Myself ; Yourself is set in 2007 in the fictional town Sakuranomori (桜乃杜 or 桜の杜, "Sakura Forest") in W Prefecture which is modeled after Wakayama Prefecture, Japan. The town is in a quiet, rural area on the southern tip of the prefecture and borders the Pacific Ocean.
Sana Hidaka is a young boy who moves away from Sakuranomori, leaving his friends behind. Five years later, he returns to his hometown to find that much has changed, both the town and his friends. The one most changed is Sana's childhood friend, Nanaka Yatsushiro; she's no longer the kindhearted person he knew during their childhood. Starting a new beginning in his hometown, he's determined to reconnect with Nanaka. But with a storm descending onto their lives, problems rising among every turn, Sana and his friends recollect through their own memories to find a solution for each of themselves. But what will they sacrifice to do what they believe to be the right choice for themselves and each other?
This series portrays the different tragedies of modern life that people experience, but also what it means to truly care for that special someone close to you and what you would help him/her.
Myself ; Yourself is based on a visual novel. There is also a light novel titled Myself ; Yourself: Sorezore no Overture.
Crunchyroll is streaming the anime, which can be viewed here
for people living in the US.
Tropes:
- Accidental Pervert: It's a miracle Sana's never arrested for being a pedophile! Hinako is in fifth grade. That makes her ten when we first meet her!
- Actor Allusion: Yukari Tamura, a voice actress for Shuri, narrates the preview for episode 5 in the voice and style of Rika Furude, which is then lampshaded by Hidaka.
- The Anime of the Game: Somewhat subverted, as the game came out two months after the anime debut.
- Beach Episode: The cast goes to an indoor water park in Episode Three.
- Black Blood: All blood from humans, even a drop from a papercut, is black. However, blood from a fish showed up as red.
- Bland-Name Product: In the opening, a "Starbobs Coffee" shop appears in the background.
- Break the Cutie: Both Nanaka and Shuri suffer from this.
- In Nanaka's case, it's due to the death of her parents. Her father finds out she's not really his daughter, and instead was the daughter of their friend who was teaching her the violin and his wife. He doesn't take it well, kills his wife and burns down their house.
- Shuri suffers from this because of Asami spreading a nasty rumour about her and her brother, which causes strife at home with them and their father.
- Broken Bird: Nanaka, due to her Dark and Troubled Past.
- Chekhov's Gun: Sana's watch, which gets a lot of spontaneous camera attention throughout the series. It hides a scar from his pre-series suicide attempt.
- Cherry Blossoms: The Japanese school year begins in April, around the time cherry blossoms bloom, which is why they appear in the opening shots of so many school stories. Myself; Yourself takes this to absurd extremes, having the trees still in bloom at the end of the series. Unless the whole story takes place in a couple of weeks, this is unlikely.
- Childhood Friend Romance: Most of Sana's love interests are from his gang of childhood friends (making the game has almost as many childhood friend characters as Kanon). They all have a chance to become victorious in the game. The anime adaptation has Nanaka taking the spot.
- Clingy Jealous Girl:
- Asami towards Shuri. It gets to Psycho Lesbian levels when the latter doesn't reciprocate her feelings.
- Nanaka towards Sana, who gets upset at him when he's caught in Not What It Looks Like moments, particularly with Asami.
- Closet Otaku: Sana has an entire box of full of anime stuff (including artbooks from AIR and "Kamon") which he hides from his friends. He also plays visual novels on his laptop in his spare time.
- Cute Clumsy Girl: Aoi.
- Distant Finale: The last part of the final episode takes place ten years later.
- Driven to Suicide: Nanaka, in the last episode; and Sana, pre-series.
- Fanservice: Episode Three, a.k.a. The Water-Park Episode.
- First Girl Wins: Averted: Aoi is the first character to appear, and then Syuri and Nanaka appear simultaneously. However, Nanaka is the first to appear when Sana returns to town.
- Five-Man Band Concert: A sequence in the opening has the main characters pull one of these: Closet Otaku Sana plays the bass, Broken Bird Nanaka is the violinist, Genki Girl Shuri is the guitarist, Token Evil Teammate Asami provides the vocals, Cute Clumsy Girl Aoi is on the keytar, and The Big Guy Syuusuke plays the drums.
- Freakout: Syusuke, after he sees the Umbrella of Togetherness sketch on the blackboard and preceding his Unstoppable Rage after he sees its effect on Syuri.
- Genki Girl: Syuri, with Aoi and Hinaka filling the role occasionally.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: Nanaka's father in a Flash Back. His friend who was tutoring Nanaka on how to use the violin suffers from cancer, and on his death bed reveals a shocking revelation to him, that he's really Nanaka's father, due to an affair he had with Nanaka's mother. He doesn't take it very well, and eventually murders his wife and burns the house down, while Nanaka barely escapes with her life.
- Heroic Bastard: Nanaka. Her real father was actually the best friend of her mother's husband (and who also happened to be her music teacher who taught her the violin), and the mother hid the fact to prevent her husband from forcing her into an abortion. The husband obviously didn't take it well when he found out from the said father on the latter's deathbed, leading to the fire.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Nanaka's memories about the fire that killed her parents.
- Incest Subtext: When Shusuke is asked about his dream girl, he takes a long look at his sister... and describes the exact opposite. More generally shown in a game where Shusuke recognizes the existence of his feelings for his sister when Sana chooses Shuri route, but if playing the game as Shūsuke, there is no Shuri route. Ultimately, the anime ends on the open scene, where the twins are holding each other's hands.
- Lethal Chef: Hinako.
- Likes Older Women: Youta, the little boy whom Hinako helped 'escape' a haunted house, is her boyfriend a decade later. Still, Hinako's only five years older than him...
- Love Makes You Crazy: In the maternal-love sense, the old woman in the rest home towards her granddaughter, who died in an accident. She mistakes Nanaka for her, rather creepily. Later, she tries to bring her granddaughter back to life by killing the rest home's pet bird and cat. When that doesn't work, she decides a "human sacrifice" must be necessary, so she attacks Shuri with a knife.
- Meaningful Name: The cat named Poe has a moment reminiscent of Edgar Allan Poe's Tell-tale Heart.
- Miko: Nanaka, since her uncle is the head priest.
- Mood Whiplash: The show is chock full of this, using light-hearted high school romantic comedy in some parts, only to then take a much darker and dramatic turn, and vice versa.
- Never Trust a Trailer: The opening would have you think the main characters form a band and play together in the show. Though some of them do play instruments, you'd be forgiven for not finding any actual concerts being held by all five of them in the actual show.
- New Transfer Student: What Sana is., though he does transfer in at the beginning of the term.
- Not What It Looks Like: Always said by Sana. Usually caused by Aoi (who has the worst timing in the universe) walking into his apartment without knocking, or by Nanaka (who has the second-worst timing) observing Sana and Asami together.
- Official Couple: Sana x Nanaka, Shūsuke x Shuri, and Hinako x Youta.
- Passing the Torch: After Asami learns that Shuri was attempting to prevent the city from destroying a natural reserve to build a new town hall, she picks up where the latter leaves off afterwards in an attempt to make amends to Shuuri for the problems she caused.
- Parental Abandonment: Nanaka's parents are dead by the time Sana returns to town, and she's instead raised by her uncle when Sana returns to town. See the Go Mad from the Revelation entry for what happened.
- Porn Stash: Sana's box of porn magazines and anime DVDs.
- Precocious Crush: Hinako towards Shuusuke.
- Psycho Lesbian: Asami. She mails a fake letter to cause the rumor of Twincest between Syusuke and Syuri, in hopes of forcing Syusuke to leave, because Syuri rejected her confession a year ago.
- Room Full of Crazy: In this case, an object: Sana's and Nanaka's private mailbox.
- Sentai: In Season 1 episode 9, there is a tokusatsu live show.
- She's All Grown Up: When Sana comes back after five years, he notices that his female friends have grown in certain areas.
- Take a Third Option: Shuri and Shuusuke decide to run away rather than following their father's plan of sending her to a school overseas to separate the two.
- Title Drop: The name of Nanaka's violin song.
- Token Mini-Moe: Hinako
- Tsundere: Nanaka and Hinako.
- 12-Episode Anime: Plus one makes Thirteen.
- Twincest: First in the form of a baseless rumor, later the anime ends on the open scene, where the twins are holding each other's hands. At the same time, in the original game, Syusuke admits his feelings for his sister in one of the routes, although the game does not allow to build a relationship between them
- Umbrella of Togetherness: In the form of a sketch on the blackboard as Sweetie Graffiti.
- What the Hell, Hero?: When Sana introduces himself to Nanaka, he doesn't remember her at all. She slaps him as a result due to the fact that he recognized Shuusuke, Shuri, and Aoi, but not her. She also later rants at him for not being there when she needed him the most shortly after her parents died in the fire.
- Yandere: Asami. Whoo-boy. At least she doesn't physically harm anyone...unlike Nanaka's father, who burned himself and his wife to death when he found out she had an affair before they were married.
