Anime: The Dangers in My Heart

Score: 7.4/10

(Images/Gifs/Editing to come in next 24 hours)

I like anime. I know that may come as a surprise to you, but I really do love anime. I don’t love everything about anime, but I do know one thing about myself. 

I love romance anime.

As annoyed as many people get by the classic tropes, exhausted love triangles, or familiar story beats, I always seem to go back to the genre. It’s a big comfort thing for me. Don’t get me wrong, many romance anime are excessively cringe. There are many terrible tropes, conventions, and gross stuff that I get why many don’t always love the medium of anime or the genre of romance anime. However, there’s a certain nostalgia I have from watching romance anime or, more often, romance in anime in general. Whether it’s It’s a flaw I’m aware but I always find a comfort in watching at least one romance anime for the year.

That said most good romance anime are about a lot more than romance. They are usually tales about coming of age, self-exploration, or love in general. They often have some flavor or genres mixed in there to help differentiate it from other romance anime as well. Think Blue Box with sports anime or Your Name with sci-fi. This is where The Dangers in My Heart truly falls short.

The Dangers in My Heart is only interested in romance.

While yes both Ichikawa and Yamada do have coming of age stories, those coming of age stories are far too tangled up in romance. Neither Ichikawa or Yamada have stories that can exist in isolation of each other. And while this isn’t always a bad thing, it’s less about the inability to be isolated but the need for Ichikawa and Yamada to use each other as narrative crutches. It makes their writing shallow overall and continues to hit the same few notes over and over again.

That said before I get into the meat of things, let me go over a couple of Production™ things.

Production:

If you listen to my podcast you’ll note this section is somewhat similar. 

Studio: Shin-Ei Animations

Known For: Teasing Master Takagi San, Stand By Me Doraemon, Shin-Chan series

Seasons: Spring 2023/Winter 2024 for Seasons 1/2

Source: Web Manga

Author: Norio Sakurai

Known for: Kodomo Gakkyū, Mitsudomoe, Rororro!

Director: Hiroaki Akagi

Known for: Teasing Master Takagi San, Combatants Will Be Dispatched, A Couple of Cuckoos

Music: Kensuke Ushio

Known for: Chainsaw Man, Dandadan, Devilman Crybaby

Listen, I don’t have too many grievances with the production. Shin-Ei isn’t a top studio these days and that’s totally fine for a project like this. They keep the art to the quality of the source material (which is quite good) and use some nice dramatic lighting here and there. The animation can be spotty on occasion but nothing you’ll really notice. You might notice some missing transition animations so they can save money but it’s nothing egregious. The main thing to note about the production is that it never does anything too interesting. In the first few episodes they use some slick editing and pace towards the ending of each episode very well. They do a neat little end to every episode with the “karte #” and then the episode title. It’s pretty cool the first time you see that. It made me hope that the studio had a few more tricks up their sleeves. Unfortunately, most the Shin-Ei plays it very safe. While there might be some scenes that experiment with ideas, nothing actually leaves an impact. The directing is very much “let’s just stick to the source and make the dramatic stuff as dramatic as we can.” It’s not uninspiring just rather predictable. No real risks are taken and at times the pacing can feel very monotonous. What’s worse is this is I think this might be one of Kensuke Ushio’s weaker soundtracks. It’s still like and 8/10 and he cooks on some songs but it doesn’t define or save some scenes it could have. That might also be because I find the show uninspiring in general and let’s get into why that is.

Foundation:

On a fundamental level, the story’s foundation is very solid. While yes it is the classic gimmick of “the male main character’s insane but the heroine will warm his heart” it’s tried and true for a reason. The show’s presentation and ideas really scream Japanese school life and awkwardness and feels very authentic. I will say the whole edgy “I want to kill Yamada” shit went away insta which is a good thing but it always feels like a waste of time. Like to me its such a lazy hook but I understand why you have it because having a good hook in a romance anime is pretty hard unless you start with a very cute moment. Honestly, every show should just copy Makeine’s Too Many Losing Heroines hook.

You have seen it before. If you were to look at most things in The Dangers In My Heart you wouldn’t really be able to point out large mistakes that go against its core goals. Those core goals are authentic and do manifest into good moments. That said, its core goals are very basic and more often than not the average episode chooses to indulge in its “appeals” rather than its actual goals. And when the show is about its goals and overarching themes…

It’s very blatant and in your face

That’s not necessarily a bad thing all the time. I think occasionally as storytellers we need to let it all out there. However, I usually reserve that right to more cathartic/emphatic moments in stories or at least stories with deeper meaning than just a typical coming of age. And if you know me, I LOVE a good coming of age story. The Dangers In My Heart just does literally nothing interesting with it. Part of that is because the show’s balance is completely off. It will often indulge in something meaningless and then fully invest itself into something related to the main plot. This is primarily due to how Ichikawa and Yamada are positioned with the story/their relationship. I don’t want to talk about their individual writing just yet but moreso how Ichikawa and Yamada function as CHARACTERS and as PROTAGONISTS.

Scope, Characters, and Stories:

To make myself clear, these concepts and ideas I’m gonna share are nothing new. They are incredibly simple. That said they are often forgotten about by most audience members and even creators. The first thing I’m gonna talk about is the scope of a story and how that affects the storytelling mechanisms and moments you rely on.

Identifying the scope of a story is something we all inherently do after enough media exposure since it’s tied to genre. See my Queen’s Gambit Video where I talk more about genre. This review on The Dangers In My Heart isn’t gonna involve me being pissed at the show for not greatly delving into the darkness of human nature. You can tell right away that even despite the edginess of Ichikawa that this show isn’t trying to do that. It’s also not an epic with a grand journey. While yes I do expect some scenery changes and moving plot, there isn’t a large plot overarching the whole thing, no deep world lore, and certainly less broad themes.

So, what is the scope of The Dangers In My Heart?

It’s a boy-meets-girl romance that deals with the awkward stages of puberty and insecurity. That’s it. 

So if it’s a small scope, that means since you have less ground to cross. Less ground to cross the more time you have to actually add in meaningful details. You see missing details all the time in big shows. Like as much as I love Avatar the Last Airbender it’s not as detailed as a show like March Comes in Like a Lion because it’s trying to cover more narrative and thematic ground. It deals with war, spiritual self-discovery, and the burden of bearing the name. March Comes in Like a Lion isn’t doing anything that requires that much time. Which is why it takes it’s time building up Rei as a character. Giving more details to his insecurities and lack of self forgiveness. It builds side characters as reflections of what Rei could be. Time is everything in a narrative. You can do so much in every scene.

I always point out to people who in an episode as seemingly basic as Episode 4 of ATLA with the Kiyoshi warriors it’s setting up so much. It defines what some people think of Aang as the Avatar, Katara’s relationship to him, and Sokka’s arc of self-discovery. And it does all that in 1 episode while being incredibly light, fun, and easy to understand. 

So why when I’m watching The Dangers in my Heart do I feel like the show is both too damn fast and too slow. I was confused as to why at first until I realized the exact reason is that the relationship feels too slow while the arcs of the story feel too fast. This is because of how Ichikawa, Yamada, and their relationship are positioned in the story. While with a show like Kaguya-Sama Love is War, Horimiya, or Oregairu there is more to the story that just the romance. 

The Dangers in my Heart’s story is Ichikawa and Yamada’s relationship. The show is only every interested in that. Even the characters’ personal struggles HAVE to be tied to it.

When you watch Kaguya-Sama, you see the whole game they play and the large overarching plot is about vulnerability but in a very fun way. Horimiya is primarily attached to Miyamura opening up very slowly. The whole point is he has to interact with the characters around him and then see how those characters interact amongst each other. And Oregairu is about learning to actually help yourself and learning to stop using toxic self-defense.

The Dangers in my Heart doesn’t have anything like that. It is solely interested in Ichikawa and Yamada relationship. 

And arguably only their RELATIONSHIP, not even them as characters.

To see this in a romance anime is incredibly disappointing and is somewhat demeaning of the hidden potential of the genre. It’s about so much more than just cute/nostalgic moment, butterflies in your stomach, and dumb fan service. What the show wants to do is make you care about Ichikawa and Yamada solely through their interactions with each other. Rather than building up their personalities and arcs then making us care about those characters and thus their relationship, the show consistently chooses to indulge in their relationship. It’s a bad look when your two main characters are always on screen and on screen together. It gives them very little breathing room for individual growth or diversity in the plan. The show is consistently the same few beats.

Ichikawa is shy, Yamada says hi, Ichikawa doesn’t acknowledge it cause he’s shy, boobs, Yamada is kinda sad, and then Ichikawa tries to express his feelings. 

When two characters rely on each other’s writing in order to exist, their on-screen time together because less meaningful. Which is why their relationship feels so slow. They are constantly sharing on-screen time together but rarely making any progress. While yes the writing is authentic and while yes there are good moments, it’s not enough. It’s so disappointing to see characters that are simple but could have nuance be treated as stepping stones for cute romance anime moments. And while in isolation the moments can seem cute, the moments that stick in your heads are the ones with proper build-up. You could argue that their is proper build up for Ichikawa and Yamada’s relationship.

There is not proper build-up for Ichikawa and Yamada

Like what is the point of this story? Are we trying to just farm cute moments that can be marketed to sell the anime/manga? Why am I supposed to care about any of this? There’s no overarching theme, no unique twist, and no fucking character writing. Like I swear I would dedicate a whole section to this review about how egregious the fan service is. Like it’s nothing overtly gross or over the top but it’s how persistent it is in the show. While yes you can argue they are going through puberty and yes it’s fine for romance shows to have some, it’s so fucking excessive that I’m sure it’s a main appeal of the show. Yeah I don’t need to see Yamada’s boob bounce every shot or know that Ichikawa just jerked off. Breaking fucking news. And I know middle schoolers are vulgar and weird and gross, but Adachi is just so annoying and then they expect me to care about him.

The main issue is that most other romance anime feel like 1+1 = 2, The Dangers in my Heart feels like .5 + .5 = 1. Ichikawa and Yamada’s inability to just be their own people is infuriating.

Characters: Kyotaro Ichikawa

Ichikawa is your typical male POV romance anime protagonist. He lacks self-confidence, has aggressive tendencies, but ultimately is very kind. Kaguya-Sama, Horimiya, and Oregairu also all have main male characters like this. Not to say that this is bad and unoriginal, but more to show I actually do like this type of character quite a bit. And you can see it in his base character writing, the fundamentals are there they just don’t go anywhere. Romance anime rarely needs a ton of originality, often just a good twist and primarily very authentic emotions. And while I think Ichikawa if authentic, I think he’s a bit too self-obsessed in his own pity party. Which I hate using the term pity party, its really cruel and can be quite insensitive. I ultimately don’t find Ichikawa’s struggle to be that engaging. The “I hate the world” mentality while authentic is super overt and aggressively overplayed. And while I understand his kindness, it feels very white knight and a bit unnatural. Like sure he’s a middle schooler and has a lot of ego, but they never engage with it. So he oftentimes just feels very cringe. And again, it’s fine to have that here and there like most romance anime things. It is literally all he does.

His whole arc and with the romance manga character appearing in front of him to gain self-confidence and a more objective perspective is incredibly in your face. The show lacks any finesse in its storytelling. It’s the type of show that I would argue is actually targeted for kids. His edginess is hard to watch and he gets himself into cringey situations without actually investigating how he is and what he wants. His entire personality is “I want to date Yamada but I don’t want to burden her because no one else likes me.” This is the top of plot you can wrap up in less than a season, hell even in a movie. And while you can go deeper and stretch it out the show never does that. It’s always does something cringe, goes in room, anime character appears, and apologizes to Yamada.

I just wish that Ichikawa had a purpose other than: “Don’t worry, short losers can pull hot, tall girlfriends with big boobs too! Just get over that edge and cringe and you can do it! Believe it!”

Characters: Anna Yamada

While Ichikawa was very similar to the male protagonists of Kaguya-Sama, Horimiya, and Oregaiu, Yamada is nothing like her female counterparts in those shows. Calling Yamada a protagonist is generous. While she has the screentime and narrative control of a protagonist, she is rarely ever given the respect of one. She’s often just an object of Ichikawa’s admiration, doing a silly little gimmick (with fan service), or crying so that Ichikawa will say something. While Ichikawa’s writing is somewhat independently asking questions that for some reason has Yamada as the answer, Yamada’s writing is only in reaction to Ichikawa. We never see her outside of Ichikawa’s perspective. While yes she has moments that do give some definition to her character such as with her wanting to stick with modeling cause it’s something she’s good at. That’s not character writing, it’s only the start. Every other moment where Yamada should have the ability to have some agency, she is trapped by needing to the serve the role of hot girl that Ichikawa likes.

I sometimes forget this genre of romance anime exists sometimes cause I don’t like watching most anime from the horny male gaze. I actually tend to watch a lot more of the shoujo side of romance or at least more neutral romance shows. I know why that reason is but they also tend to have better writing. But this is a show where the female deuteragonist is there just to serve some male fantasy. Even until the very end the whole point is that the show wants to prove that Ichikawa can be loved by “the hot popular girl.” And while parts of the show try to make Yamada more than this, she ultimately never becomes anything more than that.

Honestly, I would rate this show higher if there was some other kind of appeal to it. If it was funnier, had a unique gimmick like Fruit’s Basket that extended into other storytelling, or at the very least cared to pace itself better. Like while I have talked about his negatively most of the review as I tend to do that’s because the positives are so boring. Art is good, music is good, and the foundational writing is intriguing enough. There’s nothing that excites me about The Dangers in my Heart it’s always so predictable and indulgent that I wanted to drop it before I finished it. Because while I enjoy the good moments for what they are they never feel earned. I get why people hate the romance anime trope where the two main characters don’t together until the end. 

But restraint is essential in romance anime.

I Want You To Love Romance Anime

All of the romance anime are very different. Kaguya-Sama Love is War!, Horimiya, Oregairu, and Makeine Too Many Losing Heroines! all have different forms. While sure they may share appeals and many tropes there is a lot of nuance in how they pace and structure their story. But one thing in common amongst all of them is they learn to restrain themselves and make you earn the big romance moments. Even in Horimiya where Hori and Miyamura are already together early in the show, the big romance moments aren’t until they’ve gotten closer to each other.

Those moments for these shows were after big fucks up, upsetting fights, and depressive episodes. The characters become truly transparent on screen and ask if that’s okay. And they rarely get back up quickly and even slower to get back to romance. What they do is they try to find out who they are and find their starting line.

Because romance starts with you before anything else.

If you can’t find a reason to care for the main cast, you won’t care about their relationships. It’s why romcoms are tried and true. You like the main characters cause of the comedy and then you care about their romance. But romance can be so much more than that. And sure I mentioned quite a bit of romcoms, I want that to change.

Because you can see with The Dangers in my Heart the need for it to try and be a romcom while not being very funny and it hurts. You can see it sticking to certain tropes without understanding why. Romance anime is one of the mostly heavily troped genre/medium combinations there is.

And while I would like that to change and be evolved upon. The tropes exist for a reason, when used well they are incredibly heartwarming and meaningful.

So if you watched this show and really liked it, I can assure you that you just like the form more than the show. The Dangers in my Heart is a mere outline of the greater story told by romance anime. It’s a solid outline but nothing more. I encourage you to watch ones that will push the envelope even if only a little. Do something different. But still be able to have a nice bite of tropes once in a while.

Sweet treats are nice, indulgence it a bit much.

Afterword: Looking at 2025

Hello if you reading this on the day it releases this will be updated tomorrow I just quite literally wanted to get a review out before 2025 ended.