in the postscript Our dating story: the experienced you and the inexperienced meMakiko Nagaoka, the author of the first volume, said: “If I were lucky enough to date a beautiful voice actress that I admired, and if I found out she wasn’t a virgin, would I give up on the idea? I definitely wouldn’t…”
She has a point. statistically speakingyou are being too presumptuous if you ask your partner to have No Sexual or romantic experiences before meeting you. Less than 2% of people marry their first love, and the average person has at least two long-term relationships before meeting their marriage partner.
But high school anime romantic comedies work on a different logic than reality. One could argue that the genre exists to paint an idealized, nostalgic picture of young love. Because this often involves coming-of-age themes, these stories are almost always about characters entering their first serious relationship. They are often explicitly shown marrying the first person they date.
The problem with sticking to a formulaic narrative structure is that you can also end up being constrained by the social values of an older era. If you’re writing a teen love story, your character’s virginity suddenly becomes very important. If they are not virgins, then logically they are not eligible to experience “real” love. Gender double standards also play into this to some extent. In romantic comedies aimed at male audiences, sexually experienced female characters are generally not viewed as the primary love interest material. You might consider MILFs or attractive older women as potential contenders, but what about teenage girls who aren’t virgins? What a shame.
Our dating story: the experienced you and the inexperienced me The show reveals in the first episode that the heroine is not a virgin, and then goes on to depict a very traditional puppy love-style romance, as if to say “who cares about all that noise?” Shirakawa Runa is essentially a very sweet, innocent girl when it comes to her past relationships. It became clear early on that sexual experience and experience are not the same thing in love.
If I have to be completely honest, I’m not a big fan of the relationship between timid good guy Ryuu Kashima and hottie Shirakawa Runa. It’s a romance story, and the characters spend a lot of time gushing about what they like about each other, which is cute, but doesn’t create much chemistry on screen. But the story does take time for the hero to verbally assure Shirakawa that her previous experiences will not diminish their current relationship, nor her as a person.
It’s also refreshing to see characters having frank conversations about sexual consent. Shirakawa revealed in the first episode that she had sex with her ex because she felt “obligated” and Ryuto told her she should only do so under the following circumstances she Really want to. This plot point comes up again in episode five, when Shirakawa silently worries whether she “channeled” Ryūto when she inadvertently touched him in a hotel room. He reiterated that the decision to initiate sex was entirely her own, implicitly assuring her that he would not interpret other forms of intimacy as sexual consent. I have to respect Ryuto because he is a genuinely good guy in a situation where many others would do the same. no Be good.
With such a strong relationship based on trust, you’d think these two wouldn’t be subject to the miscommunication-based conflicts common in romantic comedies, right? Well, no. The climax of the anime is Shirakawa’s assumption that Ryū and her sister would be better together since she is his First crush. As frustrating as this storyline is, I can’t help but think her actions stem from her idolizing Ryuto too much and thinking she’s not good enough for him. In her opinion, he was the first boyfriend to be so kind to her and he deserved more in return. So I don’t think it’s surprising that their relationship took a negative turn very quickly after they honestly told each other how they felt.
What’s particularly interesting about Shirakawa’s character is how much she admires her parents as middle school sweethearts. That’s why she agreed to everything her first boyfriend asked of her – even though her parents eventually divorced. Of course, Ryūto’s first crush didn’t work out either, and he had no interest in rekindling the relationship after falling in love with Shirakawa. It can be said that Shirakawa’s mental distress fundamentally stems from her obsession with her “first love,” and in order to fully embrace her current relationship, she must escape this mentality.
I think this is the story that gently reminds us not to put “chastity” and “first love” on a pedestal. No matter what you’ve been through in your life, falling in love with the right person will lead to many firsts. The opposite is not true.
This seems like such a self-evident point that you might wonder why anyone would bother writing an entire book series about it, but I do feel like it’s a meaningful subject for the genre and target audience. Our dating story: the experienced you and the inexperienced me Probably not the most creative or exciting romantic comedy anime out there (even if it’s just this season, it’s hard to compete with it) 100 girlfriends), but I definitely think it deserves praise for challenging the slut-shaming that sometimes seems implicit in the genre. A sexually experienced girl can also become a cute anime heroine, it’s up to you!
(Nicole is the nicest girl, though.)
