The Spring 2025 Anime Preview Guide

Can a Boy-Girl Friendship Survive?

Himari Inuzuka and the flower-loving Yū Natsume swore to be friends forever during middle school. They spend their time together happily, even until high school. But when Yū's first love reappears in his life, their relationship slowly becomes more chaotic, and Himari and Yū's relationship slowly turns into something else.

Can a Boy-Girl Friendship Survive? is based on the Danjo no Yūjō wa Seiritsu Suru? Iya, Shinai!! light novel series by Nana Nanana and Parum. The anime series is streaming on Crunchyroll on Fridays.

The thing that makes this anime work is that its central concept feels true to life. After all, if there's anything I've learned in my 40 years on this planet, it's that people are attracted to hard work and passion—even if it's not something they're personally into. Simply put, drive is attractive. Laziness is not.

This is the basis of Himari's infatuation with Yu. He has a goal in life—making a living creating flower-based accessories—and is toiling away to make his dream come true even as a middle schooler. While he may exist in the background of the school's social hierarchy, all it takes is a bit of observation for Himari to see all the step-by-step work he's put into the process of growing flowers, coating them in resin, and making them into jewelry. It makes her want to help him—to use her beauty, connections, and outgoing personality to cover for his weak social skills.

Now, years later, her infatuation has only grown and has transformed into something else. Himari feels like a girl who may be asexual or demisexual. Because of her lack of sexual attraction, she is having problems differentiating where friendship ends and romantic love begins—especially when it comes to Yu.

Up until now, figuring this out hasn't been a priority. She wants to be at his side and seems to have that position locked down as his best friend. There is no need for her to rock the boat as the status quo keeps her satisfied. But once Rion enters the picture as someone who sees Yu's passion just like she does, it becomes apparent that the status quo might just change regardless—and Himari's got to figure herself and her feelings out or risk losing it all.

Despite the occasional slapstick scenes, this anime seems to be more romance than rom-com—more about the drama of high school romance than laughs gained from over-the-top or awkward situations. It's something I have to be in the mood for to watch but when the mood strikes I'll likely be back for more.

Awkward phrasing aside, “Can a Boy-Girl Friendship Survive?” is basically the de-facto tagline of, like, 90% of romantic comedies ever made. I know I'm getting older, but When Harry Met Sally is still a reference readers will understand, right? “Can men and women be friends without it getting complicated by romance?” is literally the entire throughline of that movie, and it's a stone-cold classic (even if the answer it eventually lands on is actually kind of stupid). The point is, I went into Can a Boy-Girl Friendship Survive? expecting a typical, predictable rom-com. What I got instead was a predictable but excellent rom-com, which is just the kind of treat that makes Preview Guide worth it, no matter how many terrible light novel adaptations and isekai tax write-offs we have to suffer through.

The best thing about Can a Boy-Girl Friendship Survive? is its excellent cast—something vital for any romantic comedy worth its salt. Yu is the exact kind of introverted-but-fundamentally-sweet guy that works as a leading man when he's paired up with a firecracker like Himari. His passion for making fashion accessories is a cute and interesting character focus that doesn't just become a cheap gimmick or shorthand—and most importantly of all, he has real chemistry with the girl(s) in his life. For her part, I was a little worried that Himari would be too adorkable and ridiculous, but the show ends up finding a good middle ground in making her an over-the-top weirdo that still feels like a real person. Her friendship with Yu is immediately heartwarming and entertaining, and their playfulness comes with a physical and emotional intimacy that makes the inevitable romance that will develop between them already make a lot of sense.

To be clear, I'm not saying that “When Harry Met Sally” was right when it boldly claimed that mixed-gender friendships will inevitably bloom into romance. This is a fictional cartoon about the heightened emotional reality of high school, though, and it only exists because it wants to explore the answer to the question in its title. If Yu and Himari truly stayed platonic friends forever, with absolutely no complications or dramatic evolution, then there wouldn't be much point in the show existing, now would there? Besides, it would be such a waste to ignore the perfect love-triangle opportunity that Rion provides the moment she comes back into Yu and Himari's lives. The best kind of romantic polyhedrons, I've discovered, are the ones where every party involved has good romantic and platonic chemistry, because then there's plenty of material to mine from all of the characters interacting outside of the basic “Who will he pick???” shtick. The best scene of this whole premiere is when Yu, Himari, and Rion are all hanging out together and messing around like a bunch of actual, human teenagers.

I wasn't planning on loving Can a Boy-Girl Friendship Survive? as much as I did, but a surprise addition to my seasonal “Must Watch” list is never a bad thing. If you like cozy, well-animated sitcoms about kids struck by the love bug, then I implore you to check this one out.

Ah, the eternal question – can two straight people of opposite genders ever be friends? Or just friends? I can't say that it's an issue I've ever cared all that much about, but I recognize that it may be much more fascinating to other people. Those people don't necessarily appear to be the leads of this show, though – Yu and Himari give every outward appearance of being perfectly content to just be best friends, and Himari's even dated other guys without sending Yu into a towering rage or horrible realization about his own feelings. Yu just wants to make his preserved flower jewelry. Himari likes to wear it and promote it. They're pals.

Obviously that sort of set up can't stand in a series that needs to keep the plot moving, so we're introduced to Enocchi, a girl who loves his jewelry without knowing he made it. Enocchi and Himari were friends in elementary school, but I'm left wondering why, because apparently Himari has a history of having a tough time keeping her hands to herself when it comes to Enocchi's breasts. I didn't love the episode before the extended grope scene, but that knocked my rating down by at least half a star. I'll admit that the dog-shaming-style sign Himari had to wear afterwards was funny, but it's not enough to make up for the stinker of a gag that preceded it.

My other major issue here is that I found Himari intensely irritating. Her lines are nearly all delivered at top volume and in a tone that made my skin crawl; this may be a good time to remind people that I'm sound-sensitive, so if you are too, you may want to ease into her delivery. She's also something of a nightmare if you like your personal space; Himari is constantly throwing herself into Yu's, and while he doesn't seem to mind, her aggressive physicality paired with her vocal performance just made her difficult for me to watch. I recognize that this may be a me-issue, but it mostly goes to underline the problem that I simply didn't buy Yu and Himari's friendship. Their interactions didn't do anything to make me believe that they're friends, close or otherwise. They seemed more like two people who interact because it's a habit, and that could seriously hamper the storytelling going forward.

I think that if you're a fan of high school odd-couple romcoms, this could be fun. I like Yu's hobby and his desire to make a go of it, and there is a noticeable difference between his early accessories and what he's making now, which is probably the best visual element. But if you're sound sensitive or not a fan of manic pixie dream girls (which Himari isn't quite, but she's in the same basic area), this may not be the romcom you're looking for this season.

Despite claims to the contrary, the answer to the question in the title of Can a Boy-Girl Friendship Survive? is a resounding, “Yes, and saying otherwise makes you sound either absurdly outdated or like a nutjob.” It seems to be that this series takes inspiration from 30+-year-old American romantic comedies, from mirroring the thesis of When Harry Met Sally… and Himari pulling out what to us Americans is a hoary old cliche: proposing that if neither of opposite-sex best friends are single at 30, they marry each other.

Maybe these will feel fresh to a young Japanese audience, but to me, it evoked a sense of weariness at toxic gender relationships in the media I grew up with as well as comfortable familiarity. That feeling permeated throughout the episode: flip-flopping between elements that felt fun and fresh, and uncreative and overdone. It would careen from a funny gag to a cringey bit and then right back to a funny gag. The comic timing was all over the place as well in sequences like going from Rion's unintentional bitch face (funny!) to Himari grabbing her boobs for way too long (cringe!) to Himari sitting with a handprint on her face wearing a shaming sign (funny again!).

And hey, shonen romcom writers? Take Yu here as one way to create a protagonist who's somewhat interesting. He doesn't have a particularly strong personality, but he has a passion and skill for jewelry-making and the drive to make it his career. As a bonus, his preserved-flower jewelry is super cute and makes me kind of want to hit up the Sunday craft fair and get myself a pair of similar earrings as a little treat. Tying Yu and Himari together this way is smart, too – it's a tangible reason to keep them tied together, instead of simply drifting apart, and it's an organic way to introduce Rion to the dynamic.

Can a Boy-Girl Friendship Survive? seems unlikely to reach the heights of some of the gold standards of the shonen high school romcom space – it's no Toradora! or even a Horimiya – but with high-gloss animation, moderately likable characters, and decent comic timing, you could do way worse.