3D Kanojo: Real Girl

There were two-romcom anime that were airing from the spring 18 season. 3D Kanojo Real Girl and Wotaku love are hard for an okatu. However compare to Takagi San which was more a tease feast instead of a romcom both 3D Kanojo Real Girl Kanojo and Wotaku love is hard for an okatu were actually romcom that uses the character, drama, comedy and narrative to the fullest. However only one of the two romcom anime from the spring 18 seasons was good and that was Wotaku love is hard for an okatu. What Wotaku love is hard for an okatu has over 3D Kanojo RealGirl is that one the characters were likeable, two that show was well-paced and three the romance was actually great and believable. As much I want to go into more detail of why Wotaku is a better romcom anime than 3D Girl Kanojo (stay tune for my review for Wotaku love is hard for an Okatu). In that review I will go into more detail of why I love, Wotaku love is hard for an okatu while I hate this 3D Girl Kanojo which speaking of 3D Girl Kanojo is no contest not only one of the worst anime of 2018 bit is also one of the worst romcoms I have ever seen period. So what went wrong with this show. Maybe with the shitshow that was the story Am not kidding when I say this is one of the worst romcom stories I have ever seen withness. For starters, this show does a horrendous job at portraying the okatu culture. Unlike Wotaku love is hard for an okatu where the show portrays the okatu culture in a more realistic way that is grounded and believable this show literally took all of that and throw it out the window in favour being comical and unrealistic. For example in one episode Mitsuya sees Hikaru helping his sister then Mitsuya tells his sister to scream in order for the police to catch him as well as branding Hikaru as a lolicon for days. Okay, I understand if you don’t like the person as the well the hobby that he does but you didn’t really have to out of your way to humiliate him in public like that so he can be an easy target for the police. People don’t behave like this and that event alone really shows how bad the character interactions are which I get to talk about now. Episode 1 alone is the worst first episode I have ever seen a romcom. Instead of having the two main characters slowly learning about each other the show decides to start off with a very contrived pool scene where they both of them fall into the pool. After that, the show decided to have an awkward conversation by having our female lead Iroha ask Tsutsui that he is a virgin and Tsutsui replies honestly. The whole conversation feels forced and unnatural as both characters talk at each other instead of allowing a character they sentence plus nothing from that conversation was remotely interesting and because of these reasons alone, the show did a horrendous job at establishing theses characters. To add insult to injury all of this shit happened in the first episode where both of these characters met for the first time. I would have been okay with this if that happened in later episodes where at that point the two main characters started to understand but having that scene happened in very first of the series really shows how poorly directed and written this series is. The single worst thing about the show is that the show itself at times literally forgets that it was a romcom anime as it the show at times devolves into a shitty slice of life anime with a poor portrayal of otaku culture which completely kills all the potential romcom thanks to its stiff character interactions and relationships. (2020 Review update I watched the second season ). Finally, for people who are wondering about the second season. No its not better. Its on par with Season 1 in terms of quality Sure it tired its hardest to fix some of the major issues I had with Season 1 but it wasn't enough. The damage was done. If you the story was bad enough guess what? The character are even worse. Tsutsui is just your boring and unlikable okatu freak who is hard to relate to thanks to his stiff character interactions. Iroha is just your typical easy-going girl who jealous a lot. While I liked Iroha more than Tsutsui in terms of personality I still thought she was a pretty mediocre character at best. The rest of the cast are just throwaway romcom characters that we all seen before as they only to exist to create drama and conflict to the narrative. Like with the story and characters the visuals are shit. The character designs for 3D Kanojo Real Girl are very uninspired as they look like they were done in 1 hour without a second thought. The animation is below average it constaints of shotty camera angles, still frame and overall weak animation. 3D Kanojo has very forgettable soundtrack overall. The same can apply to the shows opening theme however the ending theme was kinda decent. The voice acting in the show is pretty decent overall and all the Seiyuus did a fair job on each role. Overall the soundtrack is pretty mediocre at best. What a total dumpster fire of a romcom. The story is badly written to the absolute core, the character are all unlikable idiots, mixed with a forgettable ost, weak production values and poor story directing. If you want to watch a good romcom anime from go watch Wotaku love is hard for an okatu instead of this train-wreck.

3D Kanojo: Real Girl is a painful experience. A lazily shat out rom-com that uses cliches and plot contrivances as a crutch to hobble its way through twelve agonizing episodes. Proudly it presents insultingly stereotypical characters that are anything but three-dimensional. All you need to do is gaze upon this glorious shitfest and it becomes abundantly clear what the show’s main issue is: it’s fucking hideous. The art is a disaster; backgrounds are a mess of fuzzy colors, there’s very little animation, and in an attempt to stay on model the characters hardly change their expressions. All the show has going for its visuals arethe character designs, and even those are just the same faces mediocrely drawn and in worsening quality as the show progresses. The love interest, Iroha, has one expression for the majority of the show, pouty sad girl, the main character Tsutsui is more expressive which also means more frequently off-model. From time to time you’ll see characters slide across the frame on motion tweens with no animation whatsoever, making it seem like they go to a school for ghosts. And that's the closest the show came to making me laugh. Stiff character animation is partly to blame for the lazy comedy, but also the directing is so slowly paced that even if the dialogue was good (which it isn’t) there wouldn’t be much to enjoy. Awkward doesn't even begin to describe how the dialogue feels, it's clumsy in a way that’s too unnatural to be believable and too poorly timed to hit with any impact. Sharing some of the blame is the monotonous elevator music that adds nothing but a headache to any scene it's present in. The moment the opening song starts playing my brain feels like it's going to explode. The singer sounds so depressed like he’s about to shoot himself, I instinctively hit the mute button so I don’t have to contemplate the void while watching 3D fucking Kanojo. The rest of the soundtrack gives me the sensation of my brain slowly swelling from the aneurysm the droning music gives me. The same song with only two piano keys is looped ad nauseam during dramatic scenes. It slowly puts more pressure on my skull until I relieve it by turning the volume off. Do you like the sound of printers on repeat? Well, check out the sick beats on these action scenes because these swooshes and boops will knock your socks off. This exceeds all bounds of low budgeting, it’s just plain and simply lazily made. 3D Kanojo falls flat on its face as a comedy, but there’s still room for resonant drama (spoiler alert it’s a cringy disaster too). A story about two emotionally damaged people sorting through their feelings together is an alluring premise, and with a better writer, it could have been good. It’s not fundamentally flawed, it’s just terribly executed. The characterization relies heavily on cliches, and the character-driven story uses only contrivances to progress. Rarely does character development feel deserved; the story is divided by misunderstandings, a third party drives a rift in the lead pairing, then the conflict is resolved by the end of the chapter rinse and repeat. 3D Kanojo is barely competent because it relies heavily on this formulaic cheap method of telling its story. Even so, a character-driven story is only as good as its characters allow it, but they're trash too. Tsutsui begins the show as the standard archetypal boy who hates real girls because people look down on him for liking anime… That’s not much of a motivation, but the series had room to flesh him out more. And nothing came from it; he remains a mostly oblivious idiot for the entire series. His only ‘character development’ comes from cheap contrivances that lead him into trouble with his girlfriend then eventually the issues resolve themselves. Instead of subverting the mountain of stereotypes it chooses the cheapest route and gratifies his misogyny by making all of the girls comically cruel to Tsutsui, with the supporting character Ishino to represent the mob of angry cardboard cutouts. Her only excuse for hanging around Tsutsui and his girlfriend is that she’s his childhood friend, yet it doesn’t seem like she has a good reason to be there at all. Ishino constantly verbally and physically abuses Tsutsui, and he lets it happens because he's a spineless child. Who in their right mind would be friends with this bitch? Ishino is mindlessly in love with the guy who accused Tsutsui of being a pedophile. It's as if she wanted to spite him. But don’t worry, the asshole she's in love with said he was sorry. Even though he ruined Tsutsui's reputation, the asshole is allowed to join their friend group. He even goes on a camping trip with them all. Why can't he just grow a spine and tell this guy to shove it and get lost? I’m not sure what I was missing here, but how can someone go from trying to ruin a person's life to best friends in the next goddamn episode? It’s a suitably moronic resolution for that tire fire of an arc. Later on in the series, a stereotypical nerdy girl appears to serve as another case of the trope Not Like Other Girls. And of course, she's not allowed to just be an archetype because whenever Tsutsui sees her he accidentally comes onto her, making her fall in love with him. Tsutsui’s obliviousness defies all logic, no human is this much of a bumbling moron. Sadly this is 3D Kanojo and there is no room for logic with all these cliches stuffed in. Of course, there is a plotline dedicated to this misunderstanding and the rift it causes between Iroha and Tsutsui. Lazily written misunderstandings fuel most (if not all) of the drama in this series. You’ll always know how to easily resolve a situation episodes before the characters do, it's frustrating and quickly becomes painful to watch unironically. Before Tsutsui and Iroha started dating, he sees the Real Girl herself crying alone in public, then proceeds to creepily following her as she runs errands. Eventually, a shop clerk accuses Iroha of stealing, then he takes it as his chance to take off his hood and emerge from the shadows to defend her. Oh, drool… what a hero, this actually impresses her. That’s what their relationship is built on, him being a creepy stalker and she is not like other girls for various shallow reasons. At this point (the first episode) the show has divided itself from reality, the main character is no longer relatable and all of the playing into stereotypes the show has done goes nowhere, there is no subversion. The author of Real Hurl genuinely believes that otakus are creeps and the key to a girl's heart is stalking her until she likes you back, it’s hilariously stupid and borderline gross. Anyone who has worked in retail can tell you if you ever accuse a customer of stealing you will lose your job. The whole scene is stupidly contrived to justify Tsutsui stalking Iroha moments ago. It’s all so she can say to him “wow you are a nice guy I should date stalkers more often!” This is exactly why 3D Kanojo doesn’t even work as cute passive entertainment! It fails at being both a comedy and a drama and is not even enjoyable as passive entertainment. I have enjoyed plenty of cutesy shoujo anime regardless of trashy writing, Kiss Him Not Me was pretty funny despite the stupid fat joke it was predicated on. There is no part of Real Girl that I found remotely cute or appealing. The main relationship is so codependent yet there’s no actual commentary on codependency. Even though she is the title Real Girl, Iroha has literally no agency in the story. Despite being this tough girl archetype she has so little characterization of her own. She’s pulled around in the story, never allowed to guide its direction. And Tsutsui’s isn’t always the one to drag her around. They even throw in the lowest common denominator "not blood-related" brother to tear her and Tsutsui apart in the final misunderstanding-fueled chapter. There was even some 100% necessary incestual rOmAnTic TeNsiON that I can barely recall because at this far into the series my mind was shutting itself down to protect my sanity. If you can turn a blind eye to codependency, the main relationship is still disturbing. 3D Kanojo seems content with calling it cute regardless of the creepiness. I had expected at least some discussion about how the main character literally stalks, takes pictures of, and fantasizes about his girlfriend typically while she’s asleep in the same room as him on multiple occasions (the author’s fetish). But no, he’s an otaku so that kind of cute behavior is normal, right? NO! This kind of stereotype is so moronic that it’s offensive. I take back what I said earlier, otakus deserve better than this. Watch something, anything else. It’s clear the author of Real Girl has never been close to an otaku. She has no idea what they're like. She wrote the main character based on a demographic she doesn't know at all. Tsutsui is an otaku because we’re told he is. He likes some shitty magical girl anime because we’re told it’s good. He's misogynistic because we’re told so, not for any clear reason. He’s a socially inept dimwit, so the characters have to constantly explain his emotions. Tsutsui is so vacuous that constantly we’re stumbling into these unanswered questions like; Why does he like her? What caused him to hate women? What does he even like about anime? Score Breakdown: [Story: 2/10] Contrived and idiotic beyond belief. [Character: 1/10] Cliched, archetypal, thoroughly unlikeable. [Art: 2/10] A messy disaster, lacking animation. [Sound: 3/10] Repetitive and uninspired. [Enjoyment: 1/10] Comparable to being lobotomized. [Overall Score: 2/10] 3D Kanojo is so mind-numbingly stupid it defies universal logic, I can feel my IQ rapidly decreasing even at this moment just for contemplating the hamfisted story. But not only is it intellectually insulting, but it's also downright offensive to anyone who dares to try and relate to these grotesquely portrayed stereotypical characters. To top it off, the final episode closes on a non-ending halfway into the incest arc with a sequel already in the works. I can hear the mangaka laughing at me all the way from Japan because I hoped I could damn this to the void forever. Well, 3D Kanojo can fucking take the last laugh because I'm sure as hell not going to waste any more brain cells on this nightmare.

I wouldn't normally write a review but with all the hate that this show is getting I felt I had to write something... Im not going to go into telling you what this anime is about since you can literally flick back to the main page and read the bio so Im just going to jump right into how I feel about this anime... (FYI score is fully based on entertainment) I have never really been in a significant relationship myself... Partly because the idea doesn't appeal to me, I feel as though there is nothing someone of the opposite sex can offer me while ina relationship that I can't get outside of one minus the hassle of going out with someone (of course this could just be me being narrow minded since I haven't been in one) (btw the other half of the reason I havent been in a relationship is because Im just too much of a c**t) so I have no way to say how accurately this anime portrays a socially awkward couple, but even still I want to say just how entertaining this show was... But first, lets look at some of the reasons people might try and avoid this. Was it repetitive? Yes Did some of the characters make me want to pull my hair out at times? Yes Did they shove comedy into some areas it just didn't belong? I think so. Did it follow almost every cliche romance anime hardships known to man? You already know it. Best of luck to you all from here on out, this is the unedited stuff coming up and my brain works like a gamer with an apm over 500 (in other words so much crap is going on you start to wonder if everything is even relevant or following a logical order)... Back on track though I think the main reason I liked this anime so much was because of how lighthearted it was (and I dont just mean that in the sense of the humour used), it was relaxing to watch. I binged this thing from 10-4am and when I finally shut my laptop last night and checked the time while setting my alarm I realised just how long I had stayed up watching this... Im not overly craving a second season, I wouldn't rant about it as being one of the best anime I have ever watched. But the fact that I could kill 6 hours without even realising it, I could have a good laugh and I could get that stupid grin on my face like a 5 year old who has just been told by his parents they will buy him icecream later then I think that is a good anime. Anyway in summary, I thought the anime was laid back, chill, fun to watch, interesting and kind of refreshing (Maybe because I wouldnt normally watch stuff like this idk) and if you have a few hours to spare I would certainly say you should give it a go, I mean you have nothing to loose, what you see at the start is what you get. If you don't like the first 3 episodes then I guess your relationship with this anime wasn't meant to be...........................................................................

I am only writing this because it bothers me when someone's hard work is misunderstood or misrepresented. I want readers of my review to understand that while the overall story/plot of the anime is mostly unremarkable and hardly creative, the characters themselves and how they drove their own actions is what made this worth a watch. Real Girl is no masterpiece, but for those of us who enjoy a few romcoms out there, some slice of life shows, this one is definitely in my opinion, not the worst out there at the very least. In fact, all it took for me was to wait outuntil after the opening theme. The first bit right before the opening of the first episode had me rolling my eyes, but by the time I got half way through the episode, I was already ready to continue to the next one. The thing I like most about the two main characters in particular is that although they start off based on a sort of cliche, the story launches itself from there by way of much deeper character development. I even believe that the title of this anime is slightly misleading, as the anime itself doesn't truly put nearly as much emphasis on "2D vs 3D" as I originally expected. These characters felt relatable and were most definitely deeper and more emotionally thought out than their initial cliche summaries. Not everyone enjoys a simple light hearted romcom (although I admit this one had me crying more than laughing), but for those who do, it is worth the watch. Thank you.

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