Anyway, I’m Falling in Love With You Anime Is a Pandemic Love Story

While one of the two new shojo anime series debuting on Crunchyroll in January 2025 took quite some time to go from manga to animated adaptation, Anyway, I’m Falling in Love with You ended up rather swiftly heading to screens. Honestly, I can see why. I get it. This story is rooted in the COVID-19 pandemic experience, and telling it via another medium as swiftly as possible helps ensure those watching will better connect with it. But the thing is, I feel like this adaptation isn’t leaning as much into telling a unique love story shaped by how society changed and reacted to the pandemic as it could, though I hope future episodes could prove me wrong.

Editor’s Note: There will be spoilers for the first episode of Anyway, I’m Falling in Love with You below.

While most shojo series begin completely focused on the heroine and her school life, the early moments of the Anyway, I’m Falling in Love with You anime adaptation don’t. Rather, it is about setting a scene. Instead, it begins with a vision of a Japanese city. The color palette is washed out and feels dismal. The news report is on the screens in the city. When Mizuho Nishino, our heroine, finally appears, it is an adult version of her. She laments the fact that her birthday was terrible, and a business email just came in asking if Megu Kawaguchi’s series could end that year. After seeing a high school girl walk past with four of her classmates, she is reminded of her own past and what happened on her 17th birthday. I really loved how it started, as it felt different from other shojo series and left me feeling like maybe it could pull from real-life events to make this reverse harem love story be unique.

From there, things flash back to July 2020. This would be about the height of the pandemic. It’s 95 degrees out, and the radio is warning about the heat and “infectious diseases,” which is COVID-19 of course. Mizuho’s father walks up to her room with a meal, to find her sleeping on the floor alongside her childhood friend. Her sketches of him are all around them. He’s understandably upset, of course, and cautions them about acting like they did when they were little. She says Kizuki Hazawa is like her little brother, which he doesn’t seem to pleased to hear. So we meet her first possible love interest, and realize that due to everything going on in the world that it is actually her birthday.

We meet the whole reverse harem once Mizuho leaves her house to head to school. In addition to Kizuki, she also grew up around Airu Izumi, Shin Kashiwagi, and Shugo Hoshikawa. In a fairly short span, we learn she stays up late drawing manga, suggesting she’s the “Megu Kawaguchi” referenced in the introduction, and quick snippets of Airu, Shin, and Shugo’s personalities come up in response to her being lazy about wearing makeup and staying up late. It’s a bit rushed, though I suppose that makes sense since this first episode is more about swiftly establishing things and focusing on Mizuho and Kizuki’s relationship. 

But right away, I’m also feeling like there are missed opportunities. It’s like the Anyway, I’m Falling in Love with You anime adaptation is doing more telling than showing. I sort of would expect more people to be wearing face masks during this period of time, given it was July 2020, but there are none. (Given that they want to highlight the art and character designs, I guess I can understand.) References to current events are minimal. We don’t really see so much the effect of things, rather than hear they happened. Prime examples include the initial report on the radio, Kizuki noting that swim practice finally resumed after being halted due to the pandemic, and upper-classman Saito Ryosuke mentioning classes being canceled for a time due to “some infectious disease.” But instead of properly responding to it in potentially meaningful ways in the first episode, we instead see it as an excuse for Airu to tease her about her crush on Saito or Saito to talk about how events, class trips, classes, and sports were canceled for a while. 

I suppose I hoped for more reactions like Saito’s. It’s only about halfway through this first episode that we see someone react to current events, and it isn’t even one of the established “main” characters in Mizuho’s group. It’s a supporting cast member acknowledging his depression over things that happened. The fact that Mizuho reacts to his admission the way that she does also left me disappointed. I knew it was coming, since I’m familiar with the source series. And I’m still impressed with Saito’s characterization and response to her reaction. Honestly, it’s the moments with Saito and Kizuki opening up that left the strongest impressions on me here, as they’re the two that seemed to have the strongest emotions and reactions here. Both in terms of feelings about the current state of things and emotions relating to Mizuho, they seem to really ring true and make this first episode.

I am hoping that maybe Anyway, I’m Falling in Love with You starts to feel stronger and more unique as episodes go on. This first one was very focused on Mizuho and Kizuki, really breezing through establishing other characters and pandemic life. If handled well, it could end up being fun. After all, I did enjoy the original manga! I just feel like with the anime adaptation, it’s an opportunity to really show and highlight what life was like during a unique period of time in Japan, and so far it feels more like any shojo love story than a period piece.

The Anyway, I’m Falling in Love with You anime adaptation is now airing in Japan and streaming on Crunchyroll worldwide, and the manga is available via Kodansha worldwide.