English Dub Mid-Season Review: Science Fell in Love, So I Tried to Prove It Season One

In these times of social distancing and self-isolation, it can be natural to feel blocked off from physical contact with others, including those you love. So, in comes a new romantic comedy anime to help give you the warm fuzzies until things can return to normal! Or make you feel even more alone, whatever works. And with the dub being incomplete due to everything going on, it might just leave you feel lacking closure, which probably won’t help. Anyway, two science grad students, Himuro Ayame and Yukimura Shinya, whose lives revolve entirely around analysis and study find themselves growing attracted to each other, but are at odds with how illogical those feelings are, and so begin going through multiple trials and tests with their colleagues to uncover the true quantifiable value of love! From hand holding to snuggling to wall pushing and every cliché in the book, they run the numbers and try to fully unlock the logic behind the human heart.

The show’s premise focuses on the two leads, being mostly fueled by logic and science, trying to understand the nuances and irregularities that come from their budding romance. As you might expect, most of the plot and humor revolve around how these two are very likely head over heels for each other but then hide their feelings (or possibly their fear of being vulnerable) behind rationalizations that help them break down their odd emotional fluctuations into logical patterns, unaware that their hearts are getting closer together as a result. It actually sounds similar to last year’s “Kaguya-Sama: Love is War”, which dealt with a similarly bone-headed couple trying to find ways to confess their feelings as a game to win, though this poses that conflict as a concept to be understood.

And beneath that, the show also has an underlying theme that permeates throughout the rest of its core cast, who are also researchers in one shape or form. That theme being that one should take pride in the subjects they find passion in, even if said subject might not seem the most academic at first. It’s partly the same old reheated “be yourself” lesson, but expressed by the way of showing that every passion and interest can bear scientific fruit if looked at the right way and handled by someone who cares about it enough. Whether it’s dating sims or points on a map, this series is very much a pro-science story that might even fire up the most lazy fan to find some way to incorporate their own interests into an academic paper.

Despite that, there’s only so much I can really say about the first eight episodes of a twelve episode series that’s currently on indefinite hold. Not only that, but the show isn’t the prettiest to look at sometimes AND is riddled with rather cliché character types and plots, though they do their best to have fun with them as best as they can. The final four episodes, from what I can tell, seem to be a solid arc that leads into the season finale, so there might actually be things to talk about regarding that chunk alone, but in case there isn’t, I would say this is a cute story, both dumb and smart at the same time, and good for any anime fan who just has four and a half hours to kill.