One of the most annoying things for most western audiences is the stock Japanese romantic archetypes: the extremely shy, extremely chivalrous male and the either equally shy or extremely "forward" female protagonist. These stock tropes are often taken to their extreme in manga and anime. In recent years creatives in the industry have endeavored to break-out of these clichés (most notably in LGBT fiction) and recent works have started to subvert things. The success in winter 2024 of A Sign of Affection shows that western audiences are craving for a more familiar, honest relationship between the main couple in these shows.
While I'm not a big expert or connoisseur of romance fiction, I have been fascinated at how anime and manga handles these the subject. Growing up with the format, I did not care about this when I was young, but as I age and wanted more emotionally-mature work, the limitations of shonen anime/manga becomes more apparent (this is less the case in shojo, but the rule still applies). I am more at home with seinen anime obviously given my age, but I think that seinen is marginally better at relationship and josei is probably as good as it will get when it comes to romance in anime and especially manga (which makes it very unfortunate that josei manga are the least likely works to be adapted into anime). When I watched My Love Story with Yamada-kun at Lv999 in Spring 2023 it had a similar effect in the shojo demographic (for me) that the subject of this review has had.
The first season of The Dangers in My Heart was an interesting affair. The synopsis and 1/3 of the first episode is a fake-out and it reveals from the second half of the episode, the beginning of the love story of Kyotaro Ichikawa and Anna Yamada. The world of these two are very different on the surface, but their awkwardness and emotional vulnerability brings them together. They are learning to love themselves while falling in love more with each other. The first season is showing how alienated and afraid of himself Kyotaro is and how Anna, his classmates, and finally he starts bringing himself out of this alienation.
This season sees him go step by step to become the person he truly wants to be and that his sister alludes that he use to be. The realism of his insecurities and that of the people around him is as realistic as I have seen in awhile. He doesn't magically improve himself overnight, but almost each episode showed some improve meant in him that felt earned. The people around him are not nearly as terrible as he thought they were when he met them and the idea that he could not love someone like Anna is easily disproven without feeling so unrealistic. Though the story is from Kyotaro's pov, it could have easily have been from Anna's pov and not lose any of its power. Because we are not in her head the way we are in Kyotaro's we have to infer her emotions and inner-thoughts from her visual cues. The way she goes out her way to match him and emotionally and his trying to do the same despite how different personalities were is a key point to where we know they are going to become a couple. Even the male gaze is not played for fetish, but feels visceral and awkward as we see it from Kyotaro's point-of-view.
An interesting aspect of this show is the meta-dialogue it has with Kimi ni Todoke. In TDIMH, there is a parody version of KnT that Kyotaro & Anna are both fans of. The in-universe version of KnT's Shōta Kazehaya becomes the conscience "inner voice" for Kyotaro and gives him very honest advice on what he knows he wants or what he knows he needs to do. It is up to Kyotaro on whether to listen to him or not. The irony is that Kyo is obviously more similar meta-wise to KnT's Sawako Kuronuma. Both Kyo and Sawako have become withdrawn and had their self-esteem crushed by events prior to the stories’ beginning. The key to both stories is that they encounter friends and romantic partners who help change them for the better. Now a key difference is that the former title is a shonen romance and the latter is a shojo romance so the temperament of both stories will be different. Also, the drama that Sawako faces is almost-completely external, while it was just one external incident that motivates the internal trauma of Kyotaro. For the more old-school knowing anime fans, Kare Kano is worth a look to compare to this anime.
The production quality has certainly been boosted and the music and editing is really incredible. The way that they introduce the episode title at the end of every episode is masterful at tying the theme of the overall story together. The voice acting is to be commended on how they really go hard for the nuances of Japanese teenagers to an almost painful degree.
When I look at this franchise, I feel like it offers a hope. It tells a favorite type of love story for me: the main character has to remember to love themselves as much as they love their beloved. One is hopeful that more shows that subvert the old standards of anime romance are adapted and/or created. I can't wait until the next season of this anime is made. This show is process, redemption, love.
