A kid finds a girl in a cocoon and suddenly he's fighting monsters he doesn't understand with powers he doesn't have. The show treats this like a real romance buried under apocalypse instead of sci-fi spectacle dressed up as one. Takeru stays awkward and uncertain even when he's transforming, which means every victory feels like luck rather than destiny. The comedy never stops, even during the monster fights, the show remembers that watching a high school boy panic around a naked alien girl is funnier than it has any right to be. It collapses under its own ambition by episode ten, trying to answer questions it should have left alone. What saves it is that Takeru and Hikari's confusion feels real enough that you believe it anyway.
Takeru Takemoto is an ordinary high school student who works part time delivering by bike. On one delivery a strange light passes him and he ends up in a forest, where he finds a beautiful girl named Hikari climbing out of a glowing cocoon. He is flustered by the fact that she is naked, and then a monster appears and attacks them both. Before Takeru understands anything, he and Hikari show the power of their other selves. What follows are calm days spent with Hikari and another mysterious girl, Akari, along with his childhood friend Mari Nishino and his classmates, while the questions of who the two girls are and why they came to Earth hang over everything. The story mixes comedy, drama, romance and science fiction.
Streaming This Ugly Yet Beautiful World legally, as of the last catalog refresh. Availability changes by region.
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