Review of Love Tyrant

I wouldn't usually say such things, as I'm a massive connoisseur of lowest-grade anime trash, but this series is atrocious even by my low standards. While some of its faults, like lack of character progression and "jokes" being repeated ad-nauseam, are typical for the formula, other parts can't be justified this easily. The main pieces of the crap puzzles are: 1. Horrible pacing. The series has some moments that look cool as clips, but the whole thing is disjointed and offers no buildup for the comedic moments. Then, at the very end, it tries to provide a profound ending with some kind of emotional message thatis so unearned that felt laughable at best. It'd be passable as purely episodic comedy, but couldn't even commit to that formula, ending up plainly bad at everything it does.

2. Zero depth. Comedies often rely on one-note characters, but to work they also need some element of believability or charm, something that makes you "buy" them as people and care about what they go through. I find this cast particularly charmless and Guri as the central character that drives the plot forward is particularity lame, doing nothing that would make me like her on any level.

3. Lack of chemistry. Even poorly-conceived characters can bounce of each other in a fun way if the comedic writing is good. Here, the comedy feels bland and poorly timed and the harem has nothing interesting going on, despite the outlandish fantasy elements. With poorly timed gags, bad referential humour and inability to build heroines' stories with any emotional impact, it seems that even throwing a cupid, an assassin and a magical girl into a pot won't help much.

I won't talk in length about the production quality, as it's mostly just average, with occasional cut corners in animation that were particularity visible/jarring. In reality, even great production quality wouldn't make this any less of a waste of time. Love Tyrant is not good and neither it is "so bad it's good". It's a cup of the blandest brand of instant noodles that spend a few months too many at the bottom of your wardrobe – I guess it's watchable, but unless you're completely desperate, you should choose pretty much anything else.