English Dub Season Review: Convenience Store Boy Friends Season One

Romance that drags.

The highlight of the show is supposed to be the romances between the two leads and their romantic interests: Mishima with Mashiki and Honda with Mami. Unfortunately, even though the two get equal screen time, they aren’t equal in impact.

Honda and Mami are the stronger of the two, and their relationship greatly changes over the course of the series. Honda at first seems like an overly social and carefree guy, contrasting greatly with the studious and serious Mami. He’s very open about his crush on her, to the point that he’s too forward and ends up scaring her. She confides in Mashiki, and Honda realizes that he needs to step down. In stepping down, he realizes that his behavior is actually scaring her off, and decides to start over as friends. He encourages her, and in turn, she gets to know him more as a person. Honda learning to respect her boundaries, and in turn, respect her as a person, leads to a friendship that eventually turns into a romance.

As a further step up, once they’re in a relationship, things aren’t automatically solved thanks to the power of love. Mami’s parents are extremely strict and don’t approve of her being with Honda, thinking he will be a distraction from her studies. This conflict with her parents, in turn, reminds Honda of how his school life is the only thing keeping him from delving into his broken home life, which consists of his mother working long and late hours, and tension with his stepfather. It ends with Mami realizing that her personal feelings for Honda have importance to her too, and defying her helicopter parents for a bit so she can spend some time talking to her boyfriend. Altogether, it’s a story of emotional maturity and respecting boundaries.

Comparatively, Mishima and Mashiki’s story is much slower. Mashiki seems open, but she hesitates in forming deeper relationship due to her illness. She develops feelings for Mishima but hides them because her coming surgery will force her to part with him. Mashiki herself is a fairly solid character, but Mishima doesn’t have a lot going for him. He was inspired by Mashiki as a kid to not give up, which eventually lead to his love of swimming. He never feels the time is right, so he takes his time confessing to Mashiki. As a result, their relationship building is not only slow, but it’s completely overshadowed by how Mishima doesn’t have much personality.

The most exciting things about the two of them are thrown in the last two episodes. Mashiki’s illness is finally expanded upon, and we find out that the girl who gave Mishima the picture book is actually Mashiki’s dead twin sister. The final episodes are far, far too late for character development, and should instead be a finale to what’s been building up over the course of the series. Instead, we’re not allowed to hear Mishima’s confession. These two are supposed to be the leading romance, but they pale in comparison to Honda and Mami.

The show also had a problem with introducing other couples. Every prominent character just had to have a romantic counterpart, and the audience was supposed to care about their romance and wellbeing. The background characters should be there as support for the mains, which only Nasa and Nozomi managed to do. The others and their romantic developments felt wholly unnecessary. Also, there was no need for the incest episode. It’s very uncomfortable when a background couple gets a whole episode to themselves, only for it to turn out to be incest. It’s a trend in anime, but it’s still disturbing.

Altogether, Convenience Store Boy Friends was kind of a boring watch. Not bad, but not good either- just bland. I’m glad it wrapped up its plot because I wouldn’t want a season two.