As I just mentioned, the show is essentially a parody of the series Death Note, but in this instance, the Death Note is now replaced with a new book called the Kiss Note; an extremely powerful tool that, when two names are written inside it next to each other, they will both fall madly in love with each other regardless of the gender, providing that they kiss one another that is. This feature, in particular, comes greatly in use for the yaoi enthusiast, Guri, a hyperactive idiot cupid whose task is to match up potential couples with each other. However, she accidentally writes the main protagonist's name in the book, by the name of Seiji Anno, and he has to kiss someone otherwise Guri will die (which we later learn is an outright lie). He decides to kiss his crush, who turns out to have a mad obsession with our bland as hell main character here, bordering on Yandere tendencies, pulling out random knives and swords from her tits in the same way a girl may keep her phone down there or something? They eventually do kiss, but Guri makes herself, and Yandere-chan, known as Akane, into a three-way relationship, eventually adding Akane's sister, Yuzu (who actually loves Akane) into the mix. And that's pretty much it for an overall narrative, which, I believe is fine for a comedy anime as long as the characters are fun and the comedy is funny and varied, which, unfortunately, is something I believe the anime lacks.
For starters, let's discuss the wasted potential in the Death Note parody gimmick and set-up of the narrative. Despite being a parody of said series, Love Tyrant hardly utilises the Kiss Note to any substantial merit and the show pretty much forgets about this item throughout much of the duration, which, in my eyes, is wasted potential for some comedic moments. It feels like the Kiss Note was added as a way to make the show more marketable by riding on the popularity of Death Note, rather than being used as satire. There is no clever meta-commentary or callbacks to the actual series either, so the Kiss Note, aside from being used to start the story, feels inconsequential and rather pointless to boot. Not only that, but the comedy, for the most part, feels incredibly weak and trite despite the potential in the first two episode. I'll honestly admit, that the first two episodes of Love Tyrant are actually pretty funny and engaging to boot; I was having a great time with the show. The jokes, at the beginning anyway, felt fresh and they often were more hit than miss, but, as the show progresses, it feels more tiring to watch since they never switch up the dynamics and repeat the same jokes throughout. This makes the show feel so damn repetitive to watch, and repeating the same jokes is essentially a cardinal sin in comedy; it becomes stale by episode five! In addition, the jokes and comedy itself feels extremely forced and most jokes can be seen a mile away before they're even delivered! It doesn't help all too much either that the characters have hardly any chemistry with one another nor do their personalities bounce off each other well either.
For the sake of argument, let's compare it to another comedy this year, from the previous season, called Gabriel Dropout. While that show is not a comedic masterpiece or anything, it was able to remain a fun ride throughout since its characters had defined personalities which had chemistry with one another, while, at the same time, spicing things up just enough with its joke variations to keep things from becoming too stale. This doesn't happen in this show and each joke feels as bland as the last. There is no snowball effect taking place, nor are the character's personalities strong enough to carry the weight of the show. The comedic timing could also feel pretty off, and often at times jarring! The problem with the show is that it doesn't quite know if it wants to be a comedy, a drama or an edge-fest and combines them all together, with an end result that feels clunky to watch. It's not necessarily uncommon for anime to combine multiple genres together, but here there is hardly any downtime between any of the events, so in one moment they are laughing and joking, and in the immediate next, the main character is being tortured. There is no downtime between any of these events and thus it can feel really awkward and jarring while watching the show since the pacing for this show is strangely inconsistent, but is normally pumped up to eleven at all times. Again, for the sake of argument, Gintama is also an anime that features a lot of comedy intermixed with more serious and emotional moments, but, in that show, these two never feel all too intrusive on each other since there is a good amount of downtime between each one. Perhaps this is an unfair comparison considering the sheer difference in the lengths of both shows, but there are plenty of other shows that can achieve this, so why not this one?
This doesn't help when the music for the show is so badly implemented and placed at the worst of times. One of the worst examples comes from episode eight in which the main character is being continuously stabbed with a sharp object, while light and carefree music is being played over it, music that would fit right at home in children's shows. It just feels, yet again, jarring, and that's the best word I can use to describe this show: jarring.
When it comes to the characters, they don't fare much better. The main character is as boring in personality as he is in visual design. He plays the typical main character lead; spiky hair, getting embarrassed when a girl gets close to him, and so on and so forth. He is a rather boring character, who is pushed into playing the straight man role for the group and nothing else beyond that. He responds with the typical reactions you'd expect from a character in his position and jumps in to save the day whenever he is needed to do so. He is not a bad character necessarily, just an extremely dull one. Akane has a little bit more going for her, in that we do actually learn her back-story, which does explain the reason behind her action and general personality, details I can appreciate, it's just that each scenario and joke she is in, always is about how she is a yandere, while, at the same time, pulling out weapons from her tits. While beautiful in her visual appearance, her character doesn't really have all too much in likeability nor does she receive all too much development as a person either, aside from her rebellion against her mother in the eighth episode of the show. Yuzu receives a little bit of exploration into her character and reasoning behind her love for Akane, while, at the same time having superpowers (which the show never actually explains why she has those now that I am thinking about it) but, again, it feels like I'm repeating myself here, needed more in the way of development in order for her character to be good. The only character I liked was Guri, mainly because I have a soft spot for his aloof idiot types of characters, but I generally found her to be kind of charming in her own little way. I liked her character design perhaps the most, and the various facial expressions she did were kind of funny in their own little way, although nothing remarkable as a whole.
If there is one thing I can praise, it is the artwork and general look of the show. It is very colourful and pops pretty well, and, as I said, I liked the various faces and chibi-ness of some of the facial expressions too. I also liked the opening and ending tracks, especially the opening which is incredibly catchy. It's upbeat, lively and full of energy, which, the rest of the show should have been as well, which is a shame since it did have a few things going for it. Some of the comedic moments were alright and the initial set up was good, but unfortunately, the show was not funny in my eyes.
But this is where it becomes difficult, however. Comedy is something that is extremely subjective, and thus, I can imagine many people finding this show very funny to watch, which is completely fine. After all, many people consider the second season of Konosuba to be weaker than its prequel, yet I found it funny still, which is something I have to consider when talking about comedy. My sense of humour is pretty damn strange, and I find pleasure in absurd humour. On that end, I would like to recommend this show, on account that you personally may find it funny to watch, but, on the flip side, there are so many other comedy anime out there that take the time to write much more varied jokes that don't come across as forced or jarring when they switch to a more serious tone. It's unfortunate that I didn't enjoy this show, since, as I said in the opening paragraph, I really did want to like this show, but I just couldn't...
