Time for a bit of bitter sweet high school romance comedy.

Hi everyone, how are you doing? As for me, I'm doing well. I was hoping to publish my post about my favourite idols and their careers before this month, but due to some urgent work, I wasn't able to do so. However, I'm glad that I completed the work. Hopefully, this month won't be too busy for me.

Aika...

Anyway, this time, I wanted to write about an anime I watched last season called "The Dreaming Boy Is a Realist" while working on my blog post on Railgun. It's the one that I'm most interested in finishing last season. So, without further ado, it's time for me to share my thoughts on it in this blog post.

WARNING:-

SPOILER ALERT! This post is very likely to contain spoilers for this anime. If you plan to watch the anime without any spoilers, you can either continue to read this post or continue watching the anime.

P.S. If you want to be spoiled, well, go ahead and read it. You HAD been warned. Don't blame me for it if you INSIST on continuing to read this post.

Introduction

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The Dreaming Boy Is a Realist (in Japanese, 夢見る男子は現実主義者) is a light novel series written by Okemaru and illustrated by Mizore Saba. The story was initially published as a web novel on the user-generated novel publishing website called Shōsetsuka ni Narō in December 2018. Later, it was acquired by Hobby Japan and began publishing as a light novel under their HJ Bunko light novel imprint in June 2020. The story has a manga adaptation illustrated by Popuri Yoshikita that began serialization on Kadokawa Shoten's Shōnen Ace Plus website in March 2021. Later, in 2023, the series got an anime TV series adaptation produced by Studio Gokumi and AXsiZ, which was aired from July to September. Nice work from the studio, I say. I liked it quite a lot.

Plot

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Aika and Wataru

The anime starts with our main protagonist, Sajou Wataru persistently asking Natsukawa Aika, a beautiful girl in his class, to go out with him but keeps getting turned down. One day, a flying soccer ball flew past him right in his face when he was pestering Aika, which abruptly made him rethink his actions towards Aika. That rethink causes him to distance himself from Aika starting on that day itself as he concludes that he is not good enough for Aika.

Airi left confused...

With that abrupt change, Aika was confused as to his sudden change in attitude towards her, causing her to believe that he now dislikes her and starts to get involved with him. This marks the beginning of a romantic comedy where two classmates struggle to express their feelings, especially when other girls begin to take notice of Wataru after the abrupt changes.

Rena and Wataru

Who began to take note of Wataru? Well, it started with Aizawa Rena who broke up with Arimura Kazuki and decided to approach him to get back at her ex-boyfriend because he said that he preferred Aika over her. After a few interactions with him and Wataru telling her a false story of how he fell in love with Aika, she decides to make up with Kazuki.

Rin and Wataru

Wataru then caught the eyes of the Public Morals Committee, not for something he did wrong but for a favour. The person who approached him was Shinomiya Rin, the president of the Public Morals Committee. Why approach him? She approached him regarding an interaction he recently had with one of the committee members, Inatomi Yuyu who has a phobia of men. Also, she wanted his advice on boosting the committee's spirits as they are often disheartened. For that question, she was advised to show that she is willing to offer support to them as it is more important than the support itself. There are a few more interactions after that like having lunch with him and having him help out at the school's open day.

Saving a young boy from the bullies...

...and get a cute girl in return. She is Fuka BTW

That moment...

Even during summer vacation, as Wataru is working in a second-hand bookstore, he met a middle school girl whom he initially thought of as a college student. They met each other because of helping out her younger brother, Sasaki Kouta from the bullies. Who is she? Her name is Sasaki Fuka. He only found out that she was a middle school student when she was hanging out with him on the beach during the summer vacation, which Aika also visited with her best friend, Ashida Kei. Well, one interaction with her caught Aika's attention and got her jealous. It was during the open day when Fuka was visiting his school with her friends. That was a hilarious scene to watch.

Mina's first day at work

The truth of why Mina works part-time is revealed

Also, later during the summer vacation, Wataru met with his classmate, Ichinose Mina, a quiet girl who applied to work part-time in the bookstore. Well, initially thinking of making her give up on this job because of her communication skills, he then found out the reason for her taking up the job, her brother. Her brother started dating making her decide to be more independent of him, which made her brother worried and feel bad for spending enough time with her. With Wataru's help, her brother is convinced to let her continue the part-time job.

Aika and Wataru moment

Anyway, in the end, Aika expressed that she wants to hang out with him more and can't stand him distancing himself from her. Well, well, well, she finally walked out from her confusion and determined to tell him how she felt. Although they are not really a couple (or are they?), at least, the relationship is much more normal, unlike their relationship which was more like a lap dog and its owner. I will take it. It's not that easy to take a leap from being friends to being a couple. Anyway, there is nothing much I can say. There are more details to it but it's better to let you watch it yourself than me telling you every single components of the story. Time to move on.

What an interesting ending for the anime...

Anime Rating

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Story (Rating: 9/10)

The story sounds really familiar like some YouTube videos. I dunno why. I wonder why. Anyway, the story is a simp turned rational after a near accident from getting hit by a flying football, which is really an interesting story for an anime. The sudden change in attitude might be a surprise for some but it's quite probable because people sometimes just need something to make them rethink their actions. Also, the different encounters with different girls are a point of interest for me. Anyway, to conclude this, the story is interesting, has good pacing and has a good flow. Nothing more that I would like to say than to remind you scumbag to not hate on Aika. Poor girl. She is just confused. I will elaborate on it in the "Characters" section.

I...I'm just left speechless

Art and Animation (Rating: 9/10)

The art and animation of the anime are pretty good and really consistent. Also...isn't Aika cute? I think so too. xD

Aika...you so cute

Sound and Music (Rating: 7/10)

The opening song is really good. As for the closing theme song, decent but I hardly pay attention. Similar to the closing theme song, for the background music, I didn't really take note of them but the fact that they blend seamlessly with the anime shows the quality of production. I'm not gonna be harsh on BGM because it's usually the ones that don't catch much attention. Only a few BGMs catch people's attention, which is a TERRIBLY high standard to hold for the majority of BGMs.

The opening sequence

Characters (Rating: 8/10)

Character development? Characters' interactions with each other? Their background? Relatability? Rather than those, I would rather focus on Aika. Yes, Wataru did turn from being a simp to someone who decided to keep a distance from others like a normal person and work on himself a bit at the same time. Let's be honest. ALL of us do keep some distance from each other to a certain extent, isn't it? 

Aika and Kei with Airi

Anyway, regarding the hate for Aika, let's stand in her shoes and think properly. You'll understand after considering her reaction towards Wataru before and after the incident that caused him to distance himself from her. Her previous experience doesn't really allow her to form genuine friendships, not EVEN a love relationship. It's NO WONDER that she has a hard time with Wataru's sudden change. It's not that she wants to be toxic to Wataru but she wants Wataru to at least have some distance from her but NOT to a point where it feels like he hates her, just like ourselves with others. Besides, who wants someone to hate you? Think about it. So, please stop hating on Aika and get real because you WILL NOT do anything much different than what she does.

Poor Aika...

Enjoyment (Rating: 8/10)

I genuinely enjoy this show for the funny interactions and decent story. There are some scenes that I would like to watch again. xD

Airi is so cute!!!

Overall Rating: 8.2 (8.25)/10

Screenshots

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Aika and her friends in the house

いただきます！！！

I wanna see that scene!!!!!

Airi grabbed Wataru's shirt. CUTE!!!!!!!

Fuka, you so cute!!!

Mina, you are cute too!

Aika meets Wataru in his workplace

That smirk...smirk...

Aika...you are just so cute.

PV/Trailer

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Conclusion

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The anime is really good, for me. I really enjoyed it quite a bit. My gaming time seriously inhibits my anime-watching and blogging time. I think that I should reduce my gaming time to do more reading, more anime-watching and more blogging. Anyway, that's the end of it. I hope that you enjoy reading and browsing this blog. Goodbye, and God bless you!

Airi. LOLI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!