Gerald Rathkolb
October 20, 2023 
Two bumbling, lovable idiots
Nothing in the world is edgier than an angry middle schooler—at least that’s what every edgy middle schooler thinks about themselves and Kyotaro, the protagonist of The Dangers in My Heart, is no exception. Kyotaro, Mr. Edge-Case himself wants nothing more than to see all of his classmates dead, especially Anna Yamada. Now, yes, I understand this is sounding really heavy but hear me out. Kyotaro, like most “super edgy” middle schoolers, is also, get this, an idiot, and is also nowhere near as edgy as he thinks he is. Just to show how edgy this guy thinks he is, we see him in the opening moments of the show sitting at his school desk reading the “Murder Encyclopedia” and fantasizing about slashing everyone and him commenting just how messed up in the head he is (oh sweet baby child).
Kyotaro retreats to the school’s extremely small and cute library only to find his number one murder fantasy, Yamada, sitting there eating. This is where we find out that she is, in fact, also an idiot. This is the crux of The Dangers in My Heart and why it’s one of the most delightful school romance shows in a while. Nothing is sweeter than someone who thinks they are the darkest, edgiest person on the planet, only to find out they’re about as edgy as a butterknife. On paper the premise of The Dangers in My Heart sounds incredibly dark and not something that would go over too well today, however that premise is only skin deep (pun intended).
What follows is a show about Yamada and Kyotaro—who are obviously into each other in some way but are too stupid (read: middle school) to let each other know about it and these two are especially dumb. Yamada, we find out, spends a lot of her time sneaking in snacks and carrying around candy thinking no one would notice. Kyotaro is equally dumb doing stunts like slashing his team’s presentation poster with his box cutter in order to distract the class from looking at Yamada who he thinks was crying but was, in fact, just not really caring about the whole thing.
Only to add to all of this is the size difference between Yamada and Kyotaro. Yamada is a good head or more taller than Kyotaro. Yamada is tall for a middle school girl and Kyotaro’s size is diminutive even for a middle school boy, so their budding romance is made even more awkward and charming. The supporting cast is full of equally awkward and dumb middle schoolers such as Yamada’s friend who is overweight and the classmate who likes larger girls and expresses this in very badly worded terms.
As someone who in my past was a middle schooler, I feel I can speak from experience when I say that the depiction of middle schoolers in this feels both extremely accurate and authentic in portraying all the awkwardness of that time. The story is one of slow growth, with the two of them taking baby steps towards figuring out their dumb brains. While it’s obvious to us that Yamada and Kyotaro are into each other, it’s certainly not obvious to them and while that sounds frustrating, the show does a great job of making it more delightful to see these idiots fumble their way into a possible relationship.
While I’m not generally a fan of romances there’s definitely something special about The Dangers in My Heart. It’s a romantic comedy about two bumbling, lovable idiots, one of which is doing his best to be the edgiest person in his own small mind, while the other seems to be blissfully ignorant of most anything going on around her as long as she gets some candy or snacks to fill her up. Do yourself a favor and check out The Dangers in My Heart.
Studio/company: HIDIVE / Sentai Filmworks
Rating: Not Rated
