Thinking About Myself; Yourself
A 2007 anime called Myself; Yourself came up in one of my recent email exchanges. The anime was an adaptation of, or companion to, a PlayStation 2 visual novel of the same name, which was released exclusively in Japan in 2007. The anime, which was produced by studio Doga Kobo, made it stateside and aired for 13 episodes in the fall 2007 season. I had been aware of the anime since 2008-09 or so, and not for a good reason. I had noticed that it received negative review scores from some review outlets I read, namely, off the top of my head, THEM anime (1 star out of 5) and the former Nihon Review (4 out of 10).
I always have more than enough anime to catch up with (noting I started watching non-Adult Swim anime in late 2008 or so) without trying the most critically panned anime series in Crunchyroll’s library. But I ultimately did end up watching Myself; Yourself, as evinced by a quip in my 2024 article on hair color in Days With My Stepsister:
I find [Maaya’s (a character from Days With My Stepsister)] voice over extended periods more difficult than any anime voice since Aoi Oribe in Myself;Yourself (you get to pat yourself on the back if you get that reference; and you also have my sympathy).
Aoi’s voice haunts me to this day.
I will preface the foregoing by noting that I ultimately agreed in the main with the THEM and Nihon Review negative assessments of Myself;Yourself. Were I to undertake a review of Myself; Yourself (that is not in the cards, mind you), I would have little to add to those reviews from a critical perspective, and I doubt many people in 2026 are seeking detailed negative reviews of nondescript visual novel-to-anime adaptations from 2007. But while I am content for the time-being to direct readers to the Nihon and THEM Anime reviews of Myself;Yourself for a critical perspective, I do have two Myself; Yourself-related topics to dive into: First, the story of how I watched the anime and why I remember it; and second, some thoughts on watchable bad anime (which almost certainly cover other forms of media).
How, When, and Why I Watched Myself; Yourself
My Myself; Yourself story begins several months before I watched the anime. In April 2014, I ordered the S.A.V.E. DVD set of Kyoto Animation’s 2006-07 adaptation of Kanon. Back in 2014, most of the anime I watched was on either Crunchyroll, Funimation (now merged into Crunchyroll), and Anime Network on Demand. I recall having watched a few shows on Hulu (most notably Honey and Clover off the top of my head) but I think the phenomenon of Hulu-unique anime on my list pre-dated 2014. At that time, Kanon was not available for free on any of the services I watched anime on, so I decided to purchase the budget DVD collection from Amazon (it was $18.94 according to my order history).
For those not in the know, Kanon is a well-regarded commercial visual novel by Key first released in 1999 (now available in many languages on Steam). It had been adapted into an anime by Toei Animation in 2002. Kyoto Animation’s 2006-07 adaptation, which is the one I ordered and the only one I have seen, exists independent of the original and is, by all accounts I have seen, the superior Kanon anime.
I was aware that Kanon has a winter setting. It takes place in Hokkaido in the winter with copious amounts of snow included. For that reason, I held off on watching it until December 2014, at which time I watched it over the course of 12-or-so days culminating on, to the best of my recollection, Christmas Eve.
I very much liked Kanon and to this day consider it the quintessential hibernal anime. Interestingly, it began in the same season (autumn 2006) as my choice for the quintessential estival anime, Living for the Day After Tomorrow (Asatte no Hokou in Japanese). I previously reviewed Living for the Day After Tomorrow and intend to do the same for Kanon in due course. This article, however, is not about Kanon, so it will suffice for the instant purpose for me to note that had Kanon concluded in a year that did not also feature the excellent Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and Ef: A Tale of Memories, it may well have been one of my TV anime of the year selections.
I was in the mood to immediately start a new anime after finishing Kanon. As readers may infer from the set-up to this article, my choice was Myself; Yourself, which I streamed on Crunchyroll.
I do not remember my exact thought process in settling on Myself; Yourself as opposed to one of the many other more critically-acclaimed options in Crunchyroll’s anime library. As I noted in the introduction to this article, I had come across negative reviews of Myself; Yourself, and to the best of my recollection I had not come across any positive reviews, so I was well aware that the anime had its detractors. I vaguely recall thinking from looking at its Crunchyroll page that I thought there was a chance I would like it more than the reviews I had come across. It is possible that I chose it as a follow-up to Kanon because, like Kanon, it is a visual novel adaptation which aired in 2007. I also think I was looking for a 12-13 episode show instead of a two-cour show like Kanon (Kanon runs for 24 episodes, which aired over two consecutive seasons).
I watched Myself; Yourself quickly, finishing it between Christmas and New Year’s Eve. As I noted previously, I did not think Myself; Yourself was a good anime and largely agreed with the negative reviews I had stumbled upon. But, in a point that we will examine further in the next section, I found Myself; Yourself watchable despite being a train-wreck.
My end-of-2014 anime viewing was not yet done. After completing Myself; Yourself, I looked for yet another anime to bring in the new year. On this occasion, I advanced one year, choosing P.A. Works’ 12-episode 2008 anime, True Tears. True Tears is a visual novel adaptation in a very loose sense. True Tears was originally a Japanese visual novel first released in 2006. While the full visual novel has not been localized, Insani, which localized many freeware visual novels that I have reviewed, localized the 2005 trial edition of True Tears to English. While the anime shares a title with the visual novel and credits the visual novel developer, its story and characters are original and my understanding is that it has little-to-nothing in common with the ostensible source material.
Like Myself; Yourself, I watched True Tears over the course of a few days. Unlike Myself; Yourself, I came away with a generally positive view of True Tears – which I would describe as being a love triangle (it briefly threatens to be a more complicated shape) with some melodramatic tendencies. It exists in my critical assessment somewhere in the gulf between Kanon and Myself; Yourself. Similarly to Kanon, I have at least one True Tears-based article idea in the future, but that will have to wait. But before continuing, I will offer one anime “hot take” based on True Tears. The script was written by Mari Okada, who is one of the more prolific anime screenwriters of the current century (most prolific in TV anime from 2006-2019). I tend to prefer her work on adaptations to her original works, but I will submit – with all due apologies to the hardcore Anohana fans out there – that True Tears is her best original TV anime script.
While I do not recall jumping into any more older TV anime series right after True Tears, I will note that I started playing The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky in January 2015, likely while I was still watching True Tears. Long-time readers will know that I ranked Trails in the Sky 11th on my personal list of 12 video games that left the biggest impression on me, and it is the latest (in terms of when I first played it) game on my mostly mid-90s/early-00s centric list.
Myself; Yourself as a “Watchable” Bad Anime
I went into watching Myself; Yourself with measured expectations, noting that notwithstanding potentially interesting points in the series description, every review I had come across for it was negative. Notwithstanding the fact that I find good review sites more valuable for discovery than taste-making, the general direction of the reviews I saw of Myself; Yourself were not encouraging.
Myself; Yourself starts with a standard-enough set-up. The protagonist, Sana Hidaka, is a high school student who is returning to his hometown of Sakuranomori, where he reunites with his old friends – including the ear-piercing Aoi. As one of the linked reviews noted, this initial set-up of a high school student returning to his hometown and reuniting with old friends is similar to Kanon. His other friends are Nanaka Yatsuushiro, a talented pianist who Sana had a childhood crush on, the twins Shusuke and Shuri Wakatsuki, who have their own issues, and Asami Hoshino, who turns out to be an interesting young woman. Things start out normally in the first half of the show before spiraling into melodrama with dramatic twists in the latter half. Myself; Yourself is not well-written, the characters and plot developments are often unbelievable, and it has no sense of pacing. The one potentially interesting story line, which is centered on the view-point Sana and Nanaka, is ultimately rushed – perhaps because the writers of Myself; Yourself wasted precious time on speed-running through the less interesting stories of the rest of the cast.
The main problem – besides the shaky scripting – was that I was unsure what Myself; Yourself wanted to accomplish, and I am not sure Myself; Yourself knew itself (pun intended). I tend to appreciate anime, visual novels, and the like which have clear goals and execute them effectively. Take, for example, Shooting Star Hill (review), a 2006 visual novel that I gave very high marks to notwithstanding its middling reviews. What I appreciated most about Shooting Star Hill was that it had a clear and distinct idea of what it wanted to explore – how the kindness and determination of a lovestruck boy could positively impact a deeply lonely and ostracized girl – and its script was laser-focused on this theme from beginning-to-end. In contrast, Myself; Yourself is a hodgepodge of half-baked story-lines, ultimately obfuscating the one story line that had an interesting premise and potential message to develop.
But for all of its flaws – and there are many – I found Myself; Yourself to be watchable. To its credit, I think it wanted to be a good, worthwhile anime, which is not a sentiment I have for every visual novel adaptation from that era. Let it be said that it tried. Its twists, while often absurd, did leave me wondering where it was going next. Moreover, by saving significant parts of its most important character until the latter stages, it preserves a sense of drama throughout, granting that it ultimately fails to deliver on its promise. While I cannot find much to praise Myself; Yourself for beyond its catchy, albeit ill-fitting opening song, Tears Infection, I would not say I dislike it beyond noting its faults.
To understand what it means to be a watchable bad anime, let us contrast Myself; Yourself with another tire fire 2007 visual novel-to-anime adaptation, School Days. I published a lengthy review of School Days back in 2021, more to explore the “Nice Boat” meme that set sail from its final episode than to discuss the show itself. Those who read my review will know that I do not like School Days. I think it is an objectively subpar anime. With that being said, School Days is an objectively better anime than Myself; Yourself. It has a clear idea it wants to explore – the main character’s dissent into depravity and how that drags the ladies he is most involved with down with him. It had a destination – which is now not unfairly overshadowed the Nice Boat meme. Despite its questionable character writing and contrivances, School Days never deviates from its mission and, cutting through choppy waters, reaches its destination. School Days, unlike Myself; Yourself, is confident and sure of itself. It is flawed, but intelligible. While I do not have much positive to say about School Days, its script hits the occasional high note beyond Myself; Yourself’s competence – see for example my qualified praise for its handling of Setsuna.
But while School Days is better than Myself; Yourself in all technical respects save for audio-visual production values (Myself; Yourself the better-looking show, albeit neither it nor School Days were notable by 2007 standards), that does not mean I would rather watch it. Were someone to somehow force me, on the spot, to marathon one of these two questionable visual novel adaptations, I would choose Myself; Yourself over School Days eight days out of the seven day week. Despite having some limited merit, I dislike School Days in a way I do not dislike Myself; Yourself. School Days simultaneously technically superior to and less watchable than its fellow 2007 visual novel-to-anime adaptation.
Parting Thoughts on Bad and Watchable
While I have a growing collection of anime reviews on The New Leaf Journal, this is not a review website. For that reason, I have the luxury of being selective in choosing review topics. In the context of anime, I focus on series that have an interesting point to study or otherwise tie into a broader project. In the case of Myself; Yourself, I could not say much of interest that has not been said elsewhere. It is, on the whole, a subpar visual novel adaptation that tried but did not succeed. But it falls into what I think is an interesting niche – in my subjective assessment at least – of being decently watchable despite its many faults. One can see a good anime in there, smothered by poor execution. I would not go so far as to say watching it is fun, but it does have a way of making a first-time viewer wonder what the writers will pull out of the hat next.
Being bad and watchable is of course not unique to anime. There are technically subpar or middling books of the moment that are nevertheless readable (or even entertaining) just as there are anime, TV shows, movies, games, visual novels, and the like.
