Bayron City, a pioneering metropolis built on a newly discovered energy source, promises every citizen a luxurious and comfortable lifestyle. In reality, young demon exterminator Shuu Ogata's life is far from extravagant. Despite running a private military business, he often struggles to make ends meet due to reckless expenses. Fortunately, Kisara, his demon partner, is more than eager to help Shuu with household matters—albeit a little too forcefully for his comfort.
The two work side by side, taking countermeasures against demon hazards, which stand as the biggest threats to the city. With danger lurking in the shadows, Shuu and Kisara strive to grant the town's safety; however, exterminating the possessed comes with a price unbeknownst to others.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Marinate1016
While Lycoreco dominated the headlines and got praise for being an A-1 masterclass, I fell in love with the world and characters of Engage Kiss more and think it was the better of the two A-1 anime originals. Engage Kiss’ very first episode hooked me. Waifus, great action scenes, Grade A hentai quality kisses, it was love at first watch. But it’s not just fanservice that kept me. The story and world are very interesting and remind me quite of bit of Toaru, Strike the blood, etc. with the island city created for research trope. It’s always a major plus for me when there’s an MCwho isn’t afraid of women and can handle himself competently around them. Shuu is just that type of person and while he may have a bland design, I really enjoyed his personality and banter with the girls. I also loved how despite being a normal human, he doesn’t just sit on the sidelines and is an active participant in the action scenes.
Of course you can’t discuss a harem without the girls. Engage Kiss gives us 3 unique flavours of women to suit a diverse taste palate. The cute pink haired yandere who will do anything to keep her man safe. The blue haired ex gf who is still madly in love with the MC. And the blonde hot nun. While Kisara was pretty annoying to me, the other two waifus are among some of my faves in recent memory. There’s a waifu for everyone here and they’re all very well written. I really enjoyed how the show doesn’t take itself too seriously and allows for some pretty funny moments of jealousy between the girls. Nothing like a good old cat fight.
Speaking of fights, as you’d expect from A-1 as of late, the sakuga in Engage Kiss is pretty impressive. There’s some real talent working on this series behind the scenes and it showed in some of the big set pieces. Although it’s actually quite hard to tell which got more effort, the fight scenes or the kiss scenes.
Engage kiss is my anime of the season and I will definitely miss it. It’s a fun wild ride with great waifus, fights, an interesting story and a really cool and likeable MC. I have absolutely zero complaints with the show. I’ve been pushing this agenda for months and I wish more people would give the show a chance.
If you’re able to sit down and watch things without looking for Beethoven or DaVinci level art in everything, I think you’ll find Engage Kiss to be a blast.
Engage Kiss gets 10 demons out of 10.
Mcsuper
Imagine taking a French fry, and putting sugar on it. Imagine getting a bowl of cereal, and pouring orange juice into it. Imagine eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but the jelly was replaced with mayo. Now grab a plate, and put all these foods together and eat it all. Are you utterly confused by what I just said? That's how much I felt confused watching this show. This recipe is what I call the “Engage Kiss”, which was a plate of every trope imaginable in the most nonsensical and dumb ways sometimes, plus a lot of plot points crammed together. Harem, check! Cutegirls, check! Demons, check! Dumb waifu wars, check! Ecchi, check! Little sister, check! Rip-off Naofumi, check!
Say hello to yet another A-1 Pictures original airing this summer season, and once again, the animation and music did not miss. Everything else though, had its share of frustrating and generic moments. This show really does not start well in my opinion, and because of that, it really lost me for a good chunk of the series, except for a few very good episodes, which made this a passable series overall. If you were wondering which A-1 Pictures original from this season was better, it would easily be Lycoris Recoil. Funny enough, I’d thought for sure it’d be the other way around, but guess I was wrong.
My grading criteria: Story: /25 Art: /10 Music: /10 Characters: /20 Enjoyment /15 Thematic Execution /20
STORY: 9.8/25
To give a quick overview first, this show takes place in Bayron City, a rather futuristic and extravagant looking place that strives to give every citizen a lavish lifestyle. However, for wannabe Shield Hero MC Shuu Ogata, that is not the case. He struggles to make ends meet, and is taken care of by his demon partner, Kisara, who holds down the fort and takes care of chores. These two work side by side along with the military forces to take down demons who pose the biggest threat to the city. In order to gain enough power to defeat these formidable creatures, Shuu and Kisara must kiss for her to turn into a more powerful being. This arrangement comes at a cost for Shuu, and it whittles him down bit by bit throughout the story.
So this seems interesting right? So it seemed, but this show has quite the identity crisis in that instead of having some world building for us to understand how the city works and why the demons are here, it focused a lot of the romance aspects instead, of a lazy deadbeat and his harem who for some reason are smitten with him. To be honest, an exposition dump of why the demons were here would have been better than whatever was presented. In a show like this, you would expect that the romance would come second, and the story come first, but nah, let’s just have girls getting jealous for a big chunk of the show.
There are some good parts about the story, and some emotional bits too, and while the emotional scenes were honestly executed well, if everything was developed properly, it would have hit even harder. Otherwise, the plot is quite ambitious, but because of a lack of world building, nothing felt very significant, it just felt like many things crammed together in an attempt to make a good plot, but felt like a pile of things that didn’t mix well, just very messy.
ART: 8.9/10
The animation is quite worthy of praise. The action is fluid and the character designs are decent, except for Naofumi 2.0. The colour palette also works well. Lots of pinks that give the show its uniqueness.
MUSIC: 8.4/10
The sound is pretty solid too. The OP and ED were both great songs, and the soundtrack fit well in each scene.
CHARACTERS: 9/20
The character development in the show was quite abysmal, because first of all, there was so little backstory, so we had no idea how why all the girls like Shuu, and that made it hard to justify their motives. Kisara was the cute character, and helped Shuu make ends meet, and was also the military’s biggest weapon in countering the demons. Ayano was the more mature character who also played a role in fighting the demons. Some of the supporting cast felt more well developed than the mains honestly, especially Miles, who was Shuu’s caretaker when he was little.
Shuu, while he starts out being extremely frustrating to watch, ends up being a solid character in my opinion, but all his goodness came at a point where I already lost most of my interest in the characters.
ENJOYMENT: 8.7/15
There were good moments in this show, but few and far between. I did enjoy the action sequences too, but not much else. Pretty average throughout.
THEMATIC EXECUTION: 8/20
Like I have mentioned throughout, the lack of world building made a lot of the themes dull, and the plot points insignificant and I just found myself not caring a whole lot. The show attempts to make you feel a wide range of emotions, but it doesn’t work out very well.
OVERALL: 52.8/100
There is some minimal enjoyment to be had here, but there wasn’t a whole lot to enjoy except for the action. If you like waifus, go ahead and give this a try, but the dysfunctional plot had me bored at times, although there were a few great moments in this show. I don’t exactly know what we were served up here, but it ends up just feeling messy and tropey.
iHateAnimeBro
Engage Kiss is my favourite type of show. Not a really interesting synopsis, and has very mediocre ratings, turns out to be probably the biggest surprise of the season. Engage Kiss got its flaws, but definitely is rated way too low. [Story - 7] I can't tell I don't have objections about the storyline. The show is mixing too many themes at once, and sometimes it's hard to tell, what should you focus on more. Engage Kiss isn't a typical rom-com, as MAL suggests. There's much more action than comedy (fortunately), but when comedy is present, it doesn't help the show at all. Sometimes this comedy aspectin Engage Kiss is fitted poorly, so it ruins any meaning and mood of the moment. There are few emotional scenes in the story. This was something that honestly couldn't have been better, and made me love this show, but because of unnecessary comedy, being put before or after mentioned scene, it's hard to take it seriously. It was something that annoyed me the most during this anime. Action, along with romance is the crucial element of this show, and is good. The fight scenes are presented really well, with a proper approach, and because of that whole anime isn't boring at all. There's a love triangle at the beginning of the story, to become a harem, after introducing Sharon. As far, as I got no issues with Kisara and Ayano since their competition made the anime much more interesting, the existence of Sharon is pretty much useless, and because of that Engage Kiss follows the path of every generic, mediocre rom-com harem. The theme of fights with demons is pretty common in anime, but here I have really little, to no issues with it. The story in the first episode reminded me of SAO. A few episodes later, it was rather Date A Live (defeated enemies become allies, and sometimes even a harem). Kisara is basically Yuno from Mirai Nikki, but much more likable. Even though Engage Kiss is a mix of many things one can imagine in the anime, it's still reasonable and doesn't lose overall sense, which is praiseworthy.
[Art - 9]
Engage Kiss can easily be a flagship product of A-1 Pictures in the art category. This studio is making amazing work, when it comes to visuals, and Engage Kiss is no exception. Characters are looking really good, colours are fitting perfectly, and environments are reproduced correctly. There are little to no flaws in visuals throughout the whole show.
[Sound - 8]
Really good job with the sound. Even though I didn't find the opening theme that catchy, the soundtrack fits really well. In more serious scenes, it keeps the mood pretty well. It also builds up tension properly. The sounds during the fight are good and so is the voice. Can't complain!
[Characters - 7]
It should be higher and could be a higher rating if the show didn't end up being a generic harem, as I mentioned in the story section. Even though I found introducing the crazy nun, quite bad, what can be said about Shuu's sister? I honestly don't know how to treat her character, cause it looks like she's also about to be part of the Shuu's harem. So basically another loli, so that Engage Kiss won't be much more different, than every harem, by an accident. End of the rant, let's examine the main characters.
Kisara is by far my favourite character in the series and the fact that I find Engage Kiss enjoyable. Viewers may see her as manipulative, controlling, and not worth the trust, but her real side can be seen at the moment she gives Shuu back all of his memories, even though it means losing her own. She also genuinely cares and loves MC. Kisara always wants the best for Shuu, even if it means, she'll lose out on it. Kisara also shows respect to Ayano in some situations, since she knows how much Ayano means to Shuu ("You are willing to embrace a woman you do not love, to get your objective. You even discard memories of the woman you love, so you can save her"). If viewers dive deeper into her character, it can be easily seen, Kisara is a very nice, helpful, and respectful girl, which makes her really likable. This respect is shown also for Ayano, even if she's her "enemy".
Ayano is another girl in Shuu's harem, or rather his ex-girlfriend. Her feeling, however, didn't change at all. She's still in love with her ex-boyfriend. Ayano is a pretty unlucky girl, since her boyfriend supposedly left her, because of the contract with a demon (Kisara). There's not much more about her backstory, other than that, Shuu was pretty irresponsible in many situations in the past. The whole thing with the harem wasn't her fault, but rather the immature behaviour of Shuu, but that's probably a topic for another discussion. Even though they broke up quite a while ago, Ayano still genuinely cares for him and tries to get him back. She's very stubborn, outgoing, and confident, which suits perfectly the role she has in her mother's business. Since her character is written on a really surface level there's not much more to be said.
The main protagonist Shuu is a character about which I got mixed feelings. At the first sight, he seems to be pretty likable. After a while viewers can feel, he doesn't really care about other people's feelings. Yet, he uses a demon girl, only to reveal the truth about his family's death, and to find his lost sister. He also left Ayano, for the same purpose. But he's doing this all for his family? So he's justified? Well... Not really. At least in my eyes. His behavior can be seen as a little obsessive, and I know, it is hard to deal with losing your parents, or even your whole family. Unfortunately, it doesn't justify hurting other people. But hey, it is just a rom-com anime, and Ayano is pretty naive, so whatever. Besides that, Shu shows genuine respect for Miles (who is actually a pretty decently written character) and is motivated to fight every demon he encounters in Bayron City since his family died because of them a few years before. He seemed to have the best character development throughout the series.
Sharon is the most unnecessary character I could ever imagine. As far as she was a decent enemy, during her first appearance in the anime, her backstory, and behaviour toward MC are at least funny. Just another girl to the Shuu's harem, but this time it's a hot nun, with pretty crazy combat skills.
[Enjoyment - 9]
Even if the story got some smaller or bigger flaws, I still enjoyed Engage Kiss. There's much romance and much action. Sometimes, viewers were able to witness some more emotional scenes too. I loved Kisara's character. Ayano was really good too. I liked some supporting characters I didn't mention before as well. The story was interesting, and I genuinely wanted to know, what will happen next. Engage Kiss did not bad as a rom-com, but unfortunately, there are many signs, that it is just another harem anime, which are countless in the market already. I still call Engage Kiss pretty original, since it does many things better than other anime from this genre. This show wasn't far from being extraordinary.
Summing this all up. Yes, Engage Kiss is a mix of everything. This mix, however, is pretty tasty. There's a bit of everything here, so at the end of the day, everyone will find something for themselves. I wish more people would taste this title. Not only it is not popular, but it's also really underrated. What I can do, for now, is give an honest 8/10, so it will lift the rating just a little bit.
FutureAnimeK
I'm just gonna be honest Anime (9.6 so I gave it a 10) Has Good Animation, Story, and keeps you entertained through all eps Makes you sad and happy and gives alot of action. It's a (hidden Gem) I think those who rate anime now these days throw shade cause it's not big 3 material. (Don't listen to everyones reviews not even mine) WATCH THE ANIME FOR YOURSELF ---------------------------------------------- THAT BEING SAID BIAS OPINION THIS ANIME IS EPIC AND HAD ME EXCITED AND BROKEN AT THE SAME TIME! LOVE IT NEED MORE ANIME LIKE THIS SORRY TO THE PEOPLE WHO DONT GET THE FAN SERVICE. P.S FAN SERVICE RUINS ANIME.GLAD THEY STUCK TOO THE STORY... 10 OUT OF 10 FOR THIS ANIME CAUSE ITS 9.6 WHICH IS CLOSE TO 10.
BlackCrowGrows
"Engage kiss" is what comes out after an anime is adapted from a fucked up story with no get-go. After watching the first episode one would initially think that this is a erotica bundled with some fucked up sci-fi plot having just to cater the needs of lonely man and their bottom half, and well... it is exactly that. But the thing is that it fails to even do that, i.e the basic purpose for which it is made. The protagonist of the story is a fucking loser with 0 talent and skills, but he is still able to maintain a harem of women head overheels over him just because of his fictional privileges. Not only that, but even the side characters just revolve around the MC and have no self care/ decision making abilities. And on top of that the MC is an asshole and a hypocrite who's basically living controlled by his dick each turn.
The fight scenes and the art being the only good thing about this garbage is what made me to stick around till the end. Otherwise, this is an absolute boring piece of trash not worth even looking.
Ionliosite2
Engage Kiss, also known as Project Engage as the very Japanese Wikipedia page calls it, since it is a mixed-media project that got an anime, a manga and an announced game at the same time, this is definitely not the first time you see something similar to a mixed-media project that works exactly this way, and if you were tuned in for the Fall 2021 season then you should have heard of Tatk Op Destiny, I think I learned that too late. So, for a short TLDR, when you give a semi-interesting plot to an insufferable cast of characters you get what Engage Kiss is. Shuis probably one of the least likable MCs I have seen in a while, when watching him for the first time you can see that he is some kind of lame scrounger guy that everything he does is beg people for favors and apologizing to them while being also extremely poor for making the lowest bets possible in demon hunting which irritates the other demon hunters. But then you discover he is a scrounger that is fine with leaving everything behind including his memories as long as he can know the cause for his parent’s death and to save his sister that he thinks that is still alive due to some dreams he has, doing all of this without caring about the girl that he himself admits to love (even if it doesn’t seem that much, but more about that later) or literally not caring if he remembers anything at all because the thing that powers up Kisara is losing part of his memories.
Also, I wonder if this series can stop for a second to show me how much of a Casanova Shu is really, first we get that Ayano is Shu’s ex-girlfriend and that he lived with her, not long after breaking up with her he got into something with Sharon having sex with her but after dumping (read as: poisoning) her he got Kisara who he named by the name of the first girl he kissed. Also apparently he had sex after drinking and paid the hotel he and the girl stayed in with Ayano’s credit card and probably many more that weren’t mentioned, this series really went through such lengths to mention that he was with any girl on existence. And for some reason girls like Ayano are still crawling on their feet to be with Shu that she goes on her way to have sex with him again because he is just that “awesome” to have girl after girl going for him, I want to say that I feel bad for her but she is the one that is trying to keep going with that no matter how many times Shu disappoints her. No, showing your character having sex doesn’t make him suddenly good or cool, I don’t need his sexual relationships thrown down my throat as if he were a hentai protagonist.
I started watching this series because a friend of mine said “hey, you like Date A Live watch this series, they are similar”, so I decided to take a watch because why not? And by the end of the very first episode I realized that this series is not like Date A Live at all. I don’t want to engage in too much DAL talking, but since it was basically what made me watch this series I’ll make a little point, just take a little comparison to the main character of Date A Live, Shidou and the main character of Engage Kiss, Shu. Shidou is a guy that lives with his sister, they are basically alone since their parents seem to always be busy, he is the one that takes care of domestic labor in the house, his power is to kiss a Spirit and seal their powers, he is a playboy that keeps around his girls to have them happy. Meanwhile with Shu the girls he knows have to do everything for him from cooking, paying his debts, etc and this is not only done from 1 girl but for 2 girls, his contract with Kisara makes it so that she gets stronger with a kiss, he is also a playboy but one who has basically no problem dumping the girls he has been with if he already did his objective with her. Now, I’m not saying that I want every MC to be like Shidou or that he is a masterclass protagonist, but really, he is far better than what I’m watching in Shu.
I think the funniest joke of this series was in episode 12 when they said that Kanna, Shu’s little sister, never matured emotionally past the age of 3 and wants to kill the girls that are around Shu because she was apparently connected to him all this time in his dreams and saw how he had sex with them and that's why she is angry at them, it was definitely hilarious... but then I saw how everyone on screen was dead serious on that, I had to stop the episode for a moment to realize that it was actually 100% serious and that it was sadly funnier than the other jokes this series did.
Now, now, not everything is bad, the part of the story that addressed Miles and Shu’s relationship was pretty good, I think it was nicely done the way they showed the bond between people that are not blood-related but who can have a parental relationship. The animation is also of nice quality with the sakuga going around across the fights, and the kiss scenes are really well done and animated, as I supposed you should expect from a series that has kiss in its name.
Engage Kiss tried to be a normal romcom with action at the beginning, then it tried to be more serious with its plot but it failed miserably doing so by the point that even at the final battle they are making terrible jokes and even the serious stuff being unintentionally funny. The characters alone make me not want to take a look at this series since aside from Shu’s lameness and his harem they were pretty vapid to me, there’s a reason I didn’t even touch the side characters on this review, they might as well not exist and not much changes. Really, the only thing you will get from this series is some eye candy with the cool animation, but at the end of the day this is just a 3 hours commercial for the game that is still waiting its launch at the time of writing this.
Thank you for reading.
Stark700
It's ambigious to say exactly what Engage Kiss appeals to for its target audience. Most people will probably watch it for its romance context while others may find interest related to its sci-fi storyline. Engage Kiss strikes to me as a risky project because it tries many elements at once. Whether it's trying to engage in relationships with its main cast or tell a colorful story, Engage Kiss does earn its reptuation for what it sells. Perhaps the most obvious is how much romance context the anime throws at the audience from the start. From the promotional poster, preview videos, and even title itself, it's easyto designate this anime with a romance genre tag. Videos on the Internet have spawned memes for this show, so clearly there's a target audience. The premise of the show speaks for itself that follows the lives of characters Shuu, his partner Kisara, and former co-worker and girlfriend Ayano. As you'd imagine, a love triangle is practically set up from the start between the three. That's however the least of their worries. For in this anime, it takes place in Bayron City, where we are introduced to demons known a 'D Hazards'. They threaten humanity and it's up to Shu and his partner Kisara to take care of business.
Engage Kiss' first episodes clearly doesn't hide its intentions. As the title suggests, we are greeted early on with how much Kisara adores her partner. Even though they have a contract between each other that requires kissing, it's also plainly obvious that she enjoys kissing him beyond such reasons. Similarly, Shu's former co-worker Ayano displays degrees of jealousy and it shouldn't take rocket science to realize she still harbors feelings for him. From this viewpoint, the show may feel like it's also setting up for the 'three episode' rule. That means for this anime, the first three episodes can make or break for its viewers. Let me just say that if you're not a fan of generic love triangles or science fiction stories, then this anime may be worth dodging a bullet for.
If you managed to get through past the first three episodes, then do be prepared for a somewhat deeper story that's been told on the surface. For intance, we learn more about Shu's past and how he's linked to Kisara and Ayano. Later on, we are introduced to Sharon, a young woman who dresses like a nun and has her own history with Shu. When watching this show, it seems Shu attracts from the opposite sex without him realizing it. Some fans may designate the anime as a 'harem' and to be honest, it does give off such vibes at times. Nonetheless, the anime does make it clear that he deeply cares about his friends. On the other hand, the relationship dynamics of this anime can be mixed. The show tries its best to sell character relatinoships, in particular between Shu and Kisara. However, Kisara's character personality often comes off as childish and even impulsive. I know the anime plays it for jokes for her occasionally yandere-like reactions, but it's hard to get behind her character when she practically throws herself at Shu whenever she gets the chance. Ayano also suffers from character development despite her connection with Shu. Being more mature than her love rival, she also displays moments of insecurity and characteristics related to a tsundere. On a fundamental, she does have geninue feelings towards her ex-boyfriend in the present timeline. In one particular episode, it's clearly obvious that she loves him but hey, Shu's got more to worry than about dating.
It's hard to come into this anime with high expectations when we have Tomoya Tanaka as the director. Upon checking their resume, their most recent work 'Visual Prison' left little to be desired. Even with an established company such as Aniplex behind its marketing campaign, Engage Kiss felt like it was overshadowed by some of their recent lineup. That is to say, this anime is better watched at how you want to than what it shows. In other words, you need an open mind to truly enjoy this anime and adapt with how the relationships are protrayed. But to be honest, none of the main cast is any unique by writing standards. They're set up to carry their role as how the story protrays them to be. Furthermore, Engage Kiss supporting cast and antagonists are heavily overshadowed by our main trio protagonists. Yes, even Sharon, the badass nun we see is no match for the lips of Kisara or Ayano when it comes to getting television time.
Animated by A-1 Pictures, you can tell right away it's from their studio. Let's face it, character designs does look fluid but often lack the 'wow factor'. By anime adaptation standards, I had expected this show to at least make the D Hazards look unique. Unfortuantely, it falls short and the action scenes doesn't truly impress either. However, if you're looking for some fan servicy kisses, then look no further. As the title states, you're going to see a lot of kisses being engaged between the main cast. Oh and sometimes, there's also saliva because the anime wanted to the kisses look more engaging.
Engage Kiss knew its intent from the start by engaging a show about an unsettling utopia, demons, and a whole load of kisses. Mind you, that's not a flaw and it's actually quite a catchy way of getting our attention. But sometimes, you have to wonder how much is too much. Those kissing segments can be very distracting and even in later episode when the plot deepens, you sometimes forget what the anime's true purpose is about. That is, Engage Kiss is still watchable but you're not going to get a masterpiece from this folks.
DragonTheOne
Set inside a fantasy world, Engage Kiss tells a tale of the dysfunctional relationship between a demon who harbors unrequited love, and a human who is so obsessed with revenge that he goes to extreme lengths to achieve his goals. Engage Kiss is an anime that requires the audience to be cultured enough to approach the show with an open mind and not be offended by fictional anime characters even if you disagree with the way they act. The characters have been purposefully made to have a few unlikable traits and flaws; especially the male MC whose relationship with the heroine starts off as a toxicand manipulative one. If you cannot agree that not every MC needs to be perfect for self-insert or morally flawless, then you are not the target audience of this show. I also need to caution potential viewers that despite the show being advertised as a slapstick romantic comedy, it is not the case for a good chunk of the show where it contains a significant amount of melancholic drama that is brilliantly executed to tug at one’s heartstrings. Now if you are still mentally able to accept this show, then you will come to appreciate Engage Kiss as a hidden gem of Maruto’s work.
Shu is a demon exterminator who is in hot pursuit of the demon responsible for his parent’s death and finding clues to search for his little sister whom he believes to still be alive. To accomplish his goals, he needed power that significantly exceeds the capabilities of himself and his then-girlfriend, Ayano. Hence he left Ayano to form a contract with a powerful demon, Kisara. In their time spent together, Kisara has grown to love him more than anything, but her overpowering feelings are not being reciprocated by Shu who only treats her like a tool. Using Kisara’s demonic powers also comes at a terrible cost that is destroying him bit by bit, which creates a dilemma for Kisara and a strong rivalry with Ayano, who is against Shu’s method of doing things but has to accept her helplessness at the situation.
The premise of Engage Kiss has been well set up to deliver a love triangle where both heroines have their own compelling reasons for the audience to empathize and root for, and to delve into the mysteries surrounding the male protagonist's tragic past. The execution of the show is excellent, and as an anime original, it has been directed in a way that takes full advantage of its weekly episodic format and lack of source material to maximize the audience’s engagement and anticipation.
One of the story’s charms is that it utilizes a lot of backstories to constantly reshape the narratives of the characters. The characters were intentionally made to feel shallow initially, then given more depth as their past and motivations are revealed. My first impression of the heroine is that she is a possessive yandere succubus but later discovered that she is the most selfless person who genuinely loves Shu unconditionally and put his wellbeing above everything else. I initially thought that Shu is a useless deadbeat, but later learned that he is the succubus all along with his ability to seduce any girl and even incapacitated a nun by poisoning her during sex. We also learned how tragic Shu’s past is and that his goals are noble although the manner that he carries them out is contentious, which results in a unique character that is detestable but also someone that the audience can sympathize.
The animation and voice acting are top-notch, and I have to especially give credit to Saya Aizawa for perfectly nailing her role as Kisara. From her shiver-inducing yandere voice to her soft-as-cotton gentle tone; her ability to perfectly vocalize every type of expression and bring to life a multi-faceted character never ceased to amaze me. Her devotion to playing her role as Kisara can be seen in her social network account where she constantly talks about how much she loves the character and has even made three cover songs of Kisara.
Nonetheless, the main selling point of Engage Kiss has to be the development between Kisara and Shu. Their relationship started out being one of the most dysfunctional and manipulative couples in anime and reforms towards one with genuine love and trust by the end. This beautiful relationship development has made Engage Kiss a must-watch for any romance drama fans.
From the flashy rom-com first episode to the heart-tugging drama and shocking revelations in the middle, to a smooth ending, Engage Kiss has faithfully served the audience what they wanted to see – romance, comedy, action, and drama, all exceptionally well-packaged with excellent animation and voice acting into a single series.
Shabo-kun
Engage Kiss is anime with greater potentional, but unfortunatelly it didn’t manage to utilize it that well. There is lot of scenes where series completely slips into mediocrity and harem cliché. Thing is there is also plenty of scenes which are commendable either plot-wise, solid fights or nicely done ecchi kissing scenes. All these made me wonder how to rate this show. I’m an average ecchi fan of some occasional fan service with some boobas, asses or kissing if it’s well done and not on children like characters as it can be good addition to spice things up. Needles to say that this is one ofthe stronger aspects of the series as kissing feels comparatively real
and "hot". On the other hand when fanservice is the only thing on point which can series offer it’s impossible to take it seriously.
Don’t be fooled as Engage Kiss is trying to incorporate more major elements like interesting storyline, diverse characters, relationship drama and romance or sci-fi. This effort not to rely on one aspect makes it piece worth watching. The execution could be better which is the main reason of unfulfilled potential.
Story: 6,5/10
First of all story takes place in futuristic modern city which perfectly fits with each other more then some post-apocaliptic world like Darling in the Franxx or Chrome Shelled Regios for example, plus this setting was used so much in other shows that it’s not a best option unless it’s done in solid quality like those mentioned.
Major issue of the plotline is that it’s easily predictable with a few exceptions. One such exception which I couldn’t predict was in episode 12 relating to memories of Kisara and Shuu, who watched certainly knows. Situations with predictable outcome are much
more often whatever they are most fights, reason of Kanna fighting the girls which was by the way stupid as hell and could be more impactful than average brother complex, villians motives etc.
Introduction of the world also wasn’t precise which is pitty, because more worldbuilding would certainly helped it’s plotline as such. Story jumps right into it and process to focus more on romance from the beginning and not so much on why are things the way they are and how did the world end up in this whole demon situation. In consenquence of that love story often overshadows all that major issues that the whole city is dealing with until few latest episodes.
Romance, drama and emotional side of the plot are main players of the show. In comparison sci-fi elements are not excecuted
as well but still done on point to be interesting enough. Whole memories losing thing makes these interactions mainly between
Ajano and Shoo more dramatic and almost heartbreaking from her point of view that it’s not just typical love drama. Also it reveals
devoted maybe little bit twisted side of an MC, who willingly sacrifices memories of his loved one to save his family without much thinking about it. Obviously it’s extremely hard choice to make and hard to say how would any of us act in situation like that, but it certainly doesn’t feel right. There are nice dynamics between Kisara and Shuu relationship which seems like he uses her mainly at
the beginning, but as story progress he shows the audience his real feelings about her.
Ending was little bit dissapointing as it was typical harem-like ending where multiple girls argue about nosense in front of an MC.
Characters: 6/10
Characters has same issue as story and that is poor introduction. Show starts with every FL already thirstin for MC and we have no
idea why except of Kisara later on. This is especially true in case of Ayano and Sharon which motives of love for an MC are unclear even at the end of the show. In consenquence it was harder to emphatize with these FLs or even uderstand their actions and affection towards Shuu. Shuu is character which has from lead characters the most vigorous character development. At the beginning he wasn’t quite likable and evoked mixed feelings of bitterness and empathy as his problems were complex and obvious, but his actions were at least questionable. In the end he was able to learn from his mistakes that in order to find someone important you can’t sacrifice everything and everyone else, because then it hurts not only yourself but everyone around you to even see you like that. Character development of others was minimal. Each of the girls is basically same as she was in first debut if you won’t count some memory loss which I don’t see as any development.
Overall characters aren’t inovative in any way and their characters traits in general are similar to others from another shows. There isn’t an character which would be literally bad or unlikable to the point I would rather stick my manhood to the outlet, on the other hand there also isn’t character which would be top-notch. Still they are mostly fine enough to be likable and somehow "carry" the show. Most interesting characters were Miles with most impactful character development and complexity, Akino which seems mysterious and rational. From main characters pobably Kisara as she is simply most likable.
Art: 8/10
Artwork and animations are really well done either in fighting, shots from affar on the surroundings or just casual talking and walking in the city. Also design of the characters is stylish and smooth. There isn’t anything bad what can be pointed out maybe except the fact, that there are still better looking pieces in terms of art.This is the only reason why I won’t rate it higher as very good, because the bar for perfection is set high in nowadays anime production.
Music/Sound: 5/10
Music and sound effects throughout the show was on point and it fits the anime well BUT...
Opening and ending was in my opinion completely appalling and I awaited my time to skip it as your average gym pump skips leg days. It was so bad that I was embarrassed when it started to play for the first time and didn’t manage to skip it in time, if my neighbours didn’t overheared this creation as it is worse then old german movies for adults. In the end my rating is average mainly thanks to the hauntingly bad OP/ED either way it was solid.
Enjoynment: 6/10
Engage Kiss was for quite a long time in my On-hold section almost to my oblivion. This speaks for itself as I wasn’t eager to start re-watching it at all. After doing so, show delivered me higher quality harem like anime which isn’t bad, but won’t stick in my memory either. One of the biggest positives is that I wasn’t bored during the show at all. It has mostly a nice flow which keeps you steady, but except of few rarities it didn’t evoke any deeper emotions of happiness, anger, sympathy or surprise as well.
Overall: 6/10
If you like classical harem anime tropes with solid animations and action go for it. Still there is a lot of plot holes, bland/cliché characters and basically nothing original in order to count it as quality anime. Most likely majority of audience will be able to enjoy emotionally and plotwise undemanging fun which is exactly what they get. The plus is you get to see well made kissing and fan service scenes which aren’t pointless this time as they are in many other harem shows.
It’s deffinitely not a piece for everyone, but I would still recommend it for majority of other viewers.
AnimeEnjoyer420
Recommendation: Trashy, full of plot holes and fanservice, and tonally all over the map. It's like a throwback to anime from 15 years ago and your enjoyment of it will depend on just how fond you are of that era. Engage Kiss is Anime As Hell basically from the opening moments of the series. The protagonist, Shuu, is a loser that bums money from his demon girlfriend, Kisara, and he fights other demons by sloppily french kissing her to turn her into an edgy one winged goth girl. The love triangle between these two and the protagonist's ex girlfriend, Ayano, forms the core of the earlyseries. It sometimes gets tiring watching two cute girls argue over which of them loves a scumbag more, and you learn little about any of them through all this idle bickering. This all leads into a questionable shift in tone that ends up being a constant problem throughout the series.
Around the end of episode 3, the series takes a jarring turn into tragic melodrama as Shuu's backstory and the particulars of his relationship with Kisara start to be revealed. It comes across poorly after 3 episodes of goofy romcom antics, and the series is never able to pick a lane and settle into a comfortable rhythm as it flips between these two modes for its entire run. Several episode-closing moments that are intended to be weighty and emotional are also comically undercut by the chipper opening lines of the ED crashing into the scene like the damn Kool Aid Man.
Overall, I think the show would have been better served by sticking with the silly romcom stuff rather than make frequent half-hearted attempts to Get Serious in a show with a premise that's difficult to take seriously even when it's firing on all cylinders. That is exemplified by my personal favorite character in the series, Sharon Holygrail, the slutty, motorcycle-ridin', hard-drinkin' combat nun. Her mere existence is ridiculous and over the top in the exact ways that I want anime to be. The most enduringly memorable scene of the entire series involves Shuu literally poisoning his own dick and then having sex with her to paralyze her. That is the kind of stupidity I was hoping for from this series, not the kind of mediocre angst that often brings the show's momentum to a stop. Engage Kiss is at its best when it leans into comical excess and doesn't take itself seriously rather than attempting dramatic plot developments. It's very fun in those best moments, but is too inconsistent to give an unqualified recommendation to.
Senpaika
Engage Kiss. The title is so uninteresting that everyone has watched this anime and hoped that this was finally a good hentai. But instead, they had watched a total uninovative, so predictable garbage. The overall quality of this anime is so shitty that even my grandmom could think of a better story and title. The whole story is situatte on a small island with our main character being a total douchebag. Somehow he is clearing the city of all demons with his demon servant, with whom he has a contract that he has to give him *redacted*. It could be summarized as: Get to know amain character a little bit (They never explain the powers and shit of his), give him an amnesia and a demon servant whom he pays by giving him his memories, some girls he supposedly somehow dated and are interested in him. Let him kill some demons. Wow, now comes his family tragic story "How unexpected! *laughting on the floor*". And then let him fight his sister end. So copy paste anime. I cant say anything. Go watch better shit than this!
1ryb
If you know Maruto Fumiaki from Saekano and White Album 2, you would probably be very surprised to hear that he had written an original battle show. Well, at least I was. After all, both of his most famous works were very firmly in the traditional high school romance genre: it's hard to imagine him writing something so out of his comfort zone. Right? Right...? Well, it turns out, Engage Kiss is a very Maruto show. He is, without a doubt, a master at playing with the conventions of the romance genre in anime culture, and Engage Kiss is no different. White Album 2 asked thequestion: what happens when the high school harem protagonist grows up? While he presented a very well written, if conventional love triangle plot in the Introductory Chapter (which is the only part that got adopted into anime), in Closing Chapter and Coda he turned those conventions on their heads to present a thought-provoking tear-jerker on the meaning of love and becoming adult in modern society. On a glance, Saekano returned to those conventions, but the main heroine, Megumi, was anything but conventional. That work was a meditation on the trope characters in anime culture, and an exploration into precisely how to break those tropes. In both of his most famous works, he took those conventions that defined anime culture and bent it to his will, creating something truly unique to him.
And that trend continues with Engage Kiss. Here, the question he asks is: what happens if you put those harem tropes into a serious battle anime? In this sense, the show has a lot of similarities with Lycoris Recoil, the "other" original show from A1 this season often compared together with it. That show tries to combine yuri tropes with battle/social critique. Yet if Lycoris started on a very high note but ended somewhat blandly, Engage Kiss is the exact opposite: it started with all kinds of cliché only to end up with a genuinely good story. What started out as trope characters, including the good-for-nothing male main character and the two love rivals who are somehow mysteriously attached to said male character, were given a lot of depth to their motivations. In typical Maruto fashion, he self-consciously creates characters based on those tropes, but then laughs at them by turning them on their head.
You can feel this from the ending theme of the show, Renai Nou, literally translated as "Romance Brain", a term often used to refer to people who are obsessed with love and relationships. The theme couldn't be more fitting for the first few episodes, yet as the show progresses, it almost feels like a prank created to laugh at the viewer for assuming things based on the tropes. This is especially true for episode 9, the definite highlight of the show. The cheerful ending theme plays right after an extremely well-presented tragic scene, as if saying "haha, got you, you thought this was a harem rom-com didn't you?"
The show itself is filled with such jankiness. Everything are cheap on the surface, and intentionally so, but, like a playful child, Maurto just piles them one on top of another because why not? Indeed, why not? It turns out 1+1>2, and the result is a show that is consistently and incredibly fun. It's nothing to write home about, but if you want a solid watch, one that blends typical Maruto-ism with a battle anime twist, you will find yourself having a good time with this show.
i-like-this
The Devil is a Sloppy Kisser. Engage Kiss is another A1 original anime, this time of the sloppy make-out variety. Set on a floating isle metropolis, the city has a slight demon infestation problem. Luckily a whole cottage industry of independent demon hunters has popped up whom the city hires to deal with demon attacks if the contractor bids low enough. Shuu Ogata is usually the one to win these contracts because he bids so low that he’s constantly broke. However, he has a secret weapon in his powerful, pink-haired demon partner Kisara who also happens to be head over heels for him. However, thereis a price for using her powers and it’s up to Shuu to find his missing family and take revenge on the demon who was responsible before that price is paid in full.
“Engage Kiss” is a battle anime and a silly one at that. I can see this being critiqued as ‘trashy’ understandable by some, but there's a lot of fun to be had if you’re willing to raise yourself a bit above the honestly, not very low bar. The art and animation are of high quality, the action is slick and well directed, the dialogue witty and sharp, and there are not many anime where the main protagonists Yandere demon girlfriend and his tsundere ex-girlfriend fight each other to the death whilst fending themselves off from a pack of demon dogs.
Shuu himself is an interesting protagonist. He’s motivated mainly by revenge and his disregard for work plus his general attitude towards those who care about him does make him come off as an asshole, but there are also a lot of layers to the story which once peeled back add a tragic nuance to his character which explains a lot of his actions. Later in the series, I was surprised at how his character development caught me off guard to the point that I genuinely teared up at a certain scene in the latter half of the season.
The two main women in his life Kisara and his ex Ayano have beef with each other. Kisara is a total sweetheart until her man is threatened and Ayano is a straight-laced militia leader who's growing concern over what Kisara’s powers are doing to Shuu keeps her coming back to him. These two have wonderful on-screen presence and banter with each other, and they’re always a delight. Especially Ayano… for simping reasons.
I can’t say much about the other side characters. They’re certainly a weaker area when it comes to the presentation of the show. Even Sharon the demon-killing nun whose introduction was very fun and memorable felt like it came a bit too late into the season to stand out.
I overall really enjoyed Engage Kiss. The story does lose its way and it’s identity a bit towards the end which feels like another case of an original anime trying to over-egg the pudding in the space of 12 episodes, but I do think the ending makes up for that. The rest of the time it’s a very horny kiss of a time and I like my horny kisses. Also, he may be an asshole, but Shuu fucks, and he doesn’t need to buy a slave girlfriend to Stockholm syndrome to do that.
8/10 Great.
Chief_AJ
Engage Kiss was one of two A1 pictures anime originals this season, and unfortunately, I have to say that it kind of disappointed me. It's not that it's bad, but there were some pretty big pacing flaws and just flaws with some of the characters and the story in general. To me, it was an anime with a pretty promising concept that failed to deliver on its potential. Art: 8 One thing I can’t take away from it though is the fact that the art is great. I thought the character designs were a bit generic, but the animation was really stellar. Every fight scene wasalso pretty hype to watch. I do think the music was kind of just okay which is my biggest issue with the art.
Characters: 7
Personally, I’m a bit torn with the characters. I think some of them like Miles, and Ayano were done really well, but I can’t stand behind the MC. The main character is genuinely not a good person, and I think defending him is okay, but not the number of times they did defend him throughout the anime. But it's not all bad with Shu, as I think some of his choices are a little justified to a point, and his backstory is genuinely depressing, but sometimes I felt like he went too far.
Story: 5
To be honest the story felt like lost potential, too inconsistent. I think there were a lot of good moments with the story, but it felt like they tried to fit too many things within the 13 episodes. I think this anime would've been a lot better if the pacing issues were solved and it just had more episodes to really explain each event that happened because at the end of the day it just felt like the anime jumped around too much which could lead to some confusion. Overall it wasn’t a bad anime, but it could've been a lot better. 6/10
AliceCrosshart
I am pleasantly surprised by this relatively undiscovered anime gem. The storyline is engaging, complemented by impressive animation throughout. While there are occasional moments that feel cliché, the overall narrative shows promise and room for improvement. Interestingly, I couldn't help but draw comparisons to the popular "Date A Live" series, as there are undeniable similarities. Despite initial skepticism, there have been rumors circulating about a potential continuation of the anime, especially considering the recent release of the mobile game "ENGAGE KILL." It's exciting to think about the possibilities this could bring, although I hope the show takes a unique direction rather than simply emulating "DateA Live" in a more mature and ecchi manner.
One commendable aspect of this anime is its mature exploration of themes, setting it apart from its counterpart. However, my primary criticism lies in the lack of diversity among the female characters' appearances. It's disheartening to see that they all possess nearly identical hairstyles, with only variations in color. In contrast, the male characters exhibit distinct designs that make them visually distinct. This lack of variation among the female characters' appearances could be seen as the anime's major shortcoming, potentially hindering its overall impact.
summerxd666
This review focuses on my hatred towards Ayano,she is nothing but a jealous and spiteful annoying ex despite being the older one she is the most immature, sure kisara can be immature but it dosnt compare to ayano and kisara’s gotten better.Ayano takes out her emotions about shus choices and decisions HE willingly chose to make knowing fully well what HE was doing out on kisara.SHU chose to break up with her chose to get rid of and give the memories he has of her to kisara,kisara didn’t ask or make him do any of this yet she still takes it out on her insteadof shu.
Not only that but she ridicules things done between shu and kisara as if she has any right to when its no of her business and she has no say as shu broke up with her. As well as the way she acts as if shu still having memories with her matters or has an impact, there not even her memories so not choice and she needs to stfu, im not saying it doesn't make a difference at all but that shu clearly didn’t care about them enough or he wouldn’t have gotten rid of them and when he still chose to break up with her when he had them.
Kisara is far better then me she could easily wipe out the entire city she’s an S rank demon and even they’ve admitted she’s way to strong and that she would win against the whole city. She could easily kill Ayano and Ayano has said it herself that kisara is much stronger, personally if I was kisara I would’ve killed Ayano already she’s annoying rude to you makes snide comments about anything you have to say constantly makes moves to the guy u like when he’s broken up with her so she shouldn’t even be talking to shu and when you save her useless weakass from dying and protect her she complains like a bitch and is just insufferable.
That’s all so to put it simple I fucking hate ayano
Zaphets
At first it seemed to be just a bit quirky and cutesy series. It maintained that sentiment throughout, but the series actually features an interesting mystery within the elaborate world they successfully created. They started revealing the secrets in episodes 2 and 3 as they adopted a more serious tone. There were unexpected moments as they tried to solve the main mystery, but a lot of the time an engaged viewer would eventually see it coming as they gave clear clues before each bigger breakthrough. It was mature, but also goofy, so there's a certain paradox involved, but it seemed sufficiently balanced to be enjoyable. Theycreated a unique world that set up a lot of interesting situations.
Edenharley
Engage Kiss honestly surprised me with how good it was, I went into this really not expecting much but I was impressed with the animation and also just the overall tone and vibe they went for. It was lighthearted and the comedy hit pretty well for me, I thought the dialogue felt really natural too so much as to where it's worth mentioning, characters were always so full of energy when they talked to each other and it felt like genuine conversation. I loved the animation in this show, everything was bright and also really cleanly done - the fights were honestly really engaging andoverall the character movements etc. were really fluid and made it much easier to watch.
I liked the characters a lot in this show, usually in genres like this the main character offers nothing to the show whatsoever but Shu was a very fun protagonist, it's always great to see a confident character with believable flaws and I like his general attitude a lot - the supporting cast were great too especially the main girls, the whole dynamic was never boring and again I'm just impressed at how real and natural everything felt in this, they felt and behaved like actual human beings. The soundtrack too is worth mentioning briefly, overall it was above average and fit the show really well.
Overall I'd say this is definitely one of the better shows in the genre, I had a lot of fun with it and it's definitely memorable!
hexashadow13
Engage Kiss is an original anime written by Fumiaki Maruto with designs by Tsunako and animated by A-1. That’s definitely makes it sound like it has quite a lot going for it. But on the other hand, it wasn’t exactly reviewed all that well and it’s part of a mixed media project that culminated in a mobile game that ended service in less than a year. So that might make you want to stay away. I don’t know what’s up with anything beyond the anime, but the anime on its own isn’t as bad as the reviews suggest. Rather, I’d say it’s actually very good. Thisanime takes place in Bayron City, an artificial island independent city state that is infested with demons. Due to various circumstances, the extermination of demons is handled by PMCs. Most of these PMCs are professional outfits, but one is composed of just a man named Shuu and his partner Kisara. They’re incredibly unprofessional, but they’re also the best PMC in Bayron due to the fact that Kisara is a powerful demon, and the only demon fighting on the side of humanity. However, that doesn’t make this an easy job for Shuu or Kisara, in that most all the other PMCs hate them and after damages are deducted they usually get paid so little they often aren’t able to make ends meet. Despite that, Shuu is determined to stay in this line of work because his true goal isn’t money, but rather to find a lead on who killed his family twelve years ago.
Shuu is an incredibly interesting character who has a lot of depth. He’s actually very similar to the protagonist of DameKoi, a visual novel also written by Maruto. He’s someone that can be incredibly proactive and willful when it comes to what he cares about, but when it comes to things he doesn’t he shrugs them off completely. In addition, he’s someone whose idea of doing the right thing is sacrificing himself for others. However, he completely ignores how that affects the people that care about him and he pays little attention to their concerns or them trying to help him. He’s incredibly immature and fundamentally hypocritical. However, that’s what makes him such a fun character.
Over the course of his character arc, he comes to value himself more and shows more appreciation for those that care about him, though it’s not like his good for nothing self disappears completely. This character arc sound simple, but it’s actually a very fascinating mess due to the fact that the primary way that Shuu sacrifices himself is through burning through his memories to empower Kisara. As such, over the course of the anime he becomes less and less himself and more and more oblivious. That made how things came together at the end pretty rough, but also much more impactful than a straightforward character arc.
The other main characters are the women that are interested in Shuu. The first is of course Kisara, who is a semi-yandere. The second is Ayano, the daughter of the owner of the largest PMC in Bayron, and also Shuu’s clingy ex-girlfriend that hasn’t been able to let him go. Neither of them really have much in the way of character development. Rather, the focus with both is primarily their relationship with Shuu and each other. It’s a great dynamic that’s really amusing due to the fact that they’re constantly bickering over him and due to this even straight up fighting each other at times, which is surprisingly rare when it comes to anime harem or love triangle antics. But at the same time, they’re still pretty close and help each other both physically and with emotional support when it truly matters. It’s somewhat similar to the relationship between Utaha and Eriri in Saekano, another work written by Maruto. Though here it’s definitely much more extreme. There’s another woman that kind of sort of fits into the dynamic, Sharon, who is a nun that had a one night stand with Shuu at some point. Her involvement was kind of weird though and just made things messier, for better or worse.
The plot of Engage Kiss is centered around Shuu and company slowly honing in on the truth behind what happened twelves years ago and then dealing with the emerging aftermath. It’s not especially well written, but it flows decently enough. The conclusion doesn’t resolve everything, but it resolves the main issues and ends at a point that felt like a pretty satisfying ending. However, despite that I still feel that this anime was too short. It doesn’t feel rushed per se when it comes to the main plot, but this feels like the type of story that needed more time to flesh out the world and let things sink in before actually dealing with the main plot.
I think a few arcs of the cast just dealing with random demons with the focus being on world building and expanding on side characters would have helped a lot. For example, I think an explicit explanation of what exactly is going on when Shuu is shooting teeth at demons would have been nice. Also, having more insight into the various other PMCs would have made their involvement in the final battle hit harder. And more time spent on things like Kisara being a highschool student that has friends at school or Ayano’s friendship with Linhua would helped round out their character.
The art and animation in this are really good. The action especially is really exciting and looks amazing. The character designs were pretty great too with the focus mainly being on the girls. The OP and ED both have pretty good songs and really fun visuals. The soundtrack was also pretty good, though I didn’t really find any single track especially memorable.
tl;dr: An anime with a fun protagonist, amusing heroines, and great action, though it could have benefit from being longer.
