First Impression: Can a Boy-Girl Friendship Survive?

Yu Natsume is the quiet, serious type, with a passion that drives him even as a middle schooler—to create flower accessories for women. But without the confidence he needs to sell them, it seems like his hope to one day own a shop is nothing more than a pipe dream. That’s when the outgoing Himari Inuzuka comes along and helps him achieve his goal of selling 100 items. Fast-forward two years: Yu and Himari are now in high school and are best friends. Yu continues to make his accessories while Himari’s goal is to remain by his side, assisting him until he opens his shop. But their friendship is peculiarly intimate, leading to questions about whether they’re just friends or something more. When a girl who also finds Yu’s accessories special comes into both their lives, it may force the two to consider what their relationship really is.

I’m a sucker for “friendship to love” stories, which aren’t as common in anime as you might think they would be. Romcoms like to keep the spark of romance between guys and girls, so rarely do two characters reach a deep level of friendship before deciding to date (the romance in Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki is one of the few that leaps to mind). That excited me about this series, and indeed, the story establishes from the beginning that these two are close friends, with two years of partnership in Yu’s operation between them. And then the central question had me doubly excited because my favorite romcom is When Harry Met Sally…, which asks a similar question: “Can men and women really be friends?” Is there some Nora Ephron-esque, sly, smart commentary to be had in this anime too? Five minutes in and the answer to that is clear: Nope, probably not (though if the anime featured the full title of the light novel series—Can a Boy-Girl Friendship Survive? No it can’t.—we wouldn’t have even needed the five minutes!). This is a fairly standard romcom, like most any other you’d watch. For instance, you’ve got two fairly clueless leads and a love rival already. It’s just that the biggest obstacle in this series seems to be this desire of Himari’s to remain friends, since in her mind, romance is pretty much trash and friendship is the highest love. I liked the final thoughts by Himari in the episode, which have her considering her feelings for Yu and were deeper than pretty much anything in the preceding twenty-two minutes; they helped save an episode that was up and down. It was sometimes very cute and fun, and then sometimes obnoxious—which is pretty much whenever Himari opens her mouth. She’s hard to like in her usual mode, though the contemplative version, like at the episode’s end, is appealing. I don’t necessarily trust the writing to carve out a special space in romcom anime, but there’s enough laughter and fun here to see where it goes; I’m just hoping that it’ll lean a little further into the thoughtful stuff and away from Himari’s annoying personality.

Can a Boy-Girl Friendship Survive? can be streamed on Crunchyroll.

Twwk
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