"Sorry that I reacted that way... it was my first kiss too..." - Yuuto Takao
12 Sai is a romance, school, and shoujo anime. It was originally released in April 2016 by OLM with 12 episodes. It does has a continuing season as well as two OVAs.
General Rating: 6.5/10
My Rating: 10/10
If the word cute had an anime, 12-Sai would be it. This terribly underrated anime is not only one of my most favorite romance animes, but also with extreme cuteness. 12-Sai is about four 12-year-old friends, two girls and two boys, and their journey of discovering their first loves. These elementary school kids embark to discover romance for the first time in the most cute way imaginable. I have seen lots of romance anime. Most about high schoolers. Something that makes me laugh is that 90% of those anime are about 1) a dumb loser kid 2) who can't recognize romance if it slapped them in the face 3) and barely make a couple with love interest by the last or second to last episode. 12-Sai is about freaking 12 year olds who... hold your breath... hold hands, kiss, go on dates, etc..... THE ENTIRE ANIME?!?!? What is this travesty? I love the fact that 12-Sai is an anime where the characters still experience romance, shyness, and their first times without taking damn near forever.
The anime depicts two 12-year-old girls' innocent worries and first love. The story begins with Hanabi, a sixth-grade girl who has unrealistic fantasies about romance, such as falling in love with a popular idol. Reaching a period of life where they are neither a child nor an adult, 12-year-old Hanabi and best friend Aoi meet with life-changing events. Due to the mischievous demeanor of her male classmates, Hanabi does not think highly of the opposite sex. However, her perspective begins to change after she is paired with the kind-hearted and mature Takao for a class assignment and they accidentally witness their homeroom teacher kissing someone from the school rooftop and their hearts begin to race as they stare into eachothers eyes... While her best friend is discovering love, Aoi yearns to seek her own and finds herself falling for Hiyama, after he protected her from a boy she rejected who talked behind her back. 12-Sai follows the four during this phase of adolescence. As they grow up alongside each other, this sweet and cute romance depicts the innocence and excitement of first love.
Story: 12-Sai is packed with a constant flow of romantic cuteness. The anime is fairly episodic and each episode deals with something new the two couples must deal with whether its holding hands for the first time, encountering love rivals and jealousy, or the horrible Kokoa and her awful schemes. It's not a deep anime romance, but a cute one. And rest assured, it has plenty of cute romance to go around. I typically love shoujo romance above shounen romance due to the fact it doesn't beat around the bush. It doesn't take forever for the couple to get any progression. 12-Sai is a shoujo just like these, and I love it for that. Sure I do still love my deep emotional romance the most, but romance as cute as 12-Sai comes pretty dang close.
Characters: 12-Sai has perfectly nailed the characters for this anime. Like a lot of shoujo romance, 12-Sai puts effort into both its male and female characters. This alone gets a round of applause from me. Hanabi is a cute and childish 12-year-old with a cute design and personality. Aoi is cute but more mature girl who seems to have more hesitation when it comes to romance, probably because of her maturity. Takao is the cool tall guy in the class that everyone seems to look up to with his quiet and smart personality, but he also loves to tease a bit. Hiyama is very cute and shy, reminds me of a puppy dog, but becomes strong when it's for Aoi. I love how this anime gives us cute girls and masculine males. It makes for a very cute pairing. The supporting characters, namely Tsutsumi, Marin, and Kokoa, are great as well. Something that makes me laugh about the characters in this anime is some of the background students in this anime. There is so little detail put into their design they remind me of harem male leads. It's comedic, and they have little screentime in the anime so it doesn't seem to affect it much.
Soundtrack: Oh my goodness, this soundtrack and voice acting in this anime is the cutest in existence, including the voice acting. The Japanese voice acting in this anime makes me blush so much. It's incredibly cute! The seiyuu's especially do a great job portraying the cute female voices. The openings are still stuck in my head. I absolutely love them and the animation during the opening is so cute and romantic I can never bring myself to skip it!
Art: 12-Sai has a very cute and shoujo art style that has an older late 2000s/early 2010s feel to it. I loved the older art style of this anime, and it really gives it that 2000s vibe I love. Sometimes I wonder why they didn't use modern animation as it is a 2016 anime, but whatever their reason, I think their decision to give it an older art style suits this anime so well. It really feels like a 2000s anime. Another thing I appreciated about the art and animation choices of this anime is that the characters had so many different outfit changes. I feel like they were wearing different outfits every episode - and sometimes changing during an episode. This was probably a lot more work on the creators' part, but it was a fact that did not go unappreciated by me. I loved seeing the characters' sense of style through their cloths and it really brought this anime to life.
If you are looking for cute romance, look no farther than 12-Sai. It has all your needs covered. Fans of animes like Naisho no Tsubomi, Ore Monogatari, Kanon 2006, Kodomo no Omocha, Yume-iro Patisserie, Gakun Alice, or Momokuri will definitely love this anime and should give it a watch! (But watch out for Kokoa!)
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