*Minor spoilers ahead*
So... Engage Kiss. I don't like to say this, but this was unfortunately, one of the most horrible anime I have seen this year. Now, taking into account I have only watched the three episodes that were out when this review was written, I cannot say for sure whether it will get better, but even if this anime somehow becomes a masterpiece in the next 10 episodes, I will still have my gripes with this series.
Firstly, this anime REALLY does not know what it wants to be. The general rule of thumb for anime is that you should try to include a few distinct ideas so that your anime is multi-faceted and interesting to watch, but you should not be including too many distinct ideas. This anime is currently, at least from the first three episodes, doing that. It's delving into a weird romance triangle that doesn't even get explained until episode 3, a half-yandere female mc still attending school (high school I assume), supernatural forces, politics which implement the idea of government corruption and the idea of the MC being a mindless sheep for the government, the looming darkness of the MC's backstory, all while repeatedly reminding us that the MC is extremely poor. I am glad that the producers are trying to incorporate different ideas to make the story more interesting, but add too much and it becomes a big messy pile of ideas. I'm not a producer, so I have no right to judge, but my personal opinion is that the producers maybe should have tried removing some of the ideas implemented, and go with a simpler story. Otherwise, the anime can get overwhelming at times.
Secondly, the exposition of this anime is honestly horrible. While I get that no one likes exposition dumps, that doesn't make it an excuse for the first few episodes to be this confusing. Even if the anime picks up and gets really good, it doesn't matter because people are going to drop this anime either way. If it really becomes a great masterpiece, then people still have to sit through 3+ episodes of very bad exposition. Why its bad you ask? Well, the anime makes no effort explaining what the relationship between the characters are, or how the demons appeared, or how demon hunters (or what they're called) are formed, or how the president even got elected in the first place? While I do get that the relationship was addressed in episode 3, and maybe some of these details were not revealed so early to have more of a "shock factor" when eventually they are revealed, we are given not even given an inkling as to what the answers to these questions are, which will confuse some people and make some people annoyed.
Story- 3/10
The exposition was really bad, and the anime seems to just skip to the fight scenes pretty quickly, making the moments in between the fights seem like filler episodes to be honest. And this is mostly because there was not much exposition at the start, so the entire situation was pretty confusing.
Art- 8.5/10
This is easily the best part of this anime. It uses a palette of vibrant colours and crisp animations to draw you in, and hey, at least for me it did a pretty good job. The character designs were also pretty good, and it didn't feel like a reskin of older animes. They actually had pretty unique designs. (Lets not talk about happy sugar life here...)
Sound- 7/10
The opening was pretty good, but I wouldn't say so for the ending. This is more of a personal opinion, but the ending was pretty lackluster, especially compared to the opening.
Character- 3/10
The characters were pretty dull and the two main female MCs personalities all boil down to both of them fighting for the MC, the only difference between them is that one's a tsundere, and one's a yandere. Oh, and they also have different hair colours. Due to... you guessed it, the bad exposition, the characters were not fleshed out that much, though I think I remember some mild dialogue about one of the girl's backstories, which is okay I guess. Meanwhile the MC's character is a bit better, he's not a beta male (thank you) and actually has some personality, but is in constant, barely explained debt.
Enjoyment- 3/10
Honestly, Engage Kiss felt like a chore to watch. It was very confusing, and was a really big mess. However, it was slightly fun to watch, due to it being quite the goofy show.
Overall -4/10
The animation and art is pretty amazing, which probably is the only reason why I could continue watching 3 episodes. Also, I wanted to watch 3 episodes before I could make an unimpaired judgement. I would definitely not recommend this to anyone who wants to watch whatever genre this is, and I sincerely hope that the anime gets better in the next episode, because I will probably drop it if it doesnt.
*please note that even though I didn't like the anime that much, I still have respect for the producers, and this review is in no way shape or form ridiculing them for their work. This review just points out the good and bad aspects of the anime in my opinion.*
