My Love Story With Yamada-kun at Lv999

Episode 10

Getting a fuller picture of exactly what Yamada's deal is has been a driving point of this love story with him at Lv999. His rush to Akane's extremely needed aid is what finally prompts other characters to reflect and consider his character, much to the benefit of us watching. We do in fact get some fully fleshed-out details on Yamada's backstory, but perhaps more importantly than that, we get explanations of his thought processes and character. It's detailed development as story progression, as Akane coming to understand Yamada means we get to understand him, and her a bit more, as well.

Our initial delve into Yamada's depths this episode actually doesn't come through Akane at all though, but rather Tsubaki. It's another instance of the show's extremely deliberate delivery of information over its run paying off. We were already made familiar with Tsubaki's relationship and rapport with Yamada, so it feels natural when his leaving her text messages on read prompts a flashback to their earlier, formative interactions. It's a situation that might come off like an oddly timed infodump in a less careful story, but in Yamada-kun at Lv999, it feels built up to, and also gives us the impression of information that will be paying off later in this same episode. It's all as calculated as the carefully deployed cuts and transitions that carry the show's direction.

As for the actual content of Yamada's delivered backstory, I can say that it's pretty much what I'd already sussed out from all the earlier allusions. Not that it's an especially uncommon tale, but Yamada's empathetic issues are exacerbated on account of the girl he tried dating in the past being bullied as a result of his own popularity. More prudent than the exact details of the situation is the story, and how Yamada tells it, finally fully confirms Yamada's interiority. It's clarified that Yamada is fully aware of the attention he receives from the ladies, which itself wouldn't preclude him from still having his withdrawn tendencies. A lack of self-confidence is a hell of a drug, after all. But the issues go deeper than that, as it turns out Yamada is actually just shutting himself off to avoid having anyone else hurt, directly or indirectly, as a result of any affection for him.

The irony of this situation, as observed by Tsubaki, is that Yamada's approach winds up hurting plenty of people anyway. Part of that is because, despite his extensive empathy and efforts, Yamada just has no clue how to tactfully turn someone down, and his insistence on ending things as quickly and bluntly as possible can wind up incredibly crushing for his crushes. That's a strong point for the story of his character to make, as like Akane's own self-disregarding tendencies, it demonstrates why Yamada's retreat from romance is a problem for himself as well as others around him which it would be best to deal with at some point. It lays out a path for him to approach the possibility of that relationship with Akane that so many of the other characters have observed might be to their benefit. Though it also, to my mind, comes with the potential to fall too far in the other direction into codependency. But that's an issue that would come far in the future.

Amongst all this heady analysis of personable possibilities, we get to watch Yamada's caretaking of the ailing Akane, partially glimpsed through her own delirium. Alongside the point that her illness was apparently bad enough that it necessitated a hospital trip (which she managed to effectively sleep all the way through), it's another demonstration of the lengths Yamada will put himself to take care of people. It's a compelling compassion that manifests apart from his other times of overbearing bluntness, and it says something about how it's this side of him, as opposed to his good looks or taciturn gaming ability, that seems to be making Akane fall for him. There's no intimidation or pretense to their relationship, apart from Akane's adorably flustered reactions once she finally comes to and reiterates how poorly equipped she is, psychologically, to receive so much favor and care from someone else.

Akane's appreciation for how reassuring she finds Yamada gets to be paid back rather quickly though, in the form of her expositing advice on how to healthily internalize dumping and/or getting dumped, as Yamada's struggles with were detailed in this episode's earlier flashback. There's some great dry humor in the implication that Akane has been broken up with so many times that she's figured out the best ways to respond to it (if not wholly consistently, see the beginning of the show). But it also provokes an important first step in Yamada's growth, and how he might contextualize his consideration of others. Similarly, we see all the way up to the end of the episode how this incident and that conversational connection are causing Akane to be more clearly drawn to Yamada. They are inching closer together, even as they're still dealing with hints of hesitation caused by their own hang-ups.

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My Love Story With Yamada-kun at Lv999 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Chris is keeping busy keeping up with the new anime season and is excited to have you along. You can also find him writing about other stuff over on his blog, as well as spamming fanart retweets on his Twitter, for however much longer that lasts.