It may have a new coat of paint, but it's still the same ol' shoujo inside.
A/N: Some spoilers for later parts of the series are in this review.
I'm starting to wonder if shoujo as a genre is built to handle established relationships. It's known for its sparkly backgrounds, unrequited crushes, horrible rivals, and the will-they-or-won't-they chemistry between the main couple. Recently, more and more series have tried to distinguish themselves from the pack by starting with a relationship rather than ending with a kiss. This is all well and good--shoujo desperately needs a kick in the pants in the originality department--but most series can't completely get rid of the well-worn plot lines and tropes that contributed to the stagnation of the genre. Say I Love You is one of those shows.
It starts out promisingly enough--class loner Mei doesn't trust people or want to make friends thanks to a betrayal she suffered in elementary school. That changes when she accidentally lashes out against school idol Yamato, who ends up liking Mei because she's different from every other girl he's met. After some initial drama around Yamato's playboy tendencies, the two admit their feelings and start going out. The setup suggested that this would be a story about learning to trust people and the complexities of love and friendship. However, the show quickly takes a fall off the shoujo melodrama cliff and never recovers.
A lot of the discussion and hints of character depth in our main couple are done away with as soon as they're brought up. Mei general distrust of people for the majority of her formative years is never brought up again, nor is the accident that caused that view explained. Yamato's playboy actions are relevant for one scene and one short arc involving another character, and then they're scrubbed from his personality in favor of a series of misunderstandings (more on that later). Secondary characters are one-note once their initial relevance to whatever arc the story is on wears off. For example, Asami and Kenji are regulated to the background after they become a couple, despite Asami being the first friend Mei has made in years, and Kenji portrayed as very close to Yamato before that point. Sure, they're still around, but their character relevance stops there.
But even worse is when it falls into the pothole that shoujo as a genre refuses to patch over--drawn out misunderstandings. Despite the fact that they are dating and have kissed in public, our main characters act like none of that commitment exists. They are both incredibly insecure about the status of their relationship, automatically assuming the worst if they see the other even talking to someone of the opposite gender. And then they don't bother to talk to each other, stewing in their own assumptions and causing even more misunderstandings. 99.9% of the problems in this show could've been solved by a phone call or a simple question in-person.
For these reasons, the Meg arc is easily the lowest point of the show, since the plot relies not only on misunderstanding but another shoujo trope: the Mean Girl rival. Meg is a model, popular, and used to getting whatever she wants, so when she sets her eyes on Yamato you already know there's going to be trouble. However, the show forgets to make her likable, or at least sympathetic, so when the arc goes into a Meg pity party, it is extremely hard to care. It's easy to compare her to Kurumi from Kimi ni Todoke, but as unlikeable as she was, the viewer could still see where she was coming from. Here, Meg just comes off as a brat.
Whether or not you'll like this show will depend on your familiarity and tolerance for shoujo cliches and how they're presented here. To me, it seemed like this show would take the easy way out whenever possible, ditching deeper character and thematic analysis for familiar tropes. Which is why I'm not sure if shoujo can handle established relationships; would I be less critical of this show had Mei and Yamato not been dating from the get go? It would've explained the distance and the insecurity. I was never sold on the main couple because, to me, they looked like two insecure kids who needed a little more maturity and trust in others before they got into a relationship. If the story was supposed to be about them finding it in each other, I don't think they did. As it stands, it's a nice, harmless series that's well-animated despite its simplicity. It's not bad as a standard shoujo series. It's when it pretends to be something deeper that sends it skating onto thin ice.
Images from Crunchyroll.com.
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