Sukitte Ii na yo

Genre: Romance, School, Shoujo
Studio: Zexcs
Director: Takuya Satou (Ichigo Mashimaro, NieA Under 7)
Original creator: Kanae Hazuki

Number of episodes: 13

Opening Theme:
"Friendship ~ for Sukitte Iinayo. (Friendship～for 好きっていいなよ。)" by Ritsuko Okazaki

Ending Theme:
"slow dance" by Suneohair

Synopsis:
Mei Tachibana has spent her 16 years without a boyfriend or friends. One day, she injures the most popular boy in school, Yamato Kurosawa, due to a misunderstanding. For some reason though, it seems that he takes a liking to her and one-sidedly claims that they're friends. Furthermore, he not only protects Mei from a stalker, but does so with a kiss…?!!

(Source:MAL)

Cast:
Ai Kayanoas Mei Tachibana
Takahiro Sakurai as Yamato Kurosawa

Minako Kotobuki as Megumi Kitagawa
Nobunaga Shimazaki as Kenji Nakanishi
Risa Taneda as Asami Oikawa
Tomoaki Maeno as Kai Takemura
Yumi Uchiyama as Aiko Mutō

Thoughts: I'm very excited about this adaptation! This series is currently one of my favourite shoujo mangas.
However, Mei is a lot more emo than I remember her to be It seems that getting betrayed by friends in elementary school takes years to recover from, like in Binbogami-ga .
Mei is very likable once she gets over that, I can promise you! lol
It's reminiscent of Kimi ni Todoke, you have the popular guy falling for the least popular girl. But Kanae Hazuki puts her own spin on that overly used storyline and the result is very endearing.

I think Mei is already likeable after all shes just honest. Sooner or later everyone betrays you, thats a fact. Sometimes its something big, sometimes its small things. It doesnt even have to be intentional or even with with bad volition, it just happens. Sure not socializing with people because of that is a bad decision, but shes still just a kid. When she gets older she will realize that something like that doesnt matter anymore when you have a good shield around yourself and expect it to happen. Id rather have someone like her around myself than those other girls who make nice but aint it.

Yamato is for now just the curious happy-go-lucky guy but it was already hinted that this could only be a facace and hes hiding some dark secret. Noone finding it out is probably the reason he never dated anyone, question is just why he makes a move on Mei. Maybe something like intuition? Maybe he is just like her and was betrayed too but went a different way than her.

Making matters short it was a good first ep and Im looking forward to more.

Seems like there are three potential candidates for good romance to fill the space Chouyaku Hyakuninisshu: Uta Koi. has left this season.

QUOTE (Killer_Ossi @ Oct 09 2012, 12:14 PM) I think Mei is already likeable after all shes just honest. Sooner or later everyone betrays you, thats a fact. Sometimes its something big, sometimes its small things. It doesnt even have to be intentional or even with with bad volition, it just happens. Sure not socializing with people because of that is a bad decision, but shes still just a kid. When she gets older she will realize that something like that doesnt matter anymore when you have a good shield around yourself and expect it to happen. Id rather have someone like her around myself than those other girls who make nice but aint it.

Haha, I think it's hard for me to relate because I'm so old lol
I keep thinking it happened so long ago, get over it already! But I know it hurts, and thinking back I probably had some issues too.

Honest is a very good way to describe her, and you will see that more as the series goes on. It's one of the traits I really like in her.


QUOTE Sooner or later everyone betrays you, thats a fact

Kinda negative ? That may be true (though not in all cases) but I'd rather think positively about ppl. If you think that way you can shut out a lot of ppl that would enrich your life.

No you got me wrong there. I never said I shut them out simply because of that. Im expecting people to betray me (and thats not negative but realistic), so it doesnt hit me when it happens so its no problem getting to know them. If I shut people out (what are about 99%) then its simply because they are useless, but never just because of fear of betrayal.
Thats why I said shes still a kid acting like this. Instead of overcoming her fear of betrayal she succumbs to it.

On another note, after 25 years of living in this world its just completely impossible to think positively about people. People are born evil and stay it for the rest of their lives. Its just that some are worse while others are better, nothing more.

QUOTE everyone betrays
Reminds me of [one of] my motto:
QUOTE If you align expectations with reality, you will never be disappointed.
In other news, this show makes me ~swooooon~ and * sqqqqqeeeeeeeee *

As other have mentioned, I really enjoy Mei's honesty. Tempting to read the manga now.

Wow that was fast and unexpected in two ways. First was that I totally thought that Asami was into Yamato so it surprised me she accepted Nakanishis confession and second was of course Yamato and Mei dating, or at least confessing each others feelings.

Now I really want to see how their relationship will turn out, especially when the girls flocking to Yamato get wind of it and how those two will deal with it.

QUOTE (sixpoint8 @ Oct 14 2012, 02:25 AM) As other have mentioned, I really enjoy Mei's honesty. Tempting to read the manga now.
I think you will really like Mei's character, especially as the show goes on.
QUOTE (Killer_Ossi @ Oct 16 2012, 08:38 AM)Wow that was fast and unexpected in two ways. First was that I totally thought that Asami was into Yamato so it surprised me she accepted Nakanishis confession and second was of course Yamato and Mei dating, or at least confessing each others feelings.

Now I really want to see how their relationship will turn out, especially when the girls flocking to Yamato get wind of it and how those two will deal with it.
Asami did like Yamato, until she realized that he didn't feel the same way about her. She has enough self esteem to choose to be in a relationship with a guy that's head over heels rather than settling for a casual relationship with no special feelings involved.

Yeah a majority of the show will be about rivals showing up, on both sides trying to steal the main characters' affection. That's how it is in shoujo usually tho, but I love Mei and Yamato enough not to care.

I could identify with Asami's plight, ppl can be really nasty when they're jealous. I went through a similar ordeal in 7-8th grade. Love how Mei stuck up for her, all she had to do was laugh at how stupid they were being, lol.

Wow Im really surprised that this show is so open with sex. I mean highschoolers who are actually sleeping together, especially for other reasons than love, in an anime? I cant remember another show except School Days that did that.

With Aiko appeared a person I totally dislike. Changing just because the other person wants you to? That is just so stupid for many reasons. If he doesnt like you how you are forget him and if he likes you how you are dont change yourself or you become a person he wont like anymore. Thats how it is.
I can already see her making things really difficult and nasty and I dont even want to see it so I hope that will be over fast.

QUOTE (Killer_Ossi @ Oct 23 2012, 08:55 AM) Wow Im really surprised that this show is so open with sex. I mean highschoolers who are actually sleeping together, especially for other reasons than love, in an anime? I cant remember another show except School Days that did that.

With Aiko appeared a person I totally dislike. Changing just because the other person wants you to? That is just so stupid for many reasons. If he doesnt like you how you are forget him and if he likes you how you are dont change yourself or you become a person he wont like anymore. Thats how it is.
I can already see her making things really difficult and nasty and I dont even want to see it so I hope that will be over fast.
Yeah I definitely remember the sex aspect of Sukitte ii na yo well. I thought, wow, they are actually showing that? A lot of shoujo's take forever just to get to a kiss scene, and you're left to assume that since it took that long to kiss, the sex would take years and would be left to your imagination after the manga ends, lol. Nana was also really open with sex, but that show featured college aged kids so I suppose that it was more acceptable.

I don't agree at all with what Aiko was doing, but I can understand it. She has extremely low self esteem and believes that if she looks a certain way that her boyfriend would love her back. She mistakenly thought that he wasn't devoted to her because she wasn't perfect looking. Well, her boyfriend was actually a douchebag and not worth a minute of her time. I suppose having sex with a good looking guy like Yamato was supposed to put a bandaid on the situation, but it didn't help her resolve her issues. She's still very self conscious about herself, as we see in episode 4 she's really embarrassed about the stretch marks left by the crash dieting. She's going to have to come to terms with the fact that everyone has imperfections, nobody is perfect even though they might seem that way on the surface. She has to learn to love herself for who she is, and she'll get there eventually.

Episode 4 was awesome because we got to see how cool Mei can be. I loved how quickly she deleted that sleazy Hayakawa from her phone and told him off before she left. And again when she stuck up for Aiko by calling Hayakawa a "smacker" lol I did notice that he was eating with his mouth open a lot, didn't think that the show would address that. However, I do feel sorry for Hayakawa too, because I think he desperately wants to be popular but is going about it the wrong way. Hopefully he'll realize that it's Yamato's kindness that draw ppl to him and not the fact that lots of women like his looks (though that is a factor too).

Just started this shoujo and I'm really surprised about it, Its really done so well. The pacing is excellent its like Kimi no Todoke in a better version IMO no tedious plot devices to extend trouble and etc. Not to mention its realistically done well.

Mei is just lovable as a character as well and no doubt If I was Yamato too Id keep her no matter what . What surprised me more is she is more assertive than she looks, I'm really surprised thanks to her she was able to make 2 people have a relationship and in just the 2nd episode no less with people whom she was friends only recently. Now, that's definitely something!

Anyways Im looking forward to this show.

On another note this seems to be the 5th time I've seen a CoolguyxAwkwardgirl pairing, I've been watching too much K-dramas over the past few days I guess lol.

Im surprised at how quickly the thing with Aiko was dealt with. I thought it would be a lot messiere, like Aiko letting Mei get raped or something (I know Im reading to much hentai-mangas ^^"). But I think Aiko already realized in ep 3 that she cant have Yamato regardless what she does and she has enough pride not to stoop to such levels.

Hayakawa is a sad person. The way he was left by his sexfriend in front of the love hotel after her boyfriend called was enough to show us what kind of life he has. He wants to have someone he can trust and be with but since hes not getting it he tries to destroy it when he sees others having it.

@julezia: So they were stretchmarks? I thought they were knifecuts or maybe scars of an failed liposuction. She shouldnt worry about that, after all Yamato didnt care about it back then and her new guy doesnt either. And if shes getting pregnant chances are high she will get them anyway.

Oh btw, whats with Yamato? After punching Hayakawa I thought "well maybe he is a guy" but he gets his hand bandaged like that after one punch? Thats so attention whore like.

QUOTE (Killer_Ossi @ Oct 30 2012, 12:09 PM) Im surprised at how quickly the thing with Aiko was dealt with. I thought it would be a lot messiere, like Aiko letting Mei get raped or something (I know Im reading to much hentai-mangas ^^"). But I think Aiko already realized in ep 3 that she cant have Yamato regardless what she does and she has enough pride not to stoop to such levels.

Hayakawa is a sad person. The way he was left by his sexfriend in front of the love hotel after her boyfriend called was enough to show us what kind of life he has. He wants to have someone he can trust and be with but since hes not getting it he tries to destroy it when he sees others having it.

@julezia: So they were stretchmarks? I thought they were knifecuts or maybe scars of an failed liposuction. She shouldnt worry about that, after all Yamato didnt care about it back then and her new guy doesnt either. And if shes getting pregnant chances are high she will get them anyway.

Oh btw, whats with Yamato? After punching Hayakawa I thought "well maybe he is a guy" but he gets his hand bandaged like that after one punch? Thats so attention whore like.
Believe it or not, Aiko is a good person. Yeah she was being bitchy to Mei out of jealousy which isn't a nice trait, but I don't think she has it in her to want Mei or anyone else to get seriously hurt. I don't know if she's given up on Yamato yet though, and Mei seems to have accepted her as a rival.
And yes, the marks on her belly are stretch marks from rapid dieting. She looks very anorexic now, even for an anime character.

Hayakawa's main motivation is popularity. He thinks that Yamato is so popular and liked by all because he gets a lot of women, so he's he's trying to be better than Yamato the wrong way. His life is sad, he's being used for sex and deep down it probably does bother him a lot. He wants to be genuinely liked for who he is, but he doesn't know how to go about it.

LOL Yamato's got delicate hands, I suppose.... no other explanation for that. Maybe the anime is trying to insinuate that he hit Hayakawa really hard, I don't know.

This episode reminded me of why I thought Mei was so awesome. I liked seeing that shes trying her best to move forward with her life despite the pain she endured in the past, and that she's firmly decided to be open with ppl even though there's always a risk that they will betray/hurt you. Best of all, she befriended Yamato's imouto who was going through something similar to what Mei experienced and was able to help her with her with kind and wise words.

QUOTE (julezia @ Nov 02 2012, 06:02 PM) LOL Yamato's got delicate hands, I suppose.... no other explanation for that. Maybe the anime is trying to insinuate that he hit Hayakawa really hard, I don't know.
No it just confirms what I thought all along, Mei is a lesbo and instead of going for a woman like Asami with nice breasts shes going for a woman with a dick. Well its been along time since the last yuri anime so its not a bad thing in my eyes.

Well the ep was surprisingly obvious and predictable unlike the last few eps. But not as no surprising as the change Mei made in this ep. Her haircut looked awesome and made her a real beauty but her hair getting that long in just one day must mean shes using extensions and she totally wasnt the type to use those before so its a huge change she made.

Punching immediately without a proper form can seriously injure you, I have a martial arts instructor here teaching Filipino Martial arts and he suddenly made blunder because his wrist was not in a proper angle to hit the bag and ended getting a cast on his hands for 2 weeks. The guy has pretty muscular build so you wouldn't really expect that, to top of he is a martial instructor, it was just a unexpected mistake resulting in a severe injury.

Go indepth to martial arts manifestos and you'd see they have a proper form on how to punch to avoid yourself. Such as Wing Chun's Vertical fist/Sun fist which Bruce lee used often.

The human body is only strong as its weakest link. So to me the whole bandaged thing was plausible.

Mei seems to have gotten some serious competition. Megu is a smart one who uses a lot of tricks to get Yamato to her side. To use the photoshoot reason to get Yamato near and in doing so hurting Mei felt pretty devious. It could be accidental but when that name of the photoshoot came along it is too much coincidence.
Yamato needs to think straight on this one..if not Mei is bound to get hurt a lot.
This series as mentioned is going really along the way like Kimi no Todoke: girl being an outcast, guy popular and he falling for her with other girls trying to get her out of the picture. Still it isn't as good as that series but it is a good series.

QUOTE (lavenderdays @ Nov 05 2012, 06:53 AM) Punching immediately without a proper form can seriously injure you, I have a martial arts instructor here teaching Filipino Martial arts and he suddenly made blunder because his wrist was not in a proper angle to hit the bag and ended getting a cast on his hands for 2 weeks. The guy has pretty muscular build so you wouldn't really expect that, to top of he is a martial instructor, it was just a unexpected mistake resulting in a severe injury.

Go indepth to martial arts manifestos and you'd see they have a proper form on how to punch to avoid yourself. Such as Wing Chun's Vertical fist/Sun fist which Bruce lee used often.

The human body is only strong as its weakest link. So to me the whole bandaged thing was plausible.
I know, but anime doesnt need such unneeded realism.

So now there is a girl who is how I thought Aiko would be, doing everything behind their back to get what she wants.

This show is sadly getting worse and worse. I hoped the relationship between Mei and Yamato would progress but both are living past each other.
Yamato doesnt realize that his nice-guy attitude is hurting Mei and Mei cant honestly say what she wants thus giving Megu the chance to create a rift between them.

This ep confirmed it again that this is a yuri show. I mean most crossdressers in animes dont look as gay as Yamato did at the photoshoot. But if they wanted to do a yuri show then they couldve used a real girl instead of Yamato. I really wouldve like to see Mei and Asami get together or better Mei and Aiko. Those would be two really nice couples.

QUOTE (Killer_Ossi @ Nov 12 2012, 11:52 AM) I know, but anime doesnt need such unneeded realism.

Lol, ppl complain when shows are being unrealistic, and they can't be too realistic either? Will we ever be pleased? I'm just j/k Ossi
QUOTE (nijlandp @ Nov 11 2012, 01:53 PM)Mei seems to have gotten some serious competition. Megu is a smart one who uses a lot of tricks to get Yamato to her side. To use the photoshoot reason to get Yamato near and in doing so hurting Mei felt pretty devious. It could be accidental but when that name of the photoshoot came along it is too much coincidence.
Yamato needs to think straight on this one..if not Mei is bound to get hurt a lot.
I'm not sure if Megu is that devious or not. Sure she wants Yamato, and it's a little too convenient that the theme of the photoshoot was lovers on a date, but she might not have known that beforehand. Her plan might just be to rope him into modeling with her, and gradually stealing him away from Mei.
QUOTE (Killer_Ossi @ Nov 12 2012, 11:52 AM)This show is sadly getting worse and worse. I hoped the relationship between Mei and Yamato would progress but both are living past each other.
Yamato doesnt realize that his nice-guy attitude is hurting Mei and Mei cant honestly say what she wants thus giving Megu the chance to create a rift between them.

This ep confirmed it again that this is a yuri show. I mean most crossdressers in animes dont look as gay as Yamato did at the photoshoot. But if they wanted to do a yuri show then they couldve used a real girl instead of Yamato. I really wouldve like to see Mei and Asami get together or better Mei and Aiko. Those would be two really nice couples.LOL I'm a girl, and I think Yamato looked hot with the slightly messy hair and glasses
I'm more annoyed with Mei right now than I am with Yamato and his nice guy attitude. Mei should be more forthcoming about her feelings, because right now Yamato might have the mistaken idea that she doesn't care as much as he does. Mei doesn't want to feel like her feelings would stop him from doing something that he wants, but because she's withholding so much he doesn't understand whats really going on in her head.

QUOTE (julezia @ Nov 12 2012, 08:09 PM)I'm not sure if Megu is that devious or not. Sure she wants Yamato, and it's a little too convenient that the theme of the photoshoot was lovers on a date, but she might not have known that beforehand. Her plan might just be to rope him into modeling with her, and gradually stealing him away from Mei.
I'm more annoyed with Mei right now than I am with Yamato and his nice guy attitude. Mei should be more forthcoming about her feelings, because right now Yamato might have the mistaken idea that she doesn't care as much as he does. Mei doesn't want to feel like her feelings would stop him from doing something that he wants, but because she's withholding so much he doesn't understand whats really going on in her head.

It seems the writers have listened to you. Megu is indeed slowly increasing the distance between Mei and Yamato. That diner part felt to give it away. Also it was bound to be discovered. Maybe he should have told Mei that he is eating at her place after the photoshoots. He may think of Megu as a friend and doesn't see harm in eating at her place. So it feels understandable why he accepted it.
It was nice to see Mei taking action. She does need to tell him how she feels and not keep on hiding it.

QUOTE (nijlandp @ Nov 18 2012, 03:42 PM) It seems the writers have listened to you. Megu is indeed slowly increasing the distance between Mei and Yamato. That diner part felt to give it away. Also it was bound to be discovered. Maybe he should have told Mei that he is eating at her place after the photoshoots. He may think of Megu as a friend and doesn't see harm in eating at her place. So it feels understandable why he accepted it.
It was nice to see Mei taking action. She does need to tell him how she feels and not keep on hiding it.
Yeahhh I don't think Megu has given up on Yamato at all, she just changed her approach with the cute and innocent act Not falling for that for a second!
The root problem was that Mei wasn't being upfront about her feelings. Yamato didn't know that all of this was upsetting her because guys can be pretty dense and oblivious sometimes.
However he should have known that it's NOT OK to eat dinner at another girl's house EVERYDAY when he has a girlfriend. If it was occasionally I wouldn't see that as being a problem (and only if she was purely his friend and not after him), but she was insisting on it being more often than that...
Also I was glad to see that Mei opened up to her friends as well. She doesn't need to carry the burden alone anymore when she has friends around her that want to support her.