Adachi and Shimamura Review: A Sweet GL That Chooses Feelings Over Payoff

I went into Adachi and Shimamura completely blind. All I knew was that it was a GL.

And if I’m being real? GL and yuri can be a frustrating category sometimes. Not because I don’t enjoy them — I absolutely do — but because finding one that feels emotionally satisfying, non-toxic, and genuinely recommendable can weirdly feel harder than it should.

So imagine my surprise when this series ended up being one of the softest, sweetest GL watches I’ve had in a while.

That does come with a very important warning though.

This is not a “watch two girls fall in love and date” kind of anime. This is a gay awakening anime, and whether you enjoy it probably depends on knowing that before you hit play.

What Adachi and Shimamura Is Really About

Technically, this is a story about two high school girls who skip class, hang out together, and slowly become important to each other.

But emotionally? This anime is about loneliness. It’s about drifting through life feeling disconnected and then suddenly realizing one person matters more than you expected.

And honestly, episode one kind of screamed depression vibes to me. I was PMSing when I started it, which may or may not have been a tactical error.

The pacing is quiet. The conversations are subdued. The atmosphere feels emotionally distant almost immediately, and I genuinely wasn’t sure at first if I was going to enjoy it. But the longer I watched, the more I realized that emotional drift is intentional.

Adachi and Shimamura moves slowly because the girls themselves move slowly. This is not a dramatic romance. It’s awkward, hesitant, and unsure, which honestly makes it feel surprisingly believable.

The Art Is Gorgeous

One thing that hooked me early was the art. The characters are adorable and the visuals have this soft, dreamy quality that keeps the show from ever feeling emotionally heavy or bleak.

I especially loved their eyes. This anime communicates so much emotion through tiny looks and expressions. There are lingering glances, awkward pauses, and moments where someone clearly feels something but doesn’t know how to say it.

The atmosphere carries a lot of weight too. Empty classrooms. Quiet hallways. Sunset lighting. Everything feels soft and emotionally intimate.

I also noticed something visually interesting that reminded me of Raeliana. Background classmates are often reduced to silhouettes or minimally detailed figures. At first it reminded me of how Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke’s Mansion treats background characters as almost storybook filler.

But here, I think it serves a different purpose. The world feels emotionally filtered. People who don’t matter to Adachi or Shimamura fade into the background. That idea gets reinforced later when Shimamura refers to some classmates as “cookie-cutter friends.” Those girls literally begin to feel visually interchangeable.

That detail fascinated me. The anime doesn’t feel interested in realism as much as emotional perspective.

Adachi Is Down Catastrophically

We need to talk about Adachi, because this girl spends most of the anime fighting for her life against her own feelings and it is hilarious.

Adachi doesn’t flirt like a normal romance protagonist. She spirals. Hard.

There’s an infamous moment where she says it’s easier to smell Shimamura if she lays closer to her and I nearly lost it. Even better, Shimamura immediately assumes:

“Wait… do I smell bad?”

And Adachi basically responds:

“Why would I want to smell that?”

Girl what are we doing 😭

That scene perfectly sums up their chemistry. It’s intimate, awkward, weirdly sweet, and painfully human. Adachi’s attraction feels raw because she isn’t emotionally smooth about it.

She dreams about kissing Shimamura and insists it means nothing. She invents bizarre hypothetical excuses for kissing her. At one point she basically argues:

“I’m not into girls, I just want to be at the top of her priority list.”

Ma’am. Respectfully. Please be serious.

But that internal denial is exactly what makes the anime work. This isn’t romance through dramatic declarations. It’s romance through realization.

Shimamura Is Harder To Read — And That’s Interesting

What surprised me is that I felt like I understood Adachi far more than Shimamura.

Adachi’s emotions are loud. Shimamura’s are quieter. She openly admits she can be detached, inattentive, and emotionally distant, and honestly? I loved that self-awareness. Characters who recognize their own flaws always interest me.

I also got the feeling there may be some deeper emotional baggage or family-related issues influencing her behavior. The series hints at something there without fully diving into it.

One of my favorite moments involved Shimamura meeting Adachi’s mother. There’s this funny but quietly emotional sauna scene where Shimamura realizes Adachi’s mom is kind of failing her and basically pressures her into promising to be a better mother for a day.

Then, Adachi later comments that her mom acted weirdly nice, which made me laugh, but it also shows something important. Shimamura notices more than she lets on. She may seem emotionally cold, but she isn’t emotionally empty.

Sweet, Wholesome… and Occasionally Spicy?

This anime is overwhelmingly wholesome. Like genuinely sweet. There were multiple squealing “awwww” moments for me.

But, I also need to warn people that Adachi occasionally goes from puppy-love to unexpected spicy thoughts with zero warning. One minute we’re doing wholesome emotional blooming, and the next she’s wondering what she’d think if Shimamura were naked and I’m sitting there like:

Hello??? Where did that come from??

To be clear, this is not an ecchi series. There’s barely any fan service. Most of it comes from a side character whose chest gets commented on occasionally, and that’s basically it. Which honestly makes the few risqué thoughts stand out even more.

The Weird Alien Child

Okay, we need to talk about the alien girl.

What was that 😭

I never fully understood why she was there. She’s cute, funny, philosophical, and drops random wisdom nuggets, but she also feels like she wandered in from a completely different anime.

I didn’t hate her. But I definitely spent part of the series asking: “Why is this tiny astronaut child here?”

What May Frustrate Some Viewers

The biggest thing to understand is pacing.

I almost bounced off episode one. Not because it was bad — because I didn’t understand its wavelength yet. If you go in blind expecting romance progression, this might frustrate you.

And yes, there’s even a tiny fake-out where it briefly looks like we might be doing love triangle drama. Thankfully that doesn’t last long.

My biggest complaint honestly is simple: I wanted more.

Not because the ending felt incomplete. It didn’t. You do get a full emotional story and you are not left hanging.

I just wanted to see the relationship bloom a little further. Maybe that wasn’t the point, but I still wanted it.

Final Verdict: Stream or Skip?

Stream it.

Just calibrate your expectations first.

If you want dramatic romance, heavy spice, or watching an established couple date and develop, this is probably not your series.

But if you want:

• slow burn
• wholesome GL
• emotional awakening
• beautiful art
• soft chemistry
• non-toxic romance
• quiet yearning

Then Adachi and Shimamura is absolutely worth your time.

For me, this was a 7/10. Not perfect. Not fully satisfying romantically. But sweet, sincere, and surprisingly hard not to root for.

And honestly? I’m just happy I finally found a GL I can recommend without needing a disclaimer warning.