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talenlee · 1 year

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Story Pile: Shikimori's not Just A Cutie

2022 was a year for extensive arguing about different varieties of Best Girl, what with Yor Forger, Marin Kitagawa, Bridget and probably some more I’m not remembering right now. One of the dark horse entries, based almost entirely in my friendscape’s reaction to the thirteen seconds in a trailer where she pulls a mean face, is Shikimori-san from Shikimori’s Not Just A Cutie.

People make fun of light novel anime titles having huge explanations for the entirety of the story you’re buying into but you know, I think that Shikimori’s Not Just A Cutie is basically the same thing. It’s a romance anime from mostly the perspective of a tragically failure-prone boy dojikko (dojibro) who at the start of the series is dating Shikimori. She is a cutie, and also there’s a bit more to her.

Just a bit.

First up you have to know that there’s no grand twist here, there’s no sudden revelation that she’s a magical girl or a secret survivalist or something like that. I thought it’d be funny if the twist was that she was actually like, Black Widow, some sort of secret government assassin choosing to be a cool ordinary girl, like Hannah But Girlfriend or something, but nope. It’s not that, it’s just that she is also good at sports and physically very adept. In base archetype terms, if you’ve ever seen the Dark Prince archetype of a dude in romantic anime, you know, the kind of threatening-hot, commanding type of guy? Yeah, she’s that kinda guy.

And then almost nothing happens across twelve episodes.

Nothing!

N o t h i n g.

In twelve episodes, the ‘events’ that transpire that influence the characters include a school festival where nothing really goes wrong, two sports days in which nothing much goes wrong, a girl realising she had a crush on Shikimori’s boyfriend and never acted on it, and a holiday to a river. There’s no long form myth arc or challenging content, you can easily stop paying attention and miss nothing too important, and a lot of the series is spent setting up opportunities for Shikimori to do something cool or cute and get shown doing that.

It isn’t bad it’s just that the thing it wants me to focus on seems the kind of thing that’s meant to be happening while something else is happening. It’s so remarkably absent of friction and event that I started wondering if that was the point. And that’s why I wind up watching this series trying to find other things to look at. What it’s really about. What it’s not talking about, what it’s only implying.

There’s a thread of invisible queerness running through this story, based on the fact that it seems everybody is overwhelmed by how hot and cool Shikimori is. Other girls stare at her and remark on how amazing she is, and there’s even a moment later on, where to protect Izumi, she just smiles and does the ‘shh’ gesture at another girl, resulting in that girl getting a full eyecatch level of ‘oh my god she’s so hot’ kind of reaction, arrow through the heart, big screen freeze frame, whole deal. Girls fawn over girls in this series, with a lot of physical closeness and fixation on their appeal. Izumi’s mother flirts with her and the story points that out.

There’s a section of the story that’s about a second girl who, the story says, has a crush on Izumi, but the way she expresses this is pinning him to a bookshelf and wanting to know everything about how cool Shikimori is, which doesn’t sound like very straight behaviour, y’know. Put a pin in this we’ll come back to it.

Essentially, Shikimori is presented as being the dream girl for everyone around her. Even the other girls. She’s so attractive, she’s so cool, and she starts the series already in a relationship with Izumi, which means you don’t have to find out how this soggy biscuit of a boy who fails at everything and gets hurt winds up dating the Girl All The Girls Want (though, you know, they do go back and show you). The cast is overwhelmingly women – there are something like three boys in total, and every girl who meets Shikimori is charmed by how cool and hot she is, which sure makes it seem like this isn’t just a bunch of bisexual characters, but a bisexual world where the assumption is that everyone in the world likes girls, and that’s just natural.

But that’s not the only kind of queerness that hovers around the story; there are a few points where Izumi compares Shikimori to a hot guy — even aloud, to his friends, where he wonders ‘where that hot dude came from.’ Shikimori’s backstory looks back on a childhood where she was a martial-arts doing tomboy raised by an aggressive older brother, who she wanted to compete with and defeat. Then, she has her eyes opened by shojo manga, and realises how much she wants to feel like these characters, and then does a full training montage of her choosing to become this beautiful girl Shikimori. She updates her wardrobe, she works out, she starts studying how to be a girl. The whole sequence is a set of pills in a montage sequence away from being a sort of speed-running gender transition effect. It’s not that but the structure that sequence pours into is the choice of becoming a gender.

But let’s not talk just about the general vision of queerness in terms of the more obvious categories I talk about all the time, but instead the really strange way it handles its ‘love triangle.’ Note that there’s no actual love triangle; Shikimori is dating Izumi, and Izumi finds out there’s a girl, Kamiya, who had a crush on him and never acted on it. There’s this really weird sequence there, where the story holds its breath and you may imagine that it’s about to do something like, a conflict, but instead the conflict is about whether or not there will be a conflict.

Basically, Kamiya doesn’t quite go to explain her feelings to Izumi. That’s the thing she’s building up to doing, and instead winds up meeting on the rooftop to talk with Shikimori… who then thanks her for not doing it, for showing that she’s willing to take that hit for kindness’ sake, Shikimori hugs her, and is a cool princely type, who reassures her about her feelings, and

Right, that’s it

Right?

Except the next episode is Shikimori and Kamiya going on a date. Oh sure, it’s just gals being pals, just where Kamiya explains to Shikimori whether she’s a top or bottom and Shikimori winning her prizes in crane games and then playing basketball with her to defeat again some weirdly hot delinquents. It’s super weird because the story had set things up so that Kamiya could just walk on out now, she’s done her bit, she’s had her introduction, her development episode, then there’s a whole episode dedicated to her and Shikimori going out on what is definitely a date and Kamiya reflecting on how this helps her deal with her heartache.

Girl, you just have another crush now!

But I’m the one bringing that to bear here. All of it. The polyamry, the bisexuality, the eerie silhouette of Shikimori’s relationship to her gender being that of an AFAB trans woman. Because sure, this is all about answering the question ‘what is this implying,’ but I’m the person answering it.Because left to its own devices, one of the big things this series is implying is that it’s Japanese.

All this stuff, the gendersy stuff, the queer stuff, that makes sense to me, because I grew up in a repressive environment where you couldn’t tell someone you wanted to kiss a boy because of the potential ramifications and that meant any exploration of that had to be done with the most timid of hidden signals and ambiguities. Thing is, I don’t think that anime is being made with the mindsets of a millenial Australian from a church school, and what I see is perhaps much more reasonably represented by them making a series about being a Japanese teenager, and the way that gender is policed and patrolled there.

If you look at the work as presented, this is the heroic story of a tomboyish girl who after much struggle, resolves to commit to the task of becoming a completely standard, iconically represented example of a woman as her culture determines she should be. It’s not a challenging story, and in a lot of ways it’s about the triumphant overcoming of self-image that lets a girl who was already awesome in one way graduate into the most conformist image of being A Girlfriend.

The way the show is so empty of conflict, and so light on its challenge means that if you’re not bringing one of these other lenses to bear on the story, if you’re not looking for headcanons to adjust, then the story seems to be trying to shape itself to resist an absence of struggle, to show how hard it can be, how triumphant it must be for a young girl to transform herself into a romance manga prize. It says that you can be a girly girl who studies and is cute in the most conventionally feminine aesthetic as already allowed, as long as you recognise that that’s the thing you should be.

It’s Liberal Centrist Girl Utena.

Now that may sound like I think this show sucks, but I really don’t. I think that there are a lot of different ways to turn this lens to see how you feel about it, but where it’s inescapable that it is itself, and anything else is something you bring to it. And when you consider what it is, on its own, regardless of how you choose to see the world or the characters, I did still like watching this fluffy nothing of an anime. Maybe it’s just because the fluffy nothing it seems to think is relaxing and fun is stuff I genuinely like things to see stories choose to be about: Working together, building friendships, and weirdly homoerotic hangouts with hot delinquent girls!

It’s kind of like watching a shounen series in that you tune in to watch some basic setup and then the moment when the hero shows up and punches someone real good, except the thing you’re waiting for is seeing how Shikimori shows off how absolutely freaking cool she is this time. That’s all an episode needs, because, uh, Shikimori is incredibly cool and seeing her do cool things is also very cool.

There’s also something to be said for the point the series wraps up. The finale that most romance anime build towards is some progression of a romance to the next level – a commitment, a marriage, or sometimes, a first kiss. In Shikimori’s Not Just A Cutie, it does build up to a date between Izumi and Shikimori in which yes, a kiss is made and the two talk about their feelings and how they want to be together, and that date is really charming. There’s one thing in it that I like in particular, where they see the queue for the dark ride they want to get on is about ninety minutes. They queue up and start talking, and then we see a montage of them progressing through the line for the whole duration of that wait; talking to one another, gesturing animatedly, discussing things, joking and laughing all while around them, other people are just bobbing along.

It’s a really lovely sequence for representing a really true feeling for me, where doing nothing with the person you care about can feel great; where what you want to spend your time doing is being in the place with that person, talking to them, understanding them, and you can’t be bored because you’re both there and you have the energy and will to just… talk. It’s a really sweet moment, and I liked it a lot.

Shikimori’s Not Just A Cutie is a gentle toothless anime about nice people being nicely into one another not because I’m missing anything or because there’s something even deeper that I’m missing. It’s literally the point, it’s what this genre of anime and manga is about, it’s what it’s for, it’s just that thanks to the way marketing works, I don’t tend to see stuff in this genre unless it has some other reason to escape its generally accepted orbit, like Don’t Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro or Horimiya.

I make fun of Hallmark genre movies. I make fun of them because they’re toothless, anemic, don’t tend to have a meaningful follow-through on the narrative they’re presenting, rely on tired tropes and fixate on the perspective of boomer grandparents who want to watch people their millenial kids’ age that make them feel young but not too young. And all those things are totally valid things to criticise them for. Mixed in amongst those criticisms, though, there’s this recurrent thought that hey, these things are just nice stories for people who want nice stories. They lack bite and edge because I want those things in a story, and these things are just relative.

Sometimes you can fall into a subgroup’s media and not realise that the things that you think are problems are here, the point.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

#Media #StoryPile #Anime

#Anime

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anime-fyi · 2 years

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One’s a boy with terrible luck, prone to mishaps with a heart of gold. The other’s a cute girl, always seconds away from being unbelievably cool. Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie may be a high school romance, but the role reversal and great cast of friends makes it so much more.

Following Yuu Izumi (boy) and Micchon Shikimori (girl), things begin innocent enough as we watch the pair go about their daily lives, being an adorable high school couple. Thing is, Shikimori is more than a cute girlfriend, no, she’s a fierce, strong spirit underneath the veneer, able to shield Izumi from hazards, big and small, and just ooze coolness doing so. That could be a turn off to some, but as we find out later, Izumi wanted a hero to save him from his bad luck, and that’s exactly what he found with Shikimori. Saying that, she does still want to be a cutie, creating moments of frustration and unease.

Beyond the couple, the friends and family really bring the story together. Whether they’re in class chatting, doing something after school, or having a moment dealing with some bad luck Izumi brings about, it’s always in some way fun, warm, and at times emotional. They’re not just passerbys, they add onto the story, each having their moments, as well as times to see just how amazing Shikimori is. Right, and we even get a missed relationship in here, but that gets resolved in such a peaceful way, making you wish that you could be part of this friend set. They’re all wonderful people, truly.

Recommended? Absolutely. This is one of those shows that puts enough unique twists on typical story lines that it stands out. Akin to Horimiya, there’s an authenticity here to the environment, friends, and family, that makes it feel like they could be real, even if it’s a bit more idealized than that show was. An entertaining, warm at times, slightly confrontational when it needs to be, high school romantic comedy that should be high on the list to watch.

#chris talks anime #anime review #kawaii dake ja nai shikimori-san #shikimori's not just a cutie

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nntheblog · 2 years

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Shikimori’s Not Just A Cutie Episode 10 Review: What's Happened ?

Shikimori's not just a cutie or Kawaii Dake ja Nai Shikimorisan in Japanese is a comedy-romance and slice-of life anime. It was based on a manga by Keigo Maki that was published in Magazine Pocket. It's being brought to anime by Studios Doga Kobo. Their previous shows featured similar themes and appealed largely to the same demographic as Shikimori. Doga Kobo has Plastic Memories and Monthly Girls’ Nozaki Kun. Ryouta Itou is the series' director. Ryouta has directed shows such as My Senpai is Annoying before and has also done animation work in many other programs. This episode is also known by Kawaii Dake ja Nai Shikimori Episode 10. - Kawaii Dake ja Nai Shikimori Episode 10 Review is not spoiler-free - Shikimori isn't just a Cutie Episode 9 Summary Izumi is absent from school in the episode's first part. Izumi has a fever and decides to miss school for several days in order to recuperate. Instead of asking Shikimori to help, he texted Inuzuka instead and asked him for notes. Shikimori feels jealous of Inuzuka and sulks. Inuzuka was therefore compelled to ask about Shikimori’s feelings towards Nekozaki, Hachimitsu and other people. Because of her actions towards him, he believes she hates him. Inuzuka mentions Shikimori as well, considering him a rival in Izumi’s eyes. Hachi and Neko told him otherwise. Shikimori asked Izumi if he would accompany him to Izumi's house after classes. Inuzuka accepts, despite his anxiety. Neko tells Hachi that he will follow Inuzuka and Shikimori around, as it will only be them. Shikimori and Inuzuka decide that they will go to a local shop to buy some comfort food for Izumi. Shikimori asks Inuzuka what Izumi prefers while shopping, as she has difficulty choosing. To Inuzuka’s delight, Shikimori refers to him as "Onii–san," or brother, throughout the process. Shikimori realises what she did wrong and tries to keep her silent. Surprised, Shikimori gave Inuzuka the grape-flavored snack to thank him for helping with Izumi. He accepts the gift and realizes that Shikimori doesn't hate him. Hachimitsu appears unannounced and explains Shikimori’s behavior to Inuzuka. She explains that Shikimori acts this way towards Inuzuka due to Shikimori's older brother. Shikimori also notices it and teases Shikimori to Shikimori's dismay. The second half of this episode is about Shikimori, Nekozaki and Kamiya’s friendship. Nekozaki invites Kamiya to a fun day. They met at the arcade and became close friends. Nekozaki recalled inviting Kamiya to come out, only for her to decline. She also recalls the comments made about Kamiya. Kamiya's classmates believe she is a snob and prefers to spend time alone than with her classmates. This has led to Nekozaki believing that Kamiya is now more open and honest. She smiled more authentically and seemed more friendly and kinder. Shikimori, Kamiya and others form a close friendship over a claw-machine and win some prizes. They played basketball together with some street girls. Kamiya realized that she was having just as much fun with Shikimori. It was her first experience with something like this. Kamiya finally asks Shikimori if she would like to become her friend and meet up with her again. The latter graciously agrees. Kamiya and Nekozaki discuss many topics on the way back. Kamiya allowed Nekozaki to ask her questions, which she politely answered. Nekozaki on the other side, however, wants to know about the person who influenced Kamiya. Kamiya is unable to answer the question but believes telling Nekozaki about Izumi will only make things more complicated. Shikimori's not just a cute episode 10 review - Sports Time! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiRHP_45LY4 Even the most staunch Shikimori supporters will admit that the show has lost much of its spark since its inception. It lost its novelty and charm as time went by or we got used to its plot and characters. The show's COVID required breaks, which helped to remove it from the public consciousness a bit faster than it would without it. Perhaps the magic was meant to last for a short time, and not for a long time. Evidently not. It was one of the most memorable episodes of the show, and it certainly had the magic that captured the attention of the audience when they first saw it. This episode was different because it didn't focus on Shikimori or Izumi but instead focused on a character who has been there from the beginning on the sidelines. Although the main characters were not needed to make this episode as great as the first, they still played their roles. Shikimori's Episode 10 of Not Just A Cutie was Hachimitsu’s episode. She was always a confusing character on the show, always present in the frame and not reacting beyond her unique expression. She was the funny, zany character that was kept around for comic relief. As the Fonz proved, comic relief characters can be as interesting as the main characters and even more popular than the Fonz. Although Hachimitsu may not be the most well-known, she is still interesting. Shikimori's Episode 10 of Not Just A Cutie was also the sports festival episode. This meant that there was lots of team spirit and friendship. The race was a bit more competitive because all five members of the main group were also participating. Hachimitsu, Izumi and others were always going be outnumbered in sports events like this. But what the show did was amazing with them. Even the most depressed characters can be felt. Friendship can overcome all obstacles. Isn’t that what anime has taught us? Shikimori's Not Just A Cutie Episode 10 was also very emotional. It came out of nowhere and hit like an earthquake. This episode featured more still frames than usual in the series. This is because animators were unable to fill the time due to budgetary or other constraints. This is unfortunate, but it is normal in this instance. If the episode was this good, even with this liability, it isn't too much of a problem. This episode also featured a great soundtrack, which was a big plus. Verdict Shikimori's Not Just A Cutie Episode 10 was a great episode and an emotion-filled ride. Read the full article

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evor20 · 2 years

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#shikimori #式守 #yuu izumi #和泉ゆう #kawaii dake ja nai shikimori-san #shikimori's not just a cutie #Miss Shikimori is not just cute That Girl Is Not Just Cute #mycap: kawaii dake ja nai shikimori-san #可愛いだけじゃない式守さん #manga #my edits #manga cap #mangacaps #manga caps #my manga caps #shikimori x izumi

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mokacheer · 2 years

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Shikimori's Not Just a Cutie 【PV】

#shikimori's not just a cutie #kawaii dake ja nai shikimori-san #miss shikimori's not just a cutie #that girl is not just cute #micchon shikimori #yuu izumi #anime gif #anime girl #anime boy #anime #spring anime 2022 #by moka #dailyanime #dailyanimatedgifs #fyanimegifs #anisource #anime couple

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fofurinhaz · 3 years

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🍄 ¿ (( … 🥝 ★ ヤム !! … Demons everywhere ?! デビルズ ♡

#Kawaii dake ja Nai Shikimori-san #Miss Shikimori is not just cute #kawaii dake ja nai shikimorisan #shikimori's not just a cutie #random icons #twitter icons #anime icons #icons #manga #manga icons #anime girl icons #anime profile pic #random manga icons #shikimori icons

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otakuful · 5 years

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#that girl is not just cute #manga #Kawaii dake ja Nai Shikimori-san #Miss Shikimori is not just cute #shikimori #kawaii

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immoren · 5 years

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I see they let Bakugo have sidejob outside MHA.

#Kawaii Dake Janai Onnanoko #That Girl Is Not Just Cute #inuzuka shuu #izumi yuu #bakugo katsuki #my hero academia #boku no hero academia #Kawaii Dake Janai Shikimori-san #Miss Shikimori Is Not Just Cute

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recentanimenews · 2 years

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Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie English Dub Reveals Cast & Crew, Release Date

She's beauty, she's grace, and she just might kick you in the face — the intensely adorable Shikimori's Not Just a Cutie is the latest Spring 2022 anime to get the English dub treatment, and we're pleased to reveal that the first episode will be coming to Crunchyroll on April 23 at 1pm Pacific Time!

Here's the ultra-capable cast and crew bringing this dom-rom-com to life:

Cast

Macy Anne Johnson (Chiyuki in Smile Down the Runway) as Shikimori

Bryson Baugus (Bell in Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?) as Izumi

Clifford Chapin (Bakugo in My Hero Academia) as Inuzuka

Michelle Rojas (Roxy in Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation) as Nekozaki

Molly Zhang (Adachi's Manager in Adachi and Shimamura) as Hachimitsu

Lydia Mackay (Kyoko in Fruits Basket) as Motoko

Mark Stoddard (Oishi in Higurashi: When They Cry - GOU) as Akisada

Additional Voices: Aaron Campbell, Alex Mai, Ben Balmaceda, Jan Aponte, Kalyn McCabe, Kelsey Maher, Kevin D. Thelwell, Linda Young, Madeleine Broseh, Marisa Duran, Mark Allen Jr., Paul Cline

Crew

ADR Director: Emily Fajardo

Assistant ADR Directors: Mark Allen Jr., Tia Ballard

ADR Engineer: Jamal Roberson

Assistant ADR Engineer: Bob Romans

ADR Script Writer: Clayton Browning

ADR Script Supervisor: Tyler Walker

ADR Prep: Brandon Peters

RELATED: Crunchyroll Reveals SimulDub Lineup for Spring 2022, First SPY x FAMILY Cast Details

Based on the manga by Keigo Maki, Shikimori's Not Just a Cutie is directed by Ryota Ito (My Senpai is Annoying) and Shohei Yamanaka (Remake Our Life!) at studio Doga Kobo, with series composition by Yoshimi Narita (Dance Dance Danseur) and character designs by Ai Kikuchi (How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift?).

If you're a fan of romantic-comedy anime, don't miss Episode 1 of Shikimori's Not Just a Cutie's English dub when it drops on April 23 at 1pm Pacific Time, right here on Crunchyroll!

The ultimate "heartthrob girlfriend" appears! Naturally unlucky high school student Izumi's girlfriend is his classmate Shikimori. She has a beautiful smile and kind personality and always seems happy when she's with Izumi. She's a pretty, cute, and loving girlfriend, but when Izumi's in trouble… she transforms into a super cool "heartthrob girlfriend!" The fun lives of the cute and cool Shikimori, Izumi, and their good friends never end! This 1000% precious romantic comedy begins now!

Der shy man behind @Shymander, Liam is a timezone-fluid Aussie with a distinct fondness for anime, Eurovision and creating odd stats projects despite hating math.

By: Liam Dempsey

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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