I can’t give you a more nuanced or complicated opinion. For most things, I’m willing to concede an “you’ll like this if…” and “it may not try anything new but…” but this series was so mediocre that I can’t. I’m completely partisan here. But I can give you are more details about what exactly it was I disliked.

While your criticism that my assertion that our little love birds getting jiggy with it after Aka had just gone through the traumatic experience of having her apartment burned down is too vague might be fair, I still think that scene encapsulates a lot of the problems I and any potential viewers have with this anime. Put yourself in Aka’s shoes- you’ve just gone through some dizzying trauma, and now a kind stranger lets you stay in his house… before seducing you? You’re obviously exhausted and not quite in the right state of mind- this really isn’t the time for someone to try to get their mack on you. One of the reasons this scene is almost disturbing is that she seems a little dazed when Matsumoro beds her, like someone slipped some roofies in her red wine. With the generic soft focus and silhouetted lovemaking, the series is obviously trying to make the scene be erotic and romantic, but it’s just disturbing. While I understand that plotwise, it’s supposed to be a mistake and the catalyst for the tension between the two of them, the execution makes it a really clumsy, borderline creepy Meet Cute.

That clumsy execution that evokes such a dissonance between what I’m watching and how I’m feeling is a running theme in this anime. How is the mood supposed to be “balanced out” when the jokes they rehash aren’t funny? How are the Audrey Hepburn references supposed to be clever when they’re so obvious? How is there supposed to be any tension when I’ve seen so many other anime do the same damn thing? Ah! My Goddess, Tayutama, Onegai Teacher and Onegai Twins, My Bride is a Mermaid, and Crescent Love all come to mind as anime that had a couple who obviously feel for each other, usually live together or are outright married, but just can’t say the words. It isn’t just generic- it’s cliche.

You’re right, Toradora is a better example of a romance anime. There’s some real tension and chemistry between the couple, and that’s because it avoids some of the cliches and has a great sense of humor. The characters are also a lot more colorful, especially Taiga. And what do the characters in REC have going for them? Matsumono is one of far too many drab and spineless male anime leads, and Aka is only has an upbeat personality and couple of gimmicks that aren’t even very well executed.

There are some aspects about it I liked, and you covered them in the article (Aka’s character design is pretty damn cute. I have a weakness for redheads.) But the generic and outright bad reached enough critical mass for me that the two hours I endured it for were a real drag.

One more thing: yeah, people keep telling me to watch KareKano. I keep hoping I will, but I’m kinda always broke and can’t afford a forty dollar DVD set.

In good reviewing taste, I’d appreciate a more nuanced elucidation of your reaction to the series, rather than a generic, vague “X is an unexplained-yet-seemingly-cliché example of something that dictates why this show is bad” cop-out (re: “should tell you all you need to know about this anime”).

As a romance, I feel that the show evades any sophistication in its humor (ie., there really aren’t any jokes), aiming instead for a light-hearted balance to the negative emotions that continually crop up throughout the episodes. As for the romance being “aggravating”: good! Let’s see some tension finally! Kare Kano, for example, suffers from initial episodes in which the couple proclaims their love immediately, so the audience has to deal with a narrative that goes from climax to denouement immediately instead of at the end of the series. Bradley: Since you explicitly state you haven’t seen a series like this, go check out Kare Kano. If it weren’t for Hideaki Anno’s excellent visual interpretations of emotions, it’d be a pretty boring series.

I agree that the show isn’t excellent, which is why I recommend Toradora over it at the end of the article. But I feel that the movement between episodes pushes the viewer toward the next chapter without boring him/her to death (thereby eliminating what could have been the feeling of a “long two hours”). Basically, the show is an understated “good.” After all, even though it’s a fairly average romance, why can’t it be good? Since when do we have to equate “the generic” with bad storytelling? If anything, either 1) the animation, or 2) the otaku-ish tendencies (explained in the article) detract more from my enjoyment than the actual romantic flow.

It falls into a lot of the same potholes other shounen and seinen couldn’t avoid: its most sophisticated jokes are pratfalls and “oops did I just walk in on you pooping” gags, and the romance is aggravating since neither one of them will admit their feelings. For once, I’d like to see an anime explores what happens after the couple exchanges L bombs.

In short, it was a long two hours.

Bradley