Deaimon: Recipe for Happiness

I wish I could say I enjoyed Daimon and discovered a recipe for true happiness in it, but unfortunately, it didn't happen and it's largely Nagomu's fault. They say that in every man there is a child, but I guess there's not much else in the protagonist besides a child. All the time, I couldn’t help thinking that a 30-year-old man just wouldn’t act this way. What was worse, the show itself was aware of this, and everyone starting from the main character's father to the main female character, often found Nagomu just as annoying as I did. I just didn’t buy the chemistry between the main characters, which was based on the relentless Nagomu putting pressure on Itsuka and trying to get closer to her. I don't like it. It doesn't work for me in romantic comedies, just like it didn't work for me in this show where it was supposed to lead to a kind of father-daughter relationship. And yet Itsuka is nice. She is nicely portrayed as a young girl wanting to appear stronger but still trying to come to terms with the fact that her parents abandoned her. I had no problem understanding her and at times I almost felt sorry for her having to be the voice of reason speaking to a 30-year-old man. There were other things that struck me as childish and silly, including how the main character dealt with some of the problems that came his way. The show tried to convince me that Nagomu was successful with women. Given the fact that one of the girls couldn't even tell her parents what her lifelong dream was and the other one had already kind of broken up with the main character in the past - well, let’s just say that the female characters weren't the sharpest pencils in the box – an eccentric clown like Nagomu could actually have a shot with them. At first, I was having a good time and I liked the atmosphere. Then I saw the main character enter the house of a complete stranger and use traditional Japanese dogeza to solve a problem that was basically none of his business and that the girl could have dealt with on her own just fine if only she'd tried to communicate in a sincere and honest way. That’s where the show lost me. I switched off my brain, trying to put up with Nagomu's childishness, and eventually made it to the end. It could have been a sweet series full of powerful emotions, and maybe it was for some people. For me, it's just one big "meh". Good thing that there was all that candy, at least it gave me an appetite and a reason to give it a 5/10. (22/06/2022)