Love Shouldn’t Be This Hard But Sometimes It Is

In the midst of a lesser loaded season of anime, comes a stunning romance that lasted only 6 episodes. I was looking for a cutesy romance anime to watch together with my girlfriend, since I unintentionally watched Just Because! without her. Then I stumbled upon this show while browsing Crunchyroll’s catalog. I recall seeing a light preview of it at the beginning of the season but I had completely forgotten about it because real life problems.

WARNING: Spoilers are included in this article!

Our love has always been 10 cm apart is a series that should be seen by most romantics. It starts off pretty mediocre at first, a boy and a girl lock eyes and have a moment during the first day of high school. I think what makes this set up important is its innocence. Mio and Haruki basically fall in love at first sight but they never fully committed. We join them in their final year of high school and they’ve become good friends. They often walk home together so everyone mistakes their close friendship as a more intimate relationship. And they’ve even been teased about it more than a few times.What really brings these two together is their unique views that are based on their hobbies. Mio is an painter/artist, while Haruki is a film director. Their paths head towards a heavy crossroad when Haruki is making a romance movie and asks the art club to produce a painting that symbolizes love. Mio struggles trying to define love in colors while her friends/club members have a clear image in their head. The struggle continues for Mio as she decides to hold onto a secret that ultimate creates a huge break in the story. When Mio was young, she almost drowned but was saved by someone. She never got the chance to meet or thank them until…episode 3. Turns out, the person who saved Mio was Haruki’s older brother, Chiakai, but he didn’t have the greatest health and passed away. Mio was taken to his graveyard, where she meets Saku Akechi, who is one their teachers but also Chiaki’s closest friend. They learn of each other’s attendance at the grave and Mio begs Akechi not to tell Haruki about it. Initially, I had a couple different theories about Chiaki and how he was involved. I actually correctly predicted that he was Mio’s savior but didn’t figure he was dead until it was obvious. This is how Mio’s secrecy took her to a dark place and distanced herself from her closest friends. Of course, her decisions cause a sort of chain reaction towards Haruki. He loses sight of who he really is and if it’s really his dreams that he’s chasing or his brother’s. Chiaki was the main influence for Haruki’s determination to become a film director. Haruki is hesitant about his trip to the USA after winning a film competition and he can’t even focus correctly on his final film for school. No one is able to put some sense into him until Mio finally comes around. She spilled the beans and cried her eyes out in front of her friends. They gave her the shove that she needed to confront Haruki. Mio decides that once she finishes her painting for his film, she’ll go talk to Haruki.

Approaching the climax of this series, Mio calls out to Haruki via text, and says she’ll wait however long it takes until he comes to see her. This is honestly one of the most dramatic scenes I’ve witnessed in a while, in terms of breakdown in a romance series. The most recent biggest breakdown I’ve watched was probably from Re:Zero and we all now how that exploded the internet for a while. Although I did warn readers for spoilers, I don’t want to give away the juicy bits. I will say that it does end happily ever after but I still feel like it’s a story worth experiencing for yourself. This story could be very relatable to many but it can also be seen as just a outsider looking into their relationship. I’m giving Our love is always 10 cm apart very high praise and recommendation. I stated in the beginning that it’s only 6 episodes but it still packs the perfect amount of content for the story they are trying to tell.