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The first season of The Dangers in My Heart was an interesting affair. The synopsis and 1/3 of the first episode is a fake-out and it reveals from the second half of the episode, the beginning of the love story of Kyotaro Ichikawa and Anna Yamada. The world of these two are very different on the surface, but their awkwardness and emotional vulnerability brings them together. They are learning to love themselves while falling in love more with each other. The first season is showing how alienated and afraid of himself Kyotaro is and how Anna, his classmates, and finally he starts bringing himself out ... of this alienation.

This season sees him go step by step to become the person he truly wants to be and that his sister alludes that he use to be. The realism of his insecurities and that of the people around him is as realistic as I have seen in awhile. He doesn't magically improve himself overnight, but almost each episode showed some improvement in him that felt earned. The people around him are not nearly as terrible as he thought they were when he met them and the idea that he could not love someone like Anna is easily disproven without feeling so unrealistic. Though the story is from Kyotaro's pov, it could have easily have been from Anna's pov and not lose any of its power. Because we are not in her head the way we are in Kyotaro's we have to infer her emotions and inner-thoughts from her visual cues. The way she goes out her way to match him emotionally and his trying to do the same for her despite how different their personalities were is a key point to where we know they are going to become a couple. Even the male gaze is not played for fetish, but feels visceral and awkward as we see it from Kyotaro's point-of-view.

An interesting aspect of this show is the meta-dialogue it has with Kimi ni Todoke. In TDIMH, there is a parody version of KnT that Kyotaro & Anna are both fans of. The in-universe version of KnT's Shōta Kazehaya becomes the conscience "inner voice" for Kyotaro and gives him very honest advice on what he knows he wants or what he knows he needs to do. It is up to Kyotaro on whether to listen to him or not. The irony is that Kyo is obviously more similar meta-wise to KnT's Sawako Kuronuma. Both Kyo and Sawako have become withdrawn and had their self-esteem crushed by events prior to the stories’ beginning. The key to both stories is that they encounter friends and romantic partners who help change them for the better. Now a key difference is that the former title is a shonen romance and the latter is a shojo romance so the temperament of both stories will be different. Also, the drama that Sawako faces is almost-completely external, while it was just one external incident that motivates the internal trauma of Kyotaro. For the more old-school knowing anime fans, Kare Kano is worth a look to compare to this anime.

The production quality has certainly been boosted and the music and editing is really incredible. The way that they introduce the episode title at the end of every episode is masterful at tying the theme of the overall story together. The voice acting is to be commended on how they really go hard for the nuances of Japanese teenagers to an almost painful degree.

When I look at this franchise, I feel like it offers a hope. It tells a favorite type of love story for me: the main character has to remember to love themselves as much as they love their beloved. One is hopeful that more shows that subvert the old standards of anime romance are adapted and/or created. I can't wait until the next season of this anime is made. This show is process, redemption, love.

Few anime go as long between seasons as this one. In the time between season 2 and season 3, the landscape of anime romances has changed a lot—partly due to the influences of this series. As much as I could talk about the legacy of Kimi ni Todoke, lets get to season 3 itself.

While the hard work of becoming a couple was resolved in season 2, this season was Shouta and Sawako trying to discover what that means. While they come to terms with that by the end of the season, you could argue that the real focus was the deepening ties and relationship ... re-evaluation between Chizuru and Ryuu. We already knew about Ryuu's feelings, but now Chizuru was made to starkly and painfully reflect over her relationship with him and it's evolution over the years. This dynamic is the near-highlight of the season. And then we get to Ayane. If Gimai Seikatsu thinks that they have anime's saddest gyaru, Ayane here was trying to give her a run-for-her-money. Her ongoing issues with her self-esteem was given much-needed help by season two's ensemble darkhorse turned (male) hero of this season Kento Miura who was the only person capable of getting through to Ayane (well...almost the only person). As Shouta was in his feelings for most of the season, Kento stepped-up as the only sane male character in the show. Shouta was really out of it in this season as he seemed to not understand how to cope with just being the emotional support for Sawako and nearly destroyed their relationship out the gate before he gets some much-needed wake-up calls from some very unexpected places. This group went on shaky-ground this season, but all came out stronger than before.

Getting back almost all of the original voice actors was a miracle and it really put me back into the series. The series music was good and always matched the mood of the show. Having the staff from the first two season work with modern equipment really makes a difference and I was always impressed that the composition of the series did not lose the aesthetic of the first two seasons. They could've gone for a more "contemporary" look given they had Netflix money to play with, but one always appreciates keeping the original manga's vision. I also noticed that because each episode was an hour, the story lines could be told in intersecting ways that we normally don't get in your usual thirty minute episode.

All-in-all Kimi ni Todoke uses it's simple, to the point, but sincere storytelling to remind everyone why it is still the gold-standard of shoujo romance in the 21st century. Where other series have done too little or too much, it gets the recipe perfect. I hope they adapt the whole manga and the sequel, but until then I am happy with this.