Kono Kaisha ni Suki na Hito ga Imasu

Initially I avoided this anime because I thought it'd be another silly 'adult' romance where adults are actually teenagers pretending to be grown up. We all know the bs tropes. But... due to a late night binge watch because of an exhausted nervous system desperately looking for something to unwind to... I was pleasantly surprised.

The couple are in a relationship they wish to keep private from their work environment. One can understand how they are both reserved people, not wishing to draw attention to themselves or be disruptive at work. We see how they manoeuvre through the challenges of work while maintaining a healthy relationship. ... Both characters are supportive, open, honest and communicate their needs and feelings. There are obvious signs they are physically intimate, but its not smutty. Both initiate intimacies. There is no power play. No games either. tbh this blew my mind. This is how adult romance depiction should be.

It's not an exciting, angsty teenage driven story. Its slice of life. Its chill. Perfect for adults with an overloaded nervous system. There are moments of humour, but its not cringe. Yes, its romantic idealisation in many ways, but if you want to see depression, pain and suffering then watch something else. Its not that deep. There is character growth, we go on a little journey with the couple and see both their POV of their relationship development.

The animation and art style is good, but not award winning. Soothing colour palette that you'd expect from a slice of life. Female gaze friendly. The target market is adult women who probably are already working themselves.

I've rated it 8/10 because, for its genre, its a huge improvement on the trash we've been served. I wanted chill, I got chill.

Another one of the shows that has a great general premise, but then doesn't do much with it for most of its runtime. The main recommendation I got for this show was that it was "different" to a lot of other romance shows and if you just look at the surface level elements, then you might even agree. After all, this show starts of by having the two characters already be in the relationship and they even have sex in the first episode. But if you look past these simple changes, then you will notice that the romance isn't that much different from your typical ... romance. Which is a shame, because it didn't have to be.

So let's start with the first aspect, the fact that they are already together. While most hail this as a revolutionary idea, it just creates more problems than it "solves". Don't get me wrong, I also dislike how most romance shows out there try to keep the status quo for too long and the characters awkardly move around just starting a relationship, but you don't solve that issue by just skipping that phase. Because now, it's kind of hard to get into their relationship as it's implied at several points that they have some kind of backstory with one another (they've known each other for a while) and you get hints every now and then, but this can't solve the problem that we completely missed out on that development. Why not have at least 3-4 episodes of them getting together? Why is that not an option? You might say, they want to get to the meat of the story right away, but that is the next issue, there isn't actually much meat to the story.

The story is more or less a Slice of Life show where it's about the two main characters Yui and Masugu who want to become better in their carrer paths while also having a relationship with one another. And since the focus is more on that career part of the equation, the romance between the two feels heavily underdeveloped despite them already being together. Yes, they often play the typical tropes of a romance anime, but it feels so hollow very often, because at the end of the day, it is still the same as other romance shows where the status quo of the relationship won't be be changed. It might allude to it every now and then, but once that moment is over, we are back to the usual. And the worst part, it didn't have to.

I am not even talking about big drama here, but as mentioned above, the main focus is them both advancing their careers which comes with its own hurdles. And this could have been used effectively to develop their relationship. As most people probably know, if you have stress at work, having someone you can rely on, even if it is just for not being alone is a great thing to have. And the show is at least acknowledging that. But instead of using moments like these to develop their relationship (as they understand how much it gives them to just be together with the other person and therefore wanting to take the next step for example), afterwards it's right back to career progression.

And that is also why I can't really see them having sex immediately as a positive. Again, I like that the show doesn't shy away from the topic and I am not arguing that it is unrealistic for them to have sex immediately after getting together. It is quite realistic in fact. But realism doesn't make for a good story. A story lives off the fact that things develop. Getting intimate with one another as a sign of taking the next step in a relationship. It is exactly one of those potential signs to show that they are not just staying at the same level but they are progressing. But since they were already doing it from Day 1, there is no potential for development here and you are still stuck with the same tropes you've seen in other shows.

At the end of the day, the show seems to really try to surprise by subverting the surface level elements that people are usually criticising about romance show. That being, the characters not getting together and them shying away from being intimate. But it completely fails to undestand WHY this criticism is made. The underlying criticism of romance shows is the lack of development, both on an emotional side (them not being able to just confess and get together) as well as on a physical side (them shying away from intimacy). So the show just "adressed" this by skipping these parts, thereby creating the same lack in development every other romance has.

If this is supposed to be a cute and light romance anime, it failed miserably. All I saw was a romanticized toxic relationship. They should have a serious talk about their priorities, cuz it seems everyone's needs are more important than those of their own significant other. The characters are very immature, which would be justified in a highschool setting, or if the anime din't portray those behaviours in adults as something literally labeled as "cute", throughout the series. However, it fails to do so and we are left feeling unconfortable, even thought that isn't even the goal of this piece of work. Not an ... enjoyable experience. If you are looking for a mature office romance, like Wotakoi, this isn't it.