Shikimori n’est pas juste mignonne

Considering the interesting concept, perhaps the biggest surprise about Shikimori is that it's just a completely ordinary, slightly naive, and mediocre puppy romance. It could have been interesting. It sounds fun to switch the traditional, clichéd roles from romance series, with her being the cool, tough heroine and him being the sensitive boy in trouble who needs rescuing now and then, but it doesn't work particularly well. It turns out that the repetition of situations where the prince rescues the princess from danger can be just as boring, even when the prince is a girl, and the princess is a guy. The roles don't matter, you get tired of them the same way over time. Plus, this series has a similar problem to Tonikawa, the whole thing is so ordinary and naive, and nothing is really going on except for a slow development of the main couple's relationship. It’s nice as a relaxing watch, but there’s no depth or drama, it just puts you to sleep. There's no tension, you don't worry for a second about the characters' relationship, and any potential threat to it is resolved in two episodes in a rather breezy way. The romance works quite well, and it is quite cute. But I still feel it was Kamiya who had the most interesting storyline with the main character, even though it fell flat. Shikimori's Not Just a Cutie is only a slightly above-average series for me. I could definitely watch more episodes, but it's also likely that I won't remember it in a month. 5.9/10 (10/07/2022)