AKA: ずっと前から好きでした。～告白実行委員会～ (Zutto Mae Kara Suki Deshita: Kokuhaku Jikko Iinaki); I've Always Liked You: Confess Your Love Committee

Genre: Romantic Comedy

Length: OAV, 63 minutes

Distributor: Currently licensed by Aniplex of America, also available streaming on Crunchyroll.

Content Rating: PG (Milldly mature themes.)

Related Series: Suki ni Naru Sono Shunkan o: Kokuhaku Jikko Iinkai, OVA to be released Dec. 17, 2016

Also Recommended: Lovely Complex

Notes: The origin of this is rather unusual; it was created by Honeyworks, a producer of Japanese music videos, and apparently is based on three of their songs (ref. Anime News Network)

Rating:

I've Always Liked You

Synopsis

We focus mainly on three girls who are having trouble getting romantic relationships started. The main one is Natsuki Enomoto, who tries to confess to her childhood friend (and crush), Yu Setoguchi, but after she utters the words she gets cold feet, and laughs it off, saying she's just "practicing" to confess to someone else. Another girl, Miou Aida, is already friends with a boy named Haruki Serizawa, but it doesn't seem to be moving very quickly toward "dating". The third is Akari Hayasaka, who's popular with a number of boys, but one in particular is trying to work up the nerve to confess to her.

Review

A while back I reviewed a show called Lovely Complex, which featured a red-haired, lanky, boisterous girl with an incredibly expressive face who, at one point, creates a storm of jealousy by going to a music concert with the "wrong" guy. Natsuki, here, has reddish hair, is lanky, boisterous, has an expressive face, and creates a storm of jealousy by going to a music concert with the "wrong" guy. It COULD be a coincidence, I suppose. Natsuki is not ENTIRELY unoriginal though; she almost always wears sweatpants (including under her school uniform), which did strike me as a bit unusual. I like the visual "look" of her character as well, so I'll give the show points for that too. And she's not a bad sort, even if it takes her a while to straighten things out with Yu.

I liked Akari's story much better, mainly because I could identify with the guy who really likes her, Sota Mochizuki. He's a very decent sort but completely lacking in self-confidence (a place I've been myself), and he's despondent because he thinks that Akari doesn't even know he exists, but she actually DOES, has actually been looking at HIM, too, and likes what she sees. She's not willing to give him everything he asks for, but she might be able to make SOME of his dreams come true, if he can finally work up the courage to approach her.

As for final sort-of-would-like-to-be romance, between Miou and Haruki, the stories of the other two couples seem to have run out the clock, so alas, it gets relegated to still frames at the end of the show.

The three songs the show's based on, by Honeyworks, are in there; they struck me as pretty standard J-Pop, but I'm not a music critic, especially in a language I mostly can't understand.

It's brief, the character art is good, and it has its moments, though some are borrowed from other shows. Not a bad waste of an hour or so. If you want a more substantial show with some of the same themes (because this one may have lifted some of them from it), check out the Recommendation. — Allen Moody

Recommended Audience: Nothing really objectionable. Jealousy rears its ugly head, but there's no violence. No sexuality, at this stage of our protagonists' relationships anyway.