The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten is a new romantic comedy that will air during the winter anime season of 2023. Mahiru and Amane are neighbors and schoolmates who never spoke until Amane offered Mahiru an umbrella while she sat alone in the rain. Mahiru cooked a meal for Amane in return for his kindness, but after seeing how filthy his apartment was, he ended up cleaning it. With each episode, the two's romantic feelings for each other become more apparent as they spend more time together.
Mahiru might cause some viewers to think of Fruits Basket's Yuki Sohma. Like Mahiru, Yuki found it difficult to take the accolades he received from his peers because being elevated to such a position only made him feel more alone. At school, he was regarded as a prince, but the reality was very different from what his classmates believed. Because Yuki and Mahiru were neglected by their families as children, they are now independent yet lonely young adults who yearn for deep connections but keep strangers at a distance. However, just like Yuki, Mahiru discovered Amane, with whom she could be herself, and their budding romance is eerily similar to that of Yuki and Machi.
Mahiru & Yuki Are Uncomfortable With How Everyone Sees Them
Because Mahiru consistently achieves the highest grades in her class, her peers at school refer to her as a "angel." She chastises Amane for calling her that and declares that she detests the moniker. It's obvious that Mahiru is inherently lonely despite how often her classmates compliment her. I'm spoiled by The Angel Next Door. Although the full extent of Rotten's complex backstory is currently unknown, it has been strongly implied that she didn't have a good upbringing or a strong relationship with her parents.
In Fruits Basket, Yuki's classmates refer to him as a prince. He even has his own fan club, "The Prince Yuki Fan Club," -- basically a group of fangirls who formed a parasocial relationship with an unrealistic idea of who Yuki is as a person without making any real effort to get to know him. They follow him around school, fawn over him and harass any other girl who gets between them and Yuki. However, Yuki expressed how uncomfortable this makes him feel, even if he never outwardly complained about it. Even though everyone else admires and respects him at school, their perceptions of him as a prince-like figure couldn't be further from the truth. In reality, Yuki is extremely lonely and barely understood who he was for most of the series, characterized by his messy bedroom and lack of personal style.
Mahiru has a similar experience in The Angel Next Door. She's the most popular girl in school, and nearly all male students have tried hitting on her at some point. Her peers view her as an angel and nicknamed her as such. She's at the top of her class and excels in athletics. Mahiru is always willing to help out her peers and makes all her achievements seem like no big deal. However, she's always working hard behind the scenes and is often harder on herself than she needs to be. Like Yuki, Mahiru hates others' perception of her because it couldn't be further from the truth. Although everyone at school wants to get close to her, Mahiru keeps them at a distance and often obscures details about her life to prevent others from discovering the truth. However, this behavior only contributes to everyone else putting her on a pedestal.
Despite the fact that Mahiru and Yuki seem ideal to their peers, they both struggle with loneliness and low self-esteem. Both of them have tragic pasts that most of their peers will never comprehend. While Yuki's mother sold him to Akito without taking into account the abuse he would receive at the hands of the family head, Mahiru's parents essentially abandoned her. They hardly had any comprehension of what it was like to develop deep relationships with others, as did the majority of their peers.
For example, Mahiru was never referred to by her given name. Her parents certainly didn't, much less her friends; hence why she was so flustered when Amane and his mother did so. They both wanted a relationship where they could truly be themselves and offer the same support they'd receive. Luckily, both Yuki and Mahiru received it in their respective series.
Yuki and Machi's Relationship is Very Similar to Mahiru and Amane's
Mahiru might cause some viewers to think of Fruits Basket's Yuki Sohma. Like Mahiru, Yuki found it difficult to take the accolades he received from his peers because being elevated to such a position only made him feel more alone. At school, he was regarded as a prince, but the reality was very different from what his classmates believed. Because Yuki and Mahiru were neglected by their families as children, they are now independent yet lonely young adults who yearn for deep connections but keep strangers at a distance. However, just like Yuki, Mahiru discovered Amane, with whom she could be herself, and their budding romance is eerily similar to that of Yuki and Machi.
Machi and Yuki have a similar relationship in Fruits Basket. Machi was the first to stand up to Yuki's legion of fangirls and recognized that he was probably lonelier than he'd ever let on. She never put him on such an isolating pedestal as his peers did, seeing Yuki for who he really was. Due to this, Machi was the first person with whom Yuki really tried initiating a connection.
It's similar to the relationship between Mahiru and Amane in The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten. Mahiru, like Yuki, was tired of being put on a pedestal because it isolated her from her peers. Amane was the first person who saw her without rose-colored glasses and accepted her for who she was. Similarly, Yuki expressed gratitude in Fruits Basket for Machi never putting him on a pedestal and still caring about him despite not living up to everyone else's lofty expectations.
