The *other* age gap romance slice of life title, Koikimo is very aptly named. After a teen saves an older man’s life, he decides that the perfect way to thank her is to sexually harass her constantly until she, uh, likes him back? Anyway, the main dynamic in this show involves consistent sexual advances from an older man on a JK (“joshikousei” - high school girl) and it’s supposed to be funny, but it isn’t. Koikimo is heavier with disgust than it is with love, and each instance of Amakusa Ryo relishing the opportunity to be rejected again, we get further and further away from the light.

Osamake is arguably the romance anime this season that had the most potential going into it, but as we’ve watched the series from week to week, we’ve been more than just disappointed. While the series attempts to subvert some age-old romance anime tropes, it ends up reinforcing them in really creative ways, and in other cases, just making a complete mess. When Shida Kuroha is announced to be amnesiac at the end of the 5th episode, frustration with the show becomes a very loud resentment for the time lost. It isn’t doing what we thought it would, it’s becoming too convoluted and with the amnesia card being thrown on Osamake’s never-ending stack of plotlines and tropes. The worst part is how the entire thing was a ruse meant to outsmart the other characters and it lasted all of an episode.

Higehiro, despite how highly we regard it amongst the shows this season, is the site of the worst cringe moment, and oh boy, this one is bad, beyond the level of mortal cringe. She’s a 17-year-old runaway who after a series of horrible encounters with men who offered her a place to stay, she strikes gold with Yoshida, a twenty-something salaryman known for his dedication to work and nothing else. However, when she finds a part-time job, a man she had stayed with in the past just so happens to be her colleague. He threatens to release her secret if she doesn’t invite him over to Yoshida’s house, further attempting to assault Sayu while they were alone. Not much later on, Sayu and everybody else sort of just forgive this guy and carry on like he shouldn’t be on a sex offender’s registry and in jail. Cringe doesn’t even begin to cover this one.