Do you think you could live in a world where your marriage partner is scientifically chosen for you when you turn 16? To be honest, I wouldn't mind letting an algorithm decide on my lifelong partner. Of course, I'm against real-life arranged marriages, and the Sybil System from Psycho-Pass definitely rubs me the wrong way when you look at the society it creates, but the "The Red Threads of Science" actually matches you up with someone that's suitable for you, and benefits society by decreasing the number of single people and increasing birth rates. How much easier would life be if you didn't have to worry about finding the love of your life? Also a better chance for sex at 16! What a great deal! Of course, there are many people that disagree with me, and Love and Lies focuses on one of them, Yukari Nejima. It's an interesting idea, one that could definitely be something incredibly enjoyable, but as you continue the show you start to realise it's not as good as you thought it would be.
If it wasn't clear, this show is a love triangle. Yukari is in love with Misaki Takasaki, but his assigned partner is Ririna Sanada. Throw in a best friend, Yuusuke Nisaka, whose feelings towards the trio are quite the mystery, and we have all our main characters. On their own, the characters are all perfectly fine. Yukari is forward enough so that he isn't a complete pussy, Misaki and Ririna are both perfectly likeable girls and don't have any annoying character quirks, and Nisaka is kind of an enigma but an enjoyable enigma. (Although the mystery is never cleared up and we're left with character with vague intentions) The other frequent characters also fit well with the show, all having some sort of purpose to the progression of the story. However, once you take in the romance and drama, problems start to arise. First of all, there is one main issue I would like to address.
Yukari is a bit of an ass...
I'm sorry, but he's just way too indecisive. Put yourself in the shoes of Ririna. You have been given a marriage partner by the government, but you find out he actually likes someone else. At first, you find this cute and decide to support him by pushing the two together, but as things progress you start to develop feelings for him as well. Your first thought would be that you want that person to choose either you or the other girl. Of course, it's gonna hurt if he rejects you, and there might be some repercussions, but it'd be better than prolonging the inevitable and causing even more emotional pain. However, your marriage partner can't fucking decide between you two. This is the problem. I know it would be terrible for the show if Yukari just chose one of them early, the story would no longer have a reason to continue its love triangle and be forced to move onto something else or just end it there, but it's just not fun knowing that either one our main girls or both of them are gonna end up getting hurt really badly when it all could have been prevented with a simple answer.
The romance also suffers from plot convenience and pointlessness. The reason shown in the first episode behind Yukari's and Misaki's feelings for each other is incredibly forced. They tried to set up a couple way too fast and caused it to feel stupid and unbelievable. Later on, we do get some more development that allows us to make better sense of the pairing, but we're still suffering from the recoil of that first episode that we're struggling to see the love as genuine. As the show goes on, our main's feeling is pretty one-sided, with the occasional monologue of "Do I like Ririna?" and "What is love?" (Baby don't hurt me) A lot of the progression in the relationship is between Yukari and Misaki, with Ririna in the background like a knock-off cheerleader that desperately needs some attention. It makes you wonder why exactly the love triangle was created in the first place if you were only gonna focus on one couple. Either give both girls an equal amount of romantic screen time or scrap one of them, because the way this show is doing it's love triangle is incredibly annoying. The ending only makes the whole ordeal even more frustrating, but going any further would be spoilers.
The drama is ok, but it also relies on a lot of plot convenience and plot points that don't get explored enough. An example can be seen in the first episode, as Yukari gets an email on his phone about who his assigned partner. At first, it shows Misaki Takasaki as his chosen partner, but the phone suddenly glitches and disappears. Then two government officials appear out of nowhere and hand him a notice in an envelope, stating his partner is now Ririna Sanada. Okey dokey, so first of all, what the actual fuck? That's not how an email works. What kind of next level hacker is in this anime trying to bring up the hopes of some random high school kid and send them crashing back down? This scene was only done as an incredibly weak set up for drama, relying on its audience to turn off their brains for a minute so they don't collapse from the ridiculousness of the situation. The worse thing is that it never is explained, it's just brought up a couple of times to fulfil its job as drama set up and thrown back into storage, never seen again. Also, how did the government officials know where to find Yukari? To make it clear, he is not sitting at home happily waiting for his notice, he's out at a park in the middle of the night. There is absolutely no way for anyone to know where he was unless he was tagged or being followed for the entire night, and I doubt that's what happened. There are many other scenes that use plot convenience and create plot points that are never touched back on, but listing them would be tedious and spoil the anime.
I really wanted to like Love and Lies, cause the premise was something I was genuinely interested in. Sadly, too many issues popped up and I spent too much time picking apart bits and pieces to properly enjoy the show. Although, I'm sure a lot of people here can look past the issues I saw and really enjoy the anime, so go ahead. Pick the show up and see how you like it yourself. Just don't drop it after the first episode. Don't let a piece of school stationery scare you away.
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