Chitose-kun wa Ramune Bin no Naka

Saku Chitose appears to lead an enviable high school life. Extraordinarily charismatic, tremendously confident, and effortlessly friendly, he is the kind of person others naturally look up to. But his popularity carries its own burdens; not everyone views him kindly, and whispers of cynicism follow wherever he shines too brightly. To Saku, living an ugly life is worse than death—a belief that drives his need to maintain his perfect reputation.

At the start of his second year, Saku's homeroom teacher asks him to help bring back a classmate who has stopped attending school. Initially hoping to resolve the matter quickly, Saku finds out that the shut-in Kenta Yamazaki harbors open contempt for him and everything he represents. A simple favor instead exposes the distance between those who live within the social light and those who were never given a chance to shine.

Surrounded by the expectant gazes of those who both admire and despise him, Saku treads the delicate line between sincerity and performance—searching for what it truly means to live beautifully in a world that sees only the surface.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Chitose, Saku Main

Sakata, Shougo Japanese

Nanase, Yuzuki Main

Hasegawa, Ikumi Japanese

Hiiragi, Yuuko Main

Iwami, Manaka Japanese

Nishino, Asuka Main

Anzai, Chika Japanese

Aomi, Haru Main

Ookubo, Rumi Japanese

Uchida, Yua Main

Youmiya, Hina Japanese

Mizushino, Kazuki Supporting

Toki, Shunichi Japanese

Yamazaki, Kenta Supporting

Miyazaki, Masaya Japanese

Misaki-sensei Supporting

Hikasa, Youko Japanese

Cock-a-doodle-doo Supporting

Nagaoka, Ryuuho Japanese

Iizuka, Aya Producer

Motonaga, Satoshi Producer

Higashi, Mao Producer

Arimizu, Soujirou Producer

Reviews

Oct 22, 2025

Avroraa

Recommended

Preliminary (3/13 eps)

This anime flips the usual high school protagonist formula on its head and I kinda love it for that.

Instead of the typical shy, introverted loner who magically attracts a harem by being mysterious and passive, we get Chitose: a confident, popular, socially skilled guy who’s already at the top of the food chain. And honestly? It’s refreshing.

I get why some people don’t vibe with it.. it’s hard to self-insert when the MC isn’t a reflection of your awkward teenage self. But that’s kind of the point. Not every story needs to be a mirror. Sometimes it’s fun to step into someone else’s shoes, even if ... they’re designer sneakers and not worn-out introvert slippers.

If you’re hating on this show just because you “can’t relate,” maybe take a breath and let fiction be fiction. Not every anime has to cater to your comfort zone. Chill, enjoy the ride, and stop trying to turn every narrative into a therapy session.

It’s a different flavor of high school drama and honestly, it’s a taste worth trying.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Oct 22, 2025

Sukoshi_YT

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (3/13 eps)

It's so plainly obvious that the author wanted to divert from the usual herd of 'loser high school boy who gains a harem and friends throughout the series,' and there's nothing wrong with that, inherently anyway. This show tries so hard to convince you that it's 'realistic' and has 'down-to-earth and self-aware characters', which will stray it from the rest with how unique it is. But quickly unintentionally tosses aside that half assed foundation. By opening the show with bland and uninspiring characters. I'm going to compare Chitose Ramune to Oregairu a bit here, because I personally believe Oregairu does almost everything better. By far ... the worst thing about this show is the characters, and it's not even close. Saku Chitose, the main character of the show, is obviously meant to be a parallel to the hikkikomori MC trope. So as you expect, he is written to be a perfect chad. He gets all the girls, is one of the most popular kids in the school, he's good-looking, and even tall. Is this inherently a bad thing? Absolutely not. Can you make a good, well-written character with these tropes? Absolutely. But the author sure as hell did not with Saku. He's egotistical and just annoying overall. The Author apparently didn't think that immediately establishing your main character as a narcissistic jagoff was going to put off a lot of viewers. He's constantly sucking himself off. It's as if the author was constantly switching him between being humble and just a flat-out narcissist. It's like he didn't know what archetype he wanted him to be in. Now, is he constantly flaunting his popularity with other people as a gotcha? No. But he does brag about it a lot, which does nothing but make him come off as an annoying asshole. And it doesn't help that he does it in his monologues, too. To give the author some credit, I did like what he was trying to do. By showing the perspective of the popular kid. Saku is very self-aware about this, sometimes pointing out that people are just, by design, going to hate him because he's popular, even though he never did anyone wrong. So I did like that at least.

It shouldn't come as a surprise that I have the same problem with the side characters as well. I NEVER liked the trope of 'perfect heroines'. So of course, I do not like any of these either. You wanna know how these heroines are introduced? Saku quite literally talks about how perfect they are. About how beautiful they are, which is fine obviously, no one wants ugly heroines. But it's the fact that these characters feel like damn robots; they are quite literally BY DESIGN written to be as close to flawless as possible. I kid you not, in the light novel, Saku literally monologues saying ''I guess perfect girls do exist.'' when we are introduced to Yua. You know why this is a terrible thing? Because if a character is almost flawless, that means there's little room for improvement, barely any depth. Let me compare the Oregairu main heroines for a bit. Yukino is flawless, on paper anyway. She's smart, beautiful, and elegant. But her flaws were constantly on display to specifically show the viewers that she wasn't perfect. She has a sharp tongue, and she can be a control freak. Then you have Yuigahama, who, on the outside, is a complete baddie. But just like Yukino, pretty quickly the author shoves in our face that ''This character is by design flawed.'' She can be selfish, sometimes even think about betraying her friends to get her way, etc. Chitose Ramune doesn't do that, it says ''Yeah, our main cast are practically flawless, that's about all.'' Which I find ironic, as in trying to make perfect characters, in doing so it's left with a flat and boring cast. Now I'm not gonna pretend like these are the worst characters I've seen. cause they aren't, not even close. But NONE of them stand out, and they all feel completely fake and soulless. Another thing that I forgot to mention was that the girls, at times, will just openly ride Saku's dick, feeding his ego, talking about how 'good-looking and cool' he is. which I just found so unbelievably dumb. Like, imagine your friend just randomly saying to you, ''Yeah man, you're so cool and good looking, in fact, I even like you. Please let me validate you for no reason.'' Who the hell does that?

Animation, art, and overall cinematography are very well done, as expected for studio feel. The character designs look pretty good, but nothing about their designs stands out as notably memorable. Voice acting is very well done, as anyone would expect.

To end this off, I know that the Author does actually fix a lot of the problems I listed in later volumes. So if you're someone who is on the fence about this show, then do know that it supposedly does get a lot better. But I definitely will not be putting up with a whole season or two of this abhorrent writing just to wait till it gets better. Overall, it's not a terrible show; I just don't think it's a very good one.

Recap of my overall scores.
Art - 8.5
Animation - 8
Character designs - 6
Direction - 6
Cinetography - 8
Voice Acting - 8
Characters - 5
Writing - 4

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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Oct 23, 2025

lastnameEver

Not Recommended

Funny

Preliminary (3/13 eps)

Makes a bad first impression with the opening monologue, and then continues in the same awkward fashion. The author wants to show all these socially adept and popular people talking to each other naturally, but this showing off gets in the way of the authenticity, and makes the dialogue very jarring to listen to.

The same self-awareness gets in the way of book girl, blonde girl, and plain girl, who are all upfront and honest about liking Chitose, which is apparently supposed to be a novelty. The author shoves too hard in this direction and makes them appear too cloying and desperate.

It’s a lot like ... Oregairu, except that Chiramune is contrasting itself with Oregairu, and saying that it’s giving the more truthful picture. Both are lying - but Oregairu admits that Hachiman has to change. Chitose, on the other hand, is given to us as someone to look up, and it’s up to you, the viewer (i.e. Kenta) to get up to his level, and if you think he’s wrong, “then I guess you’re just as close-minded, and fat, and unpopular in real life as Kenta is in the story”… This is the implication.

Which wouldn’t be so bad if the characters were actually realistic, but Kenta is a complete caricature of an otaku, and Chitose, for all his self-aware posing, is remarkably unaware he's a gigantic narcissist. None of his friends seem to notice this, which makes them all seem very stupid.

The author is either too much in love with himself to realize this stupidity, or is just content to clear the low bar, but other things do what Chiramune does, and even other light novels do it better. Bakemonogatari has more of a point, and is visually superior, and is symbolic, and has great metaphors. Haruhi is likeable, and is more imaginative, and is directed well, and is beautifully animated. Boogiepop comments on society without being so obnoxious about it – even Gamers! does the whole “lose weight and dress better” thing better, and it was insufferable there as well. It’s just too patronizing and also too awkward without being charming to balance it out, which is fitting in way, but not in a way where it’s nice or enjoyable to watch.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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	Poll: Best Girl! K_Abhishek - Jan 29	8 replies	by LightForest »» Feb 1, 6:58 AM
	Episode 11 where? Shiroi_Alt - Jan 30	4 replies	by Rom-Com_lover »» Jan 30, 11:31 PM
	Poll: Chitose-kun wa Ramune Bin no Naka Episode 10 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Dec 30, 2025	90 replies	by MatheusHoshino »» Jan 28, 6:37 PM
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	Poll: Chitose-kun wa Ramune Bin no Naka Episode 8 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Dec 16, 2025	53 replies	by Tennouji »» Jan 25, 4:41 AM