Romances are often a balancing act. They have to proceed at a reasonable pace without being drawn-out or stagnant,and have to have a certain amount of conflict while still being healthy, among other things. The first season of Adachi and Shimamura manages these balancing acts reasonably well, albeit not perfectly.
The plot revolves around the relationship between the two girls in the title as they cut class together, hang out, and gradually grow closer. While the series is in the Yuri Genre and the girls are strongly implied to have more than platonic feelings for each other at this point, they don't get together in the course of this season.
I'm not too familiar with the light novels the anime is based on, but the anime appears to stick rather closely to them, with a heavy emphasis on internal monologues by the main characters, which seems to replicate the first-person narration in the novels. It's rather faithful, but if you're hoping that the anime would take more risks for something that would fit the medium better, you might be disappointed.
The two leads are interesting characters, and the internal monologues help viewers become intimately familiar with their thought processes. The two are realistically immature, and often have naive or overly simplistic views of interpersonal relationships.
Unfortunately, this sometimes results in their relationship coming off as rather dysfunctional. Depending on who you ask, Adachi is overly invested in her relationship with Shimamura(to the point of actively refusing to make other friends), Shimamura barely seems to care for Adachi's feelings, or both. This reaches its apex in the last quarter of the season, when Adachi and Shimamura drift apart after the latter seemingly makes new friends. The entire problem would have been resolved if Adachi had just talked to Shimamura, something Adachi herself admits. As a result, the first season ends on a slightly angsty note, with some of the hard-won progress in Adachi and Shimamura's relationship having been reversed, and the two of them still being a long ways from becoming a healthy couple.
There are a few secondary characters, such as Shimamura's friends Hino and Nagafuji(who appear to be a budding Beta Couple), her old Childhood Friend Tarumi, her younger sister and Yashiro, a so-called "alien." The characters help add a bit of variety to the cast, particularly Tarumi's unusually realistic take on the "old childhood friend" trope, but they aren't quite as interesting as the leads.
All in all, despite the flaws, I'm interested in seeing the second season.
Season 1: Dysfunctional But Realistic, For Better Or Worse
This review covers Season 1 of the anime
Romances are often a balancing act. They have to proceed at a reasonable pace without being drawn-out or stagnant,and have to have a certain amount of conflict while still being healthy, among other things. The first season of Adachi and Shimamura manages these balancing acts reasonably well, albeit not perfectly.
The plot revolves around the relationship between the two girls in the title as they cut class together, hang out, and gradually grow closer. While the series is in the Yuri Genre and the girls are strongly implied to have more than platonic feelings for each other at this point, they don't get together in the course of this season.
I'm not too familiar with the light novels the anime is based on, but the anime appears to stick rather closely to them, with a heavy emphasis on internal monologues by the main characters, which seems to replicate the first-person narration in the novels. It's rather faithful, but if you're hoping that the anime would take more risks for something that would fit the medium better, you might be disappointed.
The two leads are interesting characters, and the internal monologues help viewers become intimately familiar with their thought processes. The two are realistically immature, and often have naive or overly simplistic views of interpersonal relationships.
Unfortunately, this sometimes results in their relationship coming off as rather dysfunctional. Depending on who you ask, Adachi is overly invested in her relationship with Shimamura(to the point of actively refusing to make other friends), Shimamura barely seems to care for Adachi's feelings, or both. This reaches its apex in the last quarter of the season, when Adachi and Shimamura drift apart after the latter seemingly makes new friends. The entire problem would have been resolved if Adachi had just talked to Shimamura, something Adachi herself admits. As a result, the first season ends on a slightly angsty note, with some of the hard-won progress in Adachi and Shimamura's relationship having been reversed, and the two of them still being a long ways from becoming a healthy couple.
There are a few secondary characters, such as Shimamura's friends Hino and Nagafuji(who appear to be a budding Beta Couple), her old Childhood Friend Tarumi, her younger sister and Yashiro, a so-called "alien." The characters help add a bit of variety to the cast, particularly Tarumi's unusually realistic take on the "old childhood friend" trope, but they aren't quite as interesting as the leads.
All in all, despite the flaws, I'm interested in seeing the second season.