The Dangers in My Heart Anime managed to gain traction this spring with a pretty good rating of 8.2 on MyAnimeList. Discussion forums are flooded with reviews about how good and fresh the anime feels. But this seems to be the consensus of the male audience. The female audience doesn’t seem to share this opinion.
The gradual but fast-paced growth and development of characters made the anime so enjoyable to watch this season. Dangers in my heart did better at structuring the characters as compared to its contemporary rom-com serving the shounen demographic. Despite the good ratings and overall success, why are the girl fans not happy with The Dangers in my heart anime?
The Dangers in My Heart Anime: Reviews of Male Audience vs Female Audience
The anime revolves around Ichikawa and Yamada, who are high school students. While the story started to cringe with the male character, Ichikawa wanting to murder his peers, the trope was dropped off early in the story. This was the first instance when everybody seemed to share the idea that the story has its fair share of cringe elements which led to fans questioning whether to continue the show or not.
But as the story progressed, the reviews changed from cringe to wholesome and by the end of the season, the praise was aimed at the character development of the MCs. This growth was apparent but failed to get the same kind of reactions from the female audience. The group called the anime a “Male wish fulfilment”. Even if it’s coming from a loud minority, let’s explore this a little bit more.
What has led to this divide?
- The male perspective in the story: The story is being told from a male perspective making it harder for the female audience to relate.
- We see a lot of inner monologues that Ichikawa has with himself.
- Whatever we get to see of Yamada is from his perspective. Both the POVs are not well balanced.
- This leads to the weakening of the link between fans and Yamada’s affection for Ichikawa. Like where is it stemming from?
- Kyotaro Ichikawa’s insecurities: Yamada is out of Ichikawa’s league as mentioned by him multiple times. This leads to him feeling insecure and the verbalization of all these insecurities makes it easier for men to relate to his character.
- The couple’s developments also feel natural, making it seem within reach for the viewers. We also see Yamada being insecure about her height and weight but very briefly compared to Ichikawa.
- The male wish fulfilment: The Dangers in My Heart has plenty of fan service. Almost as much as the wholesome moments. While the abundance of fan service can’t be denied, it gets balanced out by the wholesomeness. The questionable motives of the male MC are backed by his genuine respect and affection for the female MC.
- This combination is not something we get to see often in rom-coms and the focus on Yamada’s physical features is bound to rub people off the wrong way given the history of female objectification by different anime. It makes the anime uncomfortable to watch at times.
The fact that the male fans don’t seem to empathize with the female fans doesn’t help it either. You’ll see men refuting the concerns of the female audience in discussion forums with claims such as “If the demographic is predominantly male, what’s wrong with some male wish fulfilment”.
Conclusion
The Dangers in My Heart has taken a lot of cringe tropes and given them a fun and fresh mix. It’s a well-received anime, and the upcoming season indicates it. But the criticism the anime is getting shouldn’t be overlooked. We might get to see more of Yamada’s perspective in the upcoming season which will help us understand her motivations and involvement in the romance better and potentially flatten the worries of the female audience.