“Cherry & Virgin,” Masanao Kawajiri’s crowd-funded anime, centers on Ryo, an erotic manga artist who has never held a woman’s hand, and Ami, an illustrator who is also inexperienced in love. The pair meet through dating apps, and the film follows their awkward courtship as they confront loneliness and anxieties about intimacy.
The film gives the characters different visual styles that reflect their artistic worlds. Ryo appears in textured black-and-white drawings, while Ami is rendered in vivid color. Their surroundings follow the same divisions, but the styles begin to blend during their first date as they grow more comfortable with each other. The animation continues to shift, using techniques that include rotoscoping, puppet theatre, manga-inspired panel layouts and brief live-action moments.
That visual experimentation also reflects the characters’ inner lives. Flashbacks show them in simpler, more childlike designs, while Ami’s rougher drawings connect to her doubts about her abilities and memories of being bullied. The supporting cast expands the film’s mix of styles with cartoon animals, mecha and a 3D VTuber avatar.
Kaga Misato’s screenplay balances the formal playfulness with a frank look at the characters’ flaws. Ryo has to examine misogynistic ideas and incel rhetoric that have shaped how he thinks about dating. His willingness to recognize and challenge those tendencies makes the romance feel more vulnerable, while Ami faces insecurities of her own and worries that her friends’ lives are moving ahead without her.
The film also draws comedy from the pair’s lack of dating experience, including a recurring gag known as the “Safe Sex Incident.” Cultural references, from anime homages to the Ghanaian pallbearers meme, add humor and help define the characters’ shared interests without requiring viewers to recognize every reference.
“Cherry & Virgin” premiered at the 2026 Tokyo International Film Festival and is seeking U.S. distribution.
Sources: IndieWire.