Plus-Sized Misadventures in Love! – Episode 1

Content Warning: attempted suicide, fatphobia (external and internal)

What’s it about? Koda Yumeko wakes up after falling from a four-story building with no memory of her past self, but she’s pleased to see she’s cute as can be, even if the world (and her old self) disagrees. As Yumeko picks up clues about her former life, it becomes clear that what everyone assumed to be a suicide attempt might be something even more sinister.

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Plus-Sized Misadventures in Love is lifting an absolutely herculean task onto its shoulders: selling a fatphobic world on the charm of a cute and confidently fat heroine. One need look no farther than the two-star rating the show currently has on Crunchyroll to gauge the general level of internet cowardice—that’s the kind of ratings bombing you usually only see when something dares to have queers in it. It’s not just the audience, either: a recent interview with the mangaka noted that the animators struggled with Yumeko’s expressions, and it’s sadly not difficult to see how that happens. If nobody is encouraged to think of fat people as human, let alone desirable, then why would there be a trade in learning to express them as such? It’s a big part of what made Maebashi Witches so touching earlier this year.

Misadventures doesn’t quite hit the visual bar that Maebashi set with Rinko and Azu, and you can definitely see the early scenes struggling to depict Yumeko as absurd without defaulting to visual shorthand for “fat people are gross.” But I think they’re getting there, even within these 20 minutes. Her character animation started to remind me (quite unexpectedly) of classic BL character Patalliro, who’s round and bouncy but very dynamic. It’s a very throwback feeling, but it gives Yumeko dynamism and allows her to have physicality beyond a struggling, lumbering gait.

Her expressions have a decent range as well. There’s a lot of reaction shots, including my favorite “classic shoujo” look, but the real challenge will be if the animators can show complexity and heartfelt emotion during sincere and romantic moments. I think they might be up to the task, based on one or two short scenes in this premiere, but it’s the least showcased part of the episode, and worth keeping an eye on.

A lot of the weaker parts of the episode come down to the fact that the premise is trying to coax in an audience who’s not virulently but casually disdainful of fat people and fatness. There is a certain percentage of the joke that’s resting on Yumeko’s self-confidence in her beauty, especially next to her more traditionally attractive coworker, as laughable. A handful of jokes also do just feel plain mean-spirited rather than playing on others’ assumptions, notably a “moo” sound effect when Yumeko is startled out of a daze and a pause where she has to turn sideways to get out of a bathroom stall.

But for the most part, the heart of the story is on Yumeko’s side. Her beautiful coworker might be seething with jealousy right now, but I would be very surprised if she isn’t converted into a friend following this introductory arc. Likewise, Yumeko has clearly already made a good first impression with her future love interest, even if she hasn’t realized it. Her open-heartedness is endearing, partly because she’s not depicted as too dense or oblivious to realize fatphobia exists. She hears the insults—she just thinks they’re stupid and incorrect. It also gives me hope that Yumeko looks extremely cute in the opening and closing credits.

That distinction, I think, will be key to keeping the show moving forward in a positive direction as Yumeko gains allies. The corporate intrigue element was honestly a surprise, and I really enjoyed how it shows Yumeko’s relative savviness. She can tell that something isn’t right based on the reactions of her own body and those around her (to the viewer, it’s already clear that her current boss almost certainly pushed her off that balcony), but she doesn’t have the pieces to know what went wrong. It’s a good bit of intrigue that I wasn’t expecting from a light rom-com, and I welcome it as a backbone for the love story.

This isn’t a perfect show, but I didn’t really expect it to be. It’s very, very difficult to take a swing this daring and try to reorient such a key assumption about beauty standards, and to do it within a comedic framework. I’m a little disappointed that anime Yumeko doesn’t display the sass and sexiness of the manga’s cover illustrations, but I’d like to hope that there’s room for both her character and the animators to grow into that level of ferocity. This is a show that I hope people will give a chance, because we deserve this kind of boldness, even if it’s imperfect. This is one of many steps to a better world.