Song of the Heart: Anime Review on "Myself; Yourself"

Myself; Yourself is as thirteen episode romantic comedy that tells the story of Hidaka Sana, a sixteen year old boy who returns to his home town of Sakuranomori. Returning after five years, he is surprised that much hasn’t change in his home town. Taking a detour to the local temple, he makes a prayer and notices a beautiful long haired girl in shrine clothing watching him. As he attempts to get closer, the girl moves away and disappears.

Heading straight to his landlord’s place to get the keys to his apartment, he is surprised to see his childhood friend, Oribe Aoi. Much to Aoi’s dismay and Sana’s embarrassment, he doesn’t recognize right away ‘Aoi-chan’ for the sudden growth in ‘certain’ areas of her body. The following day at school, he finds out that he is the same class with two other of his childhood friends, Shusuke and Shuri Wakatsuki. While talking with Shuu and Shuri, Sana sees that the long haired shrine maiden is one of his classmates as well. Trying to introduce himself, the girl suddenly slap in the face. Being slap for no apparent reason, Sana quickly reacts and sees a sakura bracelet on the girl’s wrist, and realizes that the girl is Yatsushiro Nanaka, another of his childhood friends.

From then on, Nanaka gives him the cold silent treatment and one instance, leaves him at the library when both of them are suppose to go to class representatives meeting— of which the two of them have been elected class reps of their sophomore class.

Even though Myself; Yourself is a romance comedy, unlike numerous anime comedies which are often harem romances involving one guy surrounded by numerous girls. In Myself; Yourself the story focuses primarily on the relationship between Sana and Nanaka, with the rest of the other girls being nothing more than supporting characters. Sana Hidaka, is a live person that has an actual personality, not like Hiroyuki of To Heart and Wataru of Sister Princess— the stereotype male protagonist in most harem type anime/games, which often doesn’t say much and generally agrees with whatever a girl says. Also, Sana harbors a phobia for bloody knives— or anything that pertains to blood, thus showing a male protagonist with flaws just like any regular guy, and really speaks. But Sana is still the typical nice guy who helps out anyone— which is often the cause for Nanaka’s jealous streak throughout the series.

Although a romance comedy, the series has some sub-episodes relating to the rest of the other female characters in the series. With the exception of two episodes which focuses primarily on the Wakatsuki twins, most the episodes have Sana along with one of the other female characters— as a sympathetic ear ready to listen. I enjoyed the two episodes that involved Hinako Mochida, a ten year old middle school girl who joins the cast in Episode 03. The series starts out as the typical romance comedy with all the mishaps and misunderstanding between the two, but at the near end of the series, the tone gets serious and dramatic as the reason for Nanaka’s cold demeanor is reveiled piece by piece.