I want revenge on the most beautiful girl in school but I’m too stupid to do it on my own.

Can you guess which anime this article is about? If you guessed Masamune-kun’s Revenge, then you get +5 points. Now, I won’t bore you with the simple synopsis of the anime. You can go read the First Impressions article here. I’ll kind of pick up where that article left off, from the third episode. Since this is a full review, there will be spoilers ahead so continue at your own risk.

Firstly, I would like to say I had somewhat high hopes for this show after the three episode test. It was a great addition to the season being a new Rom-Com and the story was unique to my knowledge.

Coming into episode 4, we realize that Masamune is actually Bakamune. After enlisting the help of Yoshino, who he now addresses as “Master”, he learns that his straightforward affection towards Adagaki is down right creepy. In turn, he should actually be giving her the cold shoulder and ignore her completely. Adagaki ends up confronting him about his behavior and asks why he likes her so much? Well being the idiot he is, his vague response of “everything about you” doesn’t amount to much. Masamune convenes with Yoshino later to ask for some advice but she refuses. We find out later that, Adagaki had witnessed Masamune and Yoshino talking together so she assumes that Masamune is just a playboy. Yoshino ends up fixing this misunderstanding but the plot thickens further as a beautiful girl appears before them. She runs up to Masamune and gives him a hug. Now it really looks like Masamune is a playboy.

This girl is revealed to be Neko Fujinomiya, a cheerful, rich girl, who has transferred into Masamune’s class and has fallen in love with him due to their past. Masamune has no memory of meeting this girl. We learn of her frailty throughout the next couple of episodes. She has to take tons of medicine everyday so she doesn’t collapse but that doesn’t stop Fujinomiya from pursuing his affection even after she learns of his determination to be with Adagaki.

Now the middle of the season is where it gets more chaotic. There is a visible love triangle in the story and spoiler alert, Masamune doesn’t get any smarter about how to handle it. Episodes 5 and 6 are mainly used to transition Fujinomiya into the story and give you an incentive of her ambitions. Episode 6 is one that raises a lot of eyebrows because it becomes apparent that Fujinomiya is a mystery to everyone, not just Masamune. Yoshino attempts to find out more about who Fujinomiya is exactly but her efforts are to of no avail. They somehow get a surprise visit to Masamune’s house via invitation of Masamune’s mother. Fujinomiya and Yoshino end up having dinner there as well. We’re not going to talk about episode 7 because for all intensive purposes, it is a fan service episode. All you need to know is that they went to beach, on Adagaki’s private island, and had a test of courage event. Classic Rom-Com events.

Episode 8 is arguably the best of the series. Masamune finds out that his picture of him and Adagaki when they were children. He’s convinced that it was Fujinomiya that has taken it so he seizes the opportunity to invite himself over when he gets a call from her. What happens next is a well executed scene that might be a little unexpected but it was a pleasure to watch.

Masamune gets caught sneaking around Fujinomiya’s bedroom looking for his missing photo. They have a heart to heart moment sitting on her bed in the darkness with just the light from the hallway coming in. Fujinomiya admits to taking his photo and tells him how cute he looked, even though he’s fat. All of Masamune’s feelings come rushing in at once as Fujinomiya takes advantage and steals a kiss. As she tries to get more intimate, Masamune fishes through all these emotions and finds the ones that truly mattered to him. The pain he felt when he was younger of being bullied and taken advantage of by people pretending to be his friends. Masamune makes the bold claim that all of Fujinomiya’s feelings for him was a lie and she wasn’t being serious. He retrieves his photo and takes his leave. Later we find out that Fujinomiya has gone missing because of this but Masamune ends up finding her thanks to a manga they both read.

The next few episodes, I don’t really have a good feeling for it. It felt kind of misplaced in the overall timeline of the story. Basically, another character is introduced to Adagaki, and to us viewers, as the “older version of fat Masamune”. His actual name is Gasuo Kanetsugu and he approached Adagaki with an arranged marriage proposal. Then it becomes apparent that Adagaki is in fact a chubby chaser and because she assumes that it’s the “Pig’s Foot” of her past, she treats him as a close friend. It’s later revealed that Gasuo’s family went bankrupt and it was up to him to complete this scheme to marry into Adagaki’s family riches. This evolves into a competition of sorts between Gasuo and Masamune for Adagaki’s heart. Masamune obviously loses out on a lot because he’s Bakamune.

The climatic competition comes in the form of the school festival when both Masamune’s class and Adagaki’s class chooses the same theme, a Snow White play. A bet then forms between Gasuo and Masamune. Whichever class gets the better reception from the audience/school, gets to dance with Adagaki at the end of the festival. Meddling occurs between both classes and somehow both the princes, Gasuo and Masamune, get kidnapped. Adagaki’s class performs the play anyway while Masamune manages to escape despite being sick and having a growing fever. Can you predict the ending? Masamune realizes that Adagaki’s play needs a prince and he proposes to perform for them. All he has to do is walk on stage, say a couple lines and give Adagaki a fake kiss. This doesn’t go so smoothly in Masamune’s condition as he collapses on stage but puts all his strength forward. Here comes the real surprise. When Masamune goes in to for the kiss, he actually kisses her and it’s beautiful. But then Adagaki in classic tsundere style, knocks Masamune across the stage. What a happy ending but the episode actually ends with a karaoke battle which I won’t talk about because it’s more Fan Service.

My final thoughts on this show, although it had a unique story and classic Rom-Com moments, it didn’t exceed all expectations. I mentioned that last little arc being out of place with a surprise “rival” showing up. What I think is the most disappointing is exactly what the title says. Too stupid to think on his own and the things he does think of aren’t the greatest. I was expecting more elaborate schemes to make Adagaki fall in love with him. There was so much ambition in the first episodes but it quickly fades once Masamune runs into any interference or unexpected bumps. They leave us with an open ending and it sort of suggests a second season. I’m not exactly against it but I want more from the Masamune himself if I’m going to enjoy it. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy this show, I thought it was fairly decent, it just didn’t hold me down all the way to the end. Let me know your opinions on the show in the comments.