With Season 2 airing right now, more and more people are getting into the series, which was already popular before.
Summary:
- The Dangers in My Heart is a recent romantic comedy anime and manga which seems to have become a fan favorite.
- Despite the setup being quite generic, the premise is very interesting and unusual — if a bit off-putting at first.
- It’s commonly praised for its tasteful approach to its subject matter and realistic character writing.
At first glance, The Dangers in My Heart (Boku no Kokoro no Yabai Yatsu) seems like yet another recent romantic series where the most beautiful girl in class falls in love with an ordinary guy. It’s not a unique setup per se — it’s actually the opposite: we’ve seen many anime like that recently.
Still, The Dangers in My Heart has a significant amount of fans and seems to be remembered fondly — as opposed to “flavor of the month” romcoms that are supposedly similar. With the second season currently airing, let’s dive into it to understand what makes it so popular.
The setup isn’t unique, but the premise is
It’s not like other series were unpopular when they aired. Anime like Kubo Won't Let Me Be Invisible (Kubo-san wa Mob wo Yurusanai) were watched by many when they aired, but didn’t have much staying power after that. The Dangers in My Heart is different in this regard.
The first thing that made it extremely memorable was its unique premise that led to the classic setup. On paper, it’s simple: a shy boy with no friends hates people around him — and fantasizes about killing them all the time.
That may sound incredibly edgy, but the delivery is very tasteful — Ichikawa’s perception of the world is far from normal, but he is definitely not dangerous to society. He just thinks he is.
Great characters and chemistry
Another huge reason why The Dangers in My Heart has become so popular is the chemistry between the main characters. In many similar anime, the chemistry is lacking because there’s no reason for the characters to be together in the first place. Here it’s the opposite — Yamada, the girl who falls for Ichikawa, isn’t exactly well-adjusted to society herself.
In a sense, the anime subverts the classic idea of “a popular girl and a bland guy” romance. Yes, Yamada is popular, but she also has problems communicating with people occasionally. She puts up a front and is popular with people, but she has a lot of insecurities — and together, she and Ichikawa grow as people and slowly develop feelings for each other.
A good anime overall
In the end, The Dangers in My Heart is a wholesome romance of two people gradually coming out of their shells. Despite the seemingly edgy premise, it’s much more normal than it might seem at first — and it’s a good romance and a good character study.
Since the anime is also a very good adaptation, it’s understandable why so many people love it.