Type: TVRating: PG-13 – Teens 13 or older
Manga Review: Here
Sypnosis
The story centers around Erika Shinohara, a vain 16-year-old girl who tells her friends about her romantic exploits, but she actually has no boyfriend. She claims that a handsome boy in a candid photo is her boyfriend, but it turns out that boy is a schoolmate named Kyouya Sata. She has no choice but to make him her fake boyfriend. Unfortunately, Sata may look like a sweet person, but he is actually an ultra-black-hearted sadist. Sata takes advantage of Erika’s weakness and treats her like his dog.
Review
I’ll be quite honest with you, I had started watching this Anime for the implicit reason to trash talk it in this review. Nobody is more surprised than I am that I actually ended up liking it. Yes, I can’t believe it either. Despite the surprised reaction of some of my friends, let me start off with this. The premise of this story is bullshit. Having a guy treat you like shit for no reason at all and continuously being rude is not something that I condone. I’m getting Itazura na Kiss PTSD. Which is a similar anime but infinitely worse. I can buy a terrible male lead, as long as there’s some depth and development. Which this show tries to do but I wouldn’t say they tried sufficiently. Not that I blame them. Leave it to shoujo fan girls to love being verbally abused by a bishie.
So, what did I like about it exactly? I liked that it tried to justify (although doing a mediocre job) why the male lead is the way he is. Although they explained it in a half ass way, at least their message was understood. The male lead is afraid of losing something precious so they keep it at a distance. Which is understandable to some degree. And he acknowledges he’s a douchebag and tries to meet her half way. Despite being a consistent asshole, I admire him for being true to his character. There was one scene where one of his friends commented that he should be more honest with himself. But I disagree, I think that despite how he delivers his message he’s straight up and honest with how he feels. He will tell you like it is even if you don’t like it. Which is a quality I prefer in a male lead. This tough love is a great contrast to the delusion and over optimistic views shoujo mcs tend to have.
The side characters are useful to only further the plot. They don’t make any real difference to the story nor are they important. Honestly, they’re forgettable. There are some attempts at back stories and blah blah blah, but again it doesn’t do a great job. The show focuses more on the male lead and how to make him look hot. He’s in every scene. Like, I’m sick of seeing his red eyes. Pls. No more.
Another thing I really liked was how the male lead and the Mc met half way. There is a scene where you can see how far they have grown as characters when they both compromise. He stops being a bit less of an asshole and she stops projecting her fantasies of what she thinks a relationship should be like. Although I don’t think it would kill him to do some romantic activities, I do like that it’s realistic. Not all boyfriends are going to go the ridiculous lengths of certain romantic movies. Especially ones that find it hard to open up and act naturally in a relationship.
In conclusion, I think the show was decent. It was fun to watch. I don’t love it but it’s not as bad as I thought it would be. Kinda glad I dropped it while it was airing, because it gave me a chance to marathon it now. I do recommend watching if you’ve read the Manga and if you’re a masochist. It’s generic but sometimes generic can be fun.
Score
3/5
