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alias_sqbrI was recced this as a cute, funny rom-com anime, which it was! It's based on a webcomic which afaict is very similar. There's also apparently a live action movie.
But I nearly didn't watch the anime after I read the premise: A 27 year old unemployed shut-in who feels like his life has hit a dead end is offered the chance to redo his final year of highschool, shape-shifted back into a 17 year old, by a lab trying to develop tools to help people fix their lives.
My two concerns were:
1) That makes no sense ethically/psychologically/scientifically etc. JUST GIVE PEOPLE THERAPY?? I know Japan stigmatises therapy but COME ON.
2) Oh no an excuse for an adult man to check out teenage girls D:
And those concerns weren't entirely unfounded, but I still enjoyed the show overall. If you're interested, it's on Crunchyroll.
It was indeed pretty hard to accept the premise any time I thought about it literally. But it worked for me as a sort of metaphorical fantasy about looking back on your youth and life choices, and comparing your adult self to your past self as well as young people now. I have a lot of dreams about going back to highschool, where I am in a liminal space between a teenager and an adult, and this felt similar.
I thought of the 'lab' as fairies with magic spells etc because they sure don't act like scientists, and it's not like...meticulously psychologically realistic. But the characters rang relatively true, and it's a sweet and compassionate view of both teenagers facing adulthood and adults who feel like they've screwed adulthood up due to trauma. Note: there is a significant backstory plot involving someone's suicide due to bullying.
As for the creeping on teenage girls... right at the start, he does go "Oh hey I can check out hot teenage girls!", and enjoys watching them in PE etc. But he's very uncomfortable with the idea of being seriously interested in any of them, let alone involved sexually or romantically. In general it's a relatively sexless show, content to just let the cute girls be cute without feeling the need to go HEY LOOK AT HER BOOBS too much. So overall, creepier than I'd have liked, but less creepy than I feared.
Mostly he sees his classmates as cute kids he wants to ruffle the hair of and give advice to (they, meanwhile, see him as their amusingly old-man-ish Dad Friend) An extra complexity is that all his classmates' memories of him will be erased at the end of the year (MAGIC), he initially doesn't care but has complex bittersweet feelings by the end. The thing that makes this less painful for both him and the viewer is that the positive effects he had aren't erased, even if noone remembers why they happened.
There's some cute side romance stuff, all very heterosexual but not too painfully heteronormative for an anime aimed at straight dudes.
I looked up the plot of the romance in advance, to make sure it wouldn't squick me, and I was basically fine with it. I don't think being spoiled affected my enjoyment, here's a ROT13 summary: Uvf pynffzngr ybir vagrerfg vf raebyyrq va gur fnzr cebtenz, naq vf npghnyyl n lrne byqre guna uvz. Ntr tnc natfg jvgu ab npghny ntr tnc :Q Nyfb fur vf ernyyl fbpvnyyl njxjneq naq V ybir ure. Ur qbrf riraghnyyl qrpvqr ur'f bx qngvat ure jura ur fgvyy guvaxf fur'f 17, ohg vf unccvre jura ur svaqf bhg fur'f npghnyyl na nqhyg.
It's only one season and ends in a somewhat abrupt but still fairy satisfying way. I looked up the last few issues of the original webcomic (note: the summary spoils the plot) and that fills out the resolution a little more, though the basic plot is the same.
But I nearly didn't watch the anime after I read the premise: A 27 year old unemployed shut-in who feels like his life has hit a dead end is offered the chance to redo his final year of highschool, shape-shifted back into a 17 year old, by a lab trying to develop tools to help people fix their lives.
My two concerns were:
1) That makes no sense ethically/psychologically/scientifically etc. JUST GIVE PEOPLE THERAPY?? I know Japan stigmatises therapy but COME ON.
2) Oh no an excuse for an adult man to check out teenage girls D:
And those concerns weren't entirely unfounded, but I still enjoyed the show overall. If you're interested, it's on Crunchyroll.
It was indeed pretty hard to accept the premise any time I thought about it literally. But it worked for me as a sort of metaphorical fantasy about looking back on your youth and life choices, and comparing your adult self to your past self as well as young people now. I have a lot of dreams about going back to highschool, where I am in a liminal space between a teenager and an adult, and this felt similar.
I thought of the 'lab' as fairies with magic spells etc because they sure don't act like scientists, and it's not like...meticulously psychologically realistic. But the characters rang relatively true, and it's a sweet and compassionate view of both teenagers facing adulthood and adults who feel like they've screwed adulthood up due to trauma. Note: there is a significant backstory plot involving someone's suicide due to bullying.
As for the creeping on teenage girls... right at the start, he does go "Oh hey I can check out hot teenage girls!", and enjoys watching them in PE etc. But he's very uncomfortable with the idea of being seriously interested in any of them, let alone involved sexually or romantically. In general it's a relatively sexless show, content to just let the cute girls be cute without feeling the need to go HEY LOOK AT HER BOOBS too much. So overall, creepier than I'd have liked, but less creepy than I feared.
Mostly he sees his classmates as cute kids he wants to ruffle the hair of and give advice to (they, meanwhile, see him as their amusingly old-man-ish Dad Friend) An extra complexity is that all his classmates' memories of him will be erased at the end of the year (MAGIC), he initially doesn't care but has complex bittersweet feelings by the end. The thing that makes this less painful for both him and the viewer is that the positive effects he had aren't erased, even if noone remembers why they happened.
There's some cute side romance stuff, all very heterosexual but not too painfully heteronormative for an anime aimed at straight dudes.
I looked up the plot of the romance in advance, to make sure it wouldn't squick me, and I was basically fine with it. I don't think being spoiled affected my enjoyment, here's a ROT13 summary: Uvf pynffzngr ybir vagrerfg vf raebyyrq va gur fnzr cebtenz, naq vf npghnyyl n lrne byqre guna uvz. Ntr tnc natfg jvgu ab npghny ntr tnc :Q Nyfb fur vf ernyyl fbpvnyyl njxjneq naq V ybir ure. Ur qbrf riraghnyyl qrpvqr ur'f bx qngvat ure jura ur fgvyy guvaxf fur'f 17, ohg vf unccvre jura ur svaqf bhg fur'f npghnyyl na nqhyg.
It's only one season and ends in a somewhat abrupt but still fairy satisfying way. I looked up the last few issues of the original webcomic (note: the summary spoils the plot) and that fills out the resolution a little more, though the basic plot is the same.
