I"s

The TV-MA should indeed be applied to this one, unless an attempted filmed gang-rape is perfectly appropriate for all possible viewers. Actually, two sex-crime/rape situations, involving Samejima the recurring villain of the series and the manga, are prevented in this drama creating the only moments the male protagonist Seto is anything but narcissistic and a thoughtless coward, up until the last episode. There is a lot of Japanese sexual culture in this one without the need for nudity or sexual situations as it reflects peoples attitudes. The insincerity and immaturity of most of the dialogue and at times mindlessly rude behavior from Ichitaka Seto is the opposite of Iori Yoshizuki who is fully likable, and so you spend your time sympathizing with her as its obvious Seto is nowhere near a good enough person to be anything but a type of friend to her at best (he has to think to decide whether its better to save Iori from a gang-rape or possibly hurt Akiba's feelings on a date, and only Akiba's angry exclamation to save her spurs him to action???). Saving any girl from such a nightmarish action should be natural for anyone so this is hardly endearing from the boy who acts forever with self-pity and indecisiveness. Still, the characters and situations in this are realistic (not so in the two summer OVAs) if only painfull to watch. Seto is typical of the bland, pathetic male loser seen in most harem and shonen romance anime and manga and the exact opposite of Tomaya in Clannad until the end of this short series that pretty much follows the manga.

A really solid story good characters even if they both are somewhat dimwitted. You may find yourself shouting at the screen no you idiot no. A good sappy love story with a good sappy ending to match. it's one of the few anime that feels like it could happen in real life and the kind of ending that you wish could always happen. Well worth your time and no it's not some stupid ecchi thing either. The tv ma probably shouldn't really be applied to this one.