English Dub Season Review: You Can’t Be in a Rom-Com with Your Childhood Friends! Season One
Overview:
As a romantic comedy enthusiast, Yonosuke “Eiyu” Sakai enjoys the stories about childhood friends the most. But he solemnly believes that the flawless, loving childhood friends from his stories exist only in fiction. Though he has two childhood friends of his own—Shio Minamo and Akari Hiodoshi—Eiyuu has never seen either one of them as anything more. Is that about to change?
Our Take(Spoilers):
You’d be forgiven for thinking this is the same plot as Osamake: Romcom Where The Childhood Friend Won’t Lose because, in a lot of ways, it is. You could argue that Osamake is one that Eiyu might have read, which put all the ideas of a childhood friend rom-com in his head. The main draw of Osamake is the fact that the childhood friend will win, which is something that rarely happens in manga or anime. The trick is that everyone in that story is a childhood friend, so of course, one will win. This show seems to have the same premise, even if it doesn’t outright state it. I haven’t read the manga, but I would be surprised if one of the four girls introduced doesn’t end up with Eiyu.
Both stories do almost nothing to progress any of these plotlines. It’s one of the things that’s so maddening for fans of romance anime. You rarely get any sort of resolution; rom-coms especially rely on lots of chapters keeping the status quo going so that it can run for a long time. I get that it’s a way for the author to continue to support themselves, but couldn’t we see what the couple is like after they get together?
One positive I greatly enjoyed was Veronica Laux’s performance as Akari. I’ve always heard her voice, shy and unassuming characters which is the exact opposite of Akari, who is your typical tsundere. I loved getting to hear a different side of her voice talents, and if her Behind The Voice Actors page is anything to go by, we’re going to continue to hear more from her.
In the end, You Can’t Be in a Rom-Com with Your Childhood Friends! It isn’t a bad show, but it’s also not a good show. There are many better rom-coms out there, and with no sign of this getting another season, you’re also probably better off reading the source material. The characters are enjoyable, but since one of the best characters doesn’t even get introduced until the ninth or tenth episode, it makes it hard to recommend.
