bug / link !

i’m gonna recommend the fuck out of it to anyone if it’s the last thing i ever do, and here’s why:

the main romance is like, so wholesome??? they genuinely start out as friends and as they get to know each other, gain more and more respect for each other. and they constantly motivate each other to do better, to strive towards their goals. you can also see how genuinely happy they are to see each other, like whenever they see each other they immediately break into a smile.

the story also goes out of its way to show that they have lives outside of each other. like, they be madly in love with each other but it’s not their entire life. shirayuki (the female protagonist) has her own job and goals, and zen (the male deuteragonist and love interest) has his own princely duties and goals, but the important thing is that though they’re separate they still encourage each other to keep working hard towards their goals.

the story also places plenty of emphasis on the importance of platonic relationships, and how friends support each other in working towards their goals, watching out for each other and providing a safe space for them to just be themselves.

the characters, for once, are not hyper-sexualised?? the female protagonist has a realistic build—she’s slender and a little on the petite side, so she doesn’t have a ginormous rack. and the dudes are fit (they have to be, what with the fighting they do on a fairly regular basis), but they’re not overly bara-fied; their statures are realistic of young men in their late teens/early 20′s.

this one’s a bit of a spoiler so skip if you don’t want a spoiler. || the story’s also super woke about consent. for their first kiss, zen kinda surprises shirayuki with a sudden kiss out of nowhere—and the important part is that he realises he didn’t ask for consent, apologises, and promises that next time he’ll ask for her consent before kissing her. this is SO important to me bc in other shows i’ve watched, surprise first kisses are portrayed as so romantic and sweet, when in reality it can be sexual assault if the one on the receiving end is uncomfortable. and regardless of whether the recipient was comfortable or not, CONSENT IS IMPORTANT. ||

this one is YMMV, but i definitely enjoyed the humour and banter. there’s plenty of dry, deadpan snarking, exaggerated jokes—it’s just wonderful and made me giggle so many times.

the art is actually gorgeous, in both the manga and anime. i have no words… everything is so aesthetically pleasing to look at, both the characters and the setting.