Last year we had Kimi to Boku, something as unusual as a slice-of-life series about boys, and not girls, doing absolutely nothing except living their lives (or, cute boys doing cute things). With no real expectations, especially since it was done by the hit-or-miss studio J.C. Staff, it completely caught me off-guard and blew me away.
For starters, it was a rather fresh take by having boys instead of girls as the main group of characters. Secondly, it actually portrayed boys as being gentle and caring in a natural fashion, something I have rarely seen in anime before (it is usually only wimps, tough ones and idealized pretty-boys I see). It was never over the top or anything like that and it was, for most of the time, believable. Finally, it was also a great romance series. So good I would call it one of the best in that area, which comes down to the fact that it is realistic.
Kimi to Boku also has an overload of cats for some reason, which is always a good thing.
So believe me when I say I was a happy person when I learned how Kimi to Boku 2 would air shortly after the first season (a split-cour, it seems). The sequel continued along the same path as the first one and further developed the relationships between our five main boys and their love-interests. It truly showed how painful love can be and how hard it is to truly connect with the girl you love. How many anime have done this? I cannot think of any.
Kimi to Boku is by no means perfect, there are a few areas it could improve upon (such as having more serious/dramatic moments), but it remains as a unique take on boys in anime.
Another anime featuring boys this year was Daily Lives of High School Boys, or Nichibros for short. While this was basically a comedy series, with hints of satirizing anime at times, it also had boys being boys. They were silly, crazy, bros and acted as how you would expect boys to do (from a gender stereotypical perspective, that is). Once again, this is something we do not see often in anime. Fooling another person to dress in girl clothes? Doing voice-overs on people in the distance? Sacrificing yourself to keep your bro from humiliation?
I love it.
Not only were Kimi to Boku and Nichibros good anime by themselves.
They were also a fresh take on boys in anime.
Anime Viking 
I totally laughed at how utterly gay your first paragraph on Kimi to Boku. sounds. They are just like my favorite fuwa fuwa boy group, so caring~ and gentle~, PANTS=WET, tee-hee-hee! 😉. Man, please do that more often from now on. You gotta believe me, it’s hilarious.
Nothing wrong with that.
Also, what happened to Tsuritama? Cute boys waving their fishing rods? Talk about phallus symbolism!
Now you’re just being silly.
Yay for spreading the love about Kimi to Boku!
I loved especially how the Cafeteria Cinderella relationship was resolved, but they whole show was just was wonderously soft, fluffy and charming.
I really needed something like this, now that there’s rape even in SAO.
No, Hidamari doesn’t cut it.
Danshi Koukou Sei no Nichijou was also great in a totally different way.
Merging the two anime would be a slice of a typical male highschooler’s life.
PS: J.C. Staff is really becoming the cat studio these days. Just look at Little Busters and Sakurasou…
The ending to the Cafeteria lady was sad 😦
Haha, I never thought of it! That’s true 😮
Kimi to Boku one of the only shows that shows how hard it is to connect with the girl you love? Have you not watched Honey and Clover!? Man, love hurt in Honey and Clover!!
I also loved Nichibros for portraying a relationship between a bunch of guys that felt real, not at all idealised. It’s so much more entertaining to watch more realistic relationships, that’s why I loved the cast of Steins;Gate and Persona 4 so much, the banter between characters made it feel real. They weren’t so nice to each other things felt strained, unlike in some other shows I could mention…
I… god, people have been mentioning it all the time lately. No, I haven’t watched it. Yes, I will. Sometime.
I remember your post on the matter. It was great 🙂
Let’s get the obvious OG’s “Macho Nichijou” joke out of the way:
This is Macho Nichijou’s theme song, not because of the group, but because the song fits.
I think I told you my thoughts on both shows so I leave you with this additional comment: Thank the anime deities for Literary Girl, “Mary” and Kaname’s Mom.
Creeeeepy mother.
Also, that song is wonderful.
Awww, Kaname’s Mom just wants to hang out with her son. She’s just starving for attention. It’s not what you think. Really, it isn’t.
Oh, and calling Macho Nichijou romantic…other than the legend of “Literary Girl and Megane Dude”, nothing else came close to igniting my hetero romance senses. After all, the show taught us that women are servants of the dark lord.
More serious and dramatic moments…in Kimi to boku…you’ve been watching way too many romance movies, or craving them, haven’t you?
Not really! I just think it would be interesting to see something like that but in a more serious fashion.
I suppose, though I’m more than satisfied with what both shows had already accomplished and not what more can be.
The gift of the character Shun was already a positive eye opener.
I loved Kimi to Boku and liked Nichibros.
I agree. This aspect blew my ideals on anime boy crushes. My crushes were just too ideal, but thankfully I was able to get over them and began to embrace the gentler and more real ones.
Yet another good part that I really loved in Kimi to Boku. I was not really that close to my guy friends in school, so I didn’t really know how boys act or address their feelings of love. However, I did know some puberty stories from some friends. Although I hadn’t anything to accurately base on the realism in Kimi to Boku’s approach, the romance aspect was convincing and believable. I find those moments cute, but painful at the same time. Chizuru’s case especially resonated in my heart.
Chizuru is awkward in the sense anyone can be. It’s difficult not to like him.