The Girl I Like Forgot Her Glasses – Beneath the Tangles

Kaede Komura has a curious dilemma. Our bro has this major crush on a girl in his class named Ai Mie. She’s always on his mind, and he longs for the day when he can tell her how he feels. However, there’s just one small problem. Our girl Ai is as blind as a proverbial bat and a bit of a space cadet. And I do not say that lightly at all…baby girl can’t see squat without her glasses…which she seems to forget quite frequently. Of course, this poses quite a few challenges for both Ai–who really struggles without her glasses and gives the appearance of glaring at others–and Kaede, who tries to help her while keeping his feelings of love in check. Oh, the shenanigans!

Remember last season when I said that anime fans were feasting with all the different offerings available? Well, so far, I think we’re eating a lot of leftovers. And I might have to put this one in the leftovers category—good, but we’ve seen this before. I mean, this show seems like it’s just going to rely on the same gag over and over again—Ai forgot her glasses, Kaede helps her and gets flustered, Ai appreciates the help, and the two are closer. Wash, rinse, repeat. Our main characters are endearing enough and funny enough to watch for an entire episode, but only time will tell if they become more than their typical “Love-struck boy helps clueless girl” tropes.

Speaking of clueless, it’s been established that Ai lives around the corner from the school. Couldn’t she go to a teacher and tell them “Hey, I’m as blind as Stevie Wonder in a dark cave without my glasses, can I please run home and get them?” Also, why don’t any of the teachers know the level of her visual impairment? Why isn’t she sitting in the FRONT of the class? And as Kaede himself ruminates in the early part of the episode, wouldn’t Ai have noticed that she ain’t got her glasses on BEFORE she walks out the door?! Heck, I’ve been wearing glasses for the last 25 years or so, and I know IMMEDIATELY when I’m not wearing mine…and thank God I’m nowhere near as visually impaired as Ai is, bless her heart. Yes, I know this is just supposed to be a light-hearted romcom and common sense is about as rare as sub-80-degree temps in Texas during the summer, but still!

Okay, let’s address the well-drawn, highly detailed, track motion elephant in the room. This show was produced by Production GoHands, and GoHands really threw hands with this animation. I’ve never seen anything like it…for better or worse. I never saw the trailer for this one, and I’m really glad I didn’t because it allowed me to experience this firsthand. I’m very impressed with the work done on this one. The tracking shots, the camera angles, the movement of the hair, the sparkling in the eyes…all of it just looks great. That being said, there are times when the show gives off the feeling of just wanting to show off. Did we really need that one long tracking shot of Kaede walking up the stairs? Did we really need every single strand of hair animated? No, we really didn’t. I worry that, by going all out on this first episode, all subsequent episodes will not be able to live up to the hype. Can GoHands really maintain this high quality for the entire run? We shall see.

So where does that leave us? It’s complicated. The Girl I Like Forgot Her Glasses seems like a run-of-the-mill, school-based anime romcom with an astronomical CG animation budget. The story is cute but if this first episode is anything to go by, it’s not anything special. I get the feeling that this show is going to lean heavily into the animation aspects to bolster what it lacks in substance or originality. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a BAD anime so far, and I would recommend checking it out as it does have prodigious potential to be good, but I would temper my expectations greatly going into this one.

The Girl I Like Forgot Her Glasses is available for streaming on Crunchyroll.

Also Known as The Cajun Samurai. I’m A Christian, a Southern Gentlemen, An Angry Black Man, A Commentator and Blogger on Life and Anime, A Virgin Until I’m Married & A Saints Fan. I wrote quite a few things, and I look forward to writing a few more!