Romantic Killer
Watch Links: Netflix
Synopsis: Anzu, a high school girl with no romantic ambitions and an otaku lifestyle, is suddenly approached by a fairy tasked with helping Japan’s birth rate recover by getting otaku back into the dating pool, this fairy using its magic to make sure Anzu is able to find the man of her dreams, while Anzu tries to avoid becoming romantically involved with any of the boys this fairy throws at her.
Score: 6.7/10
I have a few mixed feelings on the premise, but for the most part I can very much relate to Anzu as someone not focused on romance and not wanting to take away from the things which they enjoy in life and putting time and energy into finding romance. I also appreciate that Riri largely creates an excuse for convenient things to happen in terms of meeting and winning over attractive men. So all in all it's set up quite well to be a fun time.
Anzu is a gem. The way she stands up for herself and defends her friends and her ideals is incredibly admirable. She's self interested to a reasonable degree, to where she's not too good to be true, but she’s still a good person who we can root for, and she’s very quick to take responsibility. The way she forms friendships is also very endearing. Everyone should have a friend like Anzu.
I was surprised I liked Tsukasa as much as I did. He doesn't make a great first impression, the first we see of him being him rejecting a girl saying he doesn't want her to get the wrong idea, but he quickly became someone I enjoyed watching get closer to Anzu. He has a few weird moments, but his demeanor is pretty well justified by the end of things. As we found out more about him and his past traumas, the line at the beginning which originally turned me off of him made a lot more sense, because he's dealt with people getting the wrong idea before. I do still think his panicking at the idea of being approached was a bit odd, but I'm not super familiar with what he's going through so who am I to judge? And his lack of desire to enter a relationship absolutely makes sense. I also found myself surprisingly into the 2 support characters Saki and Makoto. They're both very likeable both in their personalities and in how they interact with the other characters. Makoto's quick trust in his friend really won me over, and he kept being understanding and supportive throughout. Saki's segment mostly highlighted why Anzu is awesome, but it also gave her character a lot of foundation, and she was consistently fun and a good support for Anzu. I do think her backstory was a bit late, and she would have benefitted from having that earlier. It felt kind of thrown in so that she could have something going on at the festival. I also appreciate that they, too, are pretty disinterested it seems in finding romance and would prefer build their friendships, which makes the show and these characters stand out in the crowd of high school romantic comedies.
On the flip side, Junta is extremely boring as a character. I absolutely respect his journey of self-improvement, but I never felt like he was worth rooting for in the competition for Anzu’s affection. His dynamic with Anzu is largely fawning over her, and he's not got that many goals throughout the series. He has some good comedy moments, and his dynamic with Tsukasa is kinda interesting, but overall I just found him super boring. Riri on the other hand is annoying, and a lot of that has to do with the style of comedy for the show.
Unfortunately, probably my biggest gripe with the show is the style of comedy. To start with, there’s an excess toilet humor with little creativity. Put all the poop jokes in the bin. The slapstick was hit or miss. Manly portrayals of Anzu and the ugly face jokes were pretty lame all around. Honestly, if you asked me to pick out a favorite joke from this show, I wouldn't be able to name a joke I found funny in the whole show, which isn't to say I never found levity in any comedic situation, but the good ones left very little impression on me, while the bad ones stuck with me. Still, the better moments of comedy kept the show fun, and, more importantly, there were character and dramatic beats which really stood out in ways I appreciated.
