Our Dating Story: The Experienced You and The Inexperienced Me
経験済みなキミと、 経験ゼロなオレが、 お付き合いする話。 (Keikenzumi na Kimi to, Keiken Zero na Ore ga, Otsukiai suru Hanashi.)
- Romance
- School
- Episodes
- 12
- Duration
- 23 min per ep
- Aired
- Oct 6, 2023 to Dec 22, 2023
- Status
- Finished Airing
Synopsis
Ryuuto Kashima is quiet, withdrawn, and convinced that someone like the popular Runa Shirakawa belongs firmly in the realm of daydreams. That changes after he loses a bet with his friends and is pushed into confessing to her—only for Runa to accept, turning his expectations on their head and landing him in a relationship he never imagined he’d have.
Dating Runa quickly proves daunting for Ryuuto, and he asks to keep their relationship limited to a small circle of trusted friends. The secrecy brings its own complications, and as misunderstandings pile up, Ryuuto’s lingering insecurities from past experiences begin to surface. Just as things start to settle, his middle school crush Maria Kurose transfers into his class, while harsh rumors about Runa spread through the school, forcing Ryuuto to take rash steps to protect her.
Otaku Consensus
Our Dating Story lands as a divisive but sincere school romance: viewers who respond to its wholesome couple-first beats often find more emotional generosity here than the provocative title suggests. Hideaki Ooba’s direction and Hiroko Fukuda’s series composition work best when the show slows down into insecurity, reputation, and communication, while the most common criticism is that its love-triangle and rumor material can feel contrived or uncomfortable rather than dramatically earned.
Why You Should Watch
Watch this if you want a romance that treats dating as an awkward learning process rather than a reward saved for the finale. It scratches a similar itch to My Dress-Up Darling’s popular-girl/quiet-boy social contrast and Horimiya’s interest in what happens after feelings become mutual, but with a more anxious focus on reputation, sexual double standards, and the pressure of being judged by classmates. The appeal is not high-concept plotting; it is the steady accumulation of small relationship negotiations, especially when Ryuuto’s insecurity collides with Runa’s more socially experienced worldview. If you like school romances where the drama comes from communication gaps, jealousy, and public perception rather than supernatural hooks or comedy skits, this is the version built for you.
Key Characters
- RRyuuto Kashima
Ryuuto is interesting less as a wish-fulfillment lead than as a boy whose low self-image makes even good news feel like something he has to survive.
- RRuna Shirakawa
Runa’s gyaru image is the show’s pressure point, because fan discussion often centers on how the series contrasts her reputation with her need to be taken seriously as a girlfriend.
- MMaria Kurose
Maria functions as the series’ destabilizer, bringing the love-triangle tag into focus by forcing older feelings and current trust to occupy the same classroom.
What Makes It Stand Out
- 1
The anime is a single-cour ENGI production that aired from October 6 to December 22, 2023, giving the romance a compact 12-episode structure rather than a long slow-burn format.
- 2
AniList’s tag spread captures its unusual mix clearly: Heterosexual at 92%, Gyaru at 82%, Love Triangle at 74%, Coming of Age at 68%, plus Airsoft at 48% and Video Games at 33%. That combination places it closer to a socially specific teen romance than a pure confession comedy.
- 3
The series’ most discussed dramatic material is not the initial pairing but the reputational fallout around Runa and the arrival of Maria, which shifts the show from wish-fulfillment fantasy into a test of trust and insecurity.
- 4
Its reception is notably consistent across major databases: MAL lists it at 6.75 from 108,212 votes, while AniList sits at 67/100 with 1,630 favourites, reflecting a romance that found a loyal audience without becoming a consensus hit.
- 5
Critical response repeatedly splits along tonal lines: positive takes highlight the unexpectedly wholesome and heart-warming relationship moments, while negative takes object to the distressing or awkward plot elements used to generate drama.
Fun Facts & Trivia
- Fun fact 1
- The anime adapts an original story by Makiko Nagaoka, with original character designs credited to magako and animation character designs handled by Yousuke Itou.
- Fun fact 2
- Haruka Miyada served in two visual-world roles, credited for both art direction and art design, while Aiko Yamagami handled the color design.
- Fun fact 3
- The core series staff pairs director Hideaki Ooba with series composition writer Hiroko Fukuda, making the adaptation’s romantic pacing and episode structure a defined part of its production identity.
- Fun fact 4
- The show’s full Japanese title, Keikenzumi na Kimi to, Keiken Zero na Ore ga, Otsukiai suru Hanashi., foregrounds the experience gap so directly that the English title is unusually close in meaning rather than a loose localization.
- Fun fact 5
- Despite ranking outside MAL’s upper tier at #6270, it reached a relatively high popularity position of #1200, showing that it was widely sampled even as viewers remained split on its execution.
Studios
- ENGI
