Myself; Yourself Anime Review

The anime started off as a typical harem, romance drama. Quite unoriginal at first. A guy returns to his hometown and has forgotten a lot of things about his childhood which he gradually remembers throughout the series. (If I'd get a cookie for every time I see this concept in romance/drama anime, I'd be fat as a pig now) Once you get pass that, the story is quite good aside from some slight missteps.

Yup, best moral ever. 

The story gives an impression that it was completed and then a bunch of mini-stories were simply mashed into it just for the sake of more episodes. And these extra stories are not bad by themselves but they are just thrown in and appear so briefly that they have no significance to the main plot what so ever. The 4th episode - the introduction episode of a 10 year-old girl named Hinako Mochida was nothing but a time waster and completely obsolete. It also introduced the most unnecessary thrown-in character I’ve seen in an anime in a long time.

The protagonist is Sana Hidaka - just your stereotypical romance/drama male protagonist with a stereotypical voice. Overall the character wasn't that bad but there were times when he just seemed so ignorant about girls and feelings that he looked plainly dumb and I swear he resembled Makoto Itou from School Days because it seems that people this ignorant can only exist only in anime. The character did become better as the story progressed though.

The main female lead is Nanaka Yatsuhiro and she has the most interesting character development in the series. At first she just seems like a stereotypical tsundere character but the further you get into the story, the more both viewer and the protagonist discover about her past. The character's story was very deep and the development - great.

As for the side characters, we get Watatsuki twins which were great. The twin brother/sister relationship and difficulties that come with it were pretty interesting to watch. Another childhood friend Aoi Oribe and a teacher Yuzuki Fujimura were both great characters that lightened up the mood and acted as support and comic relief.

"Why is she even here?"

The most unnecessary character who was introduced in the series in episode 4 was the 10 year-old girl Hinako Mochida who hated to be considered a child. Other than the fact that she was plainly annoying, I hate that she was there just for those few extra  episodes. The main story wouldn't have been affected in any way, shape or form if she hadn't existed. And before you say: "It's a harem so a loli character is needed," let me remind you that she is 10 years old!

Movements were great and the animation itself was good, nothing breath taking but very well done and the animation would have gotten an 8 or 9 from me if not this one scene that was like a like a knife stab in my eyes. There was scene where a train was arriving to the station and for a second or two I had to bear some of the worst CGI I’ve ever seen in an anime. It’s just a personal issue of mine as I'm not a fan of CGI use in anime and I would let it slide if it hadn’t ruined an emotional and important scene in the anime. If an emotional scene gets ruined simply because of an improper use of CGI, point reduction is inevitable.

Both the opening and ending themes were brilliant with appropriate lyrics for the anime. Unfortunately, while the soundtrack wasn’t bad by any means, it didn’t stand out at all. It served its purpose just fine but it wasn't anything special by itself. 

Overall, a pretty good anime that could have been better if the story had been a bit more focused or the side-stories had been extended to actually have a meaning. Don't expect from Myself;Yourself as much I did, but give it a try regardless.