I’ve also been struck by the similarity in the arcs our anime preferences have followed. My first serious exposure was to Cowboy Bebop, FLCL and a few other excellent series Cartoon Network showed on Adult Swim. (I had no idea English dubs could be that good! But that’s secondary, since as soon as I could I started watching subs exclusively.) Over the years I’ve watched a little bit of just about everything, but I’ve found myself gradually drifting in the direction of light, humorous, undemanding, often-but-not-always-romantic shows like Kimi ni Todoke. It’s remarkable how many of my favorite shows you’ve raved about, and you (and your commenters) added a buttload of shows to my to-watch list—the main exceptions being the darker, gorier ones; I was never really a fan of horror movies and related genres.

Anyway, I don’t have much to add to what you’ve said about KnK, but this seemed like as good a place as any to sort of introduce myself. Hi!

@Peter S: at the time of writing I’m as far as ep #12, and liking it a lot. There are some more misunderstandings and whatnot, but Sawako’s starting to open up and speak out a bit more, which is a welcome development. It’s also refreshing to see they’ve paid attention to developing the supporting characters too…looking good so far.

@Sorrow-kun: yeah, they may well be overdoing Sawako’s naivete if they don’t writer her out of that situation she was in initially. I actually expected Kazehaya to be the way he is, mainly because it’s a shoujo series so the male characters are a bit more idealised (the same can be said of female characters in moe shows I think). I followed Bokura Ga Ita for a while but in the end the male lead was such an ass it put me right off the whole thing; I felt annoyed that the girl was wasting her time and affections on him.

@kadian1364: same here. Toradora! and this both work well for me, but even now I still haven’t seen anything to match Kare Kano. Need to finish the manga so badly.

@2DT: thanks for the link. I often read Anime Diet’s posts but somehow that one slipped under my radar.

@Animewriter: I’m looking forward to Sawako’s full ‘break out’ from her shell, but what would really make it would be if we saw things from Kazehaya’s perspective. Again, it’s a rare development that makes the likes of Kare Kano special, but it would be welcome here too.

I find Ayane, Chizu, Ryuu, Kurumi, and even Pin interesting, but I find Kazehaya to be like plain white rice. We get an insight into why Sawako likes/loves Kazehaya, but we’re given no idea why he’s attracted to Sawako; is it her looks, is it her personality, is it her innocence, or I could even buy that it was love at first sight, but we just don’t know.

To me the best episode of the series was episode 6 when Sawako finally decided to break free of her shell, and free herself from the past.

http://animewriter.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/kimi-ni-todoke-reaching-you-episode-6-review-outside-the-ruins-of-sawakos-wall-she-finds-friendship/

There’s an interesting post on Kimi ni Todoke that I think you should check out, because it also addresses the oddity of how just darn nice everyone is: http://animediet.net/anime-reviews/kimi-ni-todoke-8-9-hagiography

I didn’t watch past the first episode (couldn’t stand it– sorry!), but I understand this. It happened a lot in Card Captor Sakura, for example– those elementary school girls sure are pleasant and supportive of each other.

As for shoujo rom-com, I’ll second Fruits Basket. I’m also a big fan of Bokura ga Ita, but the comedy aspect is pretty light on, and it’s much more of a heavy-hitting drama, particularly later on.

While I love some warm and fuzzy in my anime I’m not sure I’m so crazy about it in this show, but I have some hope for it. Sawako used to be too passive. Oh, it’s nice when she made a friend, but the endless “They LIKE me!” scenes grated on my nerves. True, she’s always said out loud what she believed (though it takes her forever to spit it out), even when confronted by angry girls in the bathroom, but she came off as a victim needing rescue in that case. But in the past few episodes she’s shown a little more gumption while remaining her (admittedly appealing) self. The nervous talk between her and Kazehaya in ep14 finally showed us a girl who has gained some confidence along with her innate kindness. And I’ve always liked her voice.

What kept me watching through the early episodes was Yano and Yoshida. They’re tough and more worldly, and a little scary if they don’t like you. In another high school drama they’d be the nasty characters who’d give people like Sawako distress. Here, for whatever reasons, they befriend the helpless girl! A bit unreal, maybe, but I don’t care. I’m glad they’re on Sawako’s side. They’re a great team. The show always livens up when they appear.

Kazehaya is a different matter. We see that he’s hiding big insecurities behind that smile of his, and I’m not looking forward to scene after scene of his angst when the story really focuses on him. That’s my prediction of future events.