Pseudo Harem

 Pseudo Harem (疑似ハーレム) is a 12 episode comedic romance based on the manga of the same name by Saito Yu.  The series originally aired during the Summer of 2024.

    Nanakura Rin is a first year high school student who dreams of being an actor.  She figured her first step is to join her new schools drama club.  On her way to the club room she runs into a hurried upper class-man.  She asks him if he can help her find the drama club and he tells her that she's in luck.  He introduces himself as Kitahama Eiji, a second year and the president of the drama club.  He laments that he is the sole member and gladly welcomes Rin as a new member and leads her to the room.   He leads her there and opens the door to a room bustling with students.  he sheepishly admits her was lying about being the president and the club struggling for members.  After introducing the potential new member to the real club president she is asked to audition.  Slightly taken aback by the rapid developments and suddenly being put in the spot light she jumps into a monologue, entrancing everyone with her composure and delivery.  The real president eagerly accepts her application and suspects she will be a big draw for the clubs future productions.

    Eiji is a part of the production team for the club, loving the behind the scenes aspect of the stage instead of performing.  He prides himself on his attention to detail and construction prowess.  Rin's audition struck a chord in him and he begins to attend the clubs rehearsals in the gym in order to see her in action more.  As they are taking a break together he bemoans that he will never have a harem.  Rin decides to put her acting chops to the test and begins to craft various alternate personas of her self to toy with her senpai, each representing a common personality type common in dating games.  As they spend more time together, playing their harem game, their mutual feelings begin to blossom as they continue through high school with their future wide open before them.

    I'm pretty sure this anime game me diabetes.  It is sickeningly sweet and innocent and just all around cute and lovable.  The vast majority of the story is little more than Eiji and Rin flirting non stop.  Their flirting is innocent and playful.  At first you're not sure how they really feel about each other but as it continues you begin to understand that they have been interested in the other since they first met and they slowly build a relationship based around pointless banter and one ups-man ship.  the show covers roughly 4 years of their life together as they grow closer with each other, inching towards having the courage to move beyond their friendship and comradery.  The other characters around them barely impact their lives or interactions, the story is almost laser focused on their flirting.  The show lacks all of the hallmark rote story lines and points of friction found in your standard slice of life romance.  There's no awkward, improbable situations, in fact they are sometimes a little too innocent?  There's no love rival or inner monologues about being embarrassed.  Sure there are moments where they aren't willing to go as far with the banter as their heart wants but that is largely due to uncertainty and caution around potentially loosing what they already have.

    I don't know how much I can express how perfect this anime is.  There is no one perfect anime but there can be many perfect anime and this is definitely one of them.  There isn't a bad thing to say about it.  It flows very well, with the passage of time only being casually referenced.  There is essentially no wasted time or distractions with the story.  It delivers what it promises and never strays away from that while also maintaining freshness and originality.  Its a show that gets better with each successive episode, building upon the groundwork laid earlier to deliver a consistently high quality product.  There are only two very minor sticking points for me.  As always I have to pick at the artwork.  The art is simple and the character designs are a little unusual but it grows on you and becomes natural to the characters and their story.  Endearing even as if it wouldn't' be so cute and innocent with a different art style.  The characters are natural in their appearance and body shape.  The clothes are unassuming and realistic, not some crazed over the top design meant for cosplaying.  Beyond the art the only other minor issue I had was with the only conflict that occurred in the story, at the very end, where Rin believes she has to choose between being with Eiji or pursuing an acting career.  I didn't understand why she felt she could only choose one of them and why Eiji was in a similar situation...I mean, she can still choose to be with him and be an actress, regardless of what he ends up doing.  But...its minor and leads to a very nice dramatic resolution to the story as a whole...but I feel like they unnecessarily lost some time together with how they chose to resolve this non-existent conflict.  Either way, its not something strong enough to change my mind that Pseudo Harem is a perfect anime.  it delivers exactly what it needed to and did it in a precise and enjoyable manner.  Now I need to pick up the manga and see if anything was left out and revisit all of the love this story had to offer again.  As a final thought and potentially a bit of a spoiler...for decades at this point the concept of a snowy confession has always been the height of innocent love for me and this scene truly sealed the quality of this story for me.

    The series was simulcast on Crunchyroll.