Hatsukoi Limited - Episode 1

It's probably fair to say that the slice of life, school-based series has been done to death by now, but that doesn't mean that we won't lap up more of the same when it's well done. With that in mind, along comes Hatsukoi Limited, a series based on a manga which tells the tale of a number of middle school girls and their lives and loves.

This opening episode follows the opening chapter of the manga pretty closely, focusing our attentions on Ayumi Arihara, a girl who dreams of being swept off her feet by a guy like some kind of princess - A dream world which extends to her idea that she's happily accept anyone at all who confesses to her as it would be such a wonderful moment in her life.


While this is a wonderful idea to be applauded in theory, real life doesn't quite work like that, as Ayumi soon discovers when she is confessed to by Misao Zaitsu, a high school student and a near-literal monster of a man - The kind of person who is more likely to terrify than impress the ladies when he walks by. So, Ayumi is left with a dilemma - Accept the feelings of this "beast" and be done with it or reject him and possibly face his wrath? This decision only becomes more difficult as he begins to follow her around everywhere, and worse Ayumi develops a crush on Misao's (far less monstrous) brother.

It's too early to sat too much about Hatsukoi Limited just yet, as from this single episode we've only really gotten to know a few characters, and only Ayumi of the main set of girls the series is based around has been given any real screen time. Still, despite all this what we have here is a pretty fun and solid start to the series - There's a lot to like about Ayumi in her own way (fan service aside), and the story for this first episode had enough laughs and general amusement to hold my interest as well as the manga managed, which seems like a good starting point. I very much doubt this is going to become some kind of seminal slice of life series, but with any luck it'll make a better fist of it than the likes of Hyakko, and it certainly appears to have stronger source material to build upon from what I've seen.