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Wolf Girl & Black Prince is a really sad excuse for a romance anime, doing for romantic comedy what Twilight did for teenage relationships and taking it a step further to S&M.

Wolf Girl & Black Prince is about Erika Shinohara, a 16-year-old girl who finds herself starting a new year of school, but is alienated from the other students because they have all formed their own cliques. In order to befriend two girls, she tells them about her romantic exploits with her boyfriend, despite the fact she has no boyfriend.

She claims that a handsome boy in a candid photo is her boyfriend, unaware that ... he is her schoolmate, Kyouya Sata. In order to hide her lie, she asks him to keep her secret and he offers to become her fake boyfriend. Unfortunately for her, while Sata acts like a sweet person in public, he is actually a black-hearted sadist, and blackmails her into becoming his dog.

Right off the bat, Wolf Girl is very bright and colorful, but the overall art is lacking, as most of the detail went into the male characters, mainly Kyouya, causing the others to pale in comparison. You'll notice that throughout the show the colors on Kyouya Sata just pop, but when the scene flips over to Erika, the same attention to detail is absent.

The sound is barely sub-par and pretty average as far as shoujo anime go. It's also too sharp of a contrast to the dark subject matter, and the opening theme feels like its trying to romanticize the story into something positive even though it isn't.

Character development-wise, there is some progression, though slow, with background on Kyouya to illuminate the viewers on why he's such a flaming douchebag. Yet again, a whole lot of focus on the male lead, which doesn't leave much room for the other characters to grow in the story. But several episodes in and the side characters make so few appearances they become generic plot devices anyway.

The entire storyline is chock full of drama, with power play and S&M fleshed out across the whole series. Kyouya takes up almost all the limelight and character development, accounting for a huge chunk of each of the 12 installments. And because he's such convincing eye-candy, you don't notice you're wasting your life watching him hog screen time just so he can be an asshole to a teenage girl.

As a whole, Kyouya's entire personality detracts from his character, making him creepy and off-putting. His entire relationship with Erika from the beginning is founded on the basis for control, or put more simply, because he wants a dog he can order around. But that's about where things stop being funny. Kyouya's obsession with having power over her leads him to push the boundaries of what is acceptable, even going as far as to emotionally toy with Erika in increasingly cruel ways even when she bares her emotions to him.

This twisted rendition of a master/slave relationship ultimately personifies an abusive relationship and the death of feminism all in one series. If that was what the creators were going for, they hit two birds with one stone.

But seriously, who wants a heroine who just lets herself get walked all over and then comes back for more?

Wolf Girl & Black Prince tries to be lighthearted about the delicate subject matter, but its dark undertones make the whole relationship between Erika and Sata seem deeply disturbing.

Even in light of the fact the anime tries to excuse Kyouya's behavior with his past, it doesn't do much in the way of rectifying all the torment he inflicted on Erika, nor does it convince me that all is okay. In the end, Kyouya's actions defy logic by bringing Erika closer instead of destroying their relationship.

Sadly, the one character is not Wolf Girl's only flaw. The amount of female subordination to boot is appalling. Erika Shinohara proves to be as dumb as she is naive, excusing Kyouya's abuse time and again and being bought with acts of fake kindness.

Somewhere in the story line, a new love prospect opens up for Erika, but she opts out in favor of...you guessed it, Kyouya.

Unbearably optimistic, Erika's seiyuu was bubbly and high-pitched to the point of inducing a headache. Kyouya's seiyuu on the other hand was impressive, but sadly not enough to lift this anime off the ground.

I honestly wouldn't even recommend Wolf Girl & Black Prince, unless you're the type of person who likes watching S&M at its finest. This show calls itself a romance anime, but I was not feeling any love at all from this one.