The 12th episode for the television anime of Norio Sakurai’s The Dangers in My Heart (Boku no Kokoro no Yabai Yatsu) manga ended on Sunday with an announcement of a second season next January.
I wrote a short Leaflet after the first episode of The Dangers in My Heart about the significant height difference between the main romantic pair, Kyotaro Ichikawa and Anna Yamada, in favor of Anna. Perhaps owing to the popularity of the anime and manga, that has turned out to be one of our most-read pieces in recent weeks, surpassing a full-length article about height differences in anime romances which preceded it. My views on the first episode were mixed. I dare say my views on the first half of the (now) first season were mixed (a trend in solid 2023 series). However, Dangers in My Heart grew on me in the second half as the main relationship progressed (slightly more naturally than I anticipated) and Kyotaro went from uncomfortable to watch to awkward in a more endearing way. The last third of The Dangers in My Heart saw some of the higher quality episodes of 2023 thus far, and it ended in a good place for a first season.
Because I liked the first season in the end (consider it another borderline year-end top-six candidate), I am looking forward to the second and think it could be quite a bit better as the series moves into (what I imagine will be) more interesting material. One point that needs to be developed is the character of Anna. We only see the series from Kyotaro’s perspective. This has benefits, he is a strong viewpoint character once he stops trying to convince himself that he is dangerously unbalanced. But one drawback is that we do not know precisely why Anna falls for Kyotaro. We see the gradual progression of their relationship from Kyotaro trying to silently fall on a sword for the girl who fascinates him to Anna taking affirmative steps to befriend Kyotaro and spend time with him, but I do not have a clear and distinct idea from the first season of what it is about Kyotaro that draws Anna to him. The series will ultimately have to answer that question to escape falling into the wish fulfillment trap (note I have not read the underlying source material, so all of my impressions are based solely on the anime series). I am optimistic that the second season will explore Anna’s character and motivations more since Kyotaro and Anna are now (mostly) capable of sustaining a coherent conversation together.
We will see in January 2024.