Keppeki Danshi! Aoyama-kun (2017)

(Although I would have preferred to start my blog in a slightly more epic way, with a 10 out of 10 points' anime, I am forced to start with the one I just finished.)

Synopsis: He is charming, cool, athletic, a good cook, but more importantly, he's a clean freak. Aoyama is idolized and respected by everyone, but they can only admire him from afar due to his mysophobia. Despite that, he plays soccer—a rather dirty sport!

As the playmaker for Fujimi High School's soccer club, Aoyama avoids physical contact at all cost and cleanly dribbles toward victory. However, the path to Nationals will not be easy for Fujimi's underdog team. But alongside striker Kaoru Zaizen, Aoyama will show everyone that even as a clean freak, there are things he's willing to get dirty for.

(Source: MyAnimeList.)

I won't lie, I hadn't even read the synopsis before I watched it, because my selective mind ignores the series that have a summary a little... questionable. Or the ones that didn't quite catch my attention. And, indeed, this is one of the series that I would have ignored. I usually judge by the posters, and Aoyama looked pretty, so I started to watch it. (Oops?)

First, I will express my opinion without spoilers:

If anyone has the mentality of wanting to see a sports anime, get rid of it immediately if you intend to start this series. Keppeki Danshi! Aoyama-kun is what I call an anime to watch and smile (or have a super cringey time). If you are looking for an intense sports anime, with matches that will take your breath away, etc.., well, you are in the wrong place. The only thing that matters is Aoyama and his phobia.

It's funny as it claims to be comedy? Eh... maybe. I have laughed in some episodes, but in others I have also died of embarrasment. But the most important thing is, would I recommend it? And my answer would be a big no. I can't even confirm if I'm regretful or not about watching it (or better said, about watching it until the end). I feel in a difficult situation to judge, but I'll do it anyway.

Now, since recommending animes always depends on the person, if you consider yourself a person who does not look for complex plots or the best anime ever, and you don't really care about the plot and you just want to pass the time, I... wouldn't suggest watching it either. Nevertheless, if you like quiet guys with social problems due to a phobia, you could enjoy watching Aoyama and then suffer when he doesn't come out in a chapter or frame. Huh.

And now is spoiler time!:

(Please refrain from reading this part if you want to know absolutely nothing about the anime.)

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The moment I started to watch it, thoughts of dropping it made their way in my head. But why's that? Because it tries too hard to be a funny anime when everything it shows is clearly not, and it never was. Really. Also, Zaizen has a really annoying voice besides an ugly personality too. Even so, with all the cons it had, I said to myself: 'I can do this!', maybe because I was feeling motivated or just plain happy, so I kept watching it.

The episodes that followed the first ones were a little bit funnier. That fact was a very much welcomed pleasant surprise. I like that feeling of having to hold back my laughter so as to not laugh louder than is socially acceptable. But at the same time that the comedy rise, it also completely dissapeared in other episodes.

When talking about romance in the anime, I found myself a bit splited up. For starters, they show you a overly creepy Gotou Moka, or at least for my taste. That's personal, obviously; you can always like their character, but I don't, not even a little bit. And then Odagiri Mio, who I believe was a mistake and a jackpot. I would have loved it better if Odagiri wouldn't have thought that Aoyame liked her, because even if she was conscious about that guess, she still acted like she wasn't aware or as if she couldn't care less but at the same time, yes, she cared a lot, and then everything just became very confusing. Anyways, she dissapears, because 12 episodes, I assume, are too few to make her a regular character (and it's not like she was very important for starters, except to make Aoyama do normal things with someone). Luckily Gotou ended up being a more entertaining character, so I did not suffer that much with her, aside from the beach episode (Don't cheat in football, don't make up fouls, it's disgusting!)

However, and this is a big however, Zaizen's existence is very weird. Watching the anime you think it would be one of those stories where one feels in the shadow of another character, because Aoyama is superior in everything and anything, being a soccer prodigy and all that, but... Zaizen sometimes disappears, and although I always saw him like a quite unbearable character, I don't like it when the side stories are exaggeratedly random. If I recall correctly, in the last chapter all the cast gathers and it seems that everything has to do with something. Except it's not the whole cast, just the football club. Which leads me to think, the anime is about the football club or not? Because you, as a spectator, spend your whole time watching random things the whole series, save for the ending and the beginning where they make you believe that that's what you've been seeing the whole time.

Oh, and Takechi Akira is infuriating on astronomical levels. I really couldn't see him. I had to look elsewhere everytime he showed up.

Anyways, I was not so disappointed because to begin with, I wasn't expecting anything revolutionary or spectacular. Perhaps, in the end, it was a waste of time...

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The score on MyAnimeList is 5 (Average), although I wondered for a long time which score was better for it. ¿Six? ¿Five? ¿Four? I left it in the middle, which was the more logical outcome, somehow. Time will tell me if I want to lower the score.

There is a chance that Aoyama raised that 4 (Bad) to a 5 (Average) by himself! Look how golden he is that he can even rise the score of a bad anime! Keep the good job Aoyama!