Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
---Hyouka---
Let’s start with a brief summary:
Animation: 7/10 – Delivers what you'd expect from an anime of this genre. That said, it's good.
Characters: 7/10 – I like the characters, but I feel like they don’t really have much depth. They are who they are from start to finish.
Comedy: 7/10 – I enjoyed Takagi-san, so naturally, I like Ayumu as well.
Romance: 2/10 and also 8/10 – It manages to be both really good and really bad at the same time. If it had a better conclusion, it would be a clear 8. But since it ends the same way it starts... yeah. Soundtrack: 7/10 – Pleasant enough.
Now, onto the more complex part:
From the very beginning, the anime is exactly what it sets out to be: a romantic comedy where the lack of progress is the main punchline. Just like Takagi-san, it’s enjoyable for what…
Read at the sourceHidamariSeashore
Have you ever decided that you weren't going to accomplish a goal until you accomplished another one first? Like, you might have decided that you weren't going to ask someone out until you had done something else that might impress them. For example, beating them at chess....or really, Japanese chess, also known as shogi. Look, I'm no expert at shogi or chess - the one time I can recall playing chess, I tried to play it with the checkers ruleset - but I have seen my fair share of romantic comedy anime. As of the time of me writing this review, the well-liked "Teasing Master Takagi-san" may not be among them, but a certain other anime from the same manga artist as Takagi-san is. No, it's not "In The Heart of Kunoichi Tsubaki".
Now, dear readers, I must ask, "When Will Ayumu Make His Move?"…
Read at the sourceAnimeExplorer21
This anime has stolen my heart with its lighthearted humor, relatable characters, and authentic portrayal of high school life.
The story follows Ayumu, a shogi club member who's head over heels for his senpai, Urushi, but struggles to express his feelings. What I love most about this series is how it masterfully balances humor and heartwarming moments, making it impossible not to root for Ayumu.
The characters are well-developed and likable, with Ayumu's internal monologues providing hilarious insights into his awkward yet endearing personality. Urushi, on the other hand, is more than just a pretty face – her character has depth and complexity, making their interactions all the more engaging.
What sets this anime apart is its realistic approach to relationships and personal growth. Ayum…
Read at the sourceheartsforalya
I was a bit disappointed by the ending, but the rest is good and well thought out. The plot is enjoyable, and the elements that they add in during the show are nice to see as the story develops.
It is really pleasurable to see that Ayumu is the one ‘head-over-heels’ rather than the Urushi. Additionally, the fact that Urushi is older than Ayumu is very different to usual stereotypes, which is refreshing to see.
The OP and the outro are amazing, along with the drawing style. I am assuming that they went for a more old-school vibe, seeing as the show seems to be set in the early 2000’s; which fits really well with the fact the show is centred around a more ancient game.
Overall, I would definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys a romantic, but also comedic show!
Read at the sourceInanitina
Before I began to watch Soredemo Ayumu wa Yosetekuru I had already watched Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san (all three seasons) and Kunoichi Tsubaki no Mune no Uchi. The original plots of these three anime are created by the same author. So this review emphasizes distinctions between this anime and the previous two.
As in Takagi-san, there is a couple with a kind of romantic relationship between them. But Takagi-san has the bulk bullying/teasing relationship and the small actual romantic one, and the ration didn't change throughout 3 seasons. In contrast, this anime shapes the more mature and deep characters. Yaotome and Tanaka have their own purposes, traits. Hereby, this affords to develop their relationships. The supporting characters became as interesting as Tsubaki's ones.
The visual is…
Read at the sourceBigTimeTalks
+ The art and animation are cute!
+ Very catchy ending theme
~ It's severely lacking in novelty; the show needs a hook or selling point to separate it from other slice-of-life anime
~ The story has no real conflict; characters are in love but don't ask out their crush for artificial reasons
~ The show doesn't really go anywhere and ends on a cop-out
= It's a mediocre, run-of-the-mill high school rom-com with a tiny bit of shogi sprinkled in. It's not awful, but it is unoriginal, even by slice-of-life standards. Cuteness factor aside, the anime isn't very dramatic or absorbing. By Episode 7, I found it hard to sit through more episodes.
Read at the sourcerobert788
Soredemo Ayumu wa Yosetekuru (2022)
School, Life, Romance yes. Comedy? Where was that part? I must have missed it.
The show is another blue ball anime where you get a mass of progression but no confession and nothing particular gets confirmed as the final credits roll. If you like that then feast away, for me I prefer more than just characters having a moment of realization being skimmed over in a number of seconds. The show is fine as a club anime and just really is a slice of life with romance implied since nothing really happens specifically.
The art is a nice style, it looks cute. OP art was good, and the shogi dance is great.
The sound is good too, the OP and ED are both suitable.
The characters appear to develop but when something happens it gets skimmed over quickly life co…
Read at the sourceDmAnimeguy
This anime was good but it was a let down when it came to the end of the series.... I thought the story was progressing really beautifully there were many moments that both characters were developing and trying to be better versions of them selves but when it came to the end of the series it felt like a let down.
I really am not a big fan of anime that really end on a cliff hanger like that. A season should be contained and while its fine to have unanswered questions, i am not ok with a story reaching its climax and never getting there at all...
This was a let down for me because unless we have a season 2 we dont know if this will end or start something new.... For that reason I will have to say that I do not recommend this anime to anyone who is looking for a story that has a start mi…
Read at the sourceRitinal
The main question for if you should watch this is: "Do you like reading manga?" Because if that is a no, you should watch this as a sort of "turn off your brain filler" type show. The plot is simple, the episodes are simple, and overall not much going on besides small antics between people that like to play shogi in their club.
If you answered yes to reading manga, then definitely read the manga. Most things exclusive to the adaptation (Music, anime-ified art-style, VAs) are lukewarm besides the OP (kind of a bop) and don't really add much to the experience of the story besides making it last longer. If the story interests you but you don't feel like sitting through a lot of slower paced episodes and common "mid" slice of life antics in animated form, the manga's art-style and pacing will…
Read at the sourceRoomii
Come for Urushi, stay for Takeru!
The takeru should have been the main character.
I only started wathcing this because I saw a clip on reddit that I thought was cute. But when I started watching cute was the only thing this show had to offer. So I left it at ep 1 for a month, then when I craved something cute again I came back to it, watched another episode. But after episode 2 I'd had too much cute and the main characters where getting a bit boaring, predictable and unrealistic. Then I saw the side characters takeru and Sakurako, who I was much more interested in. Takeru is just much more relatable and the realationship between the two is just so layed back and enjoyable to watch. So I ended up skipping to anything with takeru in it, didn't care for main story story if you can call it t…
Read at the sourceUji_Gintoki_Bowl
There don't seem to be that many negative reviews for this show, which is certainly wonderful, but I just wanted to take a moment to highlight what some people may not enjoy about this experience (which is kind of synonymous with what I took away from it as a whole).
Soredemo Ayumu wa Yosetekuru is a romantic comedy by the author of Takagi-san. This is really easy to tell because of the character archetypes being very similar and the teasing + getting teased themes being extremely recurrent in the show.
For those that liked Takagi-san for what it was as a romance anime, I do believe that this anime checks even more boxes than its predecessor in terms of wish fulfillment and progression. They don't have as much chemistry, being a little bit flatter and less fleshed out than the protagonis…
Read at the sourceOry_Senpai
Souichiro Yamamoto is known for two things. Characters with large foreheads and sticking to a formula.
'When Will Ayumu Make His Move?' lives up to both of these claims to fame.
The formula here is Ayumu and Urushi playing Shogi; Urushi beats him on the board, but Ayumu just keeps winning off of it. He's constantly straightforward with his feelings (despite his vow not to confess his love for his senpai until he beats her in shogi). As a result, he's yet to confess, since Urushi keeps beating him, but his feelings are pretty out in the open, and the way he causes Urushi to get flustered by his awkward flirting is the major formula for this series.
If you don't like this formula, you're not going to enjoy it when it gets repeated a dozen times in each episode, but if you do... you're in for…
Read at the sourceAragane
After gaining some traction, the ultimate romcom with forehead girls manga made another appearance with a new series this season. While it's not really disappointing that reused content is being provided by the author in the form of everyday jokes or teenagers shyly teasing each other, my personal enjoyment after watching Soredemo Ayumu wa Yosetekuru is nowhere like how our male lead, Ayumu, enjoys being with (and of course, teasing) his senpai.
The demographic for these types of shows are those who prefer the slow and steady rather than the blood-pumping, fast animation style shows. So no need to expect any significant plot progression, much less a plot twist anywhere here. It's all about the moe, period.
With every school-themed show, the style choice is what you would expect. Nothing…
Read at the sourceEliteEmperor
Average anime, Romance element shown here is interesting. The characters are pretty decent. Artstyle is decent and suits this show, the animation is decent. The soundtrack is really decent they are very calm to hear. A lot of characters really play an important role for the MCs they aren't side casted as most other shows do. You can enjoy this anime, but not much romance side of it is shown. It's a calm and fun show. It really makes you feel calm. It could have been better.
What I liked about this show was definitely the characters, they were decent.
I give this series 5/10.
Read at the sourceCostCurl
7.5/10
This anime does what a lot of other do, mainly it starts off really well in the first three episodes. It was funny, interesting, very direct, felt rather fresh and like it would do something different. However, once it got past those episodes the show felt like it progressed then regressed the characters development and it became rather normal as most animes.
The most critical part I have is the jokes became pretty repetitive it was essentially, deadpan character makes very direct flirty comment to other character, the other character blushes or feels embarrassed. That was the essence of comedy for most of the show. Romance wise it is decent through lots of moments of the couples together, but follows the tiring trope of will they/won't they which is not surprising considering the…
Read at the sourceSachihiro-san
7/10
This show is simple yet endearing and manages to capture that same feeling of young love present in Takagi-san without feeling like a direct copy.
Soredemo Ayumu wa Yosetekuru centers around the lives of Ayumu Tanaka and his upperclassman Urushi Yaotome, who are the only two members of the unofficial Shogi club. Ayumu makes a promise to himself that he will confess his feelings to Urushi—under the condition that he defeats her at least once. Despite Urushi being adept at strategy, she finds herself unable to defend against Ayumu’s straightforward remarks. His flirtatious behavior doesn’t go unnoticed by Urushi, who’s almost certain of Ayumu’s true feelings, but she is often too flustered to accept it at face value. This anime operates similarly to Souichirou Yamamoto’s other series,…
Read at the sourcei-like-this
Why Won’t Ayumu Just Confess Already?
In a post Horimiya/Dress-Up Darling world slow burn, slice-of-life, high school rom-coms have had it rough. No longer can I sit and watch a 12 episode season watching two people baby-step their way into confessing that they kinda wanna bone only for the status quo to remain by the end, and not be incredibly disappointed.
“When Will Ayumu Make His Move?” was conceived by Souichirou Yamamoto, the same mangaka who wrote the excellent “Teasing Master Takagi-san”. But where Takagi-san’s slow burn charm comes from Takagi’s devilish delight in bamboozling the emotionally immature Nishikata and him realising that it kinda likes it, Ayumu is implied to already know that his senpai Urushi has feelings for him and vice-versa yet won’t confess his feelings to h…
Read at the sourceChief_AJ
When Will Ayumu Make His Move was about what I expected. It's a very wholesome anime that surrounds a pair of people that have feelings for each other while they play shogi. It's a nice relaxing watch that doesn’t really do too much apart from having really sweet moments. To be honest though sometimes it would become a little boring because there's only so much of the same thing you can really take. I wouldn’t necessarily call it bad, but I wouldn’t call this anime good either.
Art: 7
I thought the art was fine, the anime is not ugly to look at and the character designs are good too. I’m also not going to really complain about lackluster animation because this anime is very diologue-heavy anyway, and it's just shogi so the animation was fine to me. Other than that I thought the music in t…
Read at the sourcebossunhimeswitch
This was one of my favorite anime this season. I looked forward to it every week. I loved how steadfast Ayumu was and how flustered Urushi could become. It was such a treat to watch these two nerds grow their bond together over the course of the cour. I also liked how the focus of the series was on their romance more than explaining shogi to the viewer or having the club participate in tournaments or other things that take it too far away from the cute romance sub genre. Their friends were also delightful characters and the secondary couple was easy to root for once their quirks grew on me.
That said, I think Ayumu is the type of character who only works well in a romance anime rather than IRL because our boy had some creeper tendencies when we were supposed to believe he was just a dete…
Read at the sourcedead_user_123454
If you are looking for something fun to watch with a plot that is not so deep, something heart-warming and sweet romantic comedy, something that will make you smile, well, this is the show you might be looking for.
I’m an awful reviewer, but I decided I should write what I felt while watching this anime.
I hope you like this one. This is a spoiler-free review.
Soredemo Ayumu wa Yosetekuru, or should I say "When Will Ayumu Make His Move?" is a simple high school romance anime that I’ll never get bored of watching. This show deserves more hype.
It shares the same art as teasing master Takagi san, but the story is quite different from Takagi san. This is the story between a senpai and her kohai, Ayumu, who is a kendo star and champion in his middle school, joins a Shogi club in his first…
Read at the source
