#shuu inuzuka

How did I get into this anime? I added this just for the hell of it in the middle of its run on TV. That’s it! On with the synopsis!

Yuu Izumi is a second-year high school student. He is one of the unluckiest people to walk the earth. Just about anything can trip him up like rocks, bird droppings, truck exhaust fumes, and other random things. But there’s one thing in his life that makes all the unlucky things that happen even out and that’s his girlfriend, Shikimori. No first name given, she’s just Shikimori. She’s cute, bubbly, popular, all of the girls love her and all the boys are jealous that she’s taken…

And all I can see is that pink hair! Call it a prejudice, but due to certain animes I have a massive distrust of girl anime characters with pink hair. What’s this girl’s deal?

Like a light switch, Shikimori’s demeanor can change. One minute, she’s the sweetest thing ever and the next, I have a twinge of fear and can’t help but think Izumi is going to be dead next to her. Whenever this happens, Izumi’s heart skips a beat. He sees this as her cool side peeking out and makes him love her even more. Whatever bro! Let’s just see how you are 12 episodes later and if you still have your head attached.

BETWEEN THE SUB AND DUB: Crunchyroll is the one streaming, pimping, and dubbing this bitch. I ended up watching most of the anime dubbed. The dub is okay. I really can’t criticize the main cast and haven’t really heard them up to this point. The minor characters on the other hand I’m well familiar with.

Legit query here! Is Inuzuka a screaming maniac? I ask because BOTH voice actors did Bakugo and…you know! It’s not essential to the plot, but Crunchyroll added a few commentary episodes to the roster. If you’re interested in hearing the commentary from the Japanese cast, might check that out. They all seemed to have a blast recording this anime. Here’s what you might recognize these folks from.

JAPANESE CAST: *Izumi is played by Shuuichirou Umeda

*Shikimori is played by Saori Oonishi (known for Hisako on Food Wars, Muramasa on Eromanga Sensei, Doppel on Monster Musume, and Non on Keijo!!!!!!!!)

ENGLISH CAST: *Izumi is played by Bryson Baugus (known for Falco on Attack on Titan, Takumi on Food Wars, Natsuo on Domestic Girlfriend, Darling on Monster Musume, and Minato on Tsurune)

*Shikimori is played by Macy Ann Johnson (known for Emile on Spy x Family and Chie on Higurashi Gou)

SHIPPING: I think the question that’s on most of our minds is this, how did this relationship between Shikimori and Izumi start? Izumi has got to be one of the unluckiest characters in anime history. I feel like Touma from the Index series and Seita from Tenchi Muyo GXP got him beat, but damn this guy is cursed! Give these boys some credit, these unlucky characters can get quite lucky when it comes to women (some of the time). It’s been a while since I’ve seen it in a non-harem setting. Good on Izumi as he only has one girl. When it comes to Izumi and Shikimori, they both really do like each other. When they first hooked up, they were both aware of each other’s existence. It’s just that a matchmaking game at the culture festival during their first year in high school kinda fueled things for a relationship. That’s how we got Izumi x Shikimori.

Izumi loves his girlfriend’s cute moments and her ‘cooler’ moments. Ah yes, those moments! Shikimori has cool moments like when she’s shielding Izumi from some kind of misfortune. But there are these other moments where jealousy arises. She gets jealous!

And the person she gets jealous over is Izumi’s guy-friend Inuzuka. Really?! Her jealousy is towards this butt-for-brains?

She’s not even jealous when someone like Kamiya comes along. Kamiya knew Izumi before going out with Shikimori, she’s pretty, and has a lot of pent-up feelings for Izumi. Instead, Shikimori was understanding and Kamiya puts her feelings on hold. Who does this?! But I did feel a little bit sorry for Kamiya due to her being friend-zoned. I’ve been in that position before and it never gets easier to deal with.

ENDING: So, we’ve covered the culture festival, the sports festival, one of the main character’s birthdays, and an anniversary. That’s most things an anime would do for a finale and we’re not even close to the Christmas holiday. Actually, we’re ending the season with Izumi and Shikimori planning on going to an amusement park for a date. Shikimori is especially excited for this as she was taken in by a cute commercial featuring a bunch of couples. We then proceed to the best episode this series has to offer. This episode consisted of flashbacks of Izumi and Shikimori prior to both meeting each other.

In his early days, Izumi felt so cursed by his bad luck that he sacrificed going on a field trip he was looking forward to due to his fear of bringing bad luck to his friends. With Shikimori’s past we saw that she really didn’t have a personality of her own as she would always follow what her brother or mother would do. It wasn’t until the end of her middle school days that she changed things up and did things her own way. At the high school entrance exam and the result day, Izumi and Shikimori met. Shikimori helped Izumi and Izumi thought she was so cool and cute. Now that wasn’t the start of their relationship as it came later that school year at the culture festival! This was more of the spark that started the fire.

Moving on to the big date, Izumi’s bad luck didn’t seem to ruin much of the day as one would anticipate. Despite having to wait 90 minutes for a popular ride, Izumi and Shikimori enjoyed each other’s company throughout the wait. And even though their reservations at the restaurant went bust, they were upgraded to a fancy, upstairs table with a four-course meal. And even though Shikimori’s chances of kissing Izumi were dashed during the Sleeping Beauty ride, she got something unexpected on the gondola that night.

I know it was just a kiss on the cheek, but it was cute.

You know what? Most of this anime did bore me a bit. I don’t know, I got tired of seeing Izumi get struck with bad luck throughout the majority of the series. It dragged on and you’re just saying to yourself, “no one is that unlucky”. I mean, this guy’s bad luck is inching closer to Touma from the Index/Railgun series and Seina from Tenchi Muyo GXP. But then you get these moments in the anime that kinda bring you back. Episodes 11 & 12 were definitely the best ones, but I also like the side stuff with Kamiya. I just think there are many other romcoms out there you could be watching instead of this one. But that’s just me. If you want to check out an unlucky dip and his super-woman, pink-haired girlfriend, be my guest.