Myself; Yourself

Next to Ai Yori Aoshi, Myself, Yourself stands as one of the biggest disappointments of a potentially fresh title that I've seen. In the case of Ai Yori Aoshi, a fluffy romantic drama is suddenly turned into a harem comedy by the show's fifth episode. For this series, this slice-of-life high school anime later tries to pass itself off as the next School Days by adding in more shocking plot developments per episode in the show's second half without providing any depth to the issues.

As it starts off, this series has believable circumstances in which Sana becomes reunited with his friends and becoming accustomed to the changes that developed with the town he had used to call home in his younger days. The friends hang out together and Sana wonders over the change in personality with Nanaka. Sure this foreshadowed that there were some personal issues that Nanaka had. But, the 13-episode format would have given a decent amount of time to resolve the issues and possibly create some romantic development with the two while the other members of their circle of friends played support to the relationship.

Unfortunately, this anime had to throw in dramatic situations out of nowhere by the second half which crippled any chance of additional depth or slow development that occured in Sana and Nanaka's relationship development. The series has to toss in as many shocking plot elements as possible to try making this series as daunting as possible. The problem with throwing in these additional plot elements is that it makes the plot to the series a big mess. There isn't enough time to devote a great amount of time to these sudden developments thanks to the 13-episode format of the series and some of the situations felt so over-the-top that they wouldn't even seem too believable (like the murdering old lady). Had this series ran at double the episode length then the additional character situations would have a reasonable amount of time to be resolved in a solid foundation and there wouldn't be any need to adding in shock value.

May I also mention that it was hard for me to take Aoi seriously throughout much of the series because I had visions of Azumanga Daioh's Chiyo-chan dancing through my head whenever I heard her voice considering both are voiced by the same seiyuu.

As it is, Myself, Yourself was one of the most disappointing titles I came across since Ai Yori Aoshi since the direction of the series had to suddenly shift as events in the main character relationship started developing.

• Drama: High (skyrocketing during the second half; I added "Tragedy" to the category list)
• Comedy: Low (Aoi-chan occasionally serves as comical relief vehicle)
• Action: Low (a more or less peaceful friendship reunion, the violent parts are only hinted at)
• SciFi: None (plain old earth, normal people)
• Ecchi: Low (such as accidentally lifting a skirt or poking a breast with chopsticks, and only in the first half of this series)

Wow! What started off with the tone and tenor of a lighthearted high school romance story, just somehow melts down into sordid and nasty mess.

And it left me wondering, just what am I supposed to feel or garner from this story.

Unlike the series School Days (TV), which tells a progressively more troubling tale of a group of teenagers, this series just twists the last four episodes, taking a dark 90-degree turn and dives into the abyss, but to what end?

WARNING SEVERE PLOT SPOILING INFO

And just how many social taboos and nasty people can be woven into a desperate story line? (And I had to add several more items at the behest of DD and A2800)

• Infidelity – The mother of the twins gets ripped (drunk) and runs off to a hotel a man.
• Parental Neglect - Hinako's mother does not bother to remember her daughter's birthday.
• A taste of Lolicon - Hinako and Sana sleep in the same bed, with Aoi imagining nasty details about them.
• Animals Abuse - An old woman kills a dog which Sana and Asami bury in the forest.
• Violence - Shuuri is attacked by a senile lady, intent on killing her as a sacrifice.
• Lesbian love - Asami proclaims her feelings for Shuri.
• Betrayal – One of the characters starts a nasty rumor about the twins.
• More Parental Neglect – When the twin's father hears about the rumor about his kids, he worries more his reputation as a politician than about trusting his kids and the truth.
• A hint of Incest – The nasty rumor about the twins drives them to run off together.
• Spousal abuse – Nanaka watches her mother being beaten up by her father when he finds out that he is not the father of their child.
• Murder & Suicide – Nanaka then sees her father standing over the body of her mother, as he pours gasoline over himself and strikes a match ….
• Teenage Suicide – Mournful at the memory of her parents, Nanaka attempts suicide.
• Teenage Suicide (again) – It turns out that Sana attempted suicide during middle school.

And in an attempt to make some closure on the story, the last five minutes of the final episode skips forward 10-years and feebly tries wrap up the loose ends.

Bah. The whole series just left me with an unhappy and unsatisfied feeling. I almost feel as if I wasted my time with series.

And oh! The opening sequence hints at all of the main characters playing together in a rock-band on a stage, which never happened in this series.

(All episodes watched):

This is seemed like a down-to-Earth type anime at first, but starts to heat up during the second half. It shows a lot of things that happen in high school life that aren't in many other anime I've seen. Though they could've added one more extra episode just to wrap everything up a little better. The ending was dissapointing to me since they just cram everthing together and try to make it all fit. Nothing really happens at the end, you just have to assume that they all meet each other again and live happily.

And to add to Jan-Chan's little list. This series also adds a bit of homosexuality in the midst of all things when Hoshino confesses that she loves Shuuri.

Hah! I knew there was more to Nanaka's "non-linear response" in the first episode than just Sana's lack of recognition.

While Myself; Yourself appears at the start to be a school romance, it ends up being more of a troubled teen story. The ending was definitely ham-handed and tried to tie up too much too quickly -- it seems to me there was at least an episode's worth of fluff in the season they could have gotten rid of to make time for a decent closure. But I will give the series an A for effort, since it at least had sympathetic characters trying to do the right thing with bad situations, unlike too many others series that dealt with the subject (School Days, KGNE). I may have felt a bit misled at the end, but not disappointed, so I'm giving it a 'Rent' rating -- just watch out for the curves.

Analysis : 1 Fansub Watched

• Drama : Med
• Action : None
• Comedy : Med
• SciFi : None
• Ecchi : Low

Ok who decided to cross Suzuka with Tokimeki Memorial.

Main character has insulted the main girl but it appears that 2 other girls are interested in him. And some kind of secret between them. Lets see if I stay with it.

Note : Aoi-Chan (The MegaNekko) has got a voice that was made from Nails on the Chalkboard. Yes it makes my ears bleed.