(Dec. 31, 2023 Update: I wrote a full review of The Dangers in My Heart season 1. The below post was written after I watched the first episode and comes to you as it was originally published, save for minor spelling corrections. April 28 2024 Update: I also reviewed the second season.)
I published an article on anime romances with stark height/size differences between the dramatic personae on February 22. April 1 saw the premier of a new anime series called The Dangers in My Heart. There is no romance in the premier, but my understanding is that one will grow. Behold the two main characters:
Anna (right) is unusually tall, but there are ordinary boys in the first episode who are taller than her. Thus, notwithstanding her being tall, the difference here is driven more by the fact that Kyotaro (left) is very short. I noted in my article on height differences in anime that tall girl/short guy configurations are unusual — the only example I found notable enough to discuss was Lovely Complex.
The Dangers in My Heart is the newest anime in a growling list of series featuring an awkward guy and an attractive, popular girl who is interested in the guy for some reason or another. Most of these series are not notable, but my 2022 anime series of the year, season 3 of Teasing Master Takagi-san, shows that you can do great things with a genre prone to mediocrities.
The first episode of The Dangers in My Heart landed some solid jokes playing off social awkwardness, but it did not inspire much confidence in me going forward. While I understand that the viewpoint character, Kyotaro, is playing at being a “dangerously unbalanced” loner as an edgelord escapism from the fact that he has no friends and no one wants to talk to him, his fantasies early in the episode were a bit much (just because something is in the source material does not mean you need to adapt it). When he tries to do a few nice things for the bubbly-but-discombobulated Anna, he still comes off as a bit of a stalker. Finally, while one can pull off a popular girl/loner guy romance, I’m not sure how The Dangers of My Heart is going to be able to sell this one (assuming the romance picks up in whatever the anime covers). I praised The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten in a lengthy review for a variation on the theme where the loner guy was viewed as decently attractive (when he put some effort in) and having good qualities. While Takagi was the better half in Teasing Master Takagi-san, Nishikata was a normal-enough guy who cared about being in good shape (even if it was driven by Takagi’s teasing). Finally, while Lovely Complex only focused on height (both of the romantic leads were well-liked and social), the short guy (Ootani) was stylish (by the young people standards) and good at sports. Kyotaro? I get that Anna is a quirky model, but I’m skeptical of how they are going to make this credible.