Love of Kill

The expression of 'if it's too good to be true' happens these days in the realm of the anime industry. By expression, Love of Kill seemed like a show that looked promising at first glance with its alluring premise. Yet, behind the story, characters, and overall ideas, we get one of the most lazy and lackluster shows of 2022. Based on the manga of the same name, the premise sounds alluring for its appeal of bounty hunting, assassination, espionage, and dealing with the criminal underworld. We really don't see these type of shows too often in an era dominated by isekai, rom-coms, and popular mainstream franchises.Keep in mind, Love of Kill is by no means a mainstream franchise yet did gain enough suppor and popularity for an anime adaptation. So why the disappointment? Why did Love of Kill flop? The truth is, this show is lackluster with one of the most lazy and forced relationships I've seen this year. Yes, I'm talking about two of the main characters: Chateau Dankworth and Song Ryang-ha. The first episode wastes no time with Song trying to woo Chateau into a date with her. The mysterious hitman offers his services in exchange for companionship. With a cold and stoic personality, you can practically imagine her reactions. It's a recurring gag in the show with Song constantly trying to please Chateau. However, it's also shown that Song is a dangerous individual who managed to exterminate many Hong Kong triads. He has a big target on his back and by being close with Chateau, she too comes into contact with danger. The show makes it clear that the two are targeted after a run-in with a powerful man named Donald. As the story progresses, we are told through background storytelling and narratives that reveals their pasts. Why do I call this show lazy? The answer is quite simple as the anime takes little effort to develop our main characters. Our two main protagonists' pasts may be important and have depth, but outside of that shows how bleak they really are. To call them mildly entertaining would even be an overstatement. Chateau is way too overfocused on her work while Son displays a pokerface persona to the point of being ridiculous. Their character chemistry appears to be cartoonish from the very start. It drags the overall mood of the show together. Because let's face it, how important is their relationship when there's much more mystery and suspense in the story? Even having the genre tag with 'romance' seems absurd. The romance we get out of this show is forced and feels scripted. There's one saving grace to this show and that is the adult cast and more mature themes. Dealing with the underworld and criminal organizations offers an refreshing look than a typical school life setting. Some story episodes also takes characters to more exotic places such as on a cruise. If there's one shining hope for this show, it would be for the age of the cast and some of the world settings. Of course, adults have repsonsibilities and that also translates to the supporting cast such as Euripedes, Jim, among others. However, you will be quite disappointed by their overall development for the story. It's a 12-episode adaptation and we're not getting a deep dive into their pasts like our main protagonists. Now, I admit that I'm not the target audience for this show. It's targeted more towards adult women, or more specifically the josei demographic. However, anyone can practically watch this show as it contains elements of mystery, suspense, and drama. I'm leaving romance out of that list since it's so lackluster, something that holds the anime back from day one. However, Studio Vision did their best to salvage the show by crafting mature looking characters. Almost every character in the show has a masculine look, into Chateau. There's no doubt that they wanted to give the impression of a more mature looking show from the start. Meanwhile, I do applaud some aspects of the show's chereography. It feels like a thriller and sometimes captures the suspenseful atmosphere of the story. Some episodes even feel like mini movies. After watching Love of Kill's 12 episodes adaptation, this show turned out to be a prime example of medicority. What could've been a stellar thriller turned into a forced relationship with little to no redeeming quality. It's too bad because the promotional material did entice me into accepting Love of Kill as a potential dark horse of 2022. But in the end, we got a show that was too good to be true.

I thought this would be like a spy x family lite. Well, it is just a soap opera josei stalking simulator. The story begins with a CRIMINAL, stalking a girl pretty PERSISTANTLY, Really? josei fans like that? Then comes the following supporting cast 1)A character who fakes an accent like that one tryhard weeb in discord (also has no mouth) 2)Nice guy employer who does cringe comedy bits with the above character and serves as sock factor/damsel in distress 3)Main love interest whose only interesting aspect is she is not a morning person and always a damsel in distress who need saving but still remains Tsundere to aman she owes her life to multiple times. 4)The MC who is “Oh i just stalk her against her will to protect her and also we have a history together” Then we get a teaser/flashback at a mystery in the making which does hit on the curiosity part of the brain a bit. The Unraveled mystery is quite good NGL but this payoff came rather late , since we keep moving in circles for the first 10 for apparently no good reason, just soap opera BS with nothing of note. The bad soundtrack is repeated constantly, Their is a recap for three minutes per episode, romance is none existent its mostly just stalking simulator with a bit of mystery and a bit of violence and ofc bishounen (josei anime). Do not bother with this one unless you have nothing else to watch , a bad production of what seems to be a mediocre source , which makes it even worse :/

It's been a long while since we've ever had a Josei adaptation, which are works targeted at adult women, the last of which was Chihayafuru which wrapped up Season 3 back in Fall 2019. And come this Winter, mangaka Fe's Koroshi no Ai a.k.a Love of Kill (the Japanese title connotation pun for killing each other) is silently a low-key combination of "Kaguya-sama: Love is War" in terms of romance and more like Mr and Mrs. Smith's version of "Spy X Family" in terms of mystery and suspense in the making (before the actual thing coming next season) as a stopgap measure. And for betteror worse, the anime adaptation kinda faltered when compared to the manga of the same name. How Koroshi Ai was penned by mangaka Fe, it's actually quite a surprise to say the least. Originally published on Pixiv in October 2012 under a very long title (which is quite the mouthful), it gained a huge following so much as to spawn a sequel, then combine them both under Media Factory's Shoujo manga magazine Monthly Comic Gene for serialization, and that's how the series which depicted an assassin couple in love came about. And sure enough, it is the meeting between two assassins: a male and a female. Of course, who am I kidding. The bounty hunter Chateau Dankworth and professional hitman Song Ryang-ha, both meeting coincidentally due to the professions of their missions, and being assassins they attempt to erase the other in a swift and fast action, to which the latter won. But instead of killing her, he decides to have fun by tagging along with her, even to the point of bounty hunter assassintion missions just to get her attention, to which she constantly rejects his romantic advances. To add things into the mix, Chateau's agency, Ritzland Support, soon finds themselves tasked with taking down a hitman who's wanted across many organizations for single-handledly taking down the Hong Kong Triads, and this hitman is no other than Song Ryang-ha. This, at the very beginning, is where the "show, don't tell" practice comes into play, as we follow both Chateau and Ryang-ha seemingly delving into lots of the practical assassination plots, to only then pick up with the constant flashbacks where both man and woman's past reveal a hideous truth that changes the game's playing field and lets the viewers see how everything from their past comes to haunt them in their present day. It's a very slow burn for sure, and it'll take lots of romantic teasing and deaths by revenge and summons just to reach to that point. The real meat is in the details, and I'm not gonna spoil it here as the central story is what makes Koroshi Ai such a good read from the manga, and the anime adaptation kept it very faithfully, albeit with the constant recaps just to fill in for padding the runtime, which is annoying to say the least. The female lead, Chateau Dankworth, feels simpler in design. She is somewhat similar to Saber from Fate visually, and being very quiet, stoic, cute, and all the more for not understanding it or caring about romance. But since this is a Josei work, the focus is squarely on the male lead, Song Ryang-ha. If you've noticed a little about his character design, fox eyes are a rare, important feature, since they are essentially like a façade that hides their true colours. In case you didn't know, fox-like characters are impenetrably smiley most of the time, playful, socially adept, and seemingly eager to serve...until they show their eyes, and you know that shit has become real. And for a professional hitman-cum-romanticist, Song Ryang-ha fits the description to a T: he has a murderous identity, he is the nine-tailed fox in the room you have to ignore to appreciate this work, actually. Furthermore, Ryang-ha is like a small sadistic predator, serving tortured bodies as gifts to the female lead (Chateau) and resides in rundown buildings. He mellows pretty fast, always attracts the view, being smooth, sleek, functional, and ever so casually stylish. A low-key dangerous Ikemen because he is for the most part, very natural, and therefore classy as heck if he wants to be glamorous. The other characters do serve as plot movers, though of one particular interest is with Ritzland Support's secretary Indian, or Jim is as called in the anime. His real identity is a mystery, though he is an immigrant from India. And if you're thinking why doesn't Jim have a mouth, it's not because you're seeing it wrong, as the manga is also drawn this way, it's intentional. Most of the cast derives from Ryang-ha's past such as the spiderweb cheek tattoo Hou to the mastermind that is Donald "Donny" Bachman, and this syndicate forms the basis of the tumultuous downward spiral of which both Chateau and Ryang-ha are involved in. It's a deadly race of revenge and time, and time will only tell how these 2 are connected to one another as the series progresses, which amps the mystery and suspense quite decently. Some will have issues with the ways and styles of Platinum Vision's visuals as a studio, and this is a problem that I've encountered in a similar show: Devil's Line, back in Spring 2018, also produced by the same studio as one of their first works. The premise and setting of the 2 are almost like one another: dark, gritty and almost at times, condescending. While it gives the sense of mute-ness, it isn't as quite polished as I would've like, and the visuals are almost to the point of being a disappointing adaptation at best given its tense atmosphere. That said, if this was handled by a studio and staff team that understands the literacy of the work, then it could've been better, but this is what we got, and it's frankly kinda mediocre. On the upside of things, the music really fits the tone and mood of the show, to a T, and yes, that includes the credit visuals. Seiyuu Toshiki Masuda may have a long and extensive discography of his works, but this is the first time that he's going solo, and his debut OP song "Midnight Dancer" is such a dance of a bop that really doesn't disappoint. The one that truly surprised me was Aika Kobayashi with her ED song "Makoto Period", because her past songs were all very cheerful, vibrant and uplifting, and this was a stark contrast with dark and dreary but melancholic tones that had the feels going for it. I might say that this song is really her best effort and foot forward so far, and at times, left me fearful in a claustrophobic manner for what's about to come, in a good way of course. One of the best EDs of the season IMO bar none, and props to sound director Hajime Takakuwa for laying down that atmosphere which has been an integral part of the moving plot. Even as a straight guy, I can say that Koroshi Ai is an interesting Josei work that you just don't hear quite a lot. Sadly with the somewhat subpar anime adaptation, and with a work like this that demands your fullest attention (because if you blink, you'll miss it), some will love it, others will hate it. But hey, in a niche demographic like this, I have to judge everything the same, and this is a fine (as in decent) adaptation when all is said and done. I think I will gear to the manga more to continue where the anime left off, and you might have a better experience that way as well.

First thing first, I have not read the manga yet and will be soon after this. Now, I don't write review that much because it's a pain and the reason I'm writing this is let all of you people understand that this is not a trash anime. Have you ever seen this kind of anime before? I sure have but a different one. Have you ever heard of City Hunter? Yes, this anime reminds me of that and I like it very much. The story is simple but with a twist. I begin to love it after watching episode 1. It is something you don'tsee everyday. The characters are awesome. I like the story and the development between Ryang and Chateau. I won't spoil too much but their interaction is quite funny and nice to watch. It's like a mix of bit of comedy in it which I believe is quite nice. I'm a huge fan of romance so seeing this was refreshing because I was too tired of the same romance I've been seeing lately. There aren't a lot of characters in this anime so if you expecting something like that then it's useless. If you also expecting a backstory of each character then better look else where. The focus is on two main characters which are Ryang and Chateau, obviously. Consider that when you decide to watch it. Don't start writing some sh*t how the anime is missing that or doesn't make sense on such event etc.. The ending ended good but not the end. You will understand once you watch it. Opening is good but I like the ending song better. In conclusion, I would have given a 9/10 but I decided that 8/10 would be more reasonable since the story is still incomplete. I hope there would be a second season because I want to see more. If you like crime, guns, blood, and some mystery vibe with some romance then give the anime a try or just try it. Again, don't act like sh*t and understand that you might not find what you're looking for.