Review: Our Dating Story

Content warnings for this anime

- Sexual discussions (nothing shown, just discussed)

- Inappropriate age gap (a teenage side character was in a relationship with a man who is an adult. He is around 18-19. This age and maturity gap is not brought up, much less criticized.)

I decided to watch this anime, both because a friend enjoys it and I enjoyed Runa's character design quite a bit. This is my first anime review, as well as my first media review in general — I hope to write more in the future! Do be mindful that this is my opinion, and it's fine if you disagree.

Spoiler-Free Review

I enjoyed this anime, and I think the relationship between Ryuuto and Runa is adorable and fun to watch. The side characters were great as well — my favorites have to be Nicole and Maria. It was nice seeing everyone's interactions.

However, I feel the anime relied a bit heavily on miscommunication; though that could be because I am aware of the full context of various events, while the characters are not. The characters are teenagers as well, so it does make sense for them to be messy. To be fair — in a vacuum, the miscommunication conflicts would be fine... however, this show takes place over twelve episodes. Ergo: it concentrates the miscommunication plotlines a bit too much for my liking.

The character designs are nice; my favorite designs are Runa and Maria's, even though their character designs are drastically different. The animation is nice as well.

In summary: The anime was enjoyable. I don't really think it was groundbreaking, but it was still a nice watch.

Spoiler Section

I don't think the pacing is entirely the anime's fault — I haven't read the light novel nor manga, and if/when I do, I expect that the pacing will likely be more ironed out. However, this review is about the anime, and the anime's pacing is... bad.

Firstly, the usage of Maria as a source of conflict, typically from miscommunication, which honestly does irritate me after a bit. Though, logically, it makes sense for Runa's character — it's established that Runa is an incredibly selfless person, especially with Maria. I think that my issue with it comes from how she's used so often for conflict and how repetitive it feels in just the span of twelve episodes.

Ryuuto's conclusion during episode 10, while Runa is keeping her distance from him, is also kind of odd to me. Perhaps I'm too inexperienced in relationships (I, Xia, have intersystem relationships, but outside of the system, I have only dated one person, and it lasted one day), but the idea that men can't talk to women outside of their partner (and vice versa) has never sat right with me — surely there were better solutions than to drop friendships with women entirely? Communication really would have worked better I feel.

The relationships between the side characters are generally nice, but the romance feels rushed. Yuusuke confesses his crush on Akari in episode 10, only to be rejected because he doesn't know her. This is fair and makes sense — however what doesn't make sense is the fact that when Yuusuke changes his appearance, suddenly she finds him incredibly attractive.

It feels out of character for Akari, plus incredibly disappointing! I would have liked to see a plus-sized character get into a relationship with someone who loves him for who he is or, barring that, at least not have him suddenly be perceived as attractive when he becomes skinny. It's a tired trope that reinforces toxic beauty standards, and I wish that stories would stop using it.

However, the biggest issue I have is with Nicole and Sekiya. Sekiya is introduced as a high school graduate taking a gap year. This puts him at 18-19 years old, while Nicole is in the same class as Ryuuto — putting her at 16-17 years old. The two of them used to date in Nicole's second year of middle school — when Nicole was around 13-14, and he was 15-16 (specific age is of course depending on birthdays and such).

While it may seem like a small age gap to some, if we go by strictly the number of years (2-3), the real issue would be the maturity gap. When Sekiya is in high school, Nicole is still in her second year of middle school. It's uncomfortable, even more so when the age gap isn't brought up, let alone criticized. Sekiya is meant to be viewed in a positive light.

One of the more uncomfortable scenes was when he and Ryuuto were talking about why he cannot date Nicole. It's not due to the age gap, according to them — it's, on the surface, due to Sekiya studying for exams. However, Sekiya states that if they did date, "things would go past kissing and holding hands" (not a direct quote; just me recounting because I don't remember the exact quote) — which is uncomfortable to hear an adult say about a sixteen year old! Even worse, in the last episode, even after Sekiya says that he didn't want Nicole to contact him, Nicole goes back to him and it's framed as positive.

Despite my complaints, I do enjoy this anime. The scenes with Ryuuto and Runa on dates made me happy, and one of my favorite scenes was the one in episode 8, where Nicole and Akari got to rant about their interests. While there were many elements of the story that I found aggravating, there were also elements that I enjoyed. I'd probably watch the first few episodes again; I think Runa and Ryuuto's first date is my favorite episode in particular.