I went into this knowing absolutely nothing, never heard of it or the manga - I simply thought it was going to be another romance anime with a 'quirky' lead like toradora, but oh boy was I in for a ride: Romantic Killer is a parody of the romance genre, it takes the reverse harem trope and puts a unique spin onto it. All with it's own protagonist who, despite being quite stereotypical, still hits it out of the park with her characterisation.
Anzu is pretty much your basic 'not like other girls' girl. She likes video games, hung out with boys over girls growing up, isn't 'conventionally' attractive (in terms of the world), is blunt and stubborn, most importantly: she doesn't want to get into a relationship. But this is out of spite for the pull point of this anime - Riri. It's clear at first that Anzu does find the ikemen attractive, she tries her best to resist their natural charms and fails on many occasions. Moments like these really make her character all the more relatable and pulled me into the anime more: these guys are attractive but she has a solid goal to not fall for them, it's believable for her to turn them down. What stood out the most to me is just how steadfast she is in her beliefs, she unconditionally supports her friends and never fails to show up for them. She also gets along with a lot of people - she's not your loner-loser protag that a lot of these 'quirky mc' romances tend to go.
The animation and artstyle is what really sold this show - the constant references to other pop media like Jojo's and Ace Attorney had me reeling when the comedic timing was perfect, it doesn't take itself seriously for the majority of the time - and it's serious when it needs to be for the actual plot. These types of shows usually have a problem with pacing and pulling together a real story, but this show has no faults in that department, again thanks to Riri. Bonus points for literally no fanservice either, this show was really made for the girls and the gays.
Riri grew on me so much, first off we love enby/genderfluid rep but their character had the most growth by far out of the whole main cast. And they have a very satisfying character arc. The other characters hold their own in their own right: Kazuki and Junta obviously being the main male leads are developed the most (with Kazuki taking the lead), but we're given a decent amount of time to learn about all of the harem participants. I did just wish for the throuple tho im ngl it wouldve been perfect and the vibes were THERE.
Anyway...Kenjiro Tsuda voicing tsuchiya???? hello??? need i say more (they should've made his character a dilf please he deserved more)
My only gripes with the show is that it was too short, I would've preferred more time with each Li but that's just a nitpick because it's satisfying enough with what's there.
I'm also hard coping right now because it appears the creator of the manga has dropped the series which finishes off pretty much the same time as where s1 has ended so...no season 2 and no concrete ending! hopefully in 8 years I can come back to this review and see myself proven wrong :')
