Should I watch Koi To Uso?
"What does it mean to love someone?"...
Koi to Uso, calm down on your symbolism.
Koi to Uso comes with an interesting premise of the system of "The Red Threads of Science" where people are assigned partners for the rest of their life to stop the decline of birth rates. Yukari Nejima voiced by Ryota Osaka is such an interesting case where he had a crush on Misaki Takasaki voiced by Kana Hanazawa since he was kid but when the notice for Yukari's partner was abruptly changed from Misaki to Ririna, things changes for Yukari.
This premise is quite interesting for the fact of showing us whether government law can produce results in a healthy relationship or whether true love can conquer this. However in the case of Koi to Uso, it kinda broke it's own rules and ruined it in the process.
Before LA talks about that.....characters.
Since this is a rather character-relationship driven narrative, LA will look at each of the major characters one at a time.
First is Yukari Nejima, our main narrative focused protagonist.......he's just your ordinary high school boy with a crush with no really redeeming features about him (besides he's a nice guy and likes burial mounds), he's actually the most uninteresting character in this series to be quite honest, he's essentially an audience proxy as to how the system of "The Red Threads of Science" works.
Next is LA's favourite character Ririna Sanada voiced by Yui Makino, Yukari's assigned partner. LA really just liked her naive tsundereness (leaning more to dere) and just how she shook the entire situation of Yukari and Misaki. However her naivete is also her downfall, being from a rich family and being awkward in school, she kinda misses the point sometimes and gets into misunderstandings alot with Yukari. But later on she does develop feelings for Yukari and her life changes as she gets used to school life, have friends from her school as well as Misaki. Nonetheless LA was rooting for her and it's not just because she was LA's favourite character.
Next is Misaki Takasaki, Yukari's childhood crush, really the only thing going for her is that she's a childhood friend and seeing the childhood friend win would have been a refreshing sight in anime and again going aback to the entire "true love conquers" works into her quite well. As much as LA likes Ririna, having Misaki "win" would hold true for the anime at hand and hell to that because of this, Misaki becomes an interesting character, not LA's favourite but more interesting to see this outcome. The only problem with Misaki is that although she's interesting nothing much about her is interesting such as the case of Yukari as well. It's Yukari and Misaki's relationship that makes them interesting not individual themselves.
Finally we have Yuusuke Nisaka voiced by Shinnosuke Tachibana, best friend of Yukari and he's kinda got a secret of his own and LA is totally fine with it. Overall he's the guy that gets the less flack within this entire ordeal.
So about the rules breaking for "The Red Threads of Science" system, well for one if the arranged partner skips out on the system, they get a stigma towards society which also affects their futures as well......but then later on it tells us there's a loophole that bypass all this...then what's the point of the system?, also the anime is persistent in telling us all these rules are absolute and the majority of testing says it proves it works, not to mention Yukari's sudden change of notices from Misaki to Ririna also breaks the system. LA might get why some of these are put in place, saying that the government isn't all knowing and isn't 100% correct in it's own system and again true love conquers all, but yeah if the rule about the arranged partner skipping out along with it's loophole is anything to go by, Yukari could have just as easily be with Misaki with no resistance by the end of it because the SYSTEM screwed up not Yukari.
The anime goes through some typical stuff in a melodramatic love triangle romance anime as well, from a crossdressing Romeo and Juliet play to ughhh sex lectures, going to a marriage and even a bridal model shoot. All typical and all, but these events only prolong Yukari's decision on who he's gonna pick and Jesus do they prolong it. So LA talked briefly about the obnoxious symbolism in Koi to Uso and it's everywhere especially the concept of Love and Lies. Mainly it's symbolism is Yukari seeing Misaki and Ririna as Love and Lies (sometimes vice versa) but the thing is it goes back to the question of "What does it mean to love someone?"...but the thing is they spout this phrase as well as the same words of Love and Lies CONSTANTLY, like LA knows it's from the title and the symbolism is there, but if we have a indecisive main protagonist it gets old pretty quickly as we want him to choose. To be honest LA wouldn't mind going the yuri route for Misaki and Ririna due to how bland Yukari is...but that's LA's wildcard.
So in speaking of routes, who does Yukari choose by the end?...well yes Yukari does tell us through a conversation with Ririna, however the final scenes are left ambiguous as to who he's gonna choose if not BOTH. Two questions, if he picks both, won't the government get on Yukari's case about this and leaving an ending this vaguely ambiguous is gonna piss some people off...some of them being LA as LA was pleading the finale for Yukari to pick someone (as for LA, both sides would have won, choose Ririna, LA would have liked it because favourite character, choose Misaki, seeing the childhood friend win would be refreshing) instead it's left rather ambiguous if Yukari would go through with their plan...if anything LA was rather pissed and at the same time mixed with this kind of ending.
Koi to Uso from it's interesting premise that ruins itself falls under the typical love triangle spiel we have seen time and again and it prolongs the decision until the finale where it's left ambiguous...-sigh-. Well Koi to Uso, you showed love in MANY different ways but you definitely lied your way through the finale and not helping matters is the typical highschool romance settings bashing us in the face it's symbolism. This isn't the worst romance anime LA has seen but falls under the typical trappings of anime romance cliches and of not taking risks with it's romance and even ruining it's interesting premise in the process, it's a mess of indecisiveness and hormonal teenagers under a broken system not knowing what they are doing or what they truly want.
"What does it mean to love someone?"...
Koi to Uso, calm down on your symbolism.
Koi to Uso comes with an interesting premise of the system of "The Red Threads of Science" where people are assigned partners for the rest of their life to stop the decline of birth rates. Yukari Nejima voiced by Ryota Osaka is such an interesting case where he had a crush on Misaki Takasaki voiced by Kana Hanazawa since he was kid but when the notice for Yukari's partner was abruptly changed from Misaki to Ririna, things changes for Yukari.
This premise is quite interesting for the fact of showing us whether government law can produce results in a healthy relationship or whether true love can conquer this. However in the case of Koi to Uso, it kinda broke it's own rules and ruined it in the process.
Before LA talks about that.....characters.
Since this is a rather character-relationship driven narrative, LA will look at each of the major characters one at a time.
First is Yukari Nejima, our main narrative focused protagonist.......he's just your ordinary high school boy with a crush with no really redeeming features about him (besides he's a nice guy and likes burial mounds), he's actually the most uninteresting character in this series to be quite honest, he's essentially an audience proxy as to how the system of "The Red Threads of Science" works.
Next is LA's favourite character Ririna Sanada voiced by Yui Makino, Yukari's assigned partner. LA really just liked her naive tsundereness (leaning more to dere) and just how she shook the entire situation of Yukari and Misaki. However her naivete is also her downfall, being from a rich family and being awkward in school, she kinda misses the point sometimes and gets into misunderstandings alot with Yukari. But later on she does develop feelings for Yukari and her life changes as she gets used to school life, have friends from her school as well as Misaki. Nonetheless LA was rooting for her and it's not just because she was LA's favourite character.
Next is Misaki Takasaki, Yukari's childhood crush, really the only thing going for her is that she's a childhood friend and seeing the childhood friend win would have been a refreshing sight in anime and again going aback to the entire "true love conquers" works into her quite well. As much as LA likes Ririna, having Misaki "win" would hold true for the anime at hand and hell to that because of this, Misaki becomes an interesting character, not LA's favourite but more interesting to see this outcome. The only problem with Misaki is that although she's interesting nothing much about her is interesting such as the case of Yukari as well. It's Yukari and Misaki's relationship that makes them interesting not individual themselves.
Finally we have Yuusuke Nisaka voiced by Shinnosuke Tachibana, best friend of Yukari and he's kinda got a secret of his own and LA is totally fine with it. Overall he's the guy that gets the less flack within this entire ordeal.
So about the rules breaking for "The Red Threads of Science" system, well for one if the arranged partner skips out on the system, they get a stigma towards society which also affects their futures as well......but then later on it tells us there's a loophole that bypass all this...then what's the point of the system?, also the anime is persistent in telling us all these rules are absolute and the majority of testing says it proves it works, not to mention Yukari's sudden change of notices from Misaki to Ririna also breaks the system. LA might get why some of these are put in place, saying that the government isn't all knowing and isn't 100% correct in it's own system and again true love conquers all, but yeah if the rule about the arranged partner skipping out along with it's loophole is anything to go by, Yukari could have just as easily be with Misaki with no resistance by the end of it because the SYSTEM screwed up not Yukari.
The anime goes through some typical stuff in a melodramatic love triangle romance anime as well, from a crossdressing Romeo and Juliet play to ughhh sex lectures, going to a marriage and even a bridal model shoot. All typical and all, but these events only prolong Yukari's decision on who he's gonna pick and Jesus do they prolong it. So LA talked briefly about the obnoxious symbolism in Koi to Uso and it's everywhere especially the concept of Love and Lies. Mainly it's symbolism is Yukari seeing Misaki and Ririna as Love and Lies (sometimes vice versa) but the thing is it goes back to the question of "What does it mean to love someone?"...but the thing is they spout this phrase as well as the same words of Love and Lies CONSTANTLY, like LA knows it's from the title and the symbolism is there, but if we have a indecisive main protagonist it gets old pretty quickly as we want him to choose. To be honest LA wouldn't mind going the yuri route for Misaki and Ririna due to how bland Yukari is...but that's LA's wildcard.
So in speaking of routes, who does Yukari choose by the end?...well yes Yukari does tell us through a conversation with Ririna, however the final scenes are left ambiguous as to who he's gonna choose if not BOTH. Two questions, if he picks both, won't the government get on Yukari's case about this and leaving an ending this vaguely ambiguous is gonna piss some people off...some of them being LA as LA was pleading the finale for Yukari to pick someone (as for LA, both sides would have won, choose Ririna, LA would have liked it because favourite character, choose Misaki, seeing the childhood friend win would be refreshing) instead it's left rather ambiguous if Yukari would go through with their plan...if anything LA was rather pissed and at the same time mixed with this kind of ending.
Koi to Uso from it's interesting premise that ruins itself falls under the typical love triangle spiel we have seen time and again and it prolongs the decision until the finale where it's left ambiguous...-sigh-. Well Koi to Uso, you showed love in MANY different ways but you definitely lied your way through the finale and not helping matters is the typical highschool romance settings bashing us in the face it's symbolism. This isn't the worst romance anime LA has seen but falls under the typical trappings of anime romance cliches and of not taking risks with it's romance and even ruining it's interesting premise in the process, it's a mess of indecisiveness and hormonal teenagers under a broken system not knowing what they are doing or what they truly want.
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