Ojou to Banken-kun

Discovered this anime axidentally when searching something romantic to watch in the rainy evenings and I was immediately hooked about this weirdly quiet romcom. First it seems as a simple and easy to watch high-school love story, but there are some glimpses of violence and brutality of human nature. It emerge some dark themes (such as rape and loss of loved ones) quite well and with weirdly realistic elegance it does not obscure the main topic. This anime takes a risk to walk on a knife edge - you either love this or you don't like it at all. Depends of your beliefs or expectations.

To be clear, in reality, I am against of any kind of violence and abuse, but in fictional world I accept these as a part of the story development and a chance of character growth, so I was curious how this romantic anime handles those themes.

So, when the story begins, main character Isaku, a shy and heartfelt high school girl with some sadness in her eyes, is on her turning point of her life. We just enter her world without knowing too much. She is sweet and naive by her nature and I am so glad this anime hasn't made her a typical big-breasted babe, vice versa, she is opposite of that, but she is still beautiful girl with blond long hair and good fashion taste. And she so eager to start a fresh new beginning and I admire her boldness!

Isaku really try to move away from her old life as far as possible! To find some friends, have a normal boring lovestory, which she has never had before - but she achieves the opposite. No wonder. She is a granddoughter of yakuza boss. It means no ordinary life!

Isaku actually have not experienced the real world dangers so far what comes with being part of a yakuza family and she make several mistakes. I like how this series handles how a young person step into reality and it brings back some memories of my own. All her world has been so far swirling comfortably around one person, Keiya, a main male character portrayed as a strong young and handsome yakuza man, who has been taking care of Isaku from that moment Isaku parents died long time ago, so they started to live in his grandfather house together. Relationships between Isaku an Keiya have been like older brother and little sister so far, but they are not relatives. And Isaku have a long, one-sided crush to Keiya. Oh so complicated story.

Their brother-sister relationship start to change gradually, when Keiya discovers that Isaku may now slip far away. And it arises difficult questions and a conflict in his mind: when he start to realize, how important Isaku actually is to him, he is face to jealousy. Is it possible to love somebody in all ways at once? Can love change? Is love between family members and friends way different from romantic love? Love is still love. We shouldn't discriminate against anyone in who loves whom.

Keiya by the way is the strangest male character I have seen in anime so far (and to be mentioned, his voice actor is really good and fits this character). His personality is controversial, layered like an onion, he hides his feelings and true self damn well. In public he is a popular guy, an eye-candy to every woman. With Isaku, he acts more like a puppy and let her to see him acting more childish and playful. He tries constantly to show his caring side for her - even asked permission when he would like to move forward in their relationship. He is hard to understand -sometimes his thinking goes the opposite way of normal people. His other, brutal side, remains hidden... Until Isaku is in danger and it unleashes his devilish side! Sadly in this series and in manga we don't get to know his backstory to understand him better, yet.

It is passionate and somehow pure first love story, both of main characters have not experienced true romantic love before and they try to learn together how to handle it. This opposite dynamic and slight development of the characters seems quite real: Isaku started to realize she need to be stronger and smarter to live in yakuza world (at the same time she bump between teenage and adulthood), Keiya tries to learn how to hold back and control himself. At the end of the series we are just like at the beginning of their story!

May be thanks to yakuza theme, which is rather unusual in anime, it feels a little more different, like looking old photographs or memorizing first love. In this case, it really doesn't need superb animation quality, but to be honest, there are some moments I would have liked to watch some scenes with better animation.

On the other hand, music and sound effects are really good, I was surprised how suitable the sound quality is, including these juicy black BMW engine roars!

To sum up, if you can ignore negative feedback here and looking for something passionate, this anime might be your cup of tea.

I also strongly recommend to do some research about yakuza families before wathing this, for western people it is rather unknown world and you have to know it to understand the story better.

Now, the age difference in this anime is the main source of contention. It's causing a lot of controversy, but I won't go into that in this review. Personally, I don't mind these kinds of age differences and I kind of love them; if you can't get over the idea and are positive that this anime is inappropriate, then move on.

Now, to begin this review, let me say that I have been looking forward to this anime since last year and that I was relieved to find that it finally had a traditional, classic shoujo plot. Those have been absent from our lives for a very long time. After watching the entire anime, I'm going to say that, based only on the premise and story, I would have ordinarily given it a 7 out of 10. Unfortunately, I had to give it a 5 because to the subpar direction, execution, and animation. There was hardly any professional animation.

While I am harsh on this anime, I am also giving it some leeway. This is due to the fact that such plots are uncommon for anime series, and I would greatly like to promote them. It's also possible that not much money was spent on it, which would explain why the anime's overall quality was just mediocre. Although there are some animation errors, I'm attempting to be forgiving of them in light of the previously provided information.

It truly might have been lot better and didn't reach its full potential, which is the main reason it was reduced to a 5. That somewhat impacted the enjoyable aspect of it. But from the standpoint of a shoujo fan, it scored some really high points. In terms of romantic moments and happenings, it won't let you down. I would suggest this anime if you're yearning for some physical romance rather than the typical naive love that's depicted in other anime.

(16+) Uneven animation, a colossal narrative mistake, and an overall unlikeable male protagonist really killed this anime for me. This could have been a "9" or "10" but the negatives just destroy the overall enjoyment and it's a real shame. I won't get into the massive, unforgiveable mistake made regarding something that is attempted at the female lead (other posts have discussed it with spoilers) but it is her stupid, completely nonsensical reaction to it that dooms this series. I've never seen such an unforced error in anime, and it is really upsetting. Stupidity squared. Some of the later episodes have some animation that is terrible, they should have just cut a few scenes! And the male protagonist? Ugh. For all that, this anime is somehow a bingeable show, but it will leave you with a bad taste in your mouth, just be warned.

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The MOST POINTLESS STORY of the shoujo/age-gap love/romance genre i have seen in some time not gonna lie! The plot can be over in just first 20 minutes of the first episode! That's how baseless the theme of the plot is ! The animation also just gets bad ! The ed song is lot better than the whole show's animation ! That just proves how bad it is! Some scenes are just lazy in terms of animation! They feel like motion pictures ! Like just a slideshow of pictures! The plot gets so bad at some times like literally irritable! So the only reason i watched it till the end because i like female lead, not for her personality as it is one of the worst one out there! But for her character design such as her hair and her cute cat lips! Also there are very less moments but the chemistry between male lead and female lead is such a delight to watch! I think this plot had so much potential but they just instead focused on something baseless ! Not sure why ! Anyways not recommended for one time watch too! But if and if only nothing better to do or just want to do something out of ordinary and curious then hop on or else forget this lol as i am doing it ~ !

I really loved the anime. It really grows on you. From all the shojo animes I've seen so far this feels so relatable. I love how in this anime they show hints of how he's feeling as well. Idk why everywhere it's criticized where in reality this how usually feelings work. I know grooming is there but he just replaced that position not to mention the age gap is also not that big. It's not like it was hella weird like "my housekeeper nagisa san". And the characters are really great the voice the and most importantly I love both of their eyes so much, really feel like falling for Keiya Uto. This anime is really cute, takes me back to my high school days and I really really really wish to see the second season in anime.