YMMV / The Dangers in My Heart

• Accidental Nightmare Fuel: This Christmas extra looks like Yamada absorbed Ichikawa to force him to be trapped on her Christmas sweater.
• Adorkable: Both Ichikawa and Yamada are this.
  • Ichikawa, when he actually tries to cheer up or support Yamada. His attempts are clumsy but obviously heartfelt. So obvious that Yamada notices and is generally cheered just by the fact that he tried.
  • Yamada for her eating habits, comedic routines with her friends (Especially Chii, who reprimands her for her ditziness), and whenever she tries to get a little bit closer to Ichikawa and find out more about him. It's fairly obvious she has feelings for him, but Ichikawa is so socially awkward and has such low self-esteem that he doesn't realize it.
• Alas, Poor Scrappy: Even those who otherwise hate Adachi, felt sorry for him at the aftermath of the Mock Calvary Battle where he falls under the realization of how much of a Hopeless Suitor to Yamada he truly is, and to top it all he can't bring himself to hate her because he knows Ichikawa is a good option, you can see on his face how devasted the realization has left him. As Kugenuma lampshades "It's a good thing that it was raining".
• Alternative Character Interpretation: See here.
• Alternative Joke Interpretation:
  • In Karte 94 we see Sanae holding Yuki back while talking with Ichikawa's mom on the phone about Anna sleeping over at their house. Is the joke that Yuki heard about Ichikawa and was trying to be a Boyfriend-Blocking Dad or did he just hear Anna was not coming to the house that night and was Ready for Lovemaking?
  • Ichikawa's reaction upon hearing Shogo was flirting with Kana in Karte 139. Is Ichikawa pissed off because he dislikes the idea of someone dating his sister or is he pissed off because he doesn't like the idea of a scummy guy like Shogo trying to get with her?
• Awesome Music: Right here.
• Base-Breaking Character: Adachi being the resident's Perverted Plucky Comic Relief makes him unsurprisingly this. To some fans, his inappropriate comments and obviously wrong assumptions about Yamada make him a hilarious character and an accurate depiction of a horny teenager with a very heartwarming friendship with Ichikawa that makes up for his more negative traits. To other fans, he's the one thing you would change of the manga, feel his constant objectification of Yamada (or any girl around him for that matter) makes him a creep that deserves no sympathy and makes them wish he stopped appearing. Him getting some Ship Tease with Moeko around the White Day arc also proved divisive, some fans like it, while other fans think Moeko can do so much better.
• Better on DVD: It is not uncommon to hear fans say the worst aspect of each chapter is all the time you have to wait for the next one. Given that the chapters are very short, tight in continuity, and released every two or three weeks, a good portion of the fanbase believes the series is much more enjoyable in a binge read than reading every chapter the day they are released.
• Captain Obvious Reveal: While the beginning of the Beach Arc makes a huge deal out of who among the main characters brought a condom to the retreat, many fans quickly guessed it was from Nico rather that of any of the suspects, given Ichikawa and Yamada just had their first kiss and none of the other girls had a reason to bring a condom to the retreat, while Nico is an adult and the owner of the house in the first place.
• Continuity Lockout:
  • While the series is not hard to follow if read on its own, the constant use of Call Backs and Show, Don't Tell can make some moments rather confusing for more casual readers unless they remember well every single detail of the previous chapters. For example: Karte 64/Episode 14 has Yamada trying to hide a bottle of Milk Tea from Ichikawa in her room, which doesn't make much sense in the context of the chapter (and is not explained) unless the reader has the events of Karte 27/Episode 5 fresh in mind, and even then, the reason why the bottle is important is itself a Call-Back from a previous chapter.
  • A lot of important information is only revealed in the Bonus Material which can be released either in Twitter / X or as Omakes. The reason why Ichikawa didn't go to his first Field Trip, Yamada's cold stare in the first Chapter and the whole reason why Ichikawa thought he wanted to kill Yamada are only revealed in "Episode Zero", a small Light Novel that forms part of Volume 7, and Karte 113 has a Call-Back that only makes sense if you read the Twitter extra that it's referencing. It is commonly agreed among fans that, while not completely essential, it's better to read all of the extra material if one wants to fully appreciate the story.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Kyōtarō's Cool Big Sis Kana has proven very popular among fans, especially once she noticed how close her brother and Yamada were and started playing Romantic Wingman.
  • Hara doesn't appear as much as Yamada's other friends but has many fans for being a nice, adorable Big Beautiful Woman as well as being one of the first people to befriend Ichikawa and find out what was going on between him and Yamada.
  • The school nurse, mostly for her reactions towards Ichikawa and Yamada's antics in extra chapters taking place in the infirmary.
  • Yamada's parents are also very popular given their sweet dynamic and how each handle their encounters with Kyōtarō.
  • Adachi's mom got a following in the fanbase despite only having a small role in barely three chapters for obvious reasons.
  • Primary Color (Kana's band) ^note Momo, Aoton and Hinako started getting their fair share of fanart merely hours after the release of Karte 127.
  • Yurine Hanzawa. While she was well-liked in the manga, she pretty much exploded in popularity once she made her debut in the anime, thanks to her stoic but Adorkable personality.
• Fandom-Enraging Misconception: Giving Ichikawa any sort of Ron the Death Eater treatment (particularly, proclaiming his Chuunibyou antics were the real deal and that he actually wanted to murder Yamada) or worse, implying he doesn't deserve Yamada will be quickly met with a fan answering you with a Wall of Text of how poorly you are interpreting the character and a list of all of the good things he has done through the series both for Yamada and for other characters.
• Fandom Heresy: Saying you would prefer for the manga to add a Romantic False Lead is an easy way to get the fandom's wrath. The major reason is that a lot of fans enjoy the manga precisely because it averts that sort of development that would only lead to the story going on forever and because hardly anyone likes the idea of someone getting in the way of Ichikawa and Yamada.
• Fan Nickname:
  • "Yamama" and "Yamadad" for Anna's parents.
  • "Ichadkawa" for Kyōtarō as of later chapters, mostly out of how impressed fans are by how far he has come since the beginning of the manga.
  • Nigorikawa is sometimes called "Ichikawa's schizophrenia" given his status as his Imaginary Friend.
  • "Yamada Shiny" for Hanzawa, thanks to their similar designs
• Fanon: The All in the Manual reveal that Ichikawa's dad is a university professor mixed with the 13-years age gap between him and his wife has lead to a lot of fans to believe they used to be a Teacher/Student Romance before marrying.
• Fetish Retardant: There's a very vocal bunch of fans that are against any sort of fanservice in the series, because of how young the main girls are and the otherwise sweet and innocent tone of the story. Thankfully neither the manga nor the anime have too much fanservice, but it still pops up every once in a while in the extra illustrations and you can expect some backlash from this side of the fanbase every time one Male Gaze shot is added in the anime.
  • Ironically, some argued this is a type of Misaimed Fandom, given Norio Sakurai is infamous for creating Mitsudomoe.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The series has a very strong following among Latin American audiences to the point scanlations in Spanish are usually released merely three or four hours after the release of the original chapter.
• Growing the Beard: The early chapters received mixed reactions, with some finding them fairly enjoyable and sweet and others being turned off by Ichikawa's Chuunibyou antics and dismissed the series as another Wish-Fulfillment Romantic Comedy. The reception became much better around Karte 15 once he dropped his "desire" to kill Anna and started focusing more on Character Development and the sweet interactions between them. What really settled it as a great series among readers however were Karte 42-43, where the series started both exploring the insecurities of the main pair and subverting usual Romcom tendencies.
• Ho Yay:
  • More than a few fans have noted that Nigorikawa behaves less like a conscience to Ichikawa and more like a lover, with Ichikawa constantly imagining him posing for him, being shirtless, sleeping with him, and the way he was close to his face in Karte 84 almost looking like he was about to kiss him. Granted, Nigorikawa is not real, but it is still Ichikawa who is imagining all of that.
  • Adachi seems....a bit too interesed in Ichikawa's thighs at the beginning of Episode 23 and in his penis size in Karte 109/Episode 24.
  • The girls get their fair share of Les Yay as well. In particular, Kobayashi is treated like Yamada's "boyfriend" to the point that when Hanzawa shows up and it's revealed that her and Kobayashi were friends in elementary, she's treated as Kobayashi's "Ex." Speaking of Hanzawa YURIne, she gets jealous when Yamada calls Kankan "Kanna" and later blushes heavily when Yamada gets a bit too close and whispers in her ear about love.
• I Knew It!:
  • The fanbase correctly guessed that Karte 127 would result in Ichikawa and Yamada’s first kiss after Ichikawa decided to re-write his sister’s song last chapter. A lot of fans also predicted that the re-write would include his own confession in addition to Yamada's.
  • Many fans guessed that the condom was just leftover from the house left by the last residents before Nico got it, rather than any of the main characters a while before Karte 139 reveals it.
  • The moment Ichikawa made it his goal to keep Yamada from saying "sorry" on their date starting from Karte 137, fans made a guess that he would initiate a kiss to keep her from saying it. Come Karte 140, and that prediction came true!
• Informed Wrongness: Moeko's Boyfriend Bluff in Karte 68/Episode 15 is condemned by everyone in-universe as a plan destined to fail that only served to make everyone uncomfortable. But given that neither Ichikawa nor Moeko knew how Sanae was gonna react to Ichikawa, that she is known outside of her house for being strict and Yamada didn't tell her mother that a boy was coming, it’s very hard to blame the two for coming with a lie on the spot.
• Jerkass Woobie: Some viewers admitted feeling sorry for Haruya, while his insistence on Yamada despite her obvious negatives (including forcing her arm to get her LINE) and playing with the other girl's emotions he isn't interested in makes him hardly a great guy. He's also clearly just a kid experiencing his first crush and having absolutely no clue how to deal with it in a non-superficial way and is commonly devastated every time he seems to realize how far he's from getting closer with Yamada...only for him to try it again in his next appearance. This is also the way Ichikawa sees him in-universe (at least in the manga); he doesn't like him in the slightest but can't help but feel sorry for him.
• Memetic Bystander: Some fans noticed that the fat guy that pushes Anna and Kyōtarō together in the elevator in Karte 26 look identical to the guy that pushes them together in the train in Karte 81. This has led to the common joke he's actually a secret Romantic Wingman who's helping them get together without them noticing him.
• Memetic Loser: Kobayashi is constantly mocked by the fanbase for how clueless she is about Ichikawa/Yamada and the situations regarding them happening around her, to the point where the hypothetical scenario of her figuring it out by their wedding is commonly brought up. Not helped by early chapters having Ichikawa refer to her as “Yamada's boyfriend” in his mind, leading to some jokes about how the whole series is about Yamada cheating on Kobayashi behind her back. The fact that once Ichikawa and Yamada start dating they keep it a Secret Relationship, and that their Secret Keepers are particularly careful to not let her know, it only makes it look more like "cheating" to some fans.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "X is the Danger to my heart(s)".
  • "Kobayashi will find out at the wedding" ^note  As noted in Memetic Loser, Kobayashi's obliviousness to Ichikawa and Yamada's relationship compared to everyone else is so thoroughly mocked by the fanbase that it's popular to say that the couple's wedding is the day she'll find out.
  • "Yamada A. -> Panda!" ^note  Fans have adopted Kanna/Kankan and Yamada's brief naming routine from episode 22.
• Memetic Psychopath: Yamada's Clingy Jealous Girl's tendencies towards Kyōtarō mixed with her pulling a Death Glare at least once every 5 chapters has led to some fans playfully painting her as a blatant Yandere who will kill any girl that even dares to be close to Kyōtarō even if it's from her own family or friends, with common jokes that she was the true tortured soul with murderous impulses all along that Kyōtarō believed himself to be.
  Yamada: Teehee! Well? Can you see what's inside my mind?
  Ichikawa: No. After all, you haven't murdered anyone. (regarding his reference books on the mindset of murderers)
  Yamada: You don't know that~. I might have a dark side.
• Moe: In-universe, Ichikawa often compares the girl's interactions to a Moe anime, and mentally comments on the peaceful atmosphere they bring. The fanbase itself generally agrees with him.
  • Fans are unashamedly fond of Yamada's cheerful personality, quirkiness, and her wide variety of expressions throughout the manga.
  • Ichikawa, believe or not. There's fanart that makes him out to look conventionally cuter than how he appears in the series. Aside from that, some would tell you he's already adorable enough as is.
  • Kobayashi. Her stature, earnestness, cartoonish expressions and carefree obliviousness make her endearing.
• Narm Charm:
  • Ichikawa has the usual obliviousness to love you expect from a romcom protagonist while Yamada's attraction to him is very blatant. But it averts coming up as silly given how we are constantly shown Ichikawa's thought process and that he commonly catches the hints but prefers to handwave them as something else to avert himself from getting hurt because of his insecurities, so he comes up more as The Woobie than a clueless idiot who can't catch a hint.
  • In Karte 43/Episode 9, Ichikawa compares his misreading of Yamada's intentions as her using him as a tool with him dismissing a console he wanted as a kid as trash because his parents couldn't buy it. Sounds like a very silly comparison on paper, but it manages to be very heartfelt in the context of the chapter. Especially given Ichikawa's poor social skills, it would probably make it easier for him to relate such a strong emotion with video games.
  • Karte 84/Episode 18. The idea of Kyōtarō imagining a character from the Manga Within a Manga telling him he admires him before giving the speech sounds out of context like Kyōtarō went insane out of pressure or even that he's Character Shilling himself by imagining his favorite character telling him he's awesome. In the context of the story, Nigorikawa represents Kyōtarō's self-esteem telling him that he - not his teacher, sister, or even Yamada - is the person who believes in him the most leading it to be one of the most heartwarming moments of the manga.
  • The anime-only sequence in Episode 23 where he gives a "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Adachi calling his feelings for Yamada shallow is a bit silly, considering he’s screaming such a long speech in the middle of the rain during a game of Mock Calvary, and for some it's even a bit out of character for Ichikawa to talk so openly about his feelings. But that doesn't stop it from being an awesome moment.
  • Moeko and Yamada's fight in Karte 133. It comes out of nowhere; the arguments are over relatively small things, to the point of being downright petty on both sides. But as a lot of fans have pointed out, that makes it feel exactly like a discussion two middle schoolers would have over nothing in the middle of a stressful week. It also helps that we have come to know both characters by now, so we already know the true reasons they are upset.
• Never Live It Down:
  • Nanjou's first appearance had him taking Yamada's arm to force her to give him his LINE account. In his later appearances, while still a Slimeball, he's portrayed much more positively, being more of a harmless but annoying Hopeless Suitor who, despite being incapable of properly expressing it, has a sincere crush on her. By that time however, many fans had a hard time feeling any sympathy for him for the way he behaved in his first appearance. The anime went with it and gave him an extra scene of him being much more openly antagonistic.
  • Ichikawa himself, has yet to live down that he wanted to "murder" Yamada in the first chapters from the standpoint of some of the series critics. This can be seen as a case of Values Dissonance, as a lot of Ichikawa's critics tend to be Western viewers who are unaware that he was meant to be a Chuunibyou.
• No Yay: The 19-years old Nico Kouda being among the people attracted to Yamada (who is 14 years old) can generate this reaction to some readers. Funnily enough, the relationship is also seen as No Yay in-universe but not for the age gap as much as Ichikawa being paranoid she could be an obsessed Yandere.
• Older Than They Think: Chihiro and Yurine were originally characters from an unrelated 2015 one-shot gag manga called "With Her Eyes Half-Open", preceding the manga's existence for 3 years.
• One True Pairing: You will have a hard time finding anyone in the fanbase shipping Ichikawa and Yamada with anyone else but each other. Unsurprising, given that one of the most common praises towards the series is how well it builds up the romance, the lack of any Romantic False Lead, and how their relationship is portrayed as not only very healthy but also making the two improve as people as the series goes along. This also applies to some manga communities away from the main fanbase like r/Manga, where it’s almost seen as a Sacred Cow.
• Ron the Death Eater: Some viewers took Ichikawa's Chuunibyou mentality much more seriously than it was meant to be and were under the impression that he was actually a guy with murderous impulses that simply stopped once he fell in love with Yamada. In-universe it's very clear his antics are nothing but a defense mechanism to avert himself from getting hurt and are mostly all in his head, not to mention that his actions since the very first chapter completely contradict his thoughts (making a long monologue about how much he would like to murder Yamada before giving her his box cutter to help her with her assignment) showing he was never a bad guy in the first place as much as someone trying to deal with his Freakiness Shame in his own way.
• Salvaged Story:
  • While the first season was well received and universally seen as a great adaptation, some fans of the manga expressed disappointment at how little of the Bonus Material was adapted. As the fandom tends to agree, a lot of the Bonus Material is just as important in the development of the story as the main chapters. Then came an annoucement on October 2023 that some of the missing extra material would be adapted into a spin-off called "Twi-Yaba".
  • "Twi-Yaba" and the second season gave the characters more exaggerated expressions after fans expressed disappointment that the first season downplayed the more humorous expressions of the manga.
• Slow-Paced Beginning: The early chapters involve the very first encounters between the two main characters while being almost complete strangers. It takes a while for the two to become friends let alone start interacting with each other regularly.
• Starboarding:
  • For some strange reason, there's a lot of fanart where Kana's The Gadfly antics are flanderized into being Kyōtarō's Incest-ant Admirer.
  • While the manga has seemingly been firm on Ship Sinking the Kana/Jin pairing, that doesn't stop some fans from believing the latter still has a crush on the former.
  • Some fans like the idea of Moeko developing a crush on Ichikawa, without wanting to separate the One True Pairing Ichikawa/Yamada.
• Tainted by the Preview: Fans initially weren’t too pleased with the first key visual image of the anime. Both due to being a different art style from the manga and the image being clipped near Yamada’s skirt. Reception became much warmer after following previews and the anime itself coming out.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: While the anime has been praised as a great adaptation, it has also received some minor criticisms from fans who feel it downplays/omits the more exaggerated expressions and comedic elements of the manga at times. Such as Yamada’s Death Glare or part of her dog Wantarou's introduction. The second season however gave the characters more instances with goofier expressions.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Ichikawa's parents rarely get any focus, in contrast to Yamada's relationship with her family being emphasized in multiple chapters. It's been alluded that Ichikawa is somewhat distant towards his father, and both the manga and the Light Novel paint the two as a case of Parents as People. But those potential conflicts are only mentioned as a backdrop to other, different of Ichikawa's issues.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Ichikawa gives up on trying to "kill" Yamada rather early on in the story to the point it could be considered Early-Installment Weirdness rather than what seemed to be the premise at some point. Justified in that Ichikawa was never a bad person in the first place and part of his Character Development is related to him figuring that out, but you will still find some viewers who expected or wished that the series explored his Chuunibyou personality a while longer. Some fans even argue that although it probably wouldn't be as good, a Gag Series focused on a Chuunibyou trying to kill the most popular girl in class could have been a perfectly fun series in his own right.
  • The "Primary Color" A Day in the Limelight extra in Volume 9. Instead of writing a story with the titular Ensemble Dark Horses, is mostly just two pages dedicated to Ship Sinking the Kana/Jin pairing and little else. Futhermore, some fans were disappointed it only focused on Kana and Momo, as some fans were hoping it will flesh out Aoton and Hinako, who so far hadn't got much characterization on their own.
  • Karte 132 ends with Yamada and Ichikawa deciding to play detectives to find out who among their friends brought the condom, some fans felt that our two main characters playing a variation of the whodunnit could have being a fun setup for the next couple of chapters. Then Karte 133 pulls a Halfway Plot Switch focusing on Moeko and Yamada having a fight and the mystery is forgotten before Karte 139 anti-climatically reveals it fell from a drawer that Nico had in her beach house.
• Unconvincingly Unpopular Character: Kana Ichikawa is a cheerful, attractive, intelligent, social and easygoing Nice Girl who is also the singer and guitarist of a band and studies at one of the most prestigious private universities in Japan. Despite all of that, she's somehow never gotten a date.
• Unexpected Character: Who would have expected Yurine Hanzawa, a character from an obscure one-shot by Norio Sakurai that was almost impossible to find online ^note In fact, the one-shot only became more openly available online and got scanlations after Yurine's debut in The Dangers In My Heart to appear into the manga?
• Unfortunate Character Design: The author, Norio Sakurai, previously did Mitsudomoe. In that manga, the elementary schoolers were drawn with wide faces and low-down eyes, and older characters (even older sixth graders like Miyashita) had taller, thinner faces with higher, proportionally smaller eyes to indicate their growth. But in The Dangers in My Heart, Sakurai gives Yamada the exact same facial structure as Mitsuba Marui, except now it's stuck atop an absurdly tall, wide, curvy body that seems like it's twice as big as it should be. She comes off as an oversized baby rather than a Statuesque Stunner teenager. Later chapters avert this thanks to Art Evolution, and the anime also gives her more realistic proportions from the beginning.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: The second opening, "Boku Wa..." by Atarayo immediately achieved acclaim for the huge bump in visuals thanks in part to director Tetsurou Araki and assistance from WIT Studio. Especially Ichikawa and Yamada's dance sequence whilst surrounded by the rest of the school.
• The Woobie: Both of our leads fall into this.
  • Ichikawa is a Chuunibyou who believes himself to be a dangerous individual holding back murderous impulses. In reality, he's a deeply insecure Nice Guy who uses this supposed dangerous nature as a defense mechanism to feel better about his Shrinking Violet nature, his interest in murder psychology, and his failure to enter the middle school he wanted with his old friends. Even when he does become more social, he still constantly thinks his gestures towards Yamada aren't good enough, fears that her just being close to him could damage her image and dismisses any of the signs that she's starting to fall in love with him from fear that he's gonna get hurt in the process for believing something like that could happen.
  • Yamada is a cheerful Statuesque Stunner model who's deeply admired and lusted by pretty much everyone in their school (and some people outside of it). But that hides that she's a deeply insecure girl who feels like a burden towards the people around her for feeling she's not good enough at anything and is constantly worried that her loved ones would start resenting her because of her own failures or being a bother. She's also less than happy for her Dude Magnet status given it tends to attract people who only see her as more of a lust object than a person and are constantly objectifying her.
  • Adachi falls into this in Karte 103-106/Episode 23. After finally realizing what truly is going on between Ichikawa and Yamada, he challenges him to be the Rider in the game of the Mock Calvary Battle, being deeply conflicted between his feelings for Yamada and the friendship he has formed with Ichikawa. He feels particularly betrayed once he realizes that Ichikawa got in the way of any progress between him and Yamada, but admits he can't hate him because he knows he's a good guy and is quite aware he lost any chances with Yamada already. He thankfully returns to his usual self by the end of the arc.
  • As of Karte 134, Moeko is revealed to be secretly jealous of Yamada because she believes she has achieved the things she wanted (a recommendation to a good school and a boyfriend) in an easier way. She has also grown frustrated over her lowering grades, her family having no faith in her, and her lack of success in getting a boyfriend, which has translated into self-loathing.