Genres: Romance, Comedy, Slice of Life, Reverse Harem
What is it about?
My synopsis:
Romantic Killer is a reverse harem anime where the female lead character, Anzu, is a ginormous otaku with a big love for only three things: games, chocolate and her cat (and honestly who can blame her ;)). One day her newest otome game gets hijacked by some kind of tiny yellow egg-shaped wizard with a purple hat. The wizard’s mission is to increase birth rate in Japan of for typical anime reasons this can only happen by making girls with no interest in romance live out a real-life otome game including with randomly appearing cute boys. In order to make Anzu focus on this mission, the wizard confiscates her 3 biggest desires (the games, chocolate and her cat) until Anzu starts a romantic relationship. Anzu is (understandably) very mad at this and vows to not fall in love and to be so stubborn the wizard will just give up and give her back her three desires. This leads to many funny interactions and situations.
A normal synopsis (source MyAnimeList.net):
Anzu Hoshino needs only three things in her life: video games, chocolate, and her beloved cat. Unlike other high school girls, Anzu has no time for or interest in romance. But as she begins playing a poorly programmed 3D otome game, a bizarre flying wizard named Riri emerges from the screen and calls Anzu “subject one,” the first person who will experience a dating game harem storyline in real life.
Despite Anzu’s fiery protests, Riri confiscates her favorite things to force her to focus on love. They orchestrate a series of unlucky incidents and romantic cliches that lead her to meet Tsukasa Kazuki, the most attractive boy in her school. Still enraged, Anzu is adamant about resisting Tsukasa’s charm. As all the ridiculous fabricated scenarios help Anzu warm up to Tsukasa’s pleasant nature, Riri throws other stereotypical pretty boys her way—and avoiding romance quickly becomes almost impossible.
What did I think?
I really really loved this anime. From the very first episode I was constantly watching with a smile on my face. I binged all the episodes in one go and it just got me in such a happy mood.
So the story,… Romatic Killer is a reverse anime which is always tricky. Luckily this is not the “let’s all emotionally (and physically) abuse the female character” and more of a “female otaku are awesome and off course boys fall for them” kind. So for the otaku under us: not like “Diabolic lovers”, more like “Kiss him, not me”.
Which just makes it a fun, enjoyable and entertaining anime. The story kinda makes fun of otome games by placing Anzu is different cliche situations like the running with toast in her mouth (seriously who does that, just keep it in your hands otherwise your toast gets very gross where the toast is in your mouth!), but Romatic Killer puts fun twists in these scenarios which just makes it fun to watch.
Although we get may enjoyable cliche romantic anime scenarios, the anime never turns ecchi. For example: yes the characters crash into each other and land on the floor on top of each other. But there is no “accidental” boob grabbing.
I can really appreciate that, the anime has some kind of fun innocence over it and that kind of ecchi scenes would have taken away from the vibe of the anime.
Anzu as a character is very relatable (definitely as a fellow otaku) and the male character are also really enjoyable. Unlike some other reverse harem anime, the guys actually have unique personalities and back stories. Even more than that, they evolve during the anime so their story is just as important as Anzu’s story.
So what I’m trying to say is: Romantic Killer is a reverse harem anime done right. It leans into the reverse harem genre without taking it too seriously. This is just a great anime and I already binge watched it twice.
I also just would like to say I’m so happy Netflix finally made a Netflix original anime that actually looks like an anime. (They got close with komi can’t communicate, but the faces were still of in that one). So bonus points for that!
In conclusion: Romantic Killer is a must watch for any otaku who likes romance.
Otaku and proud girl 