©愛染五郎 ・竹書房／Suiseisha Inc.
“Let’s Go on a Date!”
What They Say:
Sota was suddenly made dorm manager and coach of the Hokuei University Women’s Volleyball Club as prompted by his older sister, Kaori. There, he had a fateful reunion with Ayano, his first love… In the girls’ dorm! In the gym! In a hotel?! What awaited him were days of being bossed around by girls bigger than him! A Happy Harem Rom-Com of Size Differences♡ Born Huge on the Northern Plains!!
Review: (Please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Based on the manga by Goro Aizome, the spring 2026 anime adaptation is the latest short through the AnimeFesta program and service in Japan. The anime adaptation brought on Sota Warai to direct it from the series composition by Eeyo Kurosaki. Nagae Ashitaka handled the character designs, and Studio Hokiboshi, which has worked on numerous Animefesta projects, handled this at the time as well. The original manga is known as Okī Onnanoko wa Suki desu ka? and began in 2014 and has eight volumes out so far, with it ongoing. It’s released through Seven Seas Entertainment in English.
The conflicting relationship elements of this series continue to frustrate me because it’s just not clicking for me. Ayano and Kaoru was actually a lot of fun to watch and would have been a nice angle to follow. But Kaoru is still very much into Sota, even though I think he’s better paired with Saenai. So we get the opening of this episode with Kaoru and Ayano in the bath together, but Kaoru is playing it off as if it never happened. And when Saenai arrives, she quickly gets out so as not to make things a problem, and wishes Saenai the best in taking care of Sota. Frustratingly, as Saenai and Ayano talk, they both go on about how Sota only talked about Kaoru on their dates, even though we’ve seen him internally think about the captain more than anyone else.
When Kaoru leaves, however, Sota catches her doing this and follows her, going so far as to invite her on a date since she’s in her athletic clothes. A little clothes shopping sequence is always fun, as is the two having a meal together. But it turns messy when Kaoru asks about the captain, and Sota talks about how Saenai knows he’s interested in someone else more. It’s just the usual mess, but it’s fun to watch as they both talk and drink a lot, and with Kaoru not wanting to go home, it’s zero surprise they end up at a hotel together. And she can’t help but to tease and torment him, even though he’s trying to be a good guy. But when there’s a buxom, beautiful woman next to you that’s mostly naked, it’s no surprise that it turns into some serious sexytimes between the two.
©愛染五郎 ・竹書房／Suiseisha Inc.
In Summary:
I’m still not a fan of Sota and Kaoru, and that admittedly kills a portion of the series for me as it just doesn’t work. I like him and the captain, and I like Kaoru with Ayano, so watching all of it turn its focus where you expect it’ll go is just deflating. It works well enough with what it’s doing, and it has enough time to play out here in a reasonable way, but it just doesn’t hit the sweet spot for me after all these episodes. The problem of developing a good cast of characters and things being preordained to go just one way that you don’t want them to go.
Grade: B
Streamed By: OceanVeil
© 愛染五郎 / 竹書房
©愛染五郎 ・竹書房／Suiseisha Inc.
Chris Beveridge
http://www.fandompost.com
Chris has been writing about anime, manga, movies and comics for well on twenty years now. He began AnimeOnDVD.com back in 1998 and has covered nearly every anime release that’s come out in the US ever since.
He likes to write a lot, as you can see.
