Anime Impressions: Koi to Yobu ni wa Kimochi Warui

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Koi to Yobu ni wa Kimochi Warui (It’s Disgusting to Call This Love) or simply ‘Koikimo’ is this season’s first romantic comedy anime from studio Nomad, which follows the unusual romantic story of playboy businessman Amakusa Ryou and timid otaku high school girl Arima Ichika. The two meet one fateful day when Arima saves Ryo from possibly falling to his death.

The Questionable Love Story

Later on, Ryo meets Arima again at his home, where he finds out she happens to be his sister’s friend, so he uses the opportunity to thank her for saving him by harassing her with unwanted romantic advances. So unwanted in fact, that she tells him outright how disgusting he is, which only seemed to fan the flames of his passion for her, and thus signaling the start of a highly questionable love story.

Koikimo is basically another anime that uses the ‘handsome male falls for plain but nice tsundere’ trope. Only this time, you’ll find yourself questioning if an adult male should be romantically pursuing a high school girl, which should clearly be a no, but oh well. Aside from that little tid-bit, I found the anime’s first episode to be entertaining and endearing enough. While the characters are a bit plain, they at least have their own distinct quirks. Ryo is a handsome individual who has no trouble with the ladies but borders on being both a narcissist and a masochist, Arima is a good-natured high school girl who also happens to be an otaku, while her friend Rio, actively enables the relationship between the two for the mere fun of it.

Animation and Direction

The anime also follows the typical rom-com format in manga where characters undergo multiple events together in a single episode, such as shopping together, arguing on a phone call, and having banter in a cafe. And while the anime isn’t really impressive story-wise so far, it does have a calm and surprisingly warm aesthetic seen especially with the character designs and animation which does a great job of pushing its somewhat wholesome image.

Additionally, I also enjoyed the voice acting, which is usually not a part of anime most pay attention to in the west. However, I immediately noticed how well the actors did in portraying the characters’ personalities. More importantly, their emotions are performed in a subtle and reasonable way as opposed to the over-the-top voice acting we’re used to in the medium. There was even a scene at the start of the episode where Ryo (or who I assume was his voice actor) briefly spoke English to a business associate, which wasn’t half bad, so much so that I feel the need to point out. As I said earlier, it takes a lot for an anime to make its voice cast noticeable, especially if they aren’t all industry idols, which is a testament to how impressive Koikimo’s cast is.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I found the first episode of Koikimo to be entertaining. While it doesn’t bring anything new to the genre, its simple but cute animation, impressive voice acting, and overall warm and wholesome aesthetic are worth it enough for me to return for another episode. Couple its premise and already established features with its bubbly and catchy opening theme song “Monokuro City” (Monochrome City) by Ace Collection, and you’ll have an anime, not unlike a mix of Wotaku and Kaichou wa Maid Sama, which I’m all for.

The first episode of the anime streamed early on Amazon Prime prior to its regular broadcast on April 5.

Have you seen Koi to Yobu ni wa Kimochi Warui? What’s romance anime would you recommend? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.