Kimi to Boku.

I HATE SCHOOL COMEIDES and sentimental twaddle and will not watch "cute girls doing cute things." -- BUT I LOVED KIMI TO BOKU. -- It 's as easy to watch and as mesmerizing as a trout stream in the sunshine. It just flows along, easy, and happy, with the occasional surprise. Like potato chips I kept consuming one episode after another and was surprised when I hit ep 12. With only one ep to go I was glad to know that a second season is slated for Spring 2012.

It is a simple slice of life about four boys who have ... been together since kindergarten plus one radical misfit that gets dropped in to the mix. Sounds tedious, boring and trite, right? It isn't. It is funny without being silly and endearing without being sappy. It's about a lot of little things we overlook or take for granted that make life good.

There is no action or adventure, no high drama, no random wacky silliness, no ecchi, no sci-fi or horror and IT IS NOT SHOUNEN-AI. It is funny but not in an over the top guffawing kind of way but you will smile a lot, chuckle, and occasionally laugh out loud. KtB is true slice of life about a few charming characters you'd like to know personally.

Some say it has no plot. I'm not sure that is an accurate statement because each consecutive episode does build a bit on previous episodes as more and more is revealed about the character and characteristics of each player. Some say it is a "show about nothing" and that I openly disagree with. It is about love and acceptance, seeing someone's foibles and loving them just the same. Yes I said love but I mean universal love and and not the romantic sort. KtB is about friendship, reflection, and personal growth. How is that "about nothing."

I could care less about the opening and ending songs and found the sound track in no way annoying, jarring or distracting so it must have done its job well. I found the voice actors very well suited to the characters.

The art is nice. It is as mellow as the overall tone of the show. Then there are the cats. CATS? Brilliant, beautifully executed and illustrated vignettes of cats mirroring the actions and attitudes of the human characters -- ored cats. playful, mischievous cats, annoyed cats. Each character has a signature cat that reflects his personality and character traits. These aren't overly round, stylized cats but very realistic and richly detailed cats. Ah, the Japanese do seem to appreciate and understand cats. The "cat mirrors" is likely the most brilliant aspect of KtB. Hope they continue it in the 2012.

Kimi to Boku is a series about a group of four (later five) teenage boys and them finding things to do in their everyday lives. And...that's it, really.

KtB is truly a slice-of-life show, but I am of the opinion that even SOL series deserve actual plots and in this way, KtB falters. There isn't much plot to speak of. Most of the time, the "plot" deals with the boys doing ho-hum everyday things, like reliving childhood memories, drawing manga, or even contemplating what to do because they're bored (I kid you not). Every now and then, things get somewhere interesting - for example, the cultural ... festival episodes were fun, as was the venture to the boys' former middle school, where they meet Shun's younger brother. Other episodes were downright boring and entirely forgettable; these mostly dealt with the boys sitting around and talking about things (I can't even tell you what of because I don't remember and frankly don't care). Indeed, I nearly fell asleep during the first episode because all the characters did was talk and relive flashbacks that weren't that interesting.

Now, a lacklustre plot can be somewhat forgivable if the series had great characters. For the first few episodes, our main cast of boys numbered four - Shun (the soft-spoken, effeminate one), Kaname (the straight man and the glasses guy), and Yuuki and Yuuta (the twins). However, they're all either so quiet or deadpan that they don't make for a very entertaining group to watch. Like I said, the first episodes deals entirely with them talking about things. Even the introduction of the stereotypical tsundere in the second episode doesn't help spice up what little plot there is. In fact, the tsundere, Masaki, is one of the more annoying characters, who is more "tsun" than "dere" and gets upset at the tiniest offer of help. For the record, she doesn't get much better by the end of the series.

The group only really livens up when the fifth member, Chizuru, is added. His boundless energy and enthusiasm adds a different dynamic to the main cast - he contrasts well with the deadpan twins and the quieter Shun and gives the straight man Kaname a better character to work off of for comedic effect. At the same time, he adds a bit of a love triangle with Masaki (the tsundere). Still, Chizuru alone isn't enough to save the plot from its own blandness. Nevertheless, the show does become less boring with him around because at least when they sit around and talk, there's some energy in it.

Also, in later episodes, the group comes across other characters who, through their own plots or development, give the main cast some depth that we would otherwise not see. For example, when Yuuta goes on a date with a shy classmate, we get a glimpse of his personality underneath his emotionless exterior. Unfortunately, such instances seem to occur only when they meet people outside their group rather than when the main cast is together. I would have liked to see the main guys develop within their group as well as without, like in the case of Ouran High School Host Club.

Animation-wise, there isn't much to see. That's not to say it's bad; it's just simple because that's all the show requires. Basically, there's nothing notable about it, good or bad.

In terms of sound, the music, like the animation, isn't very notable or memorable for anything. I'll admit, though, I have a fondness for the OP "Bye Bye" by 7!!, which has cute melody and a catchy opening beat. I have no complaints about the voice actors/actresses, who I guess had to work within their given characterizations.

So, really, is there anything truly notable about Kimi to Boku? Well, no. Is it a bad show? Well...that depends on how you see it. Frankly, I don't think of it as bad but it's far from memorable. Other slice-of-life series I've seen had something to distinguish them - Aria had a beautiful utopian society with a dash of fantasy; K-ON! had catchy music and "moe" girls; Azumanga Daioh had off-beat humour and even more off-beat characters. Kimi to Boku has...cats? Look, I don't know, I'm trying.

If you like action, drama, and fast-pace plots, then Kimi to Boku is not for you. If you like slice-of-life, give it a try but if you don't like it by the third or fourth episode, it's probably not for you, either.

EDIT: It's been about 2 years since I finished this series and wrote this review. Suffice it to say, I can barely remember a single thing about this series. It was simply that forgettable for me.

It's not a Boy's Love so what's the point in watching this?

I love slice of life animes, I try to look for them whenever I can, and when I say Slice of Life i mean true Slice of life, not Slice of life in space or slice of life with magical powers. What I love about slice of life animes is the realism with the stories in characters, I love watching things that could possibly happen in real life. Sadly there are too many supernatural stories listed as Slice of life. So when I read the description for Kimi to Boku I was really happy, ... a true slice of life story FINALLY! I was eager to sit down and watch.

The first episode introduce us to the characters who had been friends for many years blah blah. I won't go into the details because you should know the story by now from reading the description.

The first episode wasn't that exciting, but I forgave its lack of excitement because it was the first episode and we were just getting to know the characters and at first I thought the random cat shots were odd, but they grew on me and actually it is the only thing about this show that is interesting.

Don't get me wrong, the show had some good episodes, such as the one with Yuki playing with a foreign boy when they were young. It was cute and just shows that even if kids can't speak each other's languages they will find ways to get around that and have fun.

However, the good is not enough to keep me glued to the story..why? Because there is no story. So far each episode is more like a "this happens in this episode" type of deal. Such as Episode five can be wrapped up as "Girl loses key chain" The fourth episode was "Kaname gets sick" this is really a nothing happens show. I guess it wouldn't be so bad if the characters were interesting, but they aren't. They are all stereotypes you can find in other animes like Ouran Host Club, except Ouran host club characters were actually fun to watch.

Not only are the characters uninteresting but the overuse of flashbacks really weigh the show down because they have nothing to do with anything that is happening in the episode, but then again since nothing is happening in the episode the flashbacks seem even more pointless. Flashbacks should enhance the story while giving the audience important info. Do we really need to know for the one millionth time that Kaname had a crush on his Kindergarten teacher? I think we have had four flashbacks on that alone. yep four on just that and we are only on episode five. (Although, thankfully there were none in the fifth) this show relies heavily on flashback storytelling, but the flashbacks leads to nowhere. i found myself not really looking forward to the next episode and I only watched the fifth episode to give it a decent chance.

Here are my pet peeves that really makes me not want to continue:

That little girl is annoying. What is up with animes that either have the super sweet boring girl or the annoying brat b**ch? Like girls are all one extreme or the other. Why can't they just have a cool girl to hang out with, who is regular and likes to play around too?

Shun, the pink haired boy is the male version of the super sweet boring chick. Now look, I don't mind girly boys but don't throw a girly boy into the mix and then not give me some sort of a gay storyline. at least attempt a coming out story (although I'm sick of those at least it is something) and no he doesn't have to fall for one of his friends (although at least there would be an actual story here). seriously, this kid is just gay, so gay his pillow was pink and had ruffles on it when they were kids. If they try to make him straight by giving him a female love interest (and no that annoying little brat is not a love interest) then I would just laugh cause he obviously does not like Va***as and neither does Yuki(one of the twins) for that matter. But he just stands around as the sickeningly sweet mother figure of the group.

Chizuru Tachibana. Soooo he was a German (I had to correct this, I thought Russian at first) boy who could not speak Japanese, yet not he is the most Japanese like out of all of them. And his name irks me more than anything. Why couldn't the writer look online or something and find a name suitable to his nationality?? I didn't know he was half Japanese until i read the synopsis here but it still irks me because why does he have to be half Japanese? Oh yeah so they wouldn't have to waste time looking up foreign names.

Okay I've said enough. But this all leads back to my first sentence. I'm not some yaoi maniac that NEEDS yaoi in every story, but since there is no plot going on here they might as well give us some BL to make this worth looking at.