A new trailer has been released for an upcoming romance anime entitled, Shikomori’s Not Just a Cutie. The anime is produced by Doga Kobo, the animation studio behind 11eyes, and has a similar flare with colorful characters and stylish animation.

Based on the web Manga series by Keigo Maki that began being posted on the author’s Twitter account in 2018 before being officially serialized in Magazine Pocket in early 2019, Shikomori’s Not Just a Cutie (Kawaii dake ja Nai Shikimori-san in the original Japanese) may be your typical high school rom-com except, the girl and boy’s roles are unconventionally inverted. The protagonist Yuu Izumi is an extremely unlucky individual, who often gets injured in the most absurd ways. However, ever since he began going out with his classmate Micchon Shikimori, Izumi is protected from his tendency to attract unfortunate accidents.

As the title implies, Shikimori is not only incredibly cute but is also extremely cool and confident, always ready to jump into action whenever her boyfriend is in danger. In the trailer, we can see how the pink-haired girl pulls Izumi out of the way of an oncoming truck and then tells him: “Geez, don’t make me work so damn hard.”

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Image via AniTV

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These kinds of lines, along with Shikimori’s dependable and assertive nature, make it clear in the trailer that this anime plays with the gender role norms we usually see in romance anime and turns it upside down, making the girl the “knight in shining armor” of the relationship while the boy is timid, clumsy, and requires protection.

The main voice cast for the series includes Saori Ōnishi as Shikimori, Shuichiro Umeda as Izumi, Nobuhiko Okamoto as Shu Inuzuka, Misato Matsuoka as Kyo Nekozaki, and Rina Hidaka as Yui Hachimitsu. Shikomori’s Not Just a Cutie is directed by Ryota Ito with Shohei Yamanaka as assistant director. Yoshimi Narita was in charge of the series composition while the character design was handled by Ai Kikuchi. The opening song for the anime is performed by Nasuo☆ and the ending theme is by Yuki Nakashima.

As of this past January, the Manga series has collected a total of 11 volumes and has been licensed in English in North America by Kodansha.

Shikimori's Not Just a Cutie will be premiering on April 9, 2022. Watch the trailer below:

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Image via AniTV