You wouldn’t know it from the ludicrously long title or candy-coated palette, but Kimizero, which is how I’ll refer to it from now on, turned out to be a lot denser and meatier than I expected. It follows Kashima Ryuuto, a pretty typical second-year high schooler, who considers himself a geek, loser, outcast…pick your term.
Ryuuto idolizes the most popular girl in class, Shirakawa Runa, from afar, knowing with certainty he’d never have a chance in hell with her. His only two friends are also nerds, and spend much of their time gaming. It’s because of their excessive gaming that he loses a bet between them: whoever gets the highest exam scores has to cheer the other two up by doing whatever they ask.
Well, because Ryuuto is an open book, they immediately catch on to the fact that there’s someone he likes, so they order him to confess to her, fully expecting him to be shot down at light speed. Ryuuto also believes he’ll be instantly rejected, but also believes something that endeared him to me.
Ryuuto knows it’s not healthy to continually pine for someone in your class and do nothing about it. If nothing else, confessing to Runa and being rejected might break the “spell” he’s under, and he’ll move on to something or someone else. How I wish I was this mature in high school!
But both Ryuuto and his friends are operating under a false assumption: that there’s no way Runa would say yes to going out with him. In fact, when she meets him after school, she’s perfectly fine with being his girlfriend. His friends may find another Bottom below Rock, but he feels like he suddenly strayed into a dream.
Let’s talk Runa: It’s true she’s cute, and also gets along easily with everyone. But other than some rumors that she goes through a lot of boyfriends, Ryuuto doesn’t know anything about her. That changes instantly when they walk home together.
Runa agreed to date Ryuuto because she was single, and…that’s about it? Hey presto, they’re BF and GF. But she also tells him some of her red flags, like long fingernails (so not a fan classical guitarists). She has Ryuuto walk her home from the station, invites him into her house, where the rest of her family is currently out.
After bringing him into her room and serving barley tea, Runa starts to unbutton her shirt. When Ryuuto freezes up, she assumes he wants to shower first. As in, before they have sex, which she assumes he wants immediately.
Ryuuto, already overwhelmed by a girl saying yes, walking a girl home, and being in a girl’s room, puts up a hand, asking why things are moving so fast. Runa’s answer is as simple as it is a little heartbreaking: this is the way things have always been for her. She considers it her duty to have sex, because all the guys she’s been with gave her that impression.
Moreover, Ryuuto realizes that the reason she has so many boyfriends isn’t that she goes through them with speed, but that they grow bored of her and move on to other girls. It’s a vicious cycle, in which the men in her life haven’t been valuing her as a person, just someone to fuck. She’s never considered whether she wanted to do it, just that it’s how things are done.
For all of Ryuuto’s inner monologue about him and Runa being so different as to be from different worlds, they’re really in the same ZIP code in one crucial way: Just as Ryuuto has been conditioned to believe he’d never be able to date someone like Runa, Runa has been conditioned to believe a boyfriend like Ryuuto didn’t exist.
When Ryuuto turns down sex, it’s a first for Runa. Ryuuto later superficially regrets not availing himself of the opportunity to lose his virginity, but he also knows he made the right choice, both for him and for Runa. She’s had enough boys only interested in her body. He wants to actually take the time to get to know her, so if and when they do have their first time together, it’s because they both want it there and then.
Kimizero is about two people suddenly learning one day not that they can cross worlds, but that the world they both inhabit isn’t quite how they thought it was. Runa is both surprised by and appreciates Ryuuto’s sincerity, and is excited at the prospect of getting to know and like her boyfriend, something she’s never been able to do.
Let me be clear: this show doesn’t paint Ryuuto as some kind of shining knight plucking a damsel from her life of promiscuity. Nor does it shame or judge her in the slightest for her approach to romance thus far. It simply is the way she is, and how she came to believe that approach was the only one is something I hope the show explores.
As for Ryuuto, he only ever comes off as empathetic rather than sanctimonious or prudish, and he’s good at checking his baser thoughts. It’s a balanced, realistic portrayal. There’s much Ryuuto and Runa can learn from each another, so dating should be mutually beneficial.
Structurally speaking, my one major complaint was the cold open with Ryuuto discovering Runa is fine with having sex right away; I think it would have had more impact if we didn’t get that scene until we watched everything that led up to it. But now that the worlds of Runa and Ryuuto have suddenly collided, I’m looking forward to seeing how they fare as a couple.
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