Parodies sometimes work and sometimes they don’t. Renai Boukun is one of those series that’s going to be hard to gauge until a couple of episodes in. So what did the first episode do right or wrong to make me feel this way?
Let’s explore!
First Episode Impressions
So we open up with a girl named Guri telling a boy named Seiji Aino that if he doesn’t kiss someone, he will die, which is a bit of truth and a bit of lie mixed into one. Guri is a cupid, posing as a shinigami, and she has a notebook called the Kiss Note. If you write two people’s names in it separated by an “x,” they will kiss and fall in love. However, Guri accidentally messes up the kanji for someone’s name she was going to write and ends up writing Seiji’s name in there by accident, but she didn’t write a partner. This means if Seiji doesn’t kiss someone within 24 hours, Guri will die! Yes, that is a complete parody of Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata’s Death Note and they even go so far to reference the parody in the episode itself.
So Guri agrees to try and kiss Akane Hiyama, a girl whom he has a crush on; however, Akane is a yandere and after learning that Seiji kissed Guri to try and remove the death curse (and failing), she brings out a knife and threatens his life! Guri ends up taking a knife to the skull and lives because she’s immortal (of course, because why not?) Guri ends up writing Akane’s name down as Seiji’s partner and now they’re both in love… AND immortal as well! Which works out great for Akane because she repeatedly stabs Seiji every chance she gets!
After this, Guri is seen with Seiji by Yuzu Kichougasaki who mistakes them as loves and claims that he is cheating on Akane. She steals the Kiss Note and runs. After tracking them down, Guri just adds her name to the love triangle, making it a love quadrangle? Since her name was written, she has to kiss one of the three of them. She opts to kiss Akane, but trips on a rock a kisses Seiji instead. Oh, and there’s also an angel who borrowed the body of Seiji’s cat and now lives with Seiji and Guri.. who also brainwashed Seiji’s parents into thinking Guri is a part of the family.
Okay.. so what in the holy hell did I just watch? This show is a train wreck in the fact that it’s so bad, but you can’t just look away… you have to keep watching.
OP & ED Impressions
Renai Boukun’s ppening is bleh. Like complete and utter bleh. “Koi? De Ai? De Boukun desu!” by Wake Up, Girls! Is one of those annoying, generic openings that I always hate and loathe. It even comes complete with polka dot backgrounds, bouncing pastel colors, female vocals and a generic upbeat tone! Oh, and there’s some hand clapping too.. you know.. just to complete the trashiness. This is one opening I will be skipping.
The ending is a little more tolerable, but not by much. “Suki wo Oshiete” by smileY inc. is okay at best. It works as an ending theme, but it’s also not a song that I’m going to be rushing out to get on release day.
Worth Watching?
MAYBE – The randomness and humor is rather generic. I didn’t really find myself laughing at this as much as I thought I would be based off the synopsis I read. I thought that Renai Boukun would be a comedy with a darker tone to it, but the darker tones of the show were put into a positive light. It’s almost as if they are trying too hard at making people laugh and it’s just coming off as painful at times. I’ll have a to see a few more episodes to see if it gets any better, but shows like this typically don’t.
