Romantic killer- subverting subversion

Sorry about putting this here guys. There’s this new site that has been stealing all my content (and content from a lot of other great bloggers) called Anime Sensai. They really suck. But I figure I might as well use the opportunity for some advertising. So if you actually came across this post on Anime Sensai, please know that 1 – they did not write it and 2 – although their bots are doing a pretty good job at stealing posts from all over as soon as they are published, they don’t seem to do to great at lifting al the awesome screencaps I collected or all the extra material bloggers put into their content. So make sure to go visit the source link you see on top of posts and as for this one, just come visit my blog: I Drink and Watch Anime. I post daily and actually have awesome readers to interact with. I’m going t be posting this paragraph on top of my posts for a little while. I hope it doesn’t annoy you guys too much.

Production

I actually did not like the production of Romantic Killer. Long-time readers might know that I almost never say this. In fact, I have often said that anime is pretty much magic to me and the fact that all of this artistry can come together to create a cohesive product shouldn’t be possible. So really just tee fact that anime exists is already super impressive as far as I’m concerned. Romantic Killer is an anime that exists!

But for some reason, I just couldn’t shake the idea that the production was proforma. The cinematic language is really standard and does not enhance the narrative in any way. The animation is basic and could have used a few extra frames and the character designs and backgrounds reminded me of old-school flash animations.

I say all of this but I should really point out that none of these things are bad per see. A lot of anime have boring cinematic language and are still great series. Some people will love the flash aesthetic and the character designs aren’t bad at all. But it just wasn’t for me. The one production quirk I liked was the super ugly CG otome game we see from time to time. It was designed to look like a parody and I think it worked well. Sort of a one-trick joke but I got a kick out of it every time.

Story & Characters

The premise of Romantic Killer is basically: take the most standard rom-com premise and elements possible, but make it anime!

Anzu is generally ignored by boys and completely uninterested in them because she prefers to spend her time playing video games and cuddling her cat. Relatable! She’s also super gorgeous of course.

One day a fairy hamster thing decides to turn her life into an otome and she is banned from all her favourite things (otomes, her cat, and chocolate) until she finds love for herself. Enter a slew of handsome available bachelors with archetype personalities, including the misunderstood school prince with an enemies-to-lovers arc.

It’s goofy and well-meaning but it fails to follow through in my opinion.

You see, Romantic Killer starts out as what seems to be a deconstruction of the genre. It gently pokes fun at both romantic comedy clichés and otome tropes. It’s a little too prudent to really put in any biting commentary but I thought it was a good time. A fluffy sort of comedy that could entertain you without weighing you down.

However, by the middle, it sort of turns into what it’s parodying and starts to fully embrace and execute the tropes it had been deconstructing. This actually happens a lot with subversive storylines and parodies. In my opinion, it can even be done right. It is possible to both tease and celebrate genres and tropes in the same anime. However, in my opinion, Romantic Killer is a lot better at deconstructing the tropes than executing them outright. This creates a bit of an imbalance.

Of course, this is going to be up to personal tastes and preferences. I adore comedies and tend to be generous with my laughter. On average I will appreciate a joke more than most anime fans. On the other hand, it’s the opposite for purely romantic material. I tend to be basically uninterested in romance for its own sake and therefore will often look to the other aspects of the story to enjoy it. I have noticed that I seem to be a little less appreciative of straight romance titles than the average anime fans.

Unsurprisingly, I had a lot of fun with the first half of Romantic Killer which was mostly a goofy deconstruction with some 4^th wall breaks and was considerably less into the second half where the story asked me to care about love triangles and feelings and stuff. It also didn’t help that Romantic Killer is not a character-driven story in my opinion.

For me, the two halves of the anime eventually canceled each other out and I ended up with a generally neutral experience. That’s not entirely fair. It was a fairly positive experience. Even in the parts that were less interesting to me, I never disliked the show and it was a very easy watch but I consider it an average romantic anime that I would recommend to romance lovers. I admit that I do not understand why it is so highly rated though so you might need to make up your mind about this one for yourselves.

You might like this anime if:

You really like fluffy romcoms.

Momohiki, obviously!

a Flame of Love

I save all my screencaps on my Pinterest and you can find more there if you are interested. But I still like to show you a few in the post. If you’re like me, screencaps are something that really helps you decide to watch an anime or not.