My Love Story With Yamada-kun at Lv999

Episode 13

Given how nicely put together it is, it's cool that we got a whole thirteen episodes of My Love Story With Yamada-kun at Lv999. That in turn makes me feel just a bit greedy for how this finale leaves me immediately wishing for a whole other season of this show. I'd been wondering how the anime would leave off for weeks now, and what it winds up doing arrives at such a compelling, and in its ways, surprising, turning point, that I can't help but be fascinated with where the story goes from here. Yes, I know that as with most things like this, there's a whole manga I can track down and catch up on if I'm really that curious. But my tastes for this series have already been made by Morio Asaka and the folks at Madhouse, so I'd love to see further material filtered through their lovely shoujo anime overlays.

The thing is, this finale does function just fine as a full ending to the story if you like. Just skipping ahead and not burying the lede, Akane and Yamada do wind up properly coupled up by the finish here, already showing signs of growing and enriching as a result of engaging with each other. It ends up obvious in hindsight that this is where everything was leading up to, and even with twelve prior episodes of drawn-out romance anime pacing, when that moment of confirmation at last lands it does so seeming as effortless and natural as possible.

Tightly constructed as it is in getting there, Yamada-kun at Lv999 knows it has some housekeeping to take care of first. Tsubaki, and we, pretty much know that her rejection by Yamada is something that's coming, but needs to be faced anyway. Making time for Tsubaki is the right thing for both Yamada and the narrative to do, and the writing uses it to inform just a few more remaining qualities before the proper big finish by the end. Part of it's subversive, as we are made to suspect that Tsubaki's outpouring of the reasons for her appreciation for Yamada is designed as a dry run for what Akane might finally get around to by this episode's end. But it's also an earnest amount of examples of what these people find so appealing about Yamada, to begin with. And seeing him get embarrassed over those things only drives his cuteness quotient up even further.

The other reason to have Yamada begin here by turning down Tsubaki is that this situation with her provides one last vector where Yamada can properly confirm what's so long been suspected: That he is conscious of his feelings for Akane being genuinely romantic. It had been an odd situation to try to read, his honored admiration that he confessed for Akane something that could be followed up on romantically, but was uncertain given his still-growing struggles with emotional honesty. It's appropriate, at this moment, as he witnesses Tsubaki pouring out all her feelings and learning the true layers that come from the experience of love, whether or not it's requited. Yamada comes to understand and thus confesses his love for Akane to Tsubaki, but we get the impression there that this is also him being honest with himself about those feelings for the first time.

Setting up for the big moment with Yamada and Akane is then an exercise in the age-old plotting trick of bringing things full circle. Akane heads off to an offline meet-up for FOS (though in this case, it's with her guild-mates, rather than a public event), she meets up with Yamada a little later, and she winds up drunk with him having to be the one to take care of her. It results in a mild amount of drama in the lighter ways this show has always allowed itself to deploy tension. Akane being hammered out on sake is cute enough in its own way, but we wonder if this will complicate what we presume is her oncoming confession, or if her behavior will prove off-putting to Yamada after he just came to terms with his feelings for her. But instead of playing up Akane's disaster-person vulnerability in a way that could have come off infantilizing in orbit about this big moment, the anime instead uses the breathing room it still has in this episode's run-time to demonstrate that all-important growth.

Yamada proves perfectly adept at handling Akane in her intoxicated state, gently bringing her down from being rowdy to seeming more tipsy, but still quite cognizant. He comes off like he's really looking out for her, just as he did when she was sick. It lends an incredibly unique flavor to their relationship when you see Yamada being compelled to take care and be protective of Akane while recalling how cool and aspirational he also sees her as. This makes that the perfect place for the story's spectacularly subversive swerve in how the confession and coupling ultimately happen: Not with Akane being the one to declare her love for Yamada, but out of her asking him if he likes her, and him being compelled to earnestly admit that he's realized how crazy he is about her.

The direction's decision to deploy a knowing, one-of-a-kind expression on Yamada at this moment sells how special it all is; Not Tsubaki or anyone else could provoke this kind of reaction from Yamada that Akane does. And she did it not by imposing her feelings on him as so many of his prior admirers had, but by genuinely asking him what he felt. Things click into place as already headed towards much healthier horizons for our heroes here, Akane mostly seeming to sober up by this point, Yamada leaving her with a hearty hug and a promise to call her in the morning (following up on the call he missed last week), and then properly doing so, leading to a coda confirming that they've made it official. The other characters around them are asking "And then what?" at the same rate we are at that point, which feeds into that desire for a follow-up I lead with. Just the snippets we do get to see of Akane and Yamada as a couple already demonstrate that growth we knew this relationship would be so good for instilling in them. Even if we don't get to follow it in anime form, it's nice to know that their story still goes on after they take the first step of getting together.

For all my going back and forth on the idea of Yamada and Akane as an official couple throughout this series run, it's a testament to its abilities that it got me so on board with the pairing by the end here. Yes, there's some tacit mitigation of the age issues thanks to multiple mentions of Yamada gearing up for college entrance exams in this one. But making clear how earnestly and adorably mutual their crushes on each other went a long way towards retroactively making us think they should have just gotten together sooner. But at least now we can see just how well they'll be able to level up together going forward.

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My Love Story With Yamada-kun at Lv999 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Chris is keeping busy keeping up with the new anime season and is excited to have you along. You can also find him writing about other stuff over on his blog, as well as spamming fanart retweets on his Twitter, for however much longer that lasts.