I Made Friends with the Second Prettiest Girl in My Class Episode 1 Review
The review highlights how a seemingly innocuous title can carry weight about how female characters are valued in anime, even when the story itself attempts to show a genuine friendship.
Reporting from 1 sources: Anime Feminist.
Anime Feminist reviewed the premiere of "I Made Friends with the Second Prettiest Girl in My Class," a high school story about Maki Maehara, a boy who has no friends at school and eats alone. After an awkward self-introduction, he is befriended by Ami Usanagi, the girl the title calls the second prettiest in class. The review criticizes the title for framing Umi as a consolation prize and for reinforcing harmful ranking systems among teenagers. It praises the depiction of Umi reaching out to Maki based on shared interests and the realistic portrayal of teens having different friend groups in and out of school. However, it notes the camera occasionally leers at girls' bodies, and Umi's jokes about Maki being a pervert do not land well. The review calls the episode bland and generic, with potential for romance but nothing exciting beyond the protagonists expanding their friend group. It expresses hope the story values platonic friendships as much as romantic ones, but remains cautious about a possible love triangle. The reviewer concludes the show is not for them but may interest other readers.
Anime Feminist's review of the premiere focuses on the gap between the show's title and its content. The reviewer finds the title's ranking of Umi as "second prettiest" problematic, calling it a reminder of the hierarchies teens create and unfair to girls already pressured by beauty standards. The episode itself follows Maki, a shy boy who eats alone, and Umi, who befriends him after school over shared interests like soda, video games, and B-movies. The review praises this depiction of teens having different personas in and out of school, but notes the camera occasionally leers at female characters, and Umi's attempts to deflect with jokes about Maki being a pervert fall flat. The reviewer calls the premiere bland and generic, with potential for romance but nothing exciting beyond the friend group expanding. They express hope the story values platonic friendships as much as romantic ones, but remain cautious about a possible love triangle involving Umi's friend Yuu. The review concludes the show is not for the reviewer but may interest other readers, positioning it as a bland alternative to low-tier isekai.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.