Please note that I will only review the characters and talk about the story a little while talking about them though I will still give my total score of the anime for the review score. I simply dont have much to say for anything but the characters. Characters 7/10 Mito Yamamoto 6/10 Lets start with the female lead. Sadly as so often in romance anime like this the female lead can be quite stupid at times even though she has a generally interesting character. Her background plays nicely into her personality showing abandonment issues as well the deep wish to be able to fully rely on someone finally. However even though you could think if Mito as a rather smart woman she is quite the opposite. Given the fact that shes in love and with her past you can forgive her fear for messing up and therefore not wanting to push anything. Regardless of that her fear seems monotone and forced not greatly playing into her character. Ruka Saotome 8/10 Ruka first appears to be a rather unlikeable person but drastically changes the way he is seen throughout the anime multiple times. His nerdy side leads to some funny moments and is not overused. His vow to not fall in love with anyone that he made during his childhood when he first met Mito also doesnt seem to be placed too much in the way bringing some common frustrations into the romance between him and Mito but most of those are for plot building. Ruka can sometimes be a semimysterious character even though those moments were somewhat rare. Regardless its not always easy to think about what he may be having on his mind as long as its not about Mito. The development of his love for Mito seems forcibly fast at first but then somewhat flattens out until the last few episodes starting to skyrocket in the last episode to give the final climax of the first season. Rin Nikaidou 4/10 Rins love for Mito is quite obviously forced starting for no real reason and being more possesiveness than anything. His romantic feelings are not really justified through everything other than wanting to protect Mito from Ruka because he couldnt save his mother from his father. The feelings he has for Mito dont follow a proper graph shooting from none to 2/3 love and fully flattening out there only slowly rising in the last few episodes where he succesfully attempts to at least temporarily make Mito turn to him instead of Ruka. Looking into Rins character we can see that instead of learning from his past experience with his mother he is stuck in the past wanting to keep Mito and Ruka apart simply through his own selfishness not respecting Mitos feelings and repeatedly forcing himself between the two of them. In my personal opinion that I wont let influence the review score Rin is a character that was simply forced into the story to add drama instead of actually adding something to the story. He seems like a basic drama character to me with no real character to him. Takara Kagurazaka 7/10 Takra is a fun character oblivious towards the feelings Juri has for him and his own feelings that he has to Juri. Watching through Takaras scenes a few times he seems to have a bisexual female lean though he less seems to be into women but more into the cute appeal of them as he keeps mentioning cute girls. Juri 8/10 Its a bit of a shame that Juri is the only important side character after Komori that doesnt have a second name. Juri is an interesting and a bit of a mysterious character at first. His first interaction with Mito shows him as someone that cares deeply for Ruka which would lead some to believe that Juri might be Mitos competitor throughout the anime but ends up actually being quite a shy and gentle character that was simply worried for his friend since Mito seemed suspicious. With earlier episodes Juri seems quite girly letting you assume he might be like Mito through his cute and feminine personality though quite early the art style shows you that thats not the case and that he is simply a guy. Most of the time Juri seems like a rather unimportant character but actually influenced Mito quite a bit smoothing the romance between Mito and Ruka temporarily until Ren comes back to interrupt. The short romance between Juri and Takara is also quite interesting even though it is compact and definitely leaves a lot up to interpretation. Komori 9/10 Last but not least is wingman Komori. Komori is quite visibly the smartest character out of all the others being calculative and careful with every move he takes making sure that everything goes the way its best for them all. Komori surely seemed like he wanted to get in the way of Ruka and Mito a few times though even that was all just an act to make them realize how much they needed each other. Going as far as making Ruka believe Mito was not his destined partner to prove just how much Ruka is dependant on her and even making him abandon his post as leader and get exiled for Mito which obviously was only a play in the end. Even though Komoris appearances were as rare as those of Juri and Takara whenever he appeared there was a shift in feelings from Ruka and Mito causing some frustration but also allowing them to grow. Just a short thing for the story since I dont want to leave it out completely Personally I had to skip a in the later episodes when Rens possesiveness shone through as it simply was unbearable to watch. Rens character while being the ground of which made Mito and Ruka end up together was horribly written and executed forcing elements into the story that couldve been implemented a lot nicer with a proper second male lead. The character interactions were always either cute or funny which speaks volumes for how nicely the story was actually written not the characters the story. The building of backstory for each of the important characters was easily understandable and nicely made giving mystery but also clearance when it was needed. Sadly I still have to give the story a rather low score as it simply stopped catching me after episode 7 or 8 and I only kept watching because I wanted to see how Mito and Ruka ended up together leading me to skip through quite a few scenes or much more fastforwarding them to get to the end quicker without missing important parts of the story. In my personal honest opinion I think that the story couldve been much better if Ren and most of what had to to with him had been given more thought and was written in a more interesting manner. Otherwise I have few to no complains.