Koi to Yobu ni wa Kimochi Warui

This anime feels like watching Pepé Le Pew from Looney Tunes, but with the kitten falling in love with the skunk for no reason.

In one line, it's a show trying hard to romanticize sexual harassment.

This is the story of a creepy grown ass man romantically pursuing a high school girl by stalking, harassing and gaslighting her. His obsession starts by the simple fact that the girl apparently has been the only non-shallow woman he has met that rejected his creepy advances, so he immediately sets on a mission to conquer her whether she likes it or not.

Even though the MC girl already told him to ... stop and that she's uncomfortable with the unwelcome attention, the male MC still continued relentlessly after that. Some of the creep's actions include: multiple unsolicited phone calls even late at night, sending unwanted gifts, pressuring for dating, touching the girl while she was sick sleeping, etc.

The second harasser is the male MC's sister, who acts as a plot device supporting her creep brother and providing him with all kinds of intel info on her "friend" and setting up convenient scenarios so he can prey on the MC girl easier (e.g. literally gave out her friend's home address since episode 1, brought the brother's gifts to school, tricked her into giving out her phone number, schemed all kinds of settings to facilitate their encounters so they would appear as "coincidences", etc).

There are even more red flags when observing the male MC character's behavior that provides a clear view on the kind of toxic relationship he's pursuing, just to list a few:

1) VIOLENT: He had no trouble in assaulting an adult woman in a public place and threatening her with further physical abuse.

2) POSSESSIVE: Got triggered just by the fact that a classmate was talking to MC girl and felt the need to act in a threatening way towards the teenage boy. His own male friend is aware of this, who is seen SECRETLY hanging out with the female MC admitting that he himself would be in trouble with the creep if he knows they're hanging out. Not being able to casually hang out or even talk with friends sounds like the depiction of the worst type of toxic relationship.

3) MANIPULATIVE: Despite the fact that the creep is the one harassing the inexperienced girl ignoring her requests to stop, when the girl tried her best to take a strong stand against his behavior and called him out, all it took was him doing a pikachu surprised face to make her feel guilty resulting in HER APOLOGIZING TO HIM. This is not a light observation, as the creep was literally shown rejoicing himself in the fact that she was the one who apologized to him. That's some dark stuff right there for those who can see past the shojo-esque colorful backgrounds and cute faces.

As for the rest of characters, most of them seem to have been designed by the author to create an unrealistic sexual harassment fantasy where all the society surrounding the abuser is happy about his actions. Just as an example, you have the girl's mother who was being enthusiastic about all the unwanted gifts (instead of the more realistic approach of being suspicious/worried) and also not caring at all even after she found out the dude sending them is a grown ass man... instead, the mother was instantly added to the male MC's harem.

The animation is nothing special, just alright and the art style is average. Nothing really stands out.

Sound quality was awful mostly with the character voices. The opening and ending songs are quite cool though, which thankfully can be purchased and enjoyed independently without having to watch this anime.

Overall, this looks like a typical trash josei story with an abusive male MC where the author went overboard with the harassment fantasy and destroyed all credibility of the world depicted, converting this supposed romance comedy into something mediocre that is neither funny nor romantic in the slightest.

"I don‘t regret what I did for him that day. As for what I said to him that day… I have nothing but regrets." -Ichika Arima. What does the message of this quote from Ichika want to express? You have to watch the entire show to know. :)

The show wouldn't be your realistic nor typical romantic comedy. But who cares. It's Anime. What seems like a weird and creepy show is a sweet and wholesome one.

Ryou is a 27yo handsome office worker and is loose with women. After being saved by Ichika, a 17yo typical high schooler. He suddenly meets her again as his sister’s ... best friend. Ryou being the usual womanizer, offered his body to Ichika as thanks. Ichika acted in disgust and reasoned out that she didn't help him in exchange for his body. This sparked something inside Ryou and he falls deeply in love with her. This starts the comedic one-sided love of Ryou for Ichika. As Ryou then pulls off his hilarious antics to express his love for Ichika. While Ichika thinks he is fooling around her with the kind of personality he has. But as it goes on, Ichika realizes Ryou's seriousness for her.

The show can be annoying for others. But Koikimo is my kind of guilty pleasure. I view Ryou as a helpless person in love. Ryou is a good-looking guy, and every woman around him before treated him for his appearance. Ichika is the first person who treated him with goodwill and made him feel like that. Knowing that the vast age gap feels weird. The crush of Ryou has made him more helpless. This just makes me want to root for him.

Ryou and Ichika's interactions are sweet and funny. It makes my heart flutter every time. The show is so underrated. People are disliking it because of Ryou's annoying behavior and the vast age gap. I personally love this show, although I know it isn't everyone's cup of tea. You should give it a watch! Don't mind the negative reviews. Give the first three episodes a try before you judge the show as a whole.

The show is far off being a Masterpiece. The art isn't outstanding either. But this doesn't make Koikimo bad as it has its uniqueness and is good in its own way. Among other romance I've watched, I like this kind of style.

I can't count how many times I played the OP and ED in repeat. They are both SO GOOD, and they perfectly fit the mood of the show. My favorite this season. ♥

“You can’t judge another country by your country’s standards” A simple, yet oft forgotten message. Koikimo is a series that exemplifies the differences between the west and Japan in terms of entertainment. If you’re sensitive or not able to accept that fiction does not equate to reality, you should avoid this. If you are sensible and understand that you can enjoy a story, without necessarily agreeing with the premise and characters’ actions, this is a gold mine.

Koikimo’s premise is truthfully a bit… odd, with the MC basically stalking the girl he likes, who happens to be a high school student and classmate of his little ... sister, but it’s presented in such a way that makes you forget what’s even going on. Koikimo uses a really cute aestethic to hide a questionable premise, and does so very well in my opinion. Again, you don’t have to agree with what’s going on in a show to like it. It’s fiction, not a documentary.

Shoujo Romance is my fave genre of LNs/animanga, so I check out any that air every season. I had no idea about this LN coming into the season and was immediately surprised by how much I love this damn show. In fact, it’s grown to be one of my faves. Ichika and Ryo’s relationship, while starting out in an unconventional way and with some weird circumstances, becomes very wholesome and downright adorable as the series progresses. Once the initial stalker phase ends, I liked the interactions between the two, a lot. Putting aside the age difference, their interactions and growth felt very organic to me and was the highlight of the show. The romance was well written and believable. It may not be socially acceptable, but things are not always black and white in life.

In addtion to likeable main characters, Koikimo’s side cast was really good as well. A love rectangle of sorts begins to form at a certain point, and I thought it was navigated perfectly. In romcoms there’s always going to be someone getting their feelings hurt, but if you do it the right way it doesn’t hamper the experience. Koikimo certainly did that.

Artistically, there’s nothing crazy or new going on design wise in the show, but I did really enjoy the bright colour palette throughout. I think it helped to create a cutsey atmosphere, in contrast to Higehiro, which ironically is the other series this season with a controversial premise. The OST is pretty solid as well as the OP and ED being bangers.

In closing, I loved Koikimo. I’m not ashamed to say that. It’s not for everyone, but I encourage you to keep an open mind when watching not just this show, but any anime. You’re watching a medium that was created for people in a totally different society. There’s going to be things you don’t like or agree with, that’s ok. Luckily for me, once the show got going, it was easily my third fave show of the season and something I looked forward to on Mondays to start my week. I will certainly miss my fave ship of the season, but I’ll be checking out the manga and LN for more. Koikimo gets 10 out of 10.

(TLDR Review at the bottom, as usual, thanks for reading.)

Is Spongebob Squarepants an asshole for pissing off Squidward?

Is Peppa Pig a douchebag for body-shaming her dad?

Is Richard Watterson someone it would be better to kill due to his lack of support in society and being a somewhat bad parent to his children?

I don't see how anything I have said above is legit criticism in any way other than the enjoyment factor. So I don't really understand why characters in Koikimo are getting hate for doing their roles.

"Almost every single season nowadays, it seems there has to be a scapegoat. An anime which you are somehow ... obliged to publically hate on or you'll be looked down upon by the community and no one will take you seriously."

To you, (1)4 years from now. Nothing has changed.


The romance genre is prone to some easy hate, which is very understandable. Taking into consideration some questionable themes that like to pop up for no good reason, other than to maybe satisfy some guilty pleasure, it's no question why this genre can have its titles that derail from the norm so very easily. Also with anime having a large western audience, a clash of cultures is inevitable, which brings forward some interesting events. Koikimo is a suspect of such a case. And with such cases like Koikimo, it is easy to bash the show for what it brings for not aligning with moral standards, which ends up making it a victim of its own product, and something you don't really know is either good or bad due to the large magnitude of polarising viewpoints. Koikimo is said to be a "disgusting anime" as a reason to dislike it when really and truly, it is a somewhat disgusting anime. Hell, it is literally there in the title "It's Too Sick to Call this Love" is the translation for this anime title. I don't know what people thought they were watching when they thought it would be something trying to "hide pedophilia". In any case, I don't see how Koikimo is anything bad for something it brings forward, it is very much fine to dislike the premise and be on your way, but with different applications to morals in a fictional realm from everyone, it becomes very inconsistent to rate something on such a base. I intend to rate this on a normal basis for reasons of non-bias, so, let's get into it.


Narrative:
Koikimo's introduction is quite interesting, it starts off with philanderer, Ryo Amakusa, stumbling across Ichika Arima for dumb reasons are dumb. But then it takes a quick turn of events with Ryo going full simp mode on a high schooler girl he just met. For the most part, everything here is consistent here on out, in other words, there isn't any improvement or degrading in any sense, even in characters. Only the quirks of Koikimo actually differentiate this from anything I have seen, because otherwise, this is a pretty baseline for itself. I honestly can't go on and talk more about the story, because it plays out as every rom-com should. There honestly is nothing special here so I don't know what is the point of saying anything more about the story. You know, it works, doesn't really have any flaws but at the same time, it is no distinction and is generally something you find in the bunch.

The characters are interesting. For a rom-com as described above, you'd think the characters are pretty baseline too, and to some extent, not really. What I will say is that the characters are indeed baseline in anything that would link to personalities of initial bases, but honestly, I thought the character growth here was actually done very well. Seeing characters like Ryo get out of his damaging lifestyle and becoming a better person through Ichika was actually really nice to see, I suppose the character development is to be expected in something like Koikimo, but this was slightly different, with the age gap actually having a say in the relationship between the two. Ryo changed in ways that really made him think, even though he still has this creepy love for Ichika I do believe he understood what it meant for him to be with her. He is self-aware of what he is doing but is also in the irrational realm of love that makes him do questionable things. I can say this because his interactions with people like Arie, for example, isn't all one-nighter then sayonara, in other words, he has learnt to be a better person. It's an interesting development for the guy and all in all made for him to be quite interesting.

Now I genuinely cannot say the same for people like the others. First, Ichika is your average rom-com girl character, honestly has no distinction other than her like some anime. You could say that this was smart in that some regular high school girl managed to change Ryo's mad life. But I refuse to believe that this story even dared to go to Shakespeare playing field. I mean, it could have though. Who knows. Anyways, Ichika is pretty basic, not much to say with her. The same goes for Rio, though her character is interesting, being a somewhat snarky observer. Tamaru is pretty average as well, being that kid who finds himself to be a rival. And Arie, who also finds herself to be a rival, a nice person with a cool interest in anime, but that is about it. Honestly, this lack of attention to characters is quite upsetting, but with this being a general standard rom-com with that one quirk to it, characters like these do fine, I suppose.


Audiovisuals:
For visuals, it is pretty box standard. What I will say is that the character design is ever so slightly strange, almost like its evolution went backwards to an older style. It's honestly not even that bad, but it is a new one, or do I call it an old one? Whatever it was, it was very easy to get used to and allowed for some cool original designs to some extent to have a watch too. But I mean it was still pretty box standard at the end of the day.

Visuals is a funny one too. First off, OP and ED are actually really good, with the former being catchy, the latter being quite a nice little way to touch off with, both stick to me as well. OST is mid if you are wondering, nothing fancy here at all and it serves as only background music for "in the moment". The character voicing, however, for some reason, it sounded like someone forgot to filter out all the echos from the studio and just slapped the raw audio on the final product. Once you pick up on the odd-sounding, you will get used to it, and it isn't so annoying, but it was something pretty strange regardless. I've seen numerous people talk about the same thing with the audio problem. With issues like that, which rarely happen in anime, it is something to criticise but doing so becomes a futile effort with how minuscule it actually matters to a wide audience. Everything is fine though.


Enjoyment:
This isn't the most entertaining thing to watch, and how you watch it matters as well, considering that I watched this weekly, it actually made my weeks slightly better waiting on what will become of everything towards the end, though, I should have guessed what would happen from the very start because no rom-com pulls any fast ones because they don't. In a universal sense, assuming you aren't offended by this two-dimensional cartoon's premise, Koikimo has its light-hearted moments, it has its wholesome moments, and generally just very chill, going with its vibe throughout the entire series.


Overall - 6.6 (7)
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TLDR Review:
Story - 6: Pretty generic rom-com type story, uses age-gap as a quirk to differentiate from others.
Visuals - 6: Some kind of backwards character design that makes this look a little unique.
Audio - 7: OP and ED are really good, OST is basic, character voices feel a little off due to technicalities.
Characters - 7: Ryo is the most interesting character, everyone else is on the generic side of things.
Enjoyment - 7: Light-hearted, a little wholesome, and just chill.

Overall - 6.6 (7)
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Only a few seasonals keep me really intact for me to go to length as to watch it pretty much every week. For some odd reason, Koikimo was one of them, idk, it was really relaxing to watch every week I suppose. I didn't really watch anything else like Koikimo this season, even other titles I enjoyed a lot more. The human mind is a strange one, isn't it? Anyways, there goes another controversial anime. It was fun for the most part and I will probably read the manga in my spare time. At the end of the day, this creepy anime did a decent job at being creepy, but it was a different kind of creepy, something that didn't make me lose faith in humanity kinda creepy, and what matters is whether or not this is enjoyable for us. So I leave off by saying, Koikimo is something I found somewhat fun.

Koikimo is dangerous because it uses cutesy art and rom-com cliches to hide what it's really about: A creepy adult man harassing and grooming a high school girl. The girl rejects the man, calls him disgusting, yet he continues to pursue her romantically and sexually. He takes pictures of her without consent, he visits her uninvited, he gets close to her mother, he flirts with her while she’s vulnerable and alone, he gives her tons of gifts, and he expects her love in return. Worst of all, it is targeted at teenagers. Not cute. Very fucked up.

The art, animation, and sound are terrible too. Even ... though there is barely any animation, the character's faces morph like melting plastic. Their body proportions are constantly changing depending on the angle. Rather than using verbal dialogue, at times they copy text boxes straight from the manga and paste them on screen. The music sounds like nails scraping a chalkboard or simplistic stock elevator tunes played on repeat. I respect the voice actors’ effort but the audio processing sounds awful. It's like you’d expect from a low-budget OVA, not a TV anime.

Every character in this show is a banal archetype, and they act in very strange ways. The generic female protagonist is friends with the businessman’s sister, which is how they got introduced. The sister is very aware of her brother’s behavior yet she nudges them together like cupid. She tells the man her address, gives him chances to be alone with her, and never warns her. For example, one time the sister said, “My brother’s insane in more ways than one, so just be on the lookout.” She said this to a male classmate who is in love with the female main character. Every time he pursues her, the businessman threatens him.

Both of the main characters have alternate love interests. The girl’s male classmate and the man’s co-worker. Yet, the adult man chooses the high schooler instead. Even though the show describes both female characters in the same way: Kind, caring, happy, and big anime fans. Why does the man choose the young girl? Because he is a pedophile. Everyone acts like it's fine that an adult is in love with a teenage girl. The side characters treat pedophilia, stalking, and grooming like it's a normal relationship. There’s no room for interpretation. Koikimo is an anime about a pedophile who grooms a high school girl until she is tricked into liking him.

Koikimo does a good job of living up to its name, but I won't be going into why this is a creepy or weird romcom anime; you've surely read enough reviews about that at this point.

Instead, I'll briefly go over why all that controversial stuff aside, this anime still sucks balls. Romance wise, the execution is quite sub-optimal. Comedy is subjective, yes, but I didn't really find anything in Koikimo funny, so no points there either.

I would've rated this a 1, but Tamaru was such a great character that I couldn't do him wrong, so Koikimo gets a 2 in my book just for this ... giga chad.

TLDR: Koikimo, controversy aside, is still a bad anime. Comedy falls flat, the entire cast except for 2 characters are hugely uninteresting and boring, and the plot/story is horribly paced and designed.

Story: 1/10
There's not much of a story. In fact, we don't see any progress whatsoever in the main duo of Ryo and Ichika. It's just the same antics over and over; Ryo does some manipulative or cringe shit, Ichika reacts somewhat negatively, other people react/help out, etc. etc.

Worse yet, we have some attempt at a "dramatic problem" thrown in at the last minute with the appearance of Ryo and Rio's dad, who of all things chose to speak facts.

There's not much of a plot or any form of progression to be found in Koikimo, it just bumbles onwards until the end.

Art: 4/10
At first, I thought the art was nice, but the quality dipped a bit after the first 4 episodes and I began to notice it actually wasn't as good as I thought.

Sound: 2/10
The only good thing about the audio design for Koikimo is the OP (an absolute banger on a regrettable series) and the OST used throughout the anime (which was alright).

I respect the voice actors for trying their best, but honestly, I've heard high-school projects with better recording systems than whatever the fuck Koikimo used. The sound is actually so horrible, at first I thought it was just my shitty earbuds giving out after years of use.

Character: 3/10
Not going to deep dive here, but it's basically a bunch of psychopaths doing psychopathic things. Very weird and not very romantic or funny.

I get anime logic that characters behave irrationally at times, that's acceptable. But Koikimo really takes it to the next level with the amount of bullshit going on.

The only saving grace out of all the characters would be my boy Tamaru. Watching him confess and try his best was truly the best part of the series. Arie was a close second for the same reasons. Looking back, I found the anime to be quite enjoyable when it came down to character interactions involving one of these 2: they were the only well-written characters in the entire show and it's a damn shame they weren't given the spotlight.

Enjoyment: 2/10
This would be an easy 1/10 if it weren't for Tamaru and Arie; as I alluded to above, any interactions involving these characters are actually quite good. So much so that it seems out of place for an anime with horribly written characters and plot progression like Koikimo.

Everything about this show is wrong, but let's try to summarise.

The male protagonist, Ryou, is a 27 year old man, with a good job, good salary and good with the girls. The female protagonist, Ishika, is a regular high school girl of 17 years old, she's kinda otaku and as her best friend says is just an ordinary girl.

So, what's wrong with the plot?

First point: this is the portrait of a sexual predator harassing a teenage girl, not a love story, and there shouldn't be any kind of discussion about it.

Second point: even when Ichika is not a child, she's got something called consentment. From ... the first time she met Ryou on her friend's house she states his rejectment to Ryou's propositions, showing a genuine disgust with it. We all can change our opinion about someone else, but the problem here isn't Ichika but Ryou and that carries us to the third point.

Third point: Ryou is a 26 year old man, not a teenager and as that, he shouldn't try to engage himself with an adolescent, period. Even if we get lax about our ethics and we allow him to try it, at the very first moment he got rejected he should have stopped his harassment to Ichika. Instead, he increased his harass and even started to show up in places he knew Ichika was going to be. That's against the law in a lot of countries, not just a moral judgement on the character.

Fourth point: Ryou's sister and Ichika's friend is a really dangerous character. If your older brother tries to hook out with your friend, you, both as friend and as sister should be the first one opposing said behaviour as, like I said before, it's illegal. To portrait this characer as someone that not only doesn't directly oppose to his brother harassment but in fact encourages it and helps him, it's a terrible example of what a friend should do: they should try to protect you from predators, not serves you to them.

Fifth point: It's common knowledge that the men from the otaku subculture around the world are known by their misogyny and disrespectful -if existent- treatment to women, shows like this are terrifyingly servicious to fortify said behaviour because it reinforces the idea that "the world is wrong and all these sjw and feminists are my enemies, I'm right in seeing women as objects without the right to speak by themselves". I know this is obviously a generalization, as like in any other human group there's otaku men who treat women just like another human being as it should be, but the critic is not aimed to them.

My last point about this show it's that it is an ode to sexual harassment, and shows like this shouldn't be allowed on international streaming services. Japan has a serious problem with pedophilia and the anime industry it's a clear example of that. This show is a good demonstration that not only idol and lolicon shows are pedophile but regular romcoms can be it too

Fiction definition:
1. Literature in the form of prose, especially novels, that describes imaginary events and people.
2. Something that is invented or untrue.

Why is fiction the largest and most popular genre amongst anime and all TV shows in general? Because it's god damn fiction. People watch anime/TV shows (or at least I do) as a form of escaping reality and 'experience' things that will never happen in real life. So why would you relate it back to real life, then get mad about it? That is contradicting the whole point of fiction and, well, plain stupid.

If an anime being realistic makes it better for ... you, Ryou and Ichika are only 10 years apart, which, in real life, is not that big of an age gap. If Ichika was an elementary school loli, then what would be pretty weird, but she's 17. Why am I even talking about anime characters' ages, law doesn't apply for fiction, let alone drawings.

Now, this anime has brilliant voice acting (people who say it sounds like shit probably watch it with a nokia) and amazing, catchy music. Sure the story is no masterpiece and animation could definitely be improved, but that does not take away any of the enjoyment this anime offers.

Reason for watching: I went into this thinking it would be more Comedy than Romance, and had thought some negative reviews were exaggerating.
But honestly not much exaggeration.

*Mild spoiler as I do give out the basic premise and gave a general layout of the storyline.

TL;DR at the bottom.

Let me do a quick review and opinion on this:

Visuals: Definitely up my alley. I like the animation of the story, the art style of the animation, the OP, and ED. They are beautiful to me. Of course the animation could be better, but is not like this is some shounen show with lots of action, ... so I do not expect them to put a lot into animating each scene. 8/10

Audio: Seiyuus performance were fine. Is as good as you can expect from such animation. The female lead is able to show emotions through her voice so is not that bad. Male lead on the other hand just seem pretty bland, even for the humane/sentimental (not his stoic persona) scene, there's pretty much not much tone difference. OP and ED are nice, which is the only reason why audio score is above average. 6.5/10

Characters: Very simple. The story relies more on the story plot than the characters personality to tell the story. You can switch around the characters' personality, and the story can still work with a a little tweak here and there. Very average character, and subpar character "growth". Not like I expected much character growth for a 12 episode show. But Male lead essentially just became "kinder" because he fell in love. I get falling in love will make someone happy, but to change how they interact with almost everyone (in a matter of weeks, WHILE not seeing the love of his life frequently) is kind of a stretch. Male Lead's dad just somehow became more understanding because of a one liner from the Female lead... That is not character growth. that's just superpower. 5/10

Story:
Oh this is the part where is ridiculous.
I will echo many reviewers that the premise of this story is unpleasant. To put it badly, is Pedophilic. To put it nicely, is border lining Pedophilic. Yeap.
Is of course not as jarring as the porn genre. But this story definitely has a pedophilic undertone. There is no other way around this. A "Japan's culture..", A "is fictional...", A "consenting age is different...", doesn't change the fact that is pedophilic. You don't see people all up in arms with the porn genre of pedophile(hentai, I know child porn is a big offense) or sexual assault, because we all know is fake. Doesn't change their genre, no excuses to "defend" them either. Also the circumstances leading to those genres in porn aren't as realistic as this story.

The story is of a full grown man, 26 Year old, falling in love with a 16 year old high schooler who is also his sister's BEST FRIEND. Reason for falling in love is sketchy but I do believe we are not able to control our feelings and emotions. But what we, humans, and definitely grown adult, can control, are our actions.
So Male lead falls in love, confessed, got rejected harshly, but still decided to pursue a 16 year old kid openly. Obtains her address without her consent, and consistently ignoring her "NOs" (this part is infuriating actually. regardless of what culture there is or which part of the world this story takes place. When a 16 year old repeatedly rejects you, respect it! Don't tell me is fiction, so NO can be seen as a YES, or she has a tsundere character or she's shy. What world do we live in if we can't understand CONSISTENT "NO" means NO even from a fictional character?).
Male lead tries his best to win the heart of the female lead even when FL is uncomfortable. Then every other side character that knows about this aggressive courtship is accepting of it, enabling a full grown adult with a good number of romantic and sexual experiences, and exposure to mature interactions to pursue a 16 year old child who has zero experiences with Romance, and limited interpersonal interactions, AND obviously much less exposure to the world and its complex dynamics, AND also not fully in touch with her emotional and psychological state yet.
The first 3 episodes are disgusting. Middle 6 episodes are fine if we can ignore how it all started. Last 3 episodes is a pathetic attempt to "correct" the show's logic (or just some sort of subpar redemption arc).
If the story had started with ML and FL having normal interactions that grew closer and their feelings for each other developed independently, the age thing would not have bothered me this much.
I do enjoy a plot with aggressive courtship like what male lead is doing here, but not when the other party is lacking so much in experiences and emotional and psychological development. If the female lead was a regular 20 year old university student, this wouldn't be as disturbing. She would have went through university meeting all sorts of people, and have much more experience as well as more maturity to assess her emotions and mental state.
10 years age gap is not a problem here. Is the age itself that is a problem.
Middle 6 episodes are just normal cliché rom com scenes where ML not so aggressively courts FL, and both the ML and FL have alternate love interests popping into the story.
Last 3 episodes are FL's 16 year old feelings developed romantically while ML realizes that he might be hurting/treating FL badly, because of their 10 years age gap that would be a cause for concern in society's standard... No is really not the age gap. No one really cares if a 45 YO and 35 YO falls in love. Not sure why they think making the 10 year age gap as the biggest problem actually makes sense. Even if japan culture generally raises sensible children, and consent is younger, doesn't change the fact that FL was not able to make an informed decision as well as ML due to their experiences. Is not fair game when FL was robbed off of growing up herself without all that calculated and targeted gaslighting.
So is a happy ending as ML will brave through criticisms of the 10 years age gap and is determine to protect FL from the less understanding society's judgment, while FL with all her 16-17 years experience on Earth (more than half spent on studying and novels and anime) makes the determination to trust her feelings of LOVE and reciprocate ML's advances.

I honestly don't know how anyone can think pedophile/ manipulation/ grooming elements is okay in a regular anime show because is a fiction.
If mutual sex scenes between adults in shows require R21 rating. We should at least have rating for pedophilic story lines, maybe like rated C-reep? At least porn/hentai will rate them R21 and tell you the genre outright. This is not RomCom, is RomCriminalOffence. 5/10 (Story is okay, premise is bad).

Total: 6.1/10 (6)

TL;DR
Definitely has pedophilic undertone no matter how fictional this story is (even if you add in talking clouds and flowers). Uncomfortable premise if you have awareness on how pedophilic crimes are the absolute worst. If you imagine FL to be at least 18 years old or have the maturity of a 20 years old, the story gets a little better lol. Cute songs and art style. Cute storylines in the middle 6 episodes lol.
Mixed feelings because FL is not TOO young and there's no sexualization in here, If she's any younger, this would be a "Not recommended" sentiment. Basically a "vanilla Pedophilic" plot.

- coming from someone who is not saintly or overly reserved (Eye for an eye plot, SA, cruel gangster plots, torture, murderers, anything with blood I do enjoy, even if it was 2 16 YOs falling in love and maybe get a little sexually curious, I am also fine), but when you exploit children, then is a no-go for me.

I saw a few people reviewing this anime and gave only a 1 or 4. However, I think those numbers are pretty inaccurate and this anime deserves more than this. Those numbers are only based on 2 episodes, which cannot represent the whole anime. It is true that if an anime starts with a bad entrance, it doesn't give the desire to watch the rest, but I don’t think that’s happening to this anime.

I think the main reason people don't like this anime it's because the story's about a middle-aged playboy trying to make a move on an under-aged teen. Everyone has a different opinion, ... but personally, I don't see it as a problem, this is anime and not something real and it's really fun and emotional
There isn't much review either, so the score and rank given to this anime are really inaccurate.

Personally, I found the story of this anime really enjoyable, relaxing and funny to watch. The sounds fit the characters really nice and I like his art style, which is something really simple and nice to watch.


I would recommend you to at least watch 4 episodes of this anime really it's funny and emotional (especially ep3 in my opinion).
I would give it an 8 for the 3 episodes I've seen for the moment.
Thanks for reading! :)))

how...did a series like this get greenlit? it's literally pedophilic.

"but the age of consent in japan is--" I do not care. the main character clearly told him "no" in the first episode and what does he do? he continues to harass her. do the people defending this show not remember that part? or it is because it's shown in a romantic light that you guys don't care?

what business does a man nearing thirty have with a minor. explain. quickly.

they try to make it cute when it just comes off as creepy and manipulative. and him literally getting off on her refusing his advances? big yikes. ... it literally makes me want to vomit just thinking about it. while watching the first episode I literally screamed multiple times and had to pause bc I just couldn't believe my eyes.

if you genuinely see nothing wrong with this show then please seek professional help. i would rate it a 0 if I could.

responding to some reviews that rated this highly for some godforsaken reason:

1) "What seems like a weird and creepy show is a sweet and wholesome one."

how did you contradict yourself with a single sentence. it's very weird and very creepy, and there's nothing wholesome about it. this a man stalking a high school girl. nothing more nothing less.

2) "It's not even like Ryou is physically attracted to her, it's more an emotional attraction that started out because she saved him from -spoiler- and gave her lunch to him. They also are starting to warm up to each other, and Ichika doesn’t seem to be bothered by his presence that much anymore."

he literally asked her to have s*x with him after she saved him. I swear we are not watching the same shows. "they are starting to warm up to each other" she literally told him no how many times? stalking her and giving her unwanted gifts and attention? unwanted flirting? it's literally grooming, how do you not see that? and you mentioned they're fictional...and? fiction affects reality. god knows how many irl girls go through this same shit. it's disgusting and shows like this only normalizes it.

3) "If you have a creepy character in a show that already knows that already acknowledges a creepy relationship."

thats the issue with the show-- it *doesnt* acknowledge that the relationship is creepy!! if it did the sister wouldn't have encouraged it, the girl's family would've stepped in, authorities would've been called, and the man would be in jail. done!! but no, they decide to make it cute. how disgusting. im not even going to bother responding to the rest of this review bc they're really doing the most to justify a pedo. sickening, really.

4) "I think the main reason people don't like this anime it's because the story's about a middle-aged playboy trying to make a move on an under-aged teen. Everyone has a different opinion, but personally, I don't see it as a problem, this is anime and not something real and it's really fun and emotional"

"personally, I dont see it as a problem" jail time. please. fiction affects reality. and...fun and emotional? whats fun about a girl telling a grown man to leave her alone and him continuing to harass her? tell me quickly please bc I dont see the appeal whatsoever.

5) " So far Ryou san has been such an amazing character. From something that could be perceived as creepy they managed to make him wholesome. The witty conversations are very entertaining and you can also appreciate his dedication to his new found love."

"that could be perceived as creepy" he *is* creepy, end of story. and they managed to make him wholesome in 4 episodes? when in just the first one he was being rejected left right and center, harassing and stalking her? in four episodes? really? they really romanticized a pedo relationship and you've fallen for the trap. amazing. "you can appreciate his dedication--" no no. not dedication. harassment. learn the difference.

6) "It's unfair to call this sexual harassment when you're probably still so in love with Jobless Reincarnation and Higehiro. Don't get me wrong, I do like both animes but I just find it frustrating that JR and Higehiro are much loved by many while Koikimo is being shunned in the corner when it doesn't even have any sexual innuendos. Sure, Ryou might have been a playboy and whatnot but the point here is that he has CHANGED after meeting Ichika."

sexual harassment is sexual harassment?? no matter what anime its in?? if those anime had it too then they deserve to be just as criticized. but I doubt its as bad as this. no way theyre as bad as this. "it doesnt have any sexual innuendos" you must not have caught the way he offered to sleep with the mc in the first episode, huh? knowing full well she was a minor (she had her school uniform on). you also mentioned he changed after meeting her. yeah, that's bc he was stalking and harassing her bc he was obsessed with her. anyone would change. you guys will do the most complex mental gymnastics to justify this guy being attracted to a minor and its not working.

7) "One thing I must say, this anime is not for everyone since it's adapted from a manga for mature audience...male lead is kinda stalkerish (they already date though) and "heavy" but more wholesome and obviously healthy because the female lead try to make him change but many reader still hate it because they can't accept his behavior...So is he pedophile? Of course not! She is already 17 years old..."

so many things wrong with this. "mature audience" my ass, nothing is "mature" about a pedophilic relationship. it's just creepy and very strange. "kinda stalkerish" he *is* a stalker, no way to sugarcoat it. the female lead clearly denied his advances but he continued to pursue her. and yes he's a pedophile because a pedophile is attracted to children. not just pubescent children. all children. the mc is a child. you go on to talk about the laws in japan and how 10 years isn't strange. it would be a lot more acceptable if they were older but they are not, so thats one. number two, it doesn't matter that she's the age of consent in japan, she literally didn't give him consent. she told him no multiple times and he continued to pursue her. that is harassment. do not defend it.

8) "Basically a wholesome romance anime when a 27 year old guy falls in love with his sisters friend who's 17 and how he comes on to her a little too forcefully (in a comedic pg sort of way showering her with gifts) and her coming to terms with her honest feelings for him."

coming to terms with her honest feelings? she's said no many many times. if she's developed feelings because of it she's been groomed. that's literally grooming. it's not comedic nor is it wholesome. it's disgusting.

well that's all for this long review!! if you like this anime and find nothing wrong with it please seek out therapy!!

This anime holds no value outside of being a creepy and disturbing reflection of the struggles that many if not all women have had to deal with for far too long.

There's a literal adult man harassing and stalking a highschool girl, she clearly tells him she's not interested multiple times, she expresses discomfort over and over again and yet everyone around her enables him because of course they do.

Just because the male lead is the brother of the female leads' friend doesn't suddenly make it ok to harass her the way he does. The female lead literally couldn't make it any clearer that he's ... bothering her but he doesn't listen and persists anyway. This show is just straight up uncomfortable to watch for anyone with any social awareness. It's a literal show that ignores the most basic concept of no means no. Not to mention she's 17 and he's like 27? Creepy.

It'd be one thing if this anime made any effort to create a dialogue regarding the harm and prevalence of this kind of harassing behaviour but instead it seems to be condoning it. Some people might be able to look the other way and enjoy it for what it is, but personally I just don't see the appeal.

The drops of comedy here and there also just fall flat in the context of how disturbing the entire story is. It's just not funny. Not to mention the VA recording quality is noticeably bad and the animation is about as basic as it could possibly be without being straight up terrible.

This anime offers nothing to anyone aside from people who get off on the self insertion fantasy of an underage girl falling for them if they harass her enough.


Not recommended.

Love surely is a strange feeling, and Koi to Yobu ni wa Kimochi Warui pretty much summarizes it all. The male character Ryou is a 27-year old man with everything imaginable: money, expensive cars, social status, and great looks. But he's missing the most important thing in life, love.

One day after a tough day at his job, he was tired and haven't eaten anything, when in the shopping mall he nearly fainted. However, a girl decided to stop by and help Ryou, this girl is called Ichika, a girl that later turns out to be his high school sister's friend. Ichika helped Ryou and offered ... her own lunch to him. This encounter awoke something within Ryou, a feeling he had never before felt, true love.

When you read the premise and where this Anime starts, you could immediately see the moral wrongs. A relationship between a grown adult and a young high schooler really doesn't fit well together.

And the more episodes that come out, the weirder this Anime turns out to be. Ryou not only harasses Ichika and making her clearly uncomfortable, but he also stalks her, sends her gifts, even when she explicitly tells him to stop, that this is a bother for her, he continues knowing full well what he's doing. But Ryou's not the only person in this anime with a twisted mind. Ryou's sister and Ichika's best friend encourage them to be in a relationship, instead of protecting and telling both this is not an ideal relationship between two individuals. It's illegal, and just in general a terrible example of what a friend and family member should do in a situation like this.

And why and how did this get an adaptation. Why does Japan keep giving attention to shows encouraging these kinds of relationships?

I don't know how else to describe this show in short besides "Sexual harassement/stalking of a teenage girl is fine and will eventually get rewarded!"- The Anime.

Honestly, that's it. That's the anime.

When I started I thought I'd at least be in for at least SOME nuance, since I'm not inherently against age gap romances, I wouldn't even be against sexual harassement of a teenage girl in fiction if it's done with the purpose of exploring a certain toxic type of relationship, but this does neither explore or make a commentary. It's supposed to be cute. Yeah. But I can't possibly find it cute ... when the ML does nothing but be insisting, possessive, do things nobody asked for and continously profess he's undying love because this one girl just happened to be a normal human being with common sense. It's even more jarring when the anime tries to make a sort of love triangle with a guy that at least has some chemistry with her, but ultimately ends up being entirely pointless.

Honestly I just felt like I wasted my time here, so if you're not into this weird trope, just listen to my advice and stay away. I watched it so you don't have to.

I don't usually write reviews but I believe I fell in love with this anime at first sight...

Story :
It's not completed yet but so far it's well done romance intertwined with drama a perfect mix to make your heart flutter. Good moments but also "clichés" scenes, there is nothing extraordinary but it's simplicity lets the characters persona shine brighter.

Art : The art is very well made not mind blowing but a very good quality as one should expect from newer anime series.

Sound : I was blown away by both the opening and ending. They both convey so much feelings and emotions. The OST's are also ... on point, I'm expecting more magnificent music pieces ! Props to the voice actors who do an amazing job
when it comes to voicing the characters.

Character : So far Ryou san has been such an amazing character. From something that could be perceived as creepy they managed to make him wholesome. The witty conversations are very entertaining and you can also appreciate his dedication to his new found love.

Ichika san is also someone you really enjoy, she has many natural reactions and the whole setup feels smooth thanks to her. I like the drama and doubts she has which makes her feel like a normal person one you would relate to.

TLDR :
If you've come this far then thank you for reading this. And as far as enjoyment and overall impressions, the only thing I can say is Give it a try. Don't expect an amazing story but rather enjoy it as delightful entertainment.
You won't regret trying it out I promise :)

While Charles Darwin long ago described his theory of evolution, I dare say he never envisioned humans enjoying a “rom-com" anime that would bend the definition of “entertainment” and leave a viewer’s imagination and love of anime Isekaid into a world where all that plays is Monochrome City.

For you newcomers to my reviews, I will dissect my opinion into 5 crucial sections, henceforth known as napkins.

Napkin #1
Story (1/10)
To say the story is nothing original is an understatement. We begin our journey with our heroine “saving the life” of our tragic hero, thus earning his undying affection and love. Interestingly, this very situation could ... be playing out with Studio Nomad, the “brains” behind Koikimo. Perhaps this hastily put together narrative reflects the fact that much like Ichika saved Ryo, Nomad hopes that Koikimo will save the studio. Sadly, life is not an anime.

Napkin #2
Art (2/10)
The animation (or lack of) in Koikimo can best be observed by taking a manga volume or a weekly coupon book that arrives in the mail and rapidly turning the page to create the illusion of movement. Character movement is kept to a minimum, with unexpressive faces and numerous still shots attempting to mask the lack of effort or budget.

Napkin #3
Sound (3/10)
The OP, Monochrome City, might just be the best music piece put to an entertainment medium since John Williams composed the score for Star Wars. Not only is it dynamic, upbeat, and catchy, it masks the poor animation in the OP! Unfortunately the OP appears to be the only piece of music that can be defined as a song throughout this anime, as I can not remember any background tracks or the ending. My only wish was that as Suspect #1 confessed his feelings to Victim #1, Romansu Nante, performed by a gospel choir, was played in the background.

Napkin #4
The characters (1/10)
There are three crucial characters to analyze if one is to understand the work of fiction that is Koikimo. First, Suspect #1, Ryo. Ryo is a boring office worker who apparently was never taught the word “no”. Instead, Ryo makes continuous advances until the miraculous revelation occurs that due to the 12-episode nature of the series, Victim #1, Ichika, must now appreciate his advances and fall for him. But wait… the non-existent character development doesn’t stop there. Meet Ryo’s sister, the Boogeyman, whose sole defining characteristic is her desire to set up her best friend with her brother. Just like the Boogeyman, Rio has a tendency to appear when Victim #1 is at her most emotionally confused, always steering her towards her brother. I suspect Rio’s motive is a desire to set her brother up with the underage Ichika, have him arrested, then steal the assets from her and Ryo’s parents before their untimely death. As a side note, could these dubious parents not choose a better name that merely taking Ryo’s name and changing the “y” to an “i”. Needless to say, I am not awaiting the spinoff series with Roo or Rao. The character designs are uninteresting, with Ichika and Ryo appearing bland and forgettable, much like the ED.

Napkin #5
Enjoyment (2/10)
Entertainment is supposed to entertain, but watching Koikimo evolved into a form of mental labor as I dragged myself to my computer, pried open my eyes, and danced to Monochrome city as Big Brother looked on, eager to call an exorcist. The shallow characters, ridiculous pacing, poor animation, and stupid premise fail to make this show enjoyable, leaving Koikimo reminiscent of prune juice for the soul.


Conclusion
Now looking at our five napkins on our table, we are left with a predicament. There is no food to enjoy. Setting aside the questionable nature of the relationship between Ichika and Ryo, the show fails for the simple reason that it is not entertaining. In the rom-com genre, better shows and manga, whether Rent A Girlfriend, Kaguya-Sama, or Komi Can’t Communicate, all exist and have more redeeming features than this anime.
Score: 1/10 Koikimo

There so soooooo many things just plain wrong about this anime. I don't mind age-gap anime/manga, in fact, one of my favorite mangas is an age-gap theme. But here's the difference between this age-gap anime and others that I've seen. First off, this grown man is offering a teenager first a kiss and then sex because she did a simple act of kindness that any decent human would do. Like, excuse me? First red flag. Then, the fact that the sicko's sister "thinks he's serious" about Ichika, so she gives her friend's ADDRESS to her brother so that he can go over to her private ... space uninvited when she literally already flat-out rejected him and told him that he's creepy. So, not only is her "friend" an enabler of a predator and encouraging this predatory relationship, but she's straight up a bad friend and puts Ichika in vulnerable situations so that her brother can be with her. And when she says him giving her things is a bother (another rejection), the man literally says that he's not going to stop and that no matter what she does or says, he'll continue to pursue her. WHAT?!?! This dude is just predatory and the mangaka is trying to put this in some weird "this is so cute, look how in love he is and how hard he's trying to change her mind" kind of light and that is so awful.
He not only grooms her throughout the episodes and harrasses her, he, as a 27 year old man, threatens a 17 year old kid because he was talking to Ichika and it was soooooooooo weird and uncomfortable and literally gave me chills because it was just so wrong and creepy. I honestly would prefer to see a show about Ichika and Tamura than a grown man creeping after a high schooler.
Aside from the inappropriate actions of the main guy, the animation isn't good and the sound is terrible. I literally changed servers because I thought the first one was messed up, but nope, the sound is just crap.
Like I said, I don't mind age-gap theme, but I've never seen one this uncomfortable where the younger person literally straight out rejects the older person and the older person just doesn't give a crap and continues to pursue despite all of their actions being unwanted and even predatory. This anime was just concerning and uncomfortable.

I really can't stand all these people justifying pedophilia by saying "it's just anime." In that case, why don't we go ahead and romanticize abuse, rape, homophobia, racism, etc. by saying "it's just anime". Oh, wait as long as there's a hot guy in them it's alright. And if you're gonna make an anime out of such a disgusting plot at least make the anime good and interesting to watch. This show is boring as hell. Boring plot. Dry humor (like please give me something to laugh at). And the tone of this anime is all over the place like sometimes it tries to be ... emotional, but I'm here like "okay(¬_¬ )." A good example of a romance between a high school student and an adult was "After the Rain" cause guess why... The adult never engaged in pedophilic behavior and kept his boundaries. I can't believe I wasted my time on this. Have fun pedos and pedo supporters.

WARNING !!! : CONTAIN SPOILERS

ONCE AGAIN Humans continue to be foolish creatures I mean what's up with all the negative reviews about this anime. It's like you have no more happiness left in your life and only left you with depression.
Before I say anything I want to say that Yes I absolutely acknowledge sexual harassments, rapist, that's happening around us and YES it's a SERIOUS CASE THAT I ABSOLUTE DISGUST! I have a friend who has fallen victim to this harassments, If I can I will absolute wipe all them out the face of the Earth but I'm not God so all I ... can do is try to help out what I can around me.

There's some behavior of Ryo's that I really dislike and It's probably because he's very confident about himself. But overall he's not a bad person. I am also aware that He use to date a lot of women, but He takes his feelings for ichika very seriously. He also said that he's not doing that anymore. Love can be surprising, It can hit us at any moment without warning and once we felt it that person becomes very dear for us.
Despite his feelings for Ichika, he also knows his place. He even said that his feelings for ichika is "Unrequited".
All that things that he's doing for ichika, Sending gifts, Calling her, etc. I call that EFFORT. I mean Ichika did say to stop, but she also said that she doesn't dislike the gifts he send to her. And when they talk to the phone, they talk about the things that they did and be done.
What I know about these two is that THEY'RE ARE BOTH SERIOUS and it's a very good thing. RYO about his feelings and Ichika trying to figure out if Ryo is serious and I hope she realized that he is serious about her. In the end It's up to her whether to return his feelings or not and I'm sure Ryo would RESPECT whatever she decides to do.
IF ichika really hates everything he does she'll know what to do, She would never answer his call talking all stuff, she would throw away everything he gives her and she probably will involved the police. But deep down she appreciates everything he does, she even said she missed him (which is very cute). Their taking their time, slowly. I really hope it works out for them.
IF there is something abnormal and f*cked up about this show I would know but all I see in this show is a very cute romcom anime.
For all the anime that I watch (I mostly watch slice of life and a lil bit of action) I WANT TO THANK YOU and The creator who made this anime (Mogusu was it) THANK YOU!

Story: (9)

Art : (9) I really like the art, it's cute.

SOUND (10000000000000000000000000): BRO OPENING AND ENDING ARE SO OP I JUST LOVED IT. ACE COLLECTION AND MARURI TO RYUGA THANK YOU, I HOPE THAT SUBSCRIBING TO YOUR CHANNEL HELPS OUT A BIT.

Character (10): Ichika is adobarable but RIO IS JUST SO PREACIOUS. I LOVE HOW SHE SUPPORST HER BROTHER'S LOVE TO HER BESTFRIEND AND I LOVE HOW MUCH SHE CARES ABOUT ICHIKA TOO.

ENJOYMENT (10): GOOD TO WATCH

OVERALL (10): I ENJOY IT VERY MUCH.

When Koi to Yubo was announced it got a lot of people both defending and attacking the plot before it even aired. Me, being the rational person that I am, waited until it aired to see how it actually is. I do like shoujo romance anime and while most of them tend to be copy and paste stories, they do give me enjoyment and some have a really cute and fun-loving romance. Koi to Yobu wasn't like that. If anything, it somehow went below my expectations, which wasn't high to begin with.

Characters (2/10)
Ryo and Ichika are by far the blandest and boring characters I've come ... across who have just about enough chemistry as oil and water. They both are one-note personality type characters who are known for one thing and one thing only. For Ryo he is a love-struck idiot who doesn't even understand the concept of true love and could probably fall in love with a stop sign if possible. Ichika is a plain, mousy, brown-haired protagonist with little to no agency whatsoever and goes along with everything because even if it's against what she wishes but does it anyway because plot progression. What little moments they had to shine were far and between the story, even then that wasn't enough to make them stand out. That pretty much sums them up.

Story (3/10)
I don't expect much from romance anime unless it has great characters and an interesting plot. This story in particular was rather bland. Before I go further, No, I will not talk about the age gap because that has been discussed to the point where it's practically a meme at this point. The story consists of Ryo trying to win Ichiko's heart and Ichiko, being a doormat for practically everyone (including her own mom of all people) not sure how to feel about this man's incessant stalking and creepy behavior. There, that's pretty much the entire plot. I will give credit where credit is due and say that some parts of it were funny and got a chuckle out of me. Other than that, the story is nothing to write home about and is easily forgettable.

Sound (4/10)
The OP is a banger, I will say that. Everything else however was so dry. Even the seiyuu's sounded like they were acting in a room that wasn't properly suited for voice acting. Half the time it came off as if they were recording in a microwave of all places. I get that maybe the pandemic made it difficult for the seiyuus to go to a recording studio, but even then the sound production could've made their voices come off with clarity and not sounding like there's white noise in the background.

Art (5/10)
The art did have some nice colors to it and it wasn't poorly animated. It was just average.

Overall (3/10)
Koi to Yobu is a story that doesn't stand out amongst romance anime It's story is easily forgettable and a chaotic mess of repetition and the characters are about as interesting as watching grass wither and they don't have any stand out personalities. This is just another mediocre romance anime that you will probably forget in about a month or two.