Review of Kiss Him, Not Me!
This anime's overall message to its young female audience and its fetishization of mlm relationships was concerning and annoying. CHARACTERS: 2/10 Every single romance option (aside from Asuma Mutsumi) was EXTREMELY shallow. They only wanted Serinuma because of her weight loss. Not a single one of them truly cared about her feelings, her hobbies, or her overall personality as long as she stayed thin in all the right places. There are so many moments in the show where each of the love interests do things to court Serinuma at her own expense. None of them were all that likable. (aside from Asuma Mutsumi) Serinuma herself was aflawed characters. I get this is to poke fun at the fujoshi community but she was still disturbing. Definitely not saying women have 0 right to enjoy mlm media as I do not have a say in that but the fetishization over mlm media (and LGBTQ relationships in general) is weird and disgusting.
PLOT/CONCEPTS: 1/10
The overall message alone is distasteful. The main people consuming this are young women and as someone who struggles with body image, this is a terrible message. (I am ONLY talking about the anime not the manga just fyi) This essentially shows young girls that personality doesn't matter as long as you are thin in all the "right" places and beautiful. This anime would've been a whole lot better if the love interests began to like Serinuma for who she was no matter what appearance she might take. None of the love interest really show any growth in truly liking Serinuma because she's her. They only like her because she's hot. Sure, they play along with her hobbies at time despite finding them strange, but you can tell they don't do it for her sake but for their sake in winning her affection. Mutsumi Is really the only one seen liking Serinuma and respecting her as a human being before and after her weight transformation, while the others were shown to have little compassion for her as a human being. This is a terrible message and the plot is so generic, it's literally your average reverse harem anime.
ENJOYMENT: 3/10
Admittedly, this anime has its fun, cute, and funny moments. What ruined this was its message to young girls and the annoyingly pushy love interests who did whatever they could to date the new "attractive" Serinuma at the cost of her own feelings. She is shown to feel uncomfortable and upset over the love interests' selfishness and that's just a huge turn off for me. I watched it for a good laugh and I got that but I couldn't see myself rewatching this ever again
OVERALL RATING: 3/10
This anime is dumpster fire. It easily could've been better if the love interests had some more character development and begun to like Serinuma as she is. If she was to permanently revert to her old self I doubt any of them (aside from Asuma Mutsumi) would still pursue her. The shallowness of the love interest ruined something that could've been good and annoyed the living crap out of me. I finished this anime with a bad taste lingering in my mouth.