The following contains spoilers for Season 2 of Science Fell in Love, So I Tried to Prove It, now streaming on Crunchyroll, as well as discussion of assault.
Science Fell in Love, So I Tried to Prove It is a charming rom-com anime that returned for a second season in the Spring 2022 lineup. Ayame and Shinya continued as the stars of the show, but some secondary romances also popped up, such as Ena and Kosuke and, up to a point, Kanade and Naoya.
Naoya seemed like a great partner for Kanade at first, but Science Fell in Love's last two episodes brutally proved otherwise. Naoya was exposed as a vicious male yandere and, while this added some drama to the show, it was also a heavy-handed and excessive move for an innocent series like this to make. He could have, and should have, been handled differently for the story's sake.
Naoya's Disturbing Extremes In Science Fell In Love
Naoya went to great lengths to hide his yandere nature during most of Science Fell in Love's runtime. He tried to empathize with Kanade since they both know what it's like to face rejection for being quirky and different, but in the end he used that empathy for selfish reasons. While Kanade wanted someone to understand and accept who she was, Naoya aimed to reshape her into someone who would be perfect for his ideal dream romance. He wanted to force things, while Kanade wanted to establish a meaningful and honest connection. But that wouldn't easily happen, so when Kanade blurted out a rejection during the Saitama University festival, Naoya took action as a villain.
He assaulted Kanade by incapacitating her with a taser, then took her to a remote warehouse and bound her wrists and ankles with rope in a grim kidnapping scenario. With his thuggish minions by his side, Naoya explained himself to a terrified and confused Kanade but intended to do more than deliver a villain monologue. Naoya brutally beat one of his followers half to death when that thug made an advance on Kanade, then threatened unspeakable acts toward Kanade until Shinya arrived to buy time for the police to show up.
Kanade was freed with minimal physical harm done in the end, but she did suffer mental trauma and nearly suffered much worse. This was Science Fell in Love's darkest, most disturbing sequence by a wide margin -- and it felt wildly out of place.
Science Fell In Love Didn't Need This Plot Twist
The problem isn't just that Naoya's villainous scheme shattered Science Fell in Love's charming, innocent tone, though it certainly did that too. Naoya's actions reinforce a troubling theme in anime, where a female character ends up a hostage or threatened with assault of some sort, and needs another character -- usually a male ally -- to rescue her. Even if protagonists need moments of weakness and vulnerability, scenes like this are not something to be used lightly in anime or treated as an obligatory plot twist. Kanade had more than enough character issues without a near-miss of grievous assault. Her character arc was supposed to be less about damsels in distress and more about striving to find self-acceptance and embrace true love.
Kanade was meant to take charge of her own love life and move on from previous romantic failures, only for Naoya's extreme actions to put her in a defensive and entirely passive situation. She could hardly say or do a thing for her own sake, needing Shinya and the cops to handle it for her. That's downright insulting to Kanade's character, suggesting she really is as helpless and foolish as she views herself to be. What could have been an empowering and inspiring character arc got derailed by facing a yandere opponent she wasn't equipped to deal with. If she faced a different kind of challenge, things could have gone in a more compelling direction.
Not only did Naoya's extreme nature ruin Season 2's mood and create distressing drama the story didn't need, it stunted Kanade's growth as a character by robbing her of a chance to take matters into her own hands. Kanade needs to face and overcome appropriate challenges to grow, and if she can better herself as a person in so doing, all is well. If Naoya had been a milder version of his actual self, such as being a stubborn jerk instead of being a total felon, he would have better suited Science Fell in Love's tame standards for drama while still fulfilling his purpose.
The plot called for a villainous Naoya to challenge Kanade, but that's not an excuse to play the super-predator card and turn him into a shockingly cruel monster. For both the story's and characters' sake, Naoya's plot twist should have been toned down; that would have made fans happier while also steering clear of dangerous waters that an anime like Science Fell in Love is unable to navigate properly. When it comes to slice-of-life antagonists and drama, more is not always better.