Review of Love Tyrant

STORY: 6/10 CHARACTER: 6/10 ART: 7/10 SOUND: 7/10 ENJOYMENT: 8/10 OVERALL: 5/10 ‘Love Tyrant’ will always be remembered as the anime that made a parody of the classic ‘Death Note’! It has a promising start, setting up an interesting concept that’s slightly different yet feels familiar at the same time! This is achieved in the following way, familiar cause it falls for the same corny ironies such as an MC who’s both dense and uncertain about what he wants while at the same time the anime differs itself with its near perfect timing of comedy which is really the best type! Even though it starts off with an amazing pace, itends on an annoying and boring term because it can’t help shake off all its clichéd tropes. The beginning part worked because the anime understood itself and accepted it without any regrets! What I mean is that the writers knew this show isn’t for everybody so they didn’t waste any time in pleasing everyone, instead they just throw you into this messy story and let you decide whether you want to stick with it or not! It made a point of mocking the Harem genre which worked for a while but later the joke turns on them itself! Comedy is the best thing here, hitting you with unexpected type of jokes which is always fun. But they pretty much bash your head with the same type of gags again and again until it becomes irritating. Towards the end, they jolted to focus more on their preposterous concept by reducing their Comedy which sucked out all the fun from the anime, making everything dull and the climax was pointlessly hastened.

A cupid cosplaying as a demon named Guri is not very good with her job since she doesn’t understand the concept of Love. Ironic, right? On top of that, she gets bored all the time cause she’s freaking dense so she easily gets distracted from her task whenever something ‘Fun’ comes around! She crosses paths with the MC, Seiji who’s your clichéd nice guy surrounded by pretty girls, and writes his name in the ‘Kiss Note’ which is a diary that makes people fall in love once their names are written in it. But in typical ‘Death Note’ fashion, if only 1 name is written then that person must find a partner quickly or remain a virgin for life! Seiji resolves to put Akane’s name next to his cause he has a secret crush on her which’s suitable because Akane’s crazy about Seiji as well which is very fortunate for him. When I say crazy, I mean literally cause unfortunately she also happens to be a psychological Yandere character who gets effortlessly envious and resorts to extreme violence at once! Sadly, that’s all she does, for the anime opts to replay that same joke over and over again where Akane gets mad and starts stabbing someone! Then Guri, in her nonsensical habit, adds her name into this relationship just cause she thinks it will be fun! Soon the follow up is Akane’s half-sister, Yuzu, who also adds her name cause she’s in love with Akane and this is where the plot starts to make no sense so you should just go along with it. Oh yeah, Yuzu is a clumsy girl who has this morbid fixation for Akane which was creepy to watch but since this is a Harem she also starts eliciting feelings for Seiji as well. Anyway, at one point all must help this lazy plus hyper cupid to do her job cause otherwise they all will end up in hell for some lame reason and that’s how the show starts. Boy that was hard to explain! And what’s worst is this plot rarely ever surfaces again! The story is weak throughout the series, the only difference is that it’s commencement was buoyed with a riveting idea which is why it’s tolerable at first. But due to the half ass effort, the anime later fails to hit the right points with its storytelling which is why it gives off a bitter and boring vibe when the show shifts its focus to more serious exposition! This is the reason why sub plots like the whole family drama between Akane and Yuzu or the backstory with Guri didn’t land with the audience since it lacked any real depth to it. An attempt was made to flesh out their female characters but they were so rushed and poorly done, I couldn’t help ask why even bother? Proper development is achieved by giving details and time to tell a well-fashioned tale which is never applied here, instead characters are one note with distinctive epitomes of other anime’s.

The artwork falls in with every other Harem anime with its bright colours and fan service but there was something with the character designs that caught my eyes for I could tell something was off but I can’t seem to place it! It was slightly distracting! The animation met the standard outlooks despite some untraditional attempts with the camera angles. Even the sound effects used to play up the humour wasn’t very notable but the Dubs here was great, nicely capturing the vibe for these whacky characters which the Subs failed to carry. Both OP/ED botched to leave any impression and shall be forgotten quickly though the video for OP was kinda nice.

I really enjoyed the first few episodes, thinking this might turn into a great Comedy anime for I didn’t mind its chaotic setup or straightforward characters. And I did laugh at some jokes though this show needed more since it lacked fresh and self-aware humour, rather much of its Comedy comes from overused gags which becomes dull after a while. With nothing else going on except for clichéd characters and story that relies heavily on repeatable puns, it turned this ‘could have fun show’ to a predictable one that just can’t be recommended to others! Instead I offer you to check out ‘Kono Subarashi’ that really nails the head with its Comedy, Story and Characters!