Haibara-kun no Tsuyokute Seishun New Game

Textbook definition of mid despite having an interesting premise. I was really hoping this would scratch the Bokutachi no Remake itch I’ve had for years and for an episode or two, it did, before devolving into a useless love triangle that ultimately added nothing to the story. I also think the message of lose weight and pull hot girls is not really productive? You’re given a new lease on life and you attract these people after you become “hot” that’s just shallow to me. There was much more opportunity for depth here that the author to this point has squandered in favor of rehashing the same tired romcom tropes. It’s a shame because it has a lot of potential. The MC’s trauma, the dreams he never got to pursue as a kid which caused him to become insular as an adult and not go outside of his comfort zone. Like there’s a cool story you can tell here that can actually help people in their normal day to day lives, but it’s just more of the same stuff we’ve seen 100x. The best part of the story was the band stuff in the last few episodes and they should’ve set that up earlier in the story and just focused on that really. You could’ve used the MC’s trauma to help him write songs and heal from his past life while also fulfilling his lifelong dream of being a musician. That’s a story that would’ve resonated with people more because we’ve all had things we wish we’d done when we were younger and then we think we’re too old to do them now, but the reality is it’s never too late. You don’t need a magical do over, it’s never too late to try something new.. or, you could drag out a useless love triangle for 8 weeks just to give us the answer we knew we’d get from day 1. There’s also the moral dilemma of whether or not a 30 year old man turning back into a teenager and pursuing teenage girls is acceptable, especially when he’s had unresolved feelings for one girl from high school his whole life.. but let’s say you’re able to put that aside for a moment, it’s so clear who best girl in this story is and yet she gets sidelined for two rather generic leads. I could bash Uta all day, but suffice to say, annoying as hell and brought nothing to the story other than contrived conflict for the sake of conflict. Her voice annoyed me, she’s not particularly cute and she has a clear and obvious suitor RIGHT THERE, who she chooses to ignore in favor of a guy who likes someone else. Then the main lead, Hikari who does have some cute moments, but she’s nothing really special. She’s the sort of girl a lot of guys might have had crushes on back in the day, but in terms of her actual substance, I didn’t see any to speak of. Miori, the childhood friend, being the only person to be there for Natsuki from the time he was a fat loser until now, makes her the clear best girl choice because her concern for him isn’t based on appearance or how cool he is like everyone else who ignored him in his last life. It’s based on HIM. She’s always cared about Natsuki the person, not Natsuki’s ideal version of himself and those are the people you should keep close in life. Story should’ve focused on her and the band girl, Serika who was also really cool and down to earth. For the most part, the production values are bang average. The budget was clearly saved for the band’s final performance in the last episode, which was amazing, but other than that, nothing to speak of. Despite this being mid as hell, I’m KIND of tempted to read the books because I did really like Miori for the previously stated reasons and I think she’s the ideal sort of friend/partner you’d want. So much in anime and Japanese culture in general, is superficial and based on looks, so to have a character who looks beyond that is interesting to me. But this was a chore to watch at times and made me want to bang my head against the wall. I can’t recommend it. Haibara’s Teenage New Game+ gets 5, out of 10.

It maybe not be best as Remake Our life but it's no less either. It shares a similar concept like Remake Our life. But it's not same. Every story has their own unique taste, vibe and beauty. Same for this. It's idiotic to compare. It's a good story own place. It might not be the most viral story but it's good. Its very wholesome and has decent story. The story was fresh. I always looked forward to it to watch in every week. I won't gonna spoil the story. I'm giving you the key to judge It faithfully. Overall, from my perspective it was fine.It was not the best, but it was fine. The relationship development depends on you, for me it was fine, maybe not the best of all but fine. I didn't felt there was any trash stuff. So yeah at the end for me it was a fine story. I loved it. The animation quality is top notch. There's sometimes music too. I'm not gonna say any more. To me it was a win win. It maybe my guilty pleasure but it's not bad 😉. Now i hope, you will give it a chance and properly trying to watch it. Everybody has their own preference and opinion. I wish you can enjoy it. And, I hope it gets season 2.

As someone who has seen almost all romantic comedy anime, I have to say that this anime is below average. It had a good start and I had a more positive view of the anime at first, but then it really wasn't interesting at all, the depth of the characters was very low and superficial. It was very difficult to connect with the characters, both because of the graphics and the story itself. It ended in the most ridiculous way possible, and even the final sequence was the most meaningless of all. I don't know why it's so hard for some writers to express their emotions easily and directly and not make everything so empty and meaningless. Someone needs to tell these writers that you're not solving a math problem here, you're watching a simple romantic comedy that you're supposed to be able to enjoy and connect with.

Nothing special about this one, although the last episode kinda "rocked." The synopsis of this anime caught my attention at first, but the lackluster execution is why this show is just "fine" The idea of going back in time to redo your teenage years seems somewhat interesting, but with a backstory of being a lonely, chubby outcast who didnt have many friends. The solution of just, working out and being good at everything through extra years of practice is kind of lame. Not to mention the guy still acts as if he's a highschooler even though he is mentally a college graduate, except things just keep going right for him because he's "hot" now. I almost dropped the show after episode 10 because the band arc felt super random, but I'm glad I watched to the end at least. Three fleshed out songs and a conclusion to our "love triangle" was enough to satisfy me, just wish CR had subtitles for them but thats not the shows fault. All in all, this show isn't one I regret, but dont expect too much.

I have to admit, I'm a little bit surprised that this show isn't rated higher than it currently is (6.66 at time of writing) as I thought this anime was really good, not going to say it's perfect and my personal best girl didn't win... because of course she didn't. However, at least for me, someone that isn't a fan of time skip / rewind anime - I actually think it was a really good watch and as far as time travel anime go, I think it was pretty easy to follow along with. Haibara's Teenage New Game+ follows Haibara, a middle age man who wasted his high school days and feels miserable. Wanting to go back so he could do it better and do it how he wanted it to go, he gets sent back in time (through ways that is never explained btw) back to his high school self for a second chance. Now he's on a journey of self improvement, fix his mistakes, change how his life turned out and hopefully to get together with his crush. It's a fairly bare bones story on a surface, but I look at it as telling a story of loss and regret and wanting to play things more logically so things go a lot better. Why did he stop being friends with this person? how do I get the girl I like to notice me? how do I change myself to repaint my grey adolescence? these are all topics that are touched up upon during the anime and whilst I do think some things were briefly glanced over and some characters didn't really get much screen time. I did still end up enjoying the anime regardless. I also love that we got to see another side to Hikari to see that everything isn't so perfect for miss popular. I also think the artwork for this show was beautiful. In the anime there was times of art illustrations flashing up to highlight the more important scenes to the story and they were all so gorgeous to look at. Character designs weren't anything crazy but I did still like them. Uta being my favorite design (that's complete biased btw since I like my red heads). I do hope for a season 2, maybe showing his life back in the future to tell the events of what happened after his overhaul of his previous life but I'm not expecting it to happen. I feel Haibara still has a story to tell. 8/10

Plain, mediocre romance anime with a premise that could've been used much, much better. It's not necessarily bad but it doesn't have a lot to offer. This anime painfully lacks creativity in all departments, not just writing. It has nothing to offer that other romance anime do, but at the same time, it didn't really do anything wrong either...? It's hard to capture this feeling of emptiness, but this anime is the embodiment of tropes and cliches, all while not committing any particular sins that would make you consider it bad. One grave sin this anime committed though is the last episode ending on a mega cliffhanger. Just when everything concluded, everyone got their closer, achieved what they set out to do, there comes the very last scene that I won't spoil. It wasn't even something entirely unexpected, but it was so odd to include that scene just when you got to this typical romance ending. It's almost as if the studio knows s2 is coming, but at the same time you'd think there's no way in hell this anime needs a second season. It's one of those anime that you can binge in a day, feel a bit satisfied, but not get attached to it too much and probably forget about it in a week or so. It's really just a generic, mediocre romance anime in its purest form.

After watching all the episodes, I think it's important to clarify something first: this anime is far more focused on romance than on its time regression premise. In fact, Haibara never seriously questions the fact that he has returned to the past, nor does he ever consider the possibility that something similar may have happened to someone else. With that said, if you enjoy romance anime, you'll probably be able to appreciate some aspects of this series throughout its 12 episodes. On the other hand, the anime does have some animation issues. In several scenes, the characters look noticeably off. For example, Hoshimiya's arms sometimes appear so thin that they almost look unhealthy. That being said, I think the character designs are one of the show's strongest points. Every character has a distinct appearance and is easy to recognize. As I mentioned earlier, the time regression aspect receives very little development. Haibara simply wishes to go back to the past one night, and it happens. The problem is that, despite his bad experiences in school and lack of close friends, the anime never really portrays his life as being miserable enough to justify such a strong desire to relive the past. As a result, it feels more like a random twist of fate than a natural consequence of his circumstances, which weakens the premise considerably. I also feel that characters such as Tatsuya, Reita, and Serika receive very little development. Reita contributes little to the plot aside from a few occasional conversations with Haibara. Tatsuya practically disappears after the first few episodes and only reappears sporadically afterward. As for Serika, she shows up rather suddenly halfway through the season. The lack of natural development for these three characters makes their relationships with Haibara feel less meaningful, despite the story presenting them as people who are close to him in one way or another. Fortunately, not everything is negative. The rest of the cast receives much better treatment throughout the series. One of the aspects I liked most about Haibara is the maturity he retains from his adult life. He is someone who tries to understand his feelings, reflects on his actions, and shows genuine empathy toward others. His emotional maturity compared to the rest of the cast is noticeable and handled quite well. Most of the other main characters also receive satisfying development, with the exception of the three mentioned above. As for the soundtrack, it does its job well enough, but there weren't many tracks that stood out to me or felt particularly memorable. That said, I absolutely loved the ending theme, which ended up being one of my favorite musical aspects of the anime. Overall, this is an enjoyable romance anime with likable characters, but it completely underutilizes its time regression premise. In the end, the regression feels less like a meaningful part of the story and more like an excuse to get the plot started.

I made up my mind to call this Spring Season the disappointing season. Some titles looked very promising, but after watching just the few episodes, you realise it is going to screw it up. Or you should, but unfortunately most people just won't. And this anime fits right in. I was hoping for something more like ReLife (thats the title, right? I don't remember exactly. The one with the pill?), instead we got this abomination. Visuals. Decent art style. And by "decent" I mean barely acceptable, but you get over it and hope the story was the main point, right? Nice character designs, even if somewhat.. generic? (I think I'll repeat myself a lot). Although, I have a little nitpick regarding the versions "before/after" for our MC, because that physical transformation is not possible in just one month, but I'm willing to let it go. Mostly kinda bland colour palette, reserving its true potential only for the "special" scenes. Kinda ironic, seeing that "colouring my highschool years" seems to be the theme. You migh say that its not ironic, that was the intended choice, but you're giving the studio too much credit, because nothing else is good. The cinematography is meh at best. The animation is meh. It gets even worse later, for example: in a scene, 3 girls. Two of them turn to the last one almost instantly, although she haven't even said the "amazing" line that made them turn in shock... Like I said, apart from some very specific shots where everything look good/very good, everything is meh at best. "At best" being the important part. Btw, outside the episode/story itself, the OP and ED have really really good visuals. Special mention: the tears/cry scenes in the last episode were sht. Audio. The sound design is somewhat ok-ish. NO real problems and you can see they tried their best to help the scenes, but if the scenes are sht.... The OP and ED are extremely good, both visually and the soundtrack. Also, the song in episode 3 (was it?) is extremely good. Thats what made me realise "oh, the themes, the themes!". But, again, the normal tracks are just ...there. You'll hear them when there's some sort of sad stuff on screen and thats all. The songs in the last episode were sht. Big letdown after all that hype. The VAs did meh. Nothing special, but most of the problem lies with the source itself, if there's no good dialogue its kinda hard for an actor to act to his/her" full potential. Really sh**ty editing. With choppy and/or weird pacing and scenes that make no sense. So, basically just a somewhat mid production value. Now, the good stuff. The concept is ok. Nothing new, but you might still enjoy it. But the writing is sht. The story (the "what") itself is bad, and then you have the plot (the "how" parts) that takes it to the next level. Full of tropes. Like the "lets not say whats on our mind, we wouldn't want the season to finish too soon" approach. So, the first episode looked ok. How? Why? Don't worry about it. But it feels like the story might be decent. I see, ok. The second one: hmm, I see. The 3rd one: I don't like where this is going. And then, everything went to sht. Ok, to be honest, I'm only talking about the scenes in regards of the Uta character. And unfortunately it feels like she's everywhere. Dunno the sauce, and after what happened, don't care about the sauce. Maybe they felt the need to cram all the scenes with her now so that later she'll forever be forgotten. I'm joking, I watched the anime, she wont. *sigh* But its a nice segue for me. Characters. And I'll start with her, because its the main weak point. Again, I don't know the sauce, maybe she's better there. Maybe those "cute and adoring" traits that the other cast keep describing her with are better defined. Because I hated her from the start. From the first scene where she started to be more than just "generic". To make myself clear, any other girl would work better. Any. Actually, even any of the boys would've been better. I really can't understand other viewers finding her a good girl. Anyway. Moving on. Our MC. I really don't understand what that writing was. The main problem is that he's portrayed as someone that lived under a rock. If he was a teenager for the first time, everything would've been acceptable, even if raising an eyebrow. But he's not, fact that the writer forgot all about, apparently. When the scene needs it, *POOF* he's acting like a 16yo with no clue about the real life. "It never happened to me, so I don't know how I should act". Thats his only character trait. Pff. GG WP. You're supposed to feel sorry (or something) for him, but all I could think was "Again?? Wtf is wrong with him??" over and over again. All his skills, all the stuff that colours his adolescence now, it is stuff that he developed and amassed BEFORE. Singing, cooking, sports (yeah, because playing by (or with ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ) yourself makes you a god when you're doing it with someone else... He goes back in time and just cheats. He slims down (not possible, but lets pretend it is), makes friends with his "targets" and then hits them with skills he amassed over the years in his previous timeline. Oh, sorry. He writes lyrics, thats new. Isn't he amazing? The other flushed out character would be the childhood friend. Unfortunately, her scenes are also mingled with Uta's. And it even feels empty when you have an episode about her, but it quickly cuts away around mid and just gives us an Uta date. That coming after the previous episode when the other girls were around just for a few moments, with nothing too "important" happening. Another one, the one with the father and the stuff with the sea? Wasted potential. Or the chick with long black hair (forgot her name)? The others, we don't really know too much. Even if you think that you might, there's a scene like the one where Tatsuya screams "shut your fkin mouth" and makes you think "wtf?!". Oki, not the exact words, but someone like him, from what we previously gathered, wouldn't talk like that. And he never does after that (we don't talk about the last episode, that was sht all-around). But the same could be said about the others. Basically, they do this only when the scene is needed to be more dramatic, more intense, because the dialogue is sht. Just watch that rooftop scene... *sigh* The other cast, I really don't know what to say about them, because they have too little screen time. Sure, you can infer some, but we don't find out truly. Again, moving on. The pacing is weird. I'd say too fast, with stuff just happening, but then you have a pacing soooo slow that it drives you crazy. Using the previous example: basketball scene, he leaves, 5 seconds later he's on a date. Then you find out the how/why but not when. It might've been the next day, next week, next month. So, this kind of pacing. Like I keep saying, sht writing. The romance is sht. And its weakest point, by far. And I'm talking about, not what the people like to imagine that the story was about, but what we actually got. And I won't even go over the whole "adult mind in a child body makes it ok to pursuit 16 yo girls..." stuff. To each his own, I don't judge. The Uta thing was introduced just to make her a sh**y character, because we find out more about her in the last episode, and knowing all that will make her even more dislikable. There's nothing else about her. The different "pairing" around, I kinda guessed how the story will go. Yes, even the last 2 minutes. Not by following some hidden logic, just by trying to guess how this hack writer will try to create drama, inferring from what I've seen so far. One guessing was not confirmed, but that quick glance made me think that its reserved for a next season (Ha! They wish. But many ret-- ahem, viewers gave it positive marks, so who knows..). The blonde chick is a wild card, but I also have her in sight. And again, wasted potential in regards to the stuff with the "main" girl. Or with the other ones too. ** Personal thing. I hate…

Haibara-kun no Tsuyokute Seishun New Game (2026) is a fantasy aimed at young adults with regrets about their adolescence—or perhaps at teenagers in desperate need of a self-esteem boost. Some people have already pointed out how bland and uninteresting the titular protagonist, Haibara, is, but I believe the show's problems go far beyond that. It is not simply a matter of most of the cast being shallow or poorly developed. Haibara himself spends much of the story creating conflicts that he is ultimately incapable of resolving on his own. On top of that, I found it uncomfortable how strongly he is attracted to a high school girl despite possessing the memories and mindset of a man approaching thirty. What disappoints me the most is that the series wastes a premise that could have led to something far more meaningful. It would have been much more compelling to see Haibara genuinely improve as a person: realizing that adolescence is only a brief stage of life, that self-worth should not depend on the admiration of others, and that no magical "reset" is required to begin fixing one's mistakes. That would have been fantasy. What we get instead feels much closer to escapism.

Simple way to say it, I would say it's not recommended simply because (1) there's nothing special and (2) there's a very much annoying cliff hanger at the very end. Explanation for point 2 first, in the last, 1 or so, minutes of the last episode, there will be a major plot twist kind of scene that's, for me personally, very much annoying, and obviously, to know what it is, one must read the original source, so, in other words, to save yourself from this pain, I do recommend you skipping it all together. As for point 1, I wouldn't say the details, or else it will be a spoiler, but, like I said there's nothing special... Haibara isn't changing his past drastically, he's not even saving himself or someone else's life, he's not even redoing his past to fix his regretful mistakes. He just wanted a more cheerful, or rather, "extroverted friendly" high school life, as, have friends, date a girl, and do other mundane things. There's no massive drama, no deep emotional stories, not even a philosophical moral message. So, unless you're like me, who just watch it to, basically, make some noise to keep my head focus at something rather than overthinking random nonsense, then again, it's just not worth the time, unless in the future they miraculously made a season 2 of this series and that one turns out to be great. PS: this one is just a personal note, but, I do find it annoying that some people say this story is worth watching for it's romance... Well it just not, isn't it? I mean, let's say, if the romance side of it is like, Haibara was madly in love with someone previously, but deeply regretted his inability to date her... then I not only agree but would also say it's still "recommended", or at least "mixed feelings". Sadly, it isn't like that, so....

I have read many regression stories (a webtoon fan), and I can tell that this is not your usual regression story. In many cases, regression tells about someone regretting their past life and wanting to be different from their past. Here, as the name suggests (New Game +), it isn't about the MC wanting to be different. He just wanted to be more of himself rather than changing. He wished he were confident, but he wasn't. I'll explain further in the review section. Edit: If I had a nickel for every romance show that has a confession in the first season, I would have many by now, which is weird, because Rent A Girlfriend exists. (1) How did I find this? I saw it on the MAL seasonal anime list. Appealing (Why did I get into the anime?) I remember people saying there were many good regression anime/manga in the past. The most iconic one, and people are still recommending me till this day, was ReLIFE. Before checking that out, I want to experience it from a different story. This is one of them. I also read a manga that has a regression premise, but I won't be touching those for this review. Platform Unfortunately, only available on Crunchyroll. Ps. Scratch that, I found out that it's also available on Apple TV, JustWatch, and Roku. The review; Plot/Story Haibara Natsuki has a stable life. Yeah, he got bullied in high school, and he felt lonely, but nothing major. He even got a stable job. He just wished he were confident in himself. I mean, he has all of these things he ACTUALLY can do and already done, but was too late. He was already worn down and couldn't do much about his talent. One day, he wished upon the shooting star and BANG! That was when he got transferred back in time. He determined this time. He wanted to use his talent properly. Heck, he might also use that talent to impress his high school crush. And along his way, he actually got not just his crush liking him, but more. That's the gist, and I actually like the premise. I am genuinely in love with the story because I wish I were Haibara as well. I have a stable life right now, but wouldn't it be better if I got confident? I should've been more forward with what I'm good at. I wish I could have trained more, so that I could become what I wanted. I wish I hadn't messed around and locked the f*ck in, so I could have become a writer, illustrator, and animator at my age. Character Great! I like the characters in this story. It feels realistic enough that I felt I was Haibara for a second. OST/SFX The only thing that they fucked up. Man, I hate the OP and ED of this anime, like what the heck, man. OST and SFX in the anime were fine, it's just the OP and ED were suck ass. I don't like it. Animation Don't want to be rude, but it was not that good, especially the band arc. I never saw any anime made by Studio Comet before, but upon seeing their resume, I can see why their animation felt stiff. Most of their anime were released 10+ years ago. I guess they didn't upgrade that much since. I hope they got a new footing in line. I'm rooting for them! VA Two Thumbs Up! The conclusion; Enjoyable No! Relatable as f*ck. I couldn't help but think that this anime was actually specifically targeting me. I swear, I wish I were Haibara from episode to episode, it was that good! Worthable Couldn't you tell? Of course, it's worth my time! Delivery Not that great, but at least the story was very good! OG Sauce I saw that Bookwalker provided the light novel. I would love to read it! Overall 8.4/10 Could be better with the animation, but still enjoyable from start to finish. I wish we had season 2!

Meh, okay anime. No character development (barely for what it is). One problem I have with the main character is that he goes back in time to his younger self with all the memories and knowledge of his older self, but it doesn’t feel like that at all. He acts like he has never been an adult before, never having a mature thought whatsoever and never putting his knowledge to good use. They just used the travelling back in time trope to make an imperfect character into a high school God who is good at everything. It was to a point where the MC had to say “Hey i’m not perfect, look I was fat before!” WOW what a character development, you definitely don’t have any flaws do you? For his love life, they tried to make it a harem, with two main girls. Which one is he gonna choose??? Well, it’s hard to pick a favorite, when both of them are boring and Uta in particular is extremely annoying. Although it was a meh anime, I did like some scenes and events such as the school festival that was nice and the karaoke scene. It’s a good show if you ignore all the silly aspects of it like falling in love with a girl because she gives you a kiss on the cheek… Overall 6/10

While generally "Haibara's Teenage New Game+" has an alright premise, it doesn't really work all that well in the end. A lot of this anime doesn't progress anything, and the fake "love triangle" that this anime has going on really ruins some of the development, especially since it could've done a lot better than it did. -{Note: I have not read the Light Novel or the Manga, so my opinions only come from this anime adaptation.}- I'll start by laying out the reasons why this anime has problems, going from most problematic to least problematic. 1. The fake and horribly done "Love Triangle": The love triangle this anime does with Uta barging into the main romantic development between Hikari and Natsuki's relationship is just outright bland, feels shoehorned into the story, and adds basically nothing to this anime. First off, Uta is not a bad character on her own, but from the beginning, when you see her start falling for the male MC Natsuki, you just get the sense that it's more of a distraction than genuine romantic interest for the MC. Natsuki has already made up his mind to go after Hikari, and the way this story puts Uta in as another romantic interest from her introduction is just not well done. Whether that's because of a bad adaptation or just bad writing in general, I don't know, but it basically cements her as the losing heroine from the start. It's not like this couldn't have worked, but her romantic interest in Natsuki just never really made full sense from the beginning. Honestly, the childhood friend Miori would've been a far better and more sensible interest in the love triangle than Uta, just from the way she is portrayed and the way she acts toward Natsuki throughout the story. 2. The male MC doesn't act a single bit mature despite having all the memories from his prior life: This is just cheesy writing. The male MC had the potential to act much more mature throughout the story and have more of the mentality of someone in their 20s rather than someone who is entering high school. Instead, a lot of the whole "went back to change his teenage years" premise becomes almost a moot point after the first 2 episodes. It more or less just becomes an anime about a teenage love story rather than someone who went back in time to change his past in high school. 3. Obnoxious melodrama: The melodrama this anime has is absolutely obnoxious at times and adds almost nothing to the story. It basically creates tension for made-up and menial reasons, which usually stem from either the love triangle this anime has or the MC getting flustered like a 12-year-old whenever he's talking to women. It wouldn't be such a problem if it only happened occasionally, but this anime uses melodrama so regularly that it drags the story down hardcore. 4. The entire band creation episodes are mediocre at best and shoehorned in at worst: These episodes are just honestly mediocre. There isn't much more that can really be said about them. They added practically nothing meaningful to the story, yet they took up around 3 episodes. It felt like a side plot that the anime spent way too much time on compared to what it actually added to the characters or main story. 5. The ending is absurd and honestly pretty mediocre in the end: I won't spoil the obvious part that 99% of people will immediately know is going to happen. But after the big reveal, there is a cliffhanger for seemingly no reason other than to push toward a second season. This anime in general doesn't really feel like it needs a second season. The basic story is pretty much complete after the big reveal, which itself is already pretty obvious. After that, there is basically only the characters' lives after everything is resolved left to tell. Looking at the overall quality of the writing and story up to this point, I don't really think continuing it would add anything especially meaningful to the story. 6. The wasted potential of this whole story: I put this at the lowest because it's already wasted potential as is. This story had so many different ways it could've developed its characters more meaningfully and carefully than the way it actually did. The same applies to the melodrama. It also doesn't help that the entire story isn't very focused and occasionally goes off-topic for menial stuff that doesn't actually add anything to the story or even make the MC change his opinions or second-guess his choices. Instead, melodrama basically becomes the backbone of the entire story. This could've been a very good anime if it had stuck more closely to the idea of the MC's future knowledge and experiences being transferred back into his teenage years. Instead, that premise becomes a small characterization detail that means almost nothing in the grand scheme of the story. This anime also could've done a love triangle better by having the other girls who actually like him have more meaningful and impactful reasons to fall for him. Instead, it's basically "love at first sight" mixed with adoration. A love triangle between Miori and Hikari would've made much more logical sense in this story, and there definitely are cues pointing toward that possibility, but it's never really explored as an actual romantic conflict in the first place. Now, that doesn't mean I hate this anime, because it does do some things well: 1. The characters are generally likable and do have development: This mainly revolves around Miori and Hikari. These two honestly get more development than our main character throughout these 12 episodes, and their development is actually pretty well done. The anime just doesn't continue that same level of development nearly as well with the rest of the characters. That being said, even the recurring side characters who aren't on screen nearly as often are generally pretty likable, which isn't always common in romance anime. Of course, there are some characters who become less likable because of the way they make the plot feel dragged out, but I wouldn't say that's necessarily the fault of the characters themselves. It's more so the writing of this anime and how those characters are used. 2. The interactions between characters generally feel quite realistic: This is one of the strongest points of the anime. The character interactions, even when the situations they're put into can sometimes be somewhat unrealistic, usually come across as genuine. The way the characters talk to each other and interact feels fairly natural most of the time. The only real point I'd make against this is the Uta love triangle I talked about earlier, but besides that, the character interactions are actually very well done and handled better than a lot of other romance anime. So in conclusion, would I tell you to watch this? I'd say it generally depends on your tastes in romance anime. But even for people who like this style of romance anime, it can be hard to watch at times when you can clearly see that the story could've been done much better and with a lot more polish. There are good characters, some genuinely solid interactions, and an alright premise underneath everything, but the unnecessary melodrama, poorly handled love triangle, wasted time-travel premise, and unfocused storytelling keep it from being nearly as good as it could've been. So while it still depends on your tastes in anime, I generally wouldn't recommend it, even though I score it reasonably well. 6.5/10 (rounded up to 7/10)

Haibara-kun no Tsuyokute Seishun New Game had potential... but after that it just went downhill and it didn't know what to do. === Positives === + The show starts with an interesting premise: Natsuki got bullied in high school in the past and wants to travel back in time to change his mistakes, and so he does. + Despite me not liking the rest of the characters, the two that stand out are Miori and Serika (band member club), because at least they have *some* character development and are relatable. + The band arc in the last two or three episodes was decent. === Negatives === - After a decent first episode, the show doesn't know what to do and just goes on with your generic romance anime with nothing worthwhile to latch out to, so that means that it's nowhere near Bokutachi no Remake or Re:Life. - The production values are quite poor - the animation is stiff and the character designs look wonky at best, especially during the band arc during episode ten through twelve. Most of the time they stick to static pngs, or have minimal movement in almost every scene. - Other than Miori and Serika, I don't remember any of the other characters. You have an MC who's trying to 'redo' his past self but loses weight anyway, a beautiful high school girl who appears to be the MC's 'crush', a red-haired genki girl, a black-haired girl that I don't know or remember a lot about and two men who are just filler and whom I forgot their names, and yet they feel *very* one-note and dull. Speaking of the genki girl, she's irritating. - After the final episode that is the band arc, the show ends in an awful cliff-hanger - and it feels like a tease for a season two that, even if we *do* end up getting, will *not* happen, and that I'll most likely *not* watch. === Overall/Do I Recommend? === In the end, what started off with a promising do-over plot in the first episode ended up being a generic high school romance show with a forgettable MC with boring characters. ...Well, except two. Yep, it wasted its potential it had in the first episode! Why am I not surprised? It's not the worst show of the Spring '26 season, but it's still not good - so I rate it 3.5/10, and therefore I recommend that you skip it. Thank you for reading!

I enjoyed this one quite a bit. I had read LN volumes 1&2 before tuning in. No spoilers but I'm happy the show landed firmly with room for more. Band arc was rushed but the season needed to end here so it was necessary at a 12-episode run. A 13th episode would have let the band arc breath a bit more. The LNs are 11 volumes and an epilogue 12th. I'd like to see another 2 seasons for the full adaptation. The recognition that to grow you have to change was satisfying. Not peak, but better than average school romance tale with genuinely nice people as characters. If you like the genre, you'll like this.