KAKANLen09
September 26, 2023
Mixed FeelingsWell-written
Story: A boy likes a girl because she always forgets her glasses. Animation: Sweet Lord Jesus, it's a mesmerising blend of 2.5D and 3DCG...that could it hail the comeback of the infamous studio GoHands? If there is a lesson in AniManga that the veterans have suffered through and the newbies have not, it is that "less is more". No, I'm not talking about lowering quality for quantity; rather, it's setting expectations straight. But to that, you might say: Come on, when it comes to works from the infamous, primarily 3DCG studio that produced one of the god-awful shows of the 2010s (a la Hand Shakers), how canyou NOT be excited about how the studio is going to continue wrecking source materials going forward? And my answer will be: GoHands has probably the biggest risk of producing not 1, but 2 shows this season, and while the core staff team may still be overzealous of its prowess in uncommon animation techniques, I personally think that GoHands has really scored big this Summer season...in a good way.
The first of 2 shows that studio GoHands is producing this Summer: mangaka Koume Fujichika's Suki na Ko ga Megane wo Wasureta a.k.a The Girl I Like Forgot Her Glasses, which if you've been through many rom-com shows over the years in AniManga, this one would sound like it's just that: a bland rom-com of a developing high school boy who's obsessed with this beautiful and pretty high school girl, just because the recurring gag is in the name. But above all of the many self-conscious episodes that one might reckon that the joke has been and can play out endlessly until the author decides to finish the romp to satiate those who are sour and just want this joke to end, the devil is in the details, and truer than not, the source material is a delight to read and see the various interactions, though that mileage may vary.
As for that interaction, don't go expecting the male MC of Kaede Komura to be like Takagi-san's Nishikata, Komi-san's Hitohito Tadano, or even BokuYaba's Kyotaro Ichikawa. Just because they're about the same age between middle and high school doesn't mean that they behave with the same mentality; it's how authors decide to progress their characters that makes the difference. But for some weird reason, Koume Fujichika seems content with wanting Kaede to just act like the adolescent boy who's discovering love for the first time, and even after multiple attempts, he still fails to catch on that his love interest in female MC Ai Mie is just that: an absentminded girl who always forgets her glasses. If I have to take a gander, Ai is a walking trope (not meme) who does the near impossible, like getting to school without her glasses despite her house being just a stone's throw away, and in relation to those who really wear glasses for shortsightedness, she loses the perception of distance and has to sit very, VERY close to Kaede to say, borrow his textbook to read or see his face clearly, which obviously makes the eyecandy blush.
Sure, the good-natured, shy adolescent boy exhibits the "boy at the back of the class" trope who gets the girl, which in this case is Ai herself. He is always aware that even if Ai prepares her glasses before going out of her house, she's bound to forget them somehow, which doesn't surprise him all the more. This is always true in regard to their classmates, who notice their romantic shenanigans. One good example is Ren Azuma, the popular guy in school who is the epitome of a ladies' man. His Ikemen-style appearance and gentleness earn the favour and confessions of the girls (to which he'll kindly reject them), but what entices him more is that he's aware that Kaede is in love with her, so if the opportunities arise, he'll support them whenever necessary. This is why Ren Azuma is the likeable Ikemen wingman. Another example is one of Ai's classmates, Narumi Someya. The pigtail-haired girl, who always seems conscious of Kaede intentionally getting too close to her, is a jealous and attention-seeking girl. Otherwise, there's not really much going on with other characters, like mangaka Souichirou Yamamoto, who opts to just have the main Takagi-Nishikata couple on the front and centre line (with the Ashita wa Doyoubi girls as extras), but the investment into the support cast is just left out as such and only needed when the chance is called for.
There is no doubt that the main talking point about the show would be its production, handled by the infamy that is GoHands. And boy, they sure LOVE to flex their unusual, over-the-top animation that many will find jarring, me included. The manga was simple, drawn really nicely, and cute, but when it comes to the studio, especially if this is your first time watching a show produced by them, I'd recommend that you get used to it because this is their signature animation trademark that has never changed since K Project back in 2012. For the most part, I can take it for what it is since I've been disseminating my eyes since the days of Hand Shakers, and I'll say that the show is rather nicely produced. It's just that the majority will hate the artstyle, and for good reasons that I cannot fault them with.
The music is really nice, given the OST produced for this show. Tsuzuri's OP "NAME" is a jazzy song that will delight with cute, fluffy, and wholesome vibes, and I know for a fact that it was composed by Vocaloid producer DECO*27, which he has composed Anisongs in the past. But as well as the OP is, I can't quite say good things about Masayoshi Ooishi's ED, featuring Kaede and Ai's VAs, which, while being a cheerful song, the ED sequence was cute but kinda garbage for being visually bland.
In the eyes of the beholder, Suki na Ko ga Megane wo Wasureta a.k.a The Girl I Like Forgot Her Glasses is a show that you can either take or leave as it is. While it's not a rom-com that I would personally recommend for being overly ambitious on the animation front and the story beats moving slowly but not progressing, it's still a good show that is worth the relaxation beats of a simple love story between the male and female leads, of how one repetition could surprisingly veer off the usual rom-com tropes and still stick to its sole objectives.
It's just a feel-good rom-com with no BS love drama or pretences, when all is said and done. A decent return to GoHands.
