People fall in love in the most mysterious of ways. This statement seems to be especially true for the affluent genius playboy Ryou Amakusa. When he nearly falls off the stairs one rainy morning, a girl named Ichika Arima saves him. As if by fate, Ryou encounters Ichika again later that night; she happens to be the best friend of his little sister, Rio.
Wanting to "thank" her, Ryou attempts to woo Ichika by employing his usual flirtatious tactics only to be immediately shot down, his target creeped out by his behavior. Rather than being discouraged, Ryou instead becomes more enthralled by her, and he begins to do everything he can to steal Ichika's heart despite receiving disgusted reactions each time. However, as time passes by, will Ichika remain repulsed by Ryou's creepy yet dedicated advances?
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Comentários
skysurf
This anime feels like watching Pepé Le Pew from Looney Tunes, but with the kitten falling in love with the skunk for no reason. In one line, it's a show trying hard to romanticize sexual harassment. This is the story of a creepy grown ass man romantically pursuing a high school girl by stalking, harassing and gaslighting her. His obsession starts by the simple fact that the girl apparently has been the only non-shallow woman he has met that rejected his creepy advances, so he immediately sets on a mission to conquer her whether she likes it or not. Even though the MC girl already told him tostop and that she's uncomfortable with the unwelcome attention, the male MC still continued relentlessly after that. Some of the creep's actions include: multiple unsolicited phone calls even late at night, sending unwanted gifts, pressuring for dating, touching the girl while she was sick sleeping, etc.
The second harasser is the male MC's sister, who acts as a plot device supporting her creep brother and providing him with all kinds of intel info on her "friend" and setting up convenient scenarios so he can prey on the MC girl easier (e.g. literally gave out her friend's home address since episode 1, brought the brother's gifts to school, tricked her into giving out her phone number, schemed all kinds of settings to facilitate their encounters so they would appear as "coincidences", etc).
There are even more red flags when observing the male MC character's behavior that provides a clear view on the kind of toxic relationship he's pursuing, just to list a few:
1) VIOLENT: He had no trouble in assaulting an adult woman in a public place and threatening her with further physical abuse.
2) POSSESSIVE: Got triggered just by the fact that a classmate was talking to MC girl and felt the need to act in a threatening way towards the teenage boy. His own male friend is aware of this, who is seen SECRETLY hanging out with the female MC admitting that he himself would be in trouble with the creep if he knows they're hanging out. Not being able to casually hang out or even talk with friends sounds like the depiction of the worst type of toxic relationship.
3) MANIPULATIVE: Despite the fact that the creep is the one harassing the inexperienced girl ignoring her requests to stop, when the girl tried her best to take a strong stand against his behavior and called him out, all it took was him doing a pikachu surprised face to make her feel guilty resulting in HER APOLOGIZING TO HIM. This is not a light observation, as the creep was literally shown rejoicing himself in the fact that she was the one who apologized to him. That's some dark stuff right there for those who can see past the shojo-esque colorful backgrounds and cute faces.
As for the rest of characters, most of them seem to have been designed by the author to create an unrealistic sexual harassment fantasy where all the society surrounding the abuser is happy about his actions. Just as an example, you have the girl's mother who was being enthusiastic about all the unwanted gifts (instead of the more realistic approach of being suspicious/worried) and also not caring at all even after she found out the dude sending them is a grown ass man... instead, the mother was instantly added to the male MC's harem.
The animation is nothing special, just alright and the art style is average. Nothing really stands out.
Sound quality was awful mostly with the character voices. The opening and ending songs are quite cool though, which thankfully can be purchased and enjoyed independently without having to watch this anime.
Overall, this looks like a typical trash josei story with an abusive male MC where the author went overboard with the harassment fantasy and destroyed all credibility of the world depicted, converting this supposed romance comedy into something mediocre that is neither funny nor romantic in the slightest.
Marinate1016
“You can’t judge another country by your country’s standards” A simple, yet oft forgotten message. Koikimo is a series that exemplifies the differences between the west and Japan in terms of entertainment. If you’re sensitive or not able to accept that fiction does not equate to reality, you should avoid this. If you are sensible and understand that you can enjoy a story, without necessarily agreeing with the premise and characters’ actions, this is a gold mine. Koikimo’s premise is truthfully a bit… odd, with the MC basically stalking the girl he likes, who happens to be a high school student and classmate of his littlesister, but it’s presented in such a way that makes you forget what’s even going on. Koikimo uses a really cute aestethic to hide a questionable premise, and does so very well in my opinion. Again, you don’t have to agree with what’s going on in a show to like it. It’s fiction, not a documentary.
Shoujo Romance is my fave genre of LNs/animanga, so I check out any that air every season. I had no idea about this LN coming into the season and was immediately surprised by how much I love this damn show. In fact, it’s grown to be one of my faves. Ichika and Ryo’s relationship, while starting out in an unconventional way and with some weird circumstances, becomes very wholesome and downright adorable as the series progresses. Once the initial stalker phase ends, I liked the interactions between the two, a lot. Putting aside the age difference, their interactions and growth felt very organic to me and was the highlight of the show. The romance was well written and believable. It may not be socially acceptable, but things are not always black and white in life.
In addtion to likeable main characters, Koikimo’s side cast was really good as well. A love rectangle of sorts begins to form at a certain point, and I thought it was navigated perfectly. In romcoms there’s always going to be someone getting their feelings hurt, but if you do it the right way it doesn’t hamper the experience. Koikimo certainly did that.
Artistically, there’s nothing crazy or new going on design wise in the show, but I did really enjoy the bright colour palette throughout. I think it helped to create a cutsey atmosphere, in contrast to Higehiro, which ironically is the other series this season with a controversial premise. The OST is pretty solid as well as the OP and ED being bangers.
In closing, I loved Koikimo. I’m not ashamed to say that. It’s not for everyone, but I encourage you to keep an open mind when watching not just this show, but any anime. You’re watching a medium that was created for people in a totally different society. There’s going to be things you don’t like or agree with, that’s ok. Luckily for me, once the show got going, it was easily my third fave show of the season and something I looked forward to on Mondays to start my week. I will certainly miss my fave ship of the season, but I’ll be checking out the manga and LN for more. Koikimo gets 10 out of 10.
NextUniverse
(TLDR Review at the bottom, as usual, thanks for reading.) Is Spongebob Squarepants an asshole for pissing off Squidward? Is Peppa Pig a douchebag for body-shaming her dad? Is Richard Watterson someone it would be better to kill due to his lack of support in society and being a somewhat bad parent to his children? I don't see how anything I have said above is legit criticism in any way other than the enjoyment factor. So I don't really understand why characters in Koikimo are getting hate for doing their roles. "Almost every single season nowadays, it seems there has to be a scapegoat. An anime which you are somehowobliged to publically hate on or you'll be looked down upon by the community and no one will take you seriously."
To you, (1)4 years from now. Nothing has changed.
The romance genre is prone to some easy hate, which is very understandable. Taking into consideration some questionable themes that like to pop up for no good reason, other than to maybe satisfy some guilty pleasure, it's no question why this genre can have its titles that derail from the norm so very easily. Also with anime having a large western audience, a clash of cultures is inevitable, which brings forward some interesting events. Koikimo is a suspect of such a case. And with such cases like Koikimo, it is easy to bash the show for what it brings for not aligning with moral standards, which ends up making it a victim of its own product, and something you don't really know is either good or bad due to the large magnitude of polarising viewpoints. Koikimo is said to be a "disgusting anime" as a reason to dislike it when really and truly, it is a somewhat disgusting anime. Hell, it is literally there in the title "It's Too Sick to Call this Love" is the translation for this anime title. I don't know what people thought they were watching when they thought it would be something trying to "hide pedophilia". In any case, I don't see how Koikimo is anything bad for something it brings forward, it is very much fine to dislike the premise and be on your way, but with different applications to morals in a fictional realm from everyone, it becomes very inconsistent to rate something on such a base. I intend to rate this on a normal basis for reasons of non-bias, so, let's get into it.
Narrative:
Koikimo's introduction is quite interesting, it starts off with philanderer, Ryo Amakusa, stumbling across Ichika Arima for dumb reasons are dumb. But then it takes a quick turn of events with Ryo going full simp mode on a high schooler girl he just met. For the most part, everything here is consistent here on out, in other words, there isn't any improvement or degrading in any sense, even in characters. Only the quirks of Koikimo actually differentiate this from anything I have seen, because otherwise, this is a pretty baseline for itself. I honestly can't go on and talk more about the story, because it plays out as every rom-com should. There honestly is nothing special here so I don't know what is the point of saying anything more about the story. You know, it works, doesn't really have any flaws but at the same time, it is no distinction and is generally something you find in the bunch.
The characters are interesting. For a rom-com as described above, you'd think the characters are pretty baseline too, and to some extent, not really. What I will say is that the characters are indeed baseline in anything that would link to personalities of initial bases, but honestly, I thought the character growth here was actually done very well. Seeing characters like Ryo get out of his damaging lifestyle and becoming a better person through Ichika was actually really nice to see, I suppose the character development is to be expected in something like Koikimo, but this was slightly different, with the age gap actually having a say in the relationship between the two. Ryo changed in ways that really made him think, even though he still has this creepy love for Ichika I do believe he understood what it meant for him to be with her. He is self-aware of what he is doing but is also in the irrational realm of love that makes him do questionable things. I can say this because his interactions with people like Arie, for example, isn't all one-nighter then sayonara, in other words, he has learnt to be a better person. It's an interesting development for the guy and all in all made for him to be quite interesting.
Now I genuinely cannot say the same for people like the others. First, Ichika is your average rom-com girl character, honestly has no distinction other than her like some anime. You could say that this was smart in that some regular high school girl managed to change Ryo's mad life. But I refuse to believe that this story even dared to go to Shakespeare playing field. I mean, it could have though. Who knows. Anyways, Ichika is pretty basic, not much to say with her. The same goes for Rio, though her character is interesting, being a somewhat snarky observer. Tamaru is pretty average as well, being that kid who finds himself to be a rival. And Arie, who also finds herself to be a rival, a nice person with a cool interest in anime, but that is about it. Honestly, this lack of attention to characters is quite upsetting, but with this being a general standard rom-com with that one quirk to it, characters like these do fine, I suppose.
Audiovisuals:
For visuals, it is pretty box standard. What I will say is that the character design is ever so slightly strange, almost like its evolution went backwards to an older style. It's honestly not even that bad, but it is a new one, or do I call it an old one? Whatever it was, it was very easy to get used to and allowed for some cool original designs to some extent to have a watch too. But I mean it was still pretty box standard at the end of the day.
Visuals is a funny one too. First off, OP and ED are actually really good, with the former being catchy, the latter being quite a nice little way to touch off with, both stick to me as well. OST is mid if you are wondering, nothing fancy here at all and it serves as only background music for "in the moment". The character voicing, however, for some reason, it sounded like someone forgot to filter out all the echos from the studio and just slapped the raw audio on the final product. Once you pick up on the odd-sounding, you will get used to it, and it isn't so annoying, but it was something pretty strange regardless. I've seen numerous people talk about the same thing with the audio problem. With issues like that, which rarely happen in anime, it is something to criticise but doing so becomes a futile effort with how minuscule it actually matters to a wide audience. Everything is fine though.
Enjoyment:
This isn't the most entertaining thing to watch, and how you watch it matters as well, considering that I watched this weekly, it actually made my weeks slightly better waiting on what will become of everything towards the end, though, I should have guessed what would happen from the very start because no rom-com pulls any fast ones because they don't. In a universal sense, assuming you aren't offended by this two-dimensional cartoon's premise, Koikimo has its light-hearted moments, it has its wholesome moments, and generally just very chill, going with its vibe throughout the entire series.
Overall - 6.6 (7)
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TLDR Review:
Story - 6: Pretty generic rom-com type story, uses age-gap as a quirk to differentiate from others.
Visuals - 6: Some kind of backwards character design that makes this look a little unique.
Audio - 7: OP and ED are really good, OST is basic, character voices feel a little off due to technicalities.
Characters - 7: Ryo is the most interesting character, everyone else is on the generic side of things.
Enjoyment - 7: Light-hearted, a little wholesome, and just chill.
Overall - 6.6 (7)
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Only a few seasonals keep me really intact for me to go to length as to watch it pretty much every week. For some odd reason, Koikimo was one of them, idk, it was really relaxing to watch every week I suppose. I didn't really watch anything else like Koikimo this season, even other titles I enjoyed a lot more. The human mind is a strange one, isn't it? Anyways, there goes another controversial anime. It was fun for the most part and I will probably read the manga in my spare time. At the end of the day, this creepy anime did a decent job at being creepy, but it was a different kind of creepy, something that didn't make me lose faith in humanity kinda creepy, and what matters is whether or not this is enjoyable for us. So I leave off by saying, Koikimo is something I found somewhat fun.
RebelPanda
Koikimo is dangerous because it uses cutesy art and rom-com cliches to hide what it's really about: A creepy adult man harassing and grooming a high school girl. The girl rejects the man, calls him disgusting, yet he continues to pursue her romantically and sexually. He takes pictures of her without consent, he visits her uninvited, he gets close to her mother, he flirts with her while she’s vulnerable and alone, he gives her tons of gifts, and he expects her love in return. Worst of all, it is targeted at teenagers. Not cute. Very fucked up. The art, animation, and sound are terrible too. Eventhough there is barely any animation, the character's faces morph like melting plastic. Their body proportions are constantly changing depending on the angle. Rather than using verbal dialogue, at times they copy text boxes straight from the manga and paste them on screen. The music sounds like nails scraping a chalkboard or simplistic stock elevator tunes played on repeat. I respect the voice actors’ effort but the audio processing sounds awful. It's like you’d expect from a low-budget OVA, not a TV anime.
Every character in this show is a banal archetype, and they act in very strange ways. The generic female protagonist is friends with the businessman’s sister, which is how they got introduced. The sister is very aware of her brother’s behavior yet she nudges them together like cupid. She tells the man her address, gives him chances to be alone with her, and never warns her. For example, one time the sister said, “My brother’s insane in more ways than one, so just be on the lookout.” She said this to a male classmate who is in love with the female main character. Every time he pursues her, the businessman threatens him.
Both of the main characters have alternate love interests. The girl’s male classmate and the man’s co-worker. Yet, the adult man chooses the high schooler instead. Even though the show describes both female characters in the same way: Kind, caring, happy, and big anime fans. Why does the man choose the young girl? Because he is a pedophile. Everyone acts like it's fine that an adult is in love with a teenage girl. The side characters treat pedophilia, stalking, and grooming like it's a normal relationship. There’s no room for interpretation. Koikimo is an anime about a pedophile who grooms a high school girl until she is tricked into liking him.
bulkyhog
Koikimo does a good job of living up to its name, but I won't be going into why this is a creepy or weird romcom anime; you've surely read enough reviews about that at this point. Instead, I'll briefly go over why all that controversial stuff aside, this anime still sucks balls. Romance wise, the execution is quite sub-optimal. Comedy is subjective, yes, but I didn't really find anything in Koikimo funny, so no points there either. I would've rated this a 1, but Tamaru was such a great character that I couldn't do him wrong, so Koikimo gets a 2 in my book just for thisgiga chad.
TLDR: Koikimo, controversy aside, is still a bad anime. Comedy falls flat, the entire cast except for 2 characters are hugely uninteresting and boring, and the plot/story is horribly paced and designed.
Story: 1/10
There's not much of a story. In fact, we don't see any progress whatsoever in the main duo of Ryo and Ichika. It's just the same antics over and over; Ryo does some manipulative or cringe shit, Ichika reacts somewhat negatively, other people react/help out, etc. etc.
Worse yet, we have some attempt at a "dramatic problem" thrown in at the last minute with the appearance of Ryo and Rio's dad, who of all things chose to speak facts.
There's not much of a plot or any form of progression to be found in Koikimo, it just bumbles onwards until the end.
Art: 4/10
At first, I thought the art was nice, but the quality dipped a bit after the first 4 episodes and I began to notice it actually wasn't as good as I thought.
Sound: 2/10
The only good thing about the audio design for Koikimo is the OP (an absolute banger on a regrettable series) and the OST used throughout the anime (which was alright).
I respect the voice actors for trying their best, but honestly, I've heard high-school projects with better recording systems than whatever the fuck Koikimo used. The sound is actually so horrible, at first I thought it was just my shitty earbuds giving out after years of use.
Character: 3/10
Not going to deep dive here, but it's basically a bunch of psychopaths doing psychopathic things. Very weird and not very romantic or funny.
I get anime logic that characters behave irrationally at times, that's acceptable. But Koikimo really takes it to the next level with the amount of bullshit going on.
The only saving grace out of all the characters would be my boy Tamaru. Watching him confess and try his best was truly the best part of the series. Arie was a close second for the same reasons. Looking back, I found the anime to be quite enjoyable when it came down to character interactions involving one of these 2: they were the only well-written characters in the entire show and it's a damn shame they weren't given the spotlight.
Enjoyment: 2/10
This would be an easy 1/10 if it weren't for Tamaru and Arie; as I alluded to above, any interactions involving these characters are actually quite good. So much so that it seems out of place for an anime with horribly written characters and plot progression like Koikimo.
mushi_Jyou
Reason for watching: I went into this thinking it would be more Comedy than Romance, and had thought some negative reviews were exaggerating. But honestly not much exaggeration. *Mild spoiler as I do give out the basic premise and gave a general layout of the storyline. TL;DR at the bottom. Let me do a quick review and opinion on this: Visuals: Definitely up my alley. I like the animation of the story, the art style of the animation, the OP, and ED. They are beautiful to me. Of course the animation could be better, but is not like this is some shounen show with lots of action,so I do not expect them to put a lot into animating each scene. 8/10
Audio: Seiyuus performance were fine. Is as good as you can expect from such animation. The female lead is able to show emotions through her voice so is not that bad. Male lead on the other hand just seem pretty bland, even for the humane/sentimental (not his stoic persona) scene, there's pretty much not much tone difference. OP and ED are nice, which is the only reason why audio score is above average. 6.5/10
Characters: Very simple. The story relies more on the story plot than the characters personality to tell the story. You can switch around the characters' personality, and the story can still work with a a little tweak here and there. Very average character, and subpar character "growth". Not like I expected much character growth for a 12 episode show. But Male lead essentially just became "kinder" because he fell in love. I get falling in love will make someone happy, but to change how they interact with almost everyone (in a matter of weeks, WHILE not seeing the love of his life frequently) is kind of a stretch. Male Lead's dad just somehow became more understanding because of a one liner from the Female lead... That is not character growth. that's just superpower. 5/10
Story:
Oh this is the part where is ridiculous.
I will echo many reviewers that the premise of this story is unpleasant. To put it badly, is Pedophilic. To put it nicely, is border lining Pedophilic. Yeap.
Is of course not as jarring as the porn genre. But this story definitely has a pedophilic undertone. There is no other way around this. A "Japan's culture..", A "is fictional...", A "consenting age is different...", doesn't change the fact that is pedophilic. You don't see people all up in arms with the porn genre of pedophile(hentai, I know child porn is a big offense) or sexual assault, because we all know is fake. Doesn't change their genre, no excuses to "defend" them either. Also the circumstances leading to those genres in porn aren't as realistic as this story.
The story is of a full grown man, 26 Year old, falling in love with a 16 year old high schooler who is also his sister's BEST FRIEND. Reason for falling in love is sketchy but I do believe we are not able to control our feelings and emotions. But what we, humans, and definitely grown adult, can control, are our actions.
So Male lead falls in love, confessed, got rejected harshly, but still decided to pursue a 16 year old kid openly. Obtains her address without her consent, and consistently ignoring her "NOs" (this part is infuriating actually. regardless of what culture there is or which part of the world this story takes place. When a 16 year old repeatedly rejects you, respect it! Don't tell me is fiction, so NO can be seen as a YES, or she has a tsundere character or she's shy. What world do we live in if we can't understand CONSISTENT "NO" means NO even from a fictional character?).
Male lead tries his best to win the heart of the female lead even when FL is uncomfortable. Then every other side character that knows about this aggressive courtship is accepting of it, enabling a full grown adult with a good number of romantic and sexual experiences, and exposure to mature interactions to pursue a 16 year old child who has zero experiences with Romance, and limited interpersonal interactions, AND obviously much less exposure to the world and its complex dynamics, AND also not fully in touch with her emotional and psychological state yet.
The first 3 episodes are disgusting. Middle 6 episodes are fine if we can ignore how it all started. Last 3 episodes is a pathetic attempt to "correct" the show's logic (or just some sort of subpar redemption arc).
If the story had started with ML and FL having normal interactions that grew closer and their feelings for each other developed independently, the age thing would not have bothered me this much.
I do enjoy a plot with aggressive courtship like what male lead is doing here, but not when the other party is lacking so much in experiences and emotional and psychological development. If the female lead was a regular 20 year old university student, this wouldn't be as disturbing. She would have went through university meeting all sorts of people, and have much more experience as well as more maturity to assess her emotions and mental state.
10 years age gap is not a problem here. Is the age itself that is a problem.
Middle 6 episodes are just normal cliché rom com scenes where ML not so aggressively courts FL, and both the ML and FL have alternate love interests popping into the story.
Last 3 episodes are FL's 16 year old feelings developed romantically while ML realizes that he might be hurting/treating FL badly, because of their 10 years age gap that would be a cause for concern in society's standard... No is really not the age gap. No one really cares if a 45 YO and 35 YO falls in love. Not sure why they think making the 10 year age gap as the biggest problem actually makes sense. Even if japan culture generally raises sensible children, and consent is younger, doesn't change the fact that FL was not able to make an informed decision as well as ML due to their experiences. Is not fair game when FL was robbed off of growing up herself without all that calculated and targeted gaslighting.
So is a happy ending as ML will brave through criticisms of the 10 years age gap and is determine to protect FL from the less understanding society's judgment, while FL with all her 16-17 years experience on Earth (more than half spent on studying and novels and anime) makes the determination to trust her feelings of LOVE and reciprocate ML's advances.
I honestly don't know how anyone can think pedophile/ manipulation/ grooming elements is okay in a regular anime show because is a fiction.
If mutual sex scenes between adults in shows require R21 rating. We should at least have rating for pedophilic story lines, maybe like rated C-reep? At least porn/hentai will rate them R21 and tell you the genre outright. This is not RomCom, is RomCriminalOffence. 5/10 (Story is okay, premise is bad).
Total: 6.1/10 (6)
TL;DR
Definitely has pedophilic undertone no matter how fictional this story is (even if you add in talking clouds and flowers). Uncomfortable premise if you have awareness on how pedophilic crimes are the absolute worst. If you imagine FL to be at least 18 years old or have the maturity of a 20 years old, the story gets a little better lol. Cute songs and art style. Cute storylines in the middle 6 episodes lol.
Mixed feelings because FL is not TOO young and there's no sexualization in here, If she's any younger, this would be a "Not recommended" sentiment. Basically a "vanilla Pedophilic" plot.
- coming from someone who is not saintly or overly reserved (Eye for an eye plot, SA, cruel gangster plots, torture, murderers, anything with blood I do enjoy, even if it was 2 16 YOs falling in love and maybe get a little sexually curious, I am also fine), but when you exploit children, then is a no-go for me.
NekoMinSeo
I don't know how else to describe this show in short besides "Sexual harassement/stalking of a teenage girl is fine and will eventually get rewarded!"- The Anime. Honestly, that's it. That's the anime. When I started I thought I'd at least be in for at least SOME nuance, since I'm not inherently against age gap romances, I wouldn't even be against sexual harassement of a teenage girl in fiction if it's done with the purpose of exploring a certain toxic type of relationship, but this does neither explore or make a commentary. It's supposed to be cute. Yeah. But I can't possibly find it cutewhen the ML does nothing but be insisting, possessive, do things nobody asked for and continously profess he's undying love because this one girl just happened to be a normal human being with common sense. It's even more jarring when the anime tries to make a sort of love triangle with a guy that at least has some chemistry with her, but ultimately ends up being entirely pointless.
Honestly I just felt like I wasted my time here, so if you're not into this weird trope, just listen to my advice and stay away. I watched it so you don't have to.
Senator_Phillips
While Charles Darwin long ago described his theory of evolution, I dare say he never envisioned humans enjoying a “rom-com" anime that would bend the definition of “entertainment” and leave a viewer’s imagination and love of anime Isekaid into a world where all that plays is Monochrome City. For you newcomers to my reviews, I will dissect my opinion into 5 crucial sections, henceforth known as napkins. Napkin #1 Story (1/10) To say the story is nothing original is an understatement. We begin our journey with our heroine “saving the life” of our tragic hero, thus earning his undying affection and love. Interestingly, this very situation couldbe playing out with Studio Nomad, the “brains” behind Koikimo. Perhaps this hastily put together narrative reflects the fact that much like Ichika saved Ryo, Nomad hopes that Koikimo will save the studio. Sadly, life is not an anime.
Napkin #2
Art (2/10)
The animation (or lack of) in Koikimo can best be observed by taking a manga volume or a weekly coupon book that arrives in the mail and rapidly turning the page to create the illusion of movement. Character movement is kept to a minimum, with unexpressive faces and numerous still shots attempting to mask the lack of effort or budget.
Napkin #3
Sound (3/10)
The OP, Monochrome City, might just be the best music piece put to an entertainment medium since John Williams composed the score for Star Wars. Not only is it dynamic, upbeat, and catchy, it masks the poor animation in the OP! Unfortunately the OP appears to be the only piece of music that can be defined as a song throughout this anime, as I can not remember any background tracks or the ending. My only wish was that as Suspect #1 confessed his feelings to Victim #1, Romansu Nante, performed by a gospel choir, was played in the background.
Napkin #4
The characters (1/10)
There are three crucial characters to analyze if one is to understand the work of fiction that is Koikimo. First, Suspect #1, Ryo. Ryo is a boring office worker who apparently was never taught the word “no”. Instead, Ryo makes continuous advances until the miraculous revelation occurs that due to the 12-episode nature of the series, Victim #1, Ichika, must now appreciate his advances and fall for him. But wait… the non-existent character development doesn’t stop there. Meet Ryo’s sister, the Boogeyman, whose sole defining characteristic is her desire to set up her best friend with her brother. Just like the Boogeyman, Rio has a tendency to appear when Victim #1 is at her most emotionally confused, always steering her towards her brother. I suspect Rio’s motive is a desire to set her brother up with the underage Ichika, have him arrested, then steal the assets from her and Ryo’s parents before their untimely death. As a side note, could these dubious parents not choose a better name that merely taking Ryo’s name and changing the “y” to an “i”. Needless to say, I am not awaiting the spinoff series with Roo or Rao. The character designs are uninteresting, with Ichika and Ryo appearing bland and forgettable, much like the ED.
Napkin #5
Enjoyment (2/10)
Entertainment is supposed to entertain, but watching Koikimo evolved into a form of mental labor as I dragged myself to my computer, pried open my eyes, and danced to Monochrome city as Big Brother looked on, eager to call an exorcist. The shallow characters, ridiculous pacing, poor animation, and stupid premise fail to make this show enjoyable, leaving Koikimo reminiscent of prune juice for the soul.
Conclusion
Now looking at our five napkins on our table, we are left with a predicament. There is no food to enjoy. Setting aside the questionable nature of the relationship between Ichika and Ryo, the show fails for the simple reason that it is not entertaining. In the rom-com genre, better shows and manga, whether Rent A Girlfriend, Kaguya-Sama, or Komi Can’t Communicate, all exist and have more redeeming features than this anime.
Score: 1/10 Koikimo
CrimsonKing25
When Koi to Yubo was announced it got a lot of people both defending and attacking the plot before it even aired. Me, being the rational person that I am, waited until it aired to see how it actually is. I do like shoujo romance anime and while most of them tend to be copy and paste stories, they do give me enjoyment and some have a really cute and fun-loving romance. Koi to Yobu wasn't like that. If anything, it somehow went below my expectations, which wasn't high to begin with. Characters (2/10) Ryo and Ichika are by far the blandest and boring characters I've comeacross who have just about enough chemistry as oil and water. They both are one-note personality type characters who are known for one thing and one thing only. For Ryo he is a love-struck idiot who doesn't even understand the concept of true love and could probably fall in love with a stop sign if possible. Ichika is a plain, mousy, brown-haired protagonist with little to no agency whatsoever and goes along with everything because even if it's against what she wishes but does it anyway because plot progression. What little moments they had to shine were far and between the story, even then that wasn't enough to make them stand out. That pretty much sums them up.
Story (3/10)
I don't expect much from romance anime unless it has great characters and an interesting plot. This story in particular was rather bland. Before I go further, No, I will not talk about the age gap because that has been discussed to the point where it's practically a meme at this point. The story consists of Ryo trying to win Ichiko's heart and Ichiko, being a doormat for practically everyone (including her own mom of all people) not sure how to feel about this man's incessant stalking and creepy behavior. There, that's pretty much the entire plot. I will give credit where credit is due and say that some parts of it were funny and got a chuckle out of me. Other than that, the story is nothing to write home about and is easily forgettable.
Sound (4/10)
The OP is a banger, I will say that. Everything else however was so dry. Even the seiyuu's sounded like they were acting in a room that wasn't properly suited for voice acting. Half the time it came off as if they were recording in a microwave of all places. I get that maybe the pandemic made it difficult for the seiyuus to go to a recording studio, but even then the sound production could've made their voices come off with clarity and not sounding like there's white noise in the background.
Art (5/10)
The art did have some nice colors to it and it wasn't poorly animated. It was just average.
Overall (3/10)
Koi to Yobu is a story that doesn't stand out amongst romance anime It's story is easily forgettable and a chaotic mess of repetition and the characters are about as interesting as watching grass wither and they don't have any stand out personalities. This is just another mediocre romance anime that you will probably forget in about a month or two.
Grayegoose
I just found this show and it's adorable! Yeah, an age difference like that is challenging, especially at those ages, but in another 10 years, it won't matter. I dated someone 28 when I was 18, so I understand her feelings and struggles. If you can get past the age thing, though, it is a really sweet love story! and for all the haters talking about him being a creeper, he was a different person when they first met. He seemed numb to the world and she was his wake-up call. She even called him a creeper up front. Love can change you and forhim, it was for the better. I thought this was a sweet and very honest romance. I also have to agree with the other reviews, Rio deserves a spin-off of her own! She was a great wingman! :D
KANLen09
You've seen it all around the world, and it is one that still baffles the Average Joe's mind: age-gap relationships, specifically one that is more than 10 years of difference (and oh look, this show has that exact figure conspicously!). And for fact or fiction, this season we're facing 2 back-to-back similar-but-different approaches to that: this show (KoiKimo) and HigeHiro, the former: an unrelenting adult on a sexual predator's level of unhinged stalking and harassment towards a typical normal high school JK; the latter: everything else that is this show but the complete opposite (and not to mention better in every other way). Disregarding HigeHiro fornow, KoiKimo for better or for worse, I'd say is "Redo of Healer" levels of the rom-com genre, though it was marketed at that from face value (which is entirely misleading). But the subtlety of everything that contradicts what a normal relationship looks like, this source material attempts to replicate all that's wrong with the age-gap premise that unfortunately exists in the real world, coupled with the endless research about the pros and cons of such debacle topics that the human race has seen throughout the past decade. For good or for bad, it exposes the reality that age-gap relationships are here to stay despite all the controversy and hearsay of news all around, much less the fact that if you have friends that are or have been in such a situation like this before (which I have to put a big disclaimer that results may vary, regardless of culture). Social disapproval is a common theme for the many who are watching this anime, love it or hate it.
For such a show framed as “It’s Disgusting to Call This Love”, love CAN be described as disgusting at times, but it's more of less a very strange feeling that reasoning can blight off self-morales...mostly to your very own benefit, if it isn't mutual. And for that, I have to give KoiKimo props for even trying to explore a taboo topic such as this, even if this show will be puked at by the general consensus on both the human moral and cultural standpoint, Western or otherwise. Nonetheless, I'd have to blame the original mangaka Mogusu for this as most of what happens within KoiKimo is on very extreme levels of "What should you NOT do in a relationship", partly counting of stalking and everything else that will push viewers away from the get-go, more than just the uncomfortable levels of cringe-fest that this show tries to divulge and make us feel "sorry" for the young female JK MC. Sorry, but that's not gonna happen, even if the persuasion goes to the epitome of "putting yourself in their shoes".
There have been many stories of forbidden love done before, heck I'd say that 2018's Koi wa Ameagari no You ni (a.k.a After the Rain) is an infinitely better example of this to tackle the illusive age-gap issue, albeit that's one-sided and learning rightaway that the implications of such a relationship will raise eyebrows, but still pursuing the relationship regardless and keeping to one's own if the answer is yes or no. KoiKimo however, just blatantly disregards all thoughts of the characters to: "I have a motive, therefore if I get my answer or not, I must make it happen.", and that is especially frightening for a taboo issue that focuses on the other side of the coin...on an insane pedigree of human instincts.
Take the instance of 27-year old Ryo Amakusa and 17-year old Arima Ichika: a not-so-coincidental feeling of meeting at a train station to create the obvious cliches (as to serve the first milestone/pivotal point) of a hurting coincidence, only for the main MC lead to be mesmerized by the typical young JK, and because her name is Ichika (which literally means "one flower"), his next thought is to stalk her by buying stalks of "one flower" just so that he could capture her attention, regardless of whether it works out or not, stratagem after stratagem, for this inconspicuous relationship to work out. Now tell me if you have gone through such a relationship as this to the point that the boy/girl you just met is literally one that's in accordance of a stalker. Surely you'd think that the reciprocating party must feel so awkward and forced to push back all these unnecessary advances, but with the prying of a close friend in school, poof, those matters are soon long gone, as if the big mountainous heaps of trouble has been easily overcome time and time again by blood relations alone. Not exactly a big help considering that there's just too much of a disparity between a young adult and a JK in their own environmental conditions of growth. To get unwavering support from close friends (for Ichika: Rio, blood sibling to Ryo, and for Ryo: not just his sister Rio, but also freelance photography nerd Masuda) is rather amicable, I'll give it that, but that's as far as my generosity goes of a rather large age-gap relationship such as this. Pair that with a decent cast that are more like accomodations ranging from a (close to) wingman, wing-girl, crushes on either side of the picture (Kai Tamaru and Arie "Arietty" Matsushima for both Ichika and Ryo respectively), and I just don't see any benefit to such a crass story plot that seeks to serve as a bird's eye view to the long-age issue, but rather, self-serving short-term stopgap ones that are created and fizzled out as they come. Improvements come and go no doubt, but in the overall picture, as much as I secretly desire that both Ichika and Ryo would just stick to the status quo of dating their close contacts, the fact that this story exists is a powerful stoic articulation in and of itself, as a reminder to not seek relationships as morally disgusting as this one is. It's literally in the name.
Animation itself is subpar since it's Nomad, and their work record is also teetering on the low-end as well. Also, if you've seen shows like "Gokushufudou" or even "Back Street Girls: Gokudolls" that J.C.Staff director Kon Chiaki simply loves slicing and mimicing complete manga scenes into anime, you've got it here in short snippets as well, which truly contradicts the meaning of the word "animation" and putting all that focus into the "low-budget" aspect. Good that it's self-aware on knowing how much more could be done, but the ever-present limitations of funding means that it can only produce borderline mediocre stuff like the bread-and-butter rhetoric, as by the standards of the show that serves to keep this low-budget studio working: "Jashin-chan Dropkick!".
Of all things, if everything fails, let not the one constant fade away, which is the music department. Say what you will about the OST if you're the type who always skips either or both the OP and ED, but this is one of those trope moments where "You hear it the first time, nah. Let it grow on you, and it starts being good." And true indeed, the more you hear it, it starts growing on you to the point of decency while being catchy. A prominent showing that is only as good and long as how this show lasts in its run.
There are shows that with its tantalizing mount of "reasoning" that can be resonated by everyone, whether you love or hate it, is worth being notable about a.k.a HigeHiro. However, KoiKimo, more than being that unscrupulous kid on the block that shuts his/her ears to the world's cries, is playing the Devil's Advocate that whatever it tries to promote and/or showcase, it tries to discover and implore the audience to give this an open mind (to which I totally agree, but quickly disagree), to just downright being disrespectful of what we're watching in the real world as well on the taboo subject of huge age-gap relationships.
We don't need narcissistic shows like this to tell us that "the grass is greener on the other side", it depends on the fictitious work portrayed that tells their side of the story. While I don't hate this show by a large mile, unless you're the rare minority that doesn't mind that this show exists to tell the story willy-nilly and find it good, stay away from this show as it'll teach you the same eloquence as the "Little Red Riding Hood", in a non-romcom sense even if instincts do exist or otherwise.
AnimeEnjoyer420
It's easy to be offended by a show with a premise like this, but let's just stipulate from the beginning that this is an age gap romance between an adult man and a high school girl. We all know the deal here from the synopsis. If this sort of a thing is a hard no to you, you probably aren't even reading this review. So, taking Koikimo on its own terms, does it succeed at creating a compelling romance? I will spare you the suspense, the answer is an emphatic no. Before diving into the meat of what went wrong with this series, I think it'sworth mentioning that the presentation does it no favors. Character designs are bland at best, ugly at worst, and the animation is consistently below average, with characters frequently going off model. This is even worse considering how unambitious the storyboards and layouts are, and the lack of any dynamism or energy from the direction keeps the series feeling listless even when it heads into juicy dramatic waters.
But no amount of inspired direction could have saved this series from its main couple. Yes, male lead Ryo is quite clearly stalking and sexually harassing 17 year old Ichika, but that is not even the fundamental problem here. The real problem is that the series never establishes any sort of convincing reason for why she would suddenly stop being uncomfortable with his behavior and fall in love with him. Really they don't even attempt this. Ryo's behavior ("borderline criminal" in the show's own words) simply continues unabated until a switch flips in Ichika's mind and she somehow realizes she was In Love With Him All Along because she's been Thinking About Him All This Time. It is laughably thin, and combined with their nonexistent romantic chemistry, never gives you any reason to want to see them get together, even if you are into this sort of thing.
The show does briefly threaten to become interesting with the introductions of age appropriate romantic rivals Tamaru (Ichika's classmate) and Arie (Ryo's coworker), but it's no great spoiler to say that they are tin cans being set up only so they can be shot down. The show certainly makes that clear right off the bat. Don't get attached to them, because when they're finished playing their roles as romantic foils, they may as well have vanished into thin air.
The side characters really end up being the oddest part of this whole tapestry, because over the course of the series, many of them find out about Ryo's obsession with Ichika, and every single one of them either accepts it or actively attempts to hook them up, including Ichika's own mother. At the very least they could have included some societal disapproval to put some sauce on the taboo nature of this whole thing, but in the interests of making sure the audience believes that This Whole Thing Is Actually Fine, no character is allowed to utter a word of criticism about any of this. It's both morally troubling AND bereft of any juicy drama that might at least make this soapy and fun.
In the end, I think that's where this series falls the shortest. It is committed to depicting a deeply taboo relationship, but only in the safest ways imaginable. Instead of being shocking or ridiculous, it just feels like any other low effort romcom, but with one of the participants aged up by 10 years. The main couple is extremely boring, both as a pair and as individuals, and if I'm going to ignore my sense of good taste and propriety to watch something like this, I would at least like to be entertained. Instead, Koikimo straddles the fence and ends up being too uncomfortable for normal viewers and too tame for perverts.
anairam9
Okay, let's get over with this (spoilers ahead, I don't even care): Story: 2/10 I'm not going into much detail in this aspect because other people already have in other reviews, and I don't have nothing new to add. Yeah, is dreadful, but we all knew what we were going to get. Gotta give the anime credit though, it was really self aware of what it was doing. Art: 3/10 My sister told me the art looked like a it was from a hentai. Did she lie though? Sound: 9/10 I'm giving this a 9 solely because of the op. It was the best of the season and you can't changemy mind. Also, shout out to Junya Enoki and Kana Hanazawa for being two of the best seiyuus rn.
Character: 3/10
I hate everything about the main guy; his design, his personality, even his voice (the actor was fine, but I didn't like the timbre that he went with). Ichika and the rest of the characters were okay, though I did find the best friend/sister of the main duo annoying.
Okay now LET'S TALK ABOUT TAMARU. He was the solely reason why I kept watching the anime, and, are you kidding me?! Ichika and him had nice chemistry, much more things in common, looked cute together, and you still had her end up with the pedophile? I already knew it was going to happen, but I'm still mad they did him dirty.
Enjoyment: 6/10
Came for the memes, stayed for the op and Tamaru, and stayed 'till the end just for the sake of completing it. As I said before, I knew I was going to get trash coming into this, but I find myself skipping through some parts towards the last episodes because I felt bored. I did enjoyed the first half though.
Overall: 4/10
It wasn't annoying enough to put it lower than 4 (that's an honour that only Ao Haru Ride managed to accomplished).
Lenevalia
This anime bait and switched me and I'm super, super angry about it. Full disclaimer, my parents are 13 years apart and they've been happily married for over 20 years. They're still grossly in love with way too much PDA for a couple their age, but I digress. The disclaimer is to show that while age gaps can work, they only work between adults and NOT an adult and a minor (my mom was 25 when she met my dad who was 38). I've seen reviews that point out how predatory and dangerous this anime is by covering up the premise with cutesy art, an incredibly catchysoundtrack, and dainty shoujo elements, and I wholeheartedly agree.
This anime is about a 27 year old man forcing his feelings onto a 17 year old girl, the synopsis does a great job at telling you everything you need to know because there's no more substance than that.
We watch a man consistently harass a high school girl, stalk her, and mislead her for 12 episodes. Not to mention while I love the art style, the production quality leaves much to be desired (the microphones they're using make it sound like they're recording underwater).
I'm shocked an anime like this was made and approved (Or not I guess since there are all kinds of weird things out there) but I highly disapprove because I don't think we should ever normalize harassment from adults to minors.
At times it gets even, dare I say pedophilic, and somehow I forced myself to watch through the whole thing thinking that somehow this would get better and redeem itself
Surprise: It does not.
makotoplz
So before I delve into one of my favourite romance animes that's just finished airing, I'd like to point out a couple of things. 1. The anime has a satisfying ending that would, imo, end all arguments slandering this anime for this age gap. 2. Ryo (the male MC) has never overstepped any boundaries (at least from my perspective he hasn't) and 3. He never sought out a high schooler and fell for her, it was all just a big coincidence that led to well... this. I feel like the third one is important because before Ichika happened, I don't think Ryo had ever consideredcourting a high schooler let alone falling for them. To which the quote "you don't choose who you fall in love with" can be taken horribly depending on the circumstance but shouldn't be wrongly applied here, because I strongly believe the romance going on in this anime is more than fine and even sweet.
I was originally wary upon reading the description of this anime. I didn't like the idea of a 10 year age gap between a full-time working adult and a high schooler, but eventually caved when I was bored and looking for something new.
The first episode immediately grabbed my attention. Before I knew it, I had caught up on all the episodes that had currently released and was looking forward to every Monday. (It's sad to think that it's over).
Koikimo is the perfect balance of romance and comedy. It has great characters that are not just one dimensional and it has really sweet romantic moments. I, for one, adore Ryo as a character and love interest. The dynamic between him and Ichika is funny, heart-warming and innocent for something so many people look down upon. Idc, I'll preach my love for this anime to this world with no shame.
I like the realness of it, the doubts, confusion, realisation. I like the role Rio played in it as both Ryo's younger sister and Ichika's best friend. I also loved Tamaru as a character, slightly similar to Ryo in a sense, but a younger version of him. I liked the pacing of the story, I never found any episodes boring or slow, and the ending is perfect for an anime tackling this kind of story.
But the romance just sells it for me. It's the slow development of a relationship between Ichika and Ryo. Their little moments, their conversations, their personalities. It's an unlikely couple, I'll give you that. I'm afraid I can't offer that many, or even any, bad sides to this anime. It's a top tier romance for me in both enjoyment and execution and I'm well aware many people will disagree.
And I think what makes this anime more satisfying is that it ended on such a good note, and with not too much drama, purely because of the people Ichika and Ryo are. Specifically Ryo. We've all seen high school romance animes with only one season. Sometimes even two, where the ending is ambiguous or unfinished or will just (sadly) never get another season. And Koikimo finishes it nicely with a bow. Why? Because the relationship is different to that of high schoolers. (I would like to flag up that I don't by any means encourage this as a norm and am aware that age gaps like this with high schoolers in the real world are no where near similar to this) (Therefore worth noting that this relationship is not representative nor generalisable to relationships in the real world, thank you).
Long story short, I highly recommend this romance anime. Don't take it so literally and relationships like this that work in real life are RARE, if not a miracle. The point is that age gaps don't matter so much once you're an adult and that is addressed in this anime. Age gaps are not a subject taken lightly in this anime regardless of how so many people have perceived it.
ttmeng
This is an otherwise forgettable age gap shoujo where the plot line is a will-they-won't-they. The characters are all pleasant and nice. Rating it lower because it's devoid of a plot that doesn't rely on the romance. This reminds me of Tamaki and Haruhi dynamic from Ouran High School Host Club but on steroids. The premise is problematic. Ryo nearly trips from falling down the stairs on the subway and Ichika saves him with her umbrella. She then gives him her bento. They both don't think they'll meet again when they reunite at Rio's house. Rio is his younger sister. From there, Ryo proposes hegive her or a kiss or offer to sleep with her to thank her. Ichika doesn't take it seriously at all and just calls him a creep.
It's problematic that his sister then wants to ship her older brother with her best friend. What is problematic is how he gets her number and calls her everyday from there and tries to meet her whenever he can, because Rio his little sister offers to help him. It's not really stalking, more so that I found it pushing the boundaries too far in that Rio wants to force a romance out of them.
The whole anime just finds way for Ichika and Ryo to interact, whether it's bumping into each other at the convenience store or Ryo taking care of Ichika when she's sick.
There's no plot, but what shines is how believable the character interactions are. Ichika doesn't fall for Ryo until later when she realizes he's actually serious about her. Ichika is your blunt outspoken MC like Haruhi from Ouran High School Host Club and she has to fall for the first male character we meet.
The love triangles are too likable.
Ichika is a breath of fresh air in shoujo protagonists. She actually says what's on her mind. She never holds back. Sure her first interaction with him was off putting, when he suggests he could "offer a night" with him. Ichika knew he wasn't serious and straight up called him a creep. Any time he does make her comfortable, like patting her head, she straight up tells him. That was actually refreshing.
It's an otherwise forgettable shoujo. There's not much plot other than when the two will actually get together. It's wholesome. Everyone's too nice. There's not much conflict.
giraffenanime
When I found out that this anime finished airing, I decided to binge it... I started watching this yesterday at 7pm and finished it the next day before 1pm... I don't usually binge this hard, but 12 episodes is so easy and the story is JUST SOOOOO CUTE!!! Now, let's get into the anime basics. Story; Our heroine Ichika Arima, your normal high-schooler, saves the man Ryo Amakusa from falling down a flight of stairs at the train station. Not having any connection whatsoever, they both don't think of each others meeting as anything important... until Ryo comes home to find Ichika on his couch. Littledid he know the high-schooler who saved his life was his sisters friend from school(WHAT A COINCIDENCE). Being his usual sleazebag self, he offers gifts and his body for saving his life, not expecting her to respond with "Are you kidding me? You're creepy, why would you offer your body to a high-schooler?". From then on, Ryo pursues Ichika with pure intentions of wanting to be her boyfriend. Where does this weirdly fated love take them? Does Ryo-san realize how creepy can be sometimes? And can they get over the age gap between them? Art; I haven't read the manga, but the animation was absolutely beautiful! Makes me want to pick up the manga right away, even though it's not officially completed. Sound; 10/10 for this sweet OST, I'll be jamming out to Monoqlo City by Ace Collection for the next twenty-four hours!!!! Characters; Main characters, close friends, family and coworkers... I LOVED THEM ALL. Everything was built up smoothly, and I didn't feel like I missing out on anyone's past/backstory (I was focusing so much on Ryo/Ichika that I didn't really care about anyone else, haha).
Overall, I really enjoyed this anime! I had an odd feeling I would, haha... I will always has a spot of romances with a weird twist (Fruits Basket, Wolf Girl and Black Prince, No Game No Life The Movie, Steins Gate, etc.) This is a fictionally anime, so I didn't mind the age gap and his "stalker-ish ways" (he got most of his intel from his sister, so I didn't find it creepy at all. Plus, I feel Ichika didn't mind from the very beginning (or didn't feel like fighting it))
I'll attempt to pick up the manga soon... sad it's not completed yet! I wonder if the anime follows the manga's story?
Kechio
I'm not a fan of long reviews so I'm going to keep this short and to the point... Just a generic shoujo aimed at females. Its as generic as generic can get with nothing new to offer other than having a 17 year old girl like a handsome, wealthy 27 year old guy, who happens to be her best friends brother. Despite this huge age gap, the show is self aware of how it is bad, although some characters don't show it. However, the heroine knows its wrong, and later on other characters mention it too as well as guy who likes the heroine.The story as I said is just a typical romance comedy, in the end it offered nothing original and was basic from the start to the end.
The art was pretty normal, there was use of CGI which was noticeable but wasn't anything too major and did not harm anything much. But other than that the art was just standard. The animations were okay I guess.
The characters were the typical you would expect. Otaku heroine who likes a handsome guy and they fall in love, classic romance. Most characters did not get much about them, so they seemed mostly bland.
The voices sounded a bit weird in my opinion but it wasn't anything major.
Story - 5
Art - 5
Sound - 4
Characters - 6
Enjoyment - 5
Overall - 5
I wouldn't say its worth watching, you can skip this. There are better shoujo out there to watch.
SkyhighCFC
Oh Koikimo...where do I begin? I actually sat down and watched all 12 weekly episodes of this show, and I just grew to hate it more and more every week. I don't even hate it for the usual reasons people seem to hate it for (the huge 10 year age gap, and the fact it's borderline pedophilia). Koikimo is about a 27-year old successful, good-looking businessman named Ryo and his romantic pursuits of his younger sister's 17-year-old high school friend whose name is Ichika. On the surface it already raises a red flag with a grown ass man romantically pursuing a high schooler, but it's notbad enough for you to just judge without giving it at least a chance. That being said though, it's MUCH worse than that summary.
Simply put Ryo's actions from start to finish were absolutely appalling. Not only did he want to sleep with her almost immediately after their 2nd time meeting, but after she denies his advances, he suddenly falls in love with her and decides he'll instead stalk, harass, send unwanted gifts and make dodgy late night phone calls with her every night? Huh?
You would think his sister, who's supposed to be Ichika's friend would condemn this type of behavior from her brother. But nope. Instead, she ENCOURAGES it, because in her words, "It would be fun to see my brother dating my best friend". Yes great reasoning for enabling and actively helping her brother's creepy behavior. Yes, she not only doesn't condemn his behavior but actively enables it and even helps him by doing things like giving him her address and phone number.
His sister isn't the only one enabling his behavior either. Ichika's mother somehow doesn't find it concering a grown ass man is sending her daughter unwanted gifts constantly and doesn't find his behavior concerning either. In fact, almost every supporting character greenlights this behavior.
There's so much more I could write about what is wrong with this anime, but I think I've said enough to display how dangerous a message it sends.
