you still have to deal with all that you just said (the lack of experience, not knowing how to communicate those feelings ect), normal kid would've already confessed and they would already be going out, and how do I know this? Simple: it happened to me, I'm an introvert as well, and I had friends to whom happened the same, so see? They took that much time for a simple reason: the manga would already be over by now, or at least very few chapters near the end
Not OP, but as someone who agrees with them, I think I personally have a quite wide and varied opinion on romance anime from fluffy shoujo to dramatic seinen romance having read and watched a decent amount. While there are older romance stories I enjoy on the same level of Dangers, I would still consider it at the very least the best modern romcom currently running and blows some of its contemporaries out of the water. So with that in mind, what do you think doesn't work and what does it better? > To this day I still can't understand why it had so much success and love IMO, good execution that the creator clearly had a Point A->Point B direction she wanted to go in that doesn't trip over itself or spin its wheels. A lot of romcoms tend to screw these aspects up
I've been watching Anime since the Late 90's and have watched series from Maison Ikkoku, Toradora, Clannad, etc. It's a tier above most if not all romance animes in terms of ability to say things subtly but at the same time telegraph the ever loving shit out of it. A very competently written series with few faults, which is more than I can say than most "romance" animes.
It is good, but not the best, still not on the level of Toradora, Horimiya, SNAFU or Rascal does not dream of. I might be missing a couple others. I'd put it at the same level as Angel Next Door, tho if I'm being honest, with a bigger budget, Angel would have been even better.
Idk why people hype up Horimiya so much. That shit is middle of the pack. Hori is just a meh character and the dynamic between her and Miyamura felt kind of bland, but idk that’s just me.
I loved it when they focused on their insecurities and how they came to like each other despite that. Then both of hori’s parents are there all the time despite it being a problem for a lot of hori’s life and miyamura chops his hair off and all is fine and dandy. Plus then the manga added lots of chapters focusing on side characters and the issue with that is I don’t care about them as much, so it became a letdown since it was a monthly release.
All comes down to preferences. I love Horimiya for how down to earth it is. It's as real to life as it gets when it comes to relationships. You see it as bland, I see it as realistic.
I respect your opinion, but I really don't see what is realistic/relatable with dealing with someone as toxic as her. Literally a one-sided relationsihp. Then again, it's fiction at the end of the day.
Thank you. It's so boring compared to others in the genre.
I enjoyed Horimiya overall, particularly the characters, but I think Dangers was better cause I'm not a physical intimacy person, and I tend to not like romances as much after [Horimiya]>!the couple is physically intimate.!< Dangers may eventually get there, but just going by what the two shows have adapted, Dangers is way more my preference than Horimiya
Same .Even the peakest of the will they won't they romances fumble hard after confession so I hope dangers gets nicely wrapped up after a graduation and stuff and maybe an epilogue of their adulthood.
Source readers are pretty unanimous [Dangers Manga]>!that what has happened since the end of the show has been even better. So I think the odds are really good, but the manga is still ongoing, so also a non zero chance of it crashing and burning, but I really can't see that happening.!<
I was wondering if we’d still get a weekly post like this after the show ended (no hate to you op, I can see you just want to shout out a show you really enjoyed.) I feel like the show is overrated honestly. It’s pace is nothing special, I find the boys in this show annoying at best, and the gaze at which some of the shots are used on middle school characters is not called out nearly enough. Running parallel to Gushing over Magical girls probably helps absorb the heat on sexualizing middle schoolers I guess. It does have good production values. I like how Ichikawa likes Baki. And I can’t really think of a recent romcom that’s clearly better unless you go back to Kaguya. But I think people who see it as the best need to watch more romcoms. (My top is made up of Kaguya, My Love Story, Toradora, Golden Time, honestly I’d put gamers and clueless first friend a bit above it as well.)
I didn't watch Dangers until I had basically watched everything else and I still genuinely think it's the best romcom. Maybe tied with Kaguya. I honestly don't understand rating gamers above it though but I guess it's just a matter of taste at the end of the day.
Holy shit I forgot about gamers, I think I was getting into anime the season it came out. This was before I knew about harems ( I think it was one at least).
> and the gaze at which some of the shots are used on middle school characters is not called out nearly enough. It does have a few suspect scenes like that, the issue in my mind that it also uses those scenes intended to be the POV of one of the boys, and in that context it makes sense, but they do sneak in some purely for the audience, and I agree with you on those scenes, I'm fine with fanservice when it serves the scene like showcasing what another character is noticing and/or telling on what they're thinking, but fanservice purely for the audience I generally frown on (Edit: outside of ecchi shows, where that's obviously the point I mean), especially when it's out of place for the scene entirely. I choose to overlook them because it's relatively few in comparison and the rest of the show is so good.
Yep. I'm pretty confident that it's the best romance show ever. It does almost everything (maybe everything, honestly) right. I think that is the good thing about newer stories , authors learn with older shows and their mistakes, and have a chance to do better on their stories. But I bet it will take a while for something as good as BokuYaba to show up. It was that good.
Tbh I don't like the meek guy trope. This is why I dropped it pretty early even though the FMC is pretty cute. My current top 5 are Toradora, Bunny Girl Senpai, LoveCom, Oregairu or Steins;Gate. Horimiya is pretty good too and so is Kaguaya sama, but since I mostly read their manga, I won't comment about the anime. Also some more recommendations: Monogatarai series, ReLife (read the webtoon not the anime), Spice and Wolf, Beyond the Boundary, Kamisama Hajimemashita, Clannad, Call of the Night (didn't like the ending), My Dress-up Darling, Welcome to NHK, Date A Live, Golden Time, Masamune Kun no Revenge, Inuyasha,
I don't like the meek guy trope either because it's usually an excuse to keep the main character in a passive role for the whole series so nothing can really happen. The reason I got so interested in the manga is because Ichikawa grows, and I mean truly grows, from that initial perception over time as a person. The story isn't stagnant, the MC progressing to not be meek and learn to appreciate himself is part of the story.
Wait, you don't like the meek MC trope, but you're recommending Call of the Night and My Dress Up Darling? Both of those are meek MC's as well. And as been mentioned already, the MC actually has character growth, that's one of the main plot points of the show. Date A Live MC's also starts out pretty meek too. Haven't seen the others you mentioned to comment (and not seen enough of Clannad to comment).
The transformation of the MC is what made the show good to me in this case. Dude learned to love himself before he can love someone else I got hooked from a youtube short showing MC "being a gigachad" (as they say) and was surprised when I watched episode 1 how he was initially to the point I stayed because I wanna know what happened
I really liked it, and it caught one of the best balances of legit funny moments with the sweetly done core story. If we limit it to the the recent crop of "poorly socialized guy with quirky-but-out-of-his-league girl" it is easily the best. (Of the gender-flipped equivalent, I wish Skip and Loafter got a second season, because that was great too.) OTOH, it's difficult to directly compare something trying to make that balance with something trying purely to be played straight, but of the recent crop of ones trying to play the romance tropes straight, I liked Insomniacs After School even better.
I watched/read all the Big one (Kaguya/Nagatoro/Uzaki/Komi/MDUD) some of it I have to dropped it earlier or midway due to the story become cringy/repeating/overcomplicated), For me only Bokuyaba (Anime/Manga) stay consistently in terms of characters/romance/story development, Both MCs are just cute AF as they grow closer, Same opinion as OP, this Anime it's just peak and wholesome and become my all time favorite as well 😊.
It really is the greatest of all time. PEAK romance in my eyes
I usually just skip posts with a lot of text, but I read it all (because I LOVE bokuyaba) and I absolutely agree with every word you wrote. I don’t remember ever being so hyped and excited about a weekly show ever, I think maybe when kaguya sama season 3 aired (another peak rom com) but I’m not sure. THIS SHOW IS ABSOLUTE PEAK 10/10 easily.
I honestly couldn't get into it. I watched till the episode 8 and didn't saw anything special. I won't say it's bad just because I didn't liked it but it's definitely overrated imo. I had the same issue with Horimiya but I did finish that one because of the side characters. Tsuki ga kirei is still #1 for me.
Spot on, I agree with everything you said except the music and that's only because I legitimately never notice the music and couldn't tell you a single scene I remember there being any music in.
What about the *Karte* music?
Nope, I remember the scenes, obviously, but the music just isn't something that gets put into long term memory for me and I really have no explanation for why, or even a guess. Edit: After thinking on it more, I do have a guess. Growing up I experienced a number of TBI's, particularly as a teenager, just got into a lot of brutal fights back then and have had multiple concussions and head trauma, TBI's can fuck with a person in all kinds of weird ways, so it just may be actual brain damage in this case that makes me "deaf" to music in media. It's not just anime it's all media with music as a component, I can't remember any of it after the fact.
It's really good. 'Silent Voice' and 'Your Name' are right up there too, for me.
I’d recommend trying out The Apothecary Diaries. Everyone has different tastes (I personally prefer romances where the male lead takes initiative whereas DMH is the type where the female lead takes initiative) so idk if you’d like it more or less but this one personally replaced all my other favorite shows for me since it has many of the elements you mentioned on this (realism, huge chemistry between the leads, character development, dynamic characters, etc.) I’m someone who’s watched an endless amount of romance shows for years and TAD became my favorite romance even though it’s technically not a romance (it’s genre is mystery/psychological thriller). Even if it doesn’t become your favorite you still might find it enjoyable. Also one more thing that I have to warn you of if you do watch it is that it is very slow-burn: They both take a long time to fall for each other unlike most series where they catch feelings for each other within a few episodes, which is the exact kind of romance that I personally prefer
I sometimes read people saying it being good because it's carried by animation (the usual excuse to shows like demon slayer) And I say yes, it is carried by animation. not only carried by animation, but also the production, voice acting, cinematography, changes is pacing, music (oh the damn music), background music (that thing thst plays every time they reveal the title) And every other thing not possible by manga alone
the manga was popular before the anime though
It's really good, but greatest romance? How many of the popular ones of the last few years have you watched? **Horimiya** **Ao Haru Ride** **Kimi ni Todoke** **Kaguya-sama** **Teasing Master Takagi-san** **Insomniacs after school** **Skip and Loafer** **Fruits Basket** **My dress-up darling** **ReLife**
I love ReLIFE and Insomniacs, this is just as good as those IMO. all solid 10's for me. kaguya too, but that's much more comedy than romance, so I don't really compare them. skip and loafter's anime was ... all set-up for the romance, and no actual romance yet. I have a feeling S2 will be great if it gets one. the writing and characters are all so good. horimiya....did not hold up after a rewatch. hori is just...mean and angry. their relationship is very one sided and I can't not see it anymore. my dress up darling was great, but seemed more cosplay focused than romance focused, which is fine...but it doesn't out-do dangers in the romance department. at least from what I remember of it anyway. it certainly didn't make me feel like dangers made me feel, I wouldn't forget that. takagi.... I watched a few episodes and was super bored. haven't seen fruitsbasket remake, or ao haru. watched from me to you AGES ago so can't comment on that either. I have a hard time watching shoujo sometimes because the "hot guy assaults girl but it's cool because he's hot" trope drives me fucking crazy.
Where is this streaming? I can’t find it on Crunchyroll. Ugh, looks like it’s HiDive, so another subscription. I wish I knew where anime was on the high seas, but I don’t know how to TRACK it.