When she was seven years old, Sunao Aikawa created a replica of herself. She needed someone at the time to take her place, to take action when she wasn’t strong enough to do herself. After this first intervention, she has called for Nao’s (the name of her replica) help multiple times, but over time Sunao has grown less and less appreciative of Nao. Their personalities seem to have gone in different directions too. Sunao seems to be in a negative mood most of the time, and isolates herself whenever possible, while Nao is polite and friendly, and tries to spend time with friends and at the literature club. On a regular day at this literature club, a classmate suddenly asks to join the club. It’s Shuya Sanada, the boy who suddenly talked to Nao moments before. Shuya and Nao quickly start connecting with each other, and this could be the start of something special. However, it won’t be easy for them to maintain any type of relationship because of how irregularly Sunao calls for Nao. Is this romance doomed from the start?

I appreciate the premise of this anime, and I think the potential is there for an emotional rollercoaster. Already from the start, there seem to be ideas of tackling the short- and long-term effects of social isolation and avoidant behavior. There also seems to be quite a bit of tension already. Sunao has been neglecting Nao’s feelings for a long time, so at some point there will probably be a confrontation between the two of them. And aside from that, we get the feeling that Sunao can’t escape from life’s challenges forever. Shuya hasn’t said it out loud, but he’s probably struggling with finding purpose after being injured, which means he can’t play basketball anymore. This is already a ton to work with, so the only thing I’m worried about it whether it will be executed well. I’m an anime-only viewer, so I have no idea where the story will go. I didn’t think I’d be interested in this series at the start, but after watching the entire episode, I’m curious about the next one.

Even a Replica Can Fall in Love is streaming on Crunchyroll.