Uragiri wa Boku no Namae wo Shitteiru 1 & 2: “I Will Not Betray You”
…The way that line was delivered — IT WAS WAY TOO NORMAL!
Miken: The title of this series sure is a mouthful, which is why I’m going to go by how Crunchyroll and everyone else seems to shorten it and simply call it Uraboku. Still, with a title that translates to “Betrayal Knows My Name” and the pair of pretty boys on the promo art, I have a feeling that most people are skipping out on this. That’s a shame though, because while it does have the general air of awkwardness that most shows with boys-love tones has, it really isn’t half bad. Sure, it’s not going to win any awards soon, but it was much easier to watch two episodes of this than watch a single episode of K-ON!! Of course, that’s a personal bias since I reach my daily limit of “fuwa fuwa” within five minutes on that show.
Though most people who say this are quite suspicious and usually traitorous...
*Ahem* Anyways, back to Uraboku — It stars a boy named Yuki who apparently was a girl in his past life and is thus experiencing visions of said past life, who was madly in love with a guy who just so happens to at least be a lookalike of the guy who saves his (current) life by the end of episode one.
I suppose that description wasn’t very flattering — in fact, it probably sounded like a really cheesy setup for one of those adventure/action-based Shoujo series where they always have that girl who probably has some powers of her own but she doesn’t use them (well), and she’s always fawning over a guy who doesn’t talk much and is very very protective of her, and said heroine is invariably saved at least once an episode by the guy. In fact, that sounds sorta like Vampire Knight, and if they add a second love interest to make it a triangle (with a very obvious winner), then it’d sound almost exactly like Vampire Knight.
Despite the recipe for disaster, I still have faith in this series. It’s managed to play its cards well enough to show that it isn’t heading in the direction of a trainwreck just yet. Sure, it’s got all the tropes of a horribly predictable series, but from the first two episodes, it seems that I still have enough faith left in J.C. staff to pull this off at least to some degree.
Speaking of J.C. Staff…either Crunchyroll’s streaming quality is much lower for this series or J.C. Staff just has a smaller budget for it. Comparing it to the studio’s other show this season (Kaichou was Maid-sama), it’s pretty obvious that Maid-sama gets the lion’s share of the budget. The art in Uraboku varies widely, with some angles making faces look just plain weird. It’s still looks nice overall, but it’s less than I’d expect from this studio. Of course, the recently-finished To Aru Kagaku no Railgun probably did set the bar too high, considering that was a big show that could appeal to a number of otaku while Uraboku is most definitely meant for a niche group of viewers. The “messier” looking style doesn’t help much either.
Episode 1 Rating: 5.8/10
Episode 2 Rating 6.2/10
Relatively low ratings from me, but there’s still some promise, which is why it isn’t lower.
[Now Minnie can stop sharpening that axe she was going to use to threaten me to post...>_>;;
Minnie: 
Miken: STOP INVADING MY POSTS LIKE THAT, IT'S CREEPY D:]
Tags: boy is really a girl but still a boy, really long name, suspicious declarations, Uraboku
