Kao ni Denai Kashiwada-san to Kao ni Deru Oota-kun

Oota-kun wears his heart on his sleeve; his face reveals his every thought and emotion. In contrast, Kashiwada-san remains unreadable, as her expression never changes, no matter what happens. Bothered by Kashiwada-san's perpetual expressionlessness, Oota-kun makes it his mission to break through her calm exterior, pulling every prank and trick he can think of—from fake spiders to absurd text messages and everything in between—just to get a reaction.

As Oota-kun's relentless attempts fail to crack Kashiwada-san's perpetual poker face, their exchanges become the daily norm. Unbeknownst to him, however, his antics occasionally succeed in drawing out a subtle smile—not noticing that he has already cracked her defense since the beginning.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kashiwada-san Main

Fujita, Akane Japanese

Oota-kun Main

Natsume, Kyouhei Japanese

Odajima-san Supporting

Mineda, Mayu Japanese

Oota's Sister Supporting

Mikami, Shiori Japanese

Tabuchi-san Supporting

Hanamori, Yumiri Japanese

Oniwarada-sensei Supporting

Miyake, Kenta Japanese

Kashiwada's Brother Supporting

Kishio, Daisuke Japanese

Youta Supporting

Fujiwara, Natsumi Japanese

Yuu Supporting

Itou, Ayasa Japanese

Narrator Supporting

Yokoo, Mari Japanese

Ozawa, Fumihiro Producer

Higashi, Mao Producer

Kuroda, Kenji Producer

Mizutani, Yutaka Producer

Reviews

Dec 20, 2025

BrotherCoa

Recommended

This was one nice and cute romance anime about expressive boy and inexpressive girl, and it was fun ride from 1st to last episode. People say that this is similar to Aharen anime and I must agree on certain points, although boy character is much different than one from Aharen and becasue of that the dynamic is better at least imho.

Animation and sound: pretty good. Animation is fluent with no quality drop and music is fine with no noticeable soundtracks.

Overall: animation and music are industry standard, not bad and not good.

Characters: Main duo are Oota and Kashiwada, their entire dynamic is what makes this ... show good. Oota is a middle school boy who is energetic, prideful and loves challenges. Kashiwada is shy, nice and goodhearted girl. Because of her unique skill to not show any emotion on her face regardless of the situation, Oota made it his life goal to put a reaction on it no matter what it takes. Joining them are Sata and Takodoro, who are Oota's male friends. These two are always by Oota's side, occasionally helping him in some regard but most of the time they exist to comment on his actions. Later we are introduced to Tabuchi-san who is class representative and a gigantic fan of Koshiwada, tryign to "protect" her from Oota. And last, but not least, Odajima-san who joins to crew a little late but is only one that can read Kashiwada's expressions. When you mix all of them together you get expected amount of slice of life enjoyment.

Overall: Main duo is entertaining and supporting cast is good addition to spice things up a bit.

Story: it's rather simple - a boy is teasing a girl in order to get emotion from her. That's it. Rather than being long arc storyline the episodes cover one chapter short stories from manga. There is no real sense of progress, only different scenes which include all the cliché situations that we have all come to love or hate depending on your taste. I came into this anime expecting nothing more than cute and wholesome moments and I was not disappointed.

Overall: story is very simple and it revolves around the main theme of the show, nothing more and nothing less.

Overall grade: 8, I gave it a 10 as that how much personally I enjoyed it. But realistic grade is around 7.5 to 8. It is a decent wholesome slice of life show and it plays that card very safely. If you come into that expecting only this then you will have very enjoyable time.

In the end I am recommending it, it's one of those shows you watch at once for weekend in order to heal your exhausted soul with much needed positive energy.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Feb 18, 2026

kaede_suzuki

Mixed Feelings

A simple romantic comedy about a girl who never shows emotions and a boy who shows too much. The idea of opposite personalities is cute but the story feels slow and repetitive. It is full of romance anime tropes like beach episodes Christmas episode summer festival and fireworks scenes. Some moments can make you chuckle but the humor is not very strong. The characters are fine but do not develop much. The animation is average and the opening and ending songs are good. If you want to enjoy this show don’t binge it. Watch one episode at a time to relax after a long day.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Feb 24, 2026

wieser

Not Recommended

One of those cases where a verbal rating is far more relevant than a numerical one. A rating of 5 sounds too harsh, but that word sums it up perfectly. Average.

Another in the endless series of school romcom anime. It focuses on two main characters. A girl who always has a poker face and a boy who everyone sees through. Oota bullies Kashiwada in embarrassing, childish ways (putting bugs on her, etc.) in an attempt to get her to show some emotion, and whenever the conversation turns to his feelings for her, he starts acting like a tough guy and a wannabe macho man. ... Kashiwada doesn't see the bullying as bullying, but instead is happy that someone is finally paying attention to her, because no one wants to talk to her much due to her constantly stony expression. And that's pretty much it. There are a few other characters, but no one particularly special. The story hardly moves forward at all. It's hard to find a reason to watch this and not just move on to another anime.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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