Anime 51417 Engage Kiss Reviews Filter Check 2

Imagine taking a French fry, and putting sugar on it. Imagine getting a bowl of cereal, and pouring orange juice into it. Imagine eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but the jelly was replaced with mayo. Now grab a plate, and put all these foods together and eat it all. Are you utterly confused by what I just said? That's how much I felt confused watching this show. This recipe is what I call the “Engage Kiss”, which was a plate of every trope imaginable in the most nonsensical and dumb ways sometimes, plus a lot of plot points crammed together. Harem, check! Cute ... girls, check! Demons, check! Dumb waifu wars, check! Ecchi, check! Little sister, check! Rip-off Naofumi, check!

Say hello to yet another A-1 Pictures original airing this summer season, and once again, the animation and music did not miss. Everything else though, had its share of frustrating and generic moments. This show really does not start well in my opinion, and because of that, it really lost me for a good chunk of the series, except for a few very good episodes, which made this a passable series overall. If you were wondering which A-1 Pictures original from this season was better, it would easily be Lycoris Recoil. Funny enough, I’d thought for sure it’d be the other way around, but guess I was wrong.

My grading criteria: Story: /25 Art: /10 Music: /10 Characters: /20 Enjoyment /15 Thematic Execution /20

STORY: 9.8/25

To give a quick overview first, this show takes place in Bayron City, a rather futuristic and extravagant looking place that strives to give every citizen a lavish lifestyle. However, for wannabe Shield Hero MC Shuu Ogata, that is not the case. He struggles to make ends meet, and is taken care of by his demon partner, Kisara, who holds down the fort and takes care of chores. These two work side by side along with the military forces to take down demons who pose the biggest threat to the city. In order to gain enough power to defeat these formidable creatures, Shuu and Kisara must kiss for her to turn into a more powerful being. This arrangement comes at a cost for Shuu, and it whittles him down bit by bit throughout the story.

So this seems interesting right? So it seemed, but this show has quite the identity crisis in that instead of having some world building for us to understand how the city works and why the demons are here, it focused a lot of the romance aspects instead, of a lazy deadbeat and his harem who for some reason are smitten with him. To be honest, an exposition dump of why the demons were here would have been better than whatever was presented. In a show like this, you would expect that the romance would come second, and the story come first, but nah, let’s just have girls getting jealous for a big chunk of the show.

There are some good parts about the story, and some emotional bits too, and while the emotional scenes were honestly executed well, if everything was developed properly, it would have hit even harder. Otherwise, the plot is quite ambitious, but because of a lack of world building, nothing felt very significant, it just felt like many things crammed together in an attempt to make a good plot, but felt like a pile of things that didn’t mix well, just very messy.

ART: 8.9/10

The animation is quite worthy of praise. The action is fluid and the character designs are decent, except for Naofumi 2.0. The colour palette also works well. Lots of pinks that give the show its uniqueness.

MUSIC: 8.4/10

The sound is pretty solid too. The OP and ED were both great songs, and the soundtrack fit well in each scene.

CHARACTERS: 9/20

The character development in the show was quite abysmal, because first of all, there was so little backstory, so we had no idea how why all the girls like Shuu, and that made it hard to justify their motives. Kisara was the cute character, and helped Shuu make ends meet, and was also the military’s biggest weapon in countering the demons. Ayano was the more mature character who also played a role in fighting the demons. Some of the supporting cast felt more well developed than the mains honestly, especially Miles, who was Shuu’s caretaker when he was little.

Shuu, while he starts out being extremely frustrating to watch, ends up being a solid character in my opinion, but all his goodness came at a point where I already lost most of my interest in the characters.

ENJOYMENT: 8.7/15

There were good moments in this show, but few and far between. I did enjoy the action sequences too, but not much else. Pretty average throughout.

THEMATIC EXECUTION: 8/20

Like I have mentioned throughout, the lack of world building made a lot of the themes dull, and the plot points insignificant and I just found myself not caring a whole lot. The show attempts to make you feel a wide range of emotions, but it doesn’t work out very well.

OVERALL: 52.8/100

There is some minimal enjoyment to be had here, but there wasn’t a whole lot to enjoy except for the action. If you like waifus, go ahead and give this a try, but the dysfunctional plot had me bored at times, although there were a few great moments in this show. I don’t exactly know what we were served up here, but it ends up just feeling messy and tropey.

It's ambigious to say exactly what Engage Kiss appeals to for its target audience. Most people will probably watch it for its romance context while others may find interest related to its sci-fi storyline. Engage Kiss strikes to me as a risky project because it tries many elements at once. Whether it's trying to engage in relationships with its main cast or tell a colorful story, Engage Kiss does earn its reptuation for what it sells.

Perhaps the most obvious is how much romance context the anime throws at the audience from the start. From the promotional poster, preview videos, and even title itself, it's easy ... to designate this anime with a romance genre tag. Videos on the Internet have spawned memes for this show, so clearly there's a target audience. The premise of the show speaks for itself that follows the lives of characters Shuu, his partner Kisara, and former co-worker and girlfriend Ayano. As you'd imagine, a love triangle is practically set up from the start between the three. That's however the least of their worries. For in this anime, it takes place in Bayron City, where we are introduced to demons known a 'D Hazards'. They threaten humanity and it's up to Shu and his partner Kisara to take care of business.

Engage Kiss' first episodes clearly doesn't hide its intentions. As the title suggests, we are greeted early on with how much Kisara adores her partner. Even though they have a contract between each other that requires kissing, it's also plainly obvious that she enjoys kissing him beyond such reasons. Similarly, Shu's former co-worker Ayano displays degrees of jealousy and it shouldn't take rocket science to realize she still harbors feelings for him. From this viewpoint, the show may feel like it's also setting up for the 'three episode' rule. That means for this anime, the first three episodes can make or break for its viewers. Let me just say that if you're not a fan of generic love triangles or science fiction stories, then this anime may be worth dodging a bullet for.

If you managed to get through past the first three episodes, then do be prepared for a somewhat deeper story that's been told on the surface. For intance, we learn more about Shu's past and how he's linked to Kisara and Ayano. Later on, we are introduced to Sharon, a young woman who dresses like a nun and has her own history with Shu. When watching this show, it seems Shu attracts from the opposite sex without him realizing it. Some fans may designate the anime as a 'harem' and to be honest, it does give off such vibes at times. Nonetheless, the anime does make it clear that he deeply cares about his friends. On the other hand, the relationship dynamics of this anime can be mixed. The show tries its best to sell character relatinoships, in particular between Shu and Kisara. However, Kisara's character personality often comes off as childish and even impulsive. I know the anime plays it for jokes for her occasionally yandere-like reactions, but it's hard to get behind her character when she practically throws herself at Shu whenever she gets the chance. Ayano also suffers from character development despite her connection with Shu. Being more mature than her love rival, she also displays moments of insecurity and characteristics related to a tsundere. On a fundamental, she does have geninue feelings towards her ex-boyfriend in the present timeline. In one particular episode, it's clearly obvious that she loves him but hey, Shu's got more to worry than about dating.

It's hard to come into this anime with high expectations when we have Tomoya Tanaka as the director. Upon checking their resume, their most recent work 'Visual Prison' left little to be desired. Even with an established company such as Aniplex behind its marketing campaign, Engage Kiss felt like it was overshadowed by some of their recent lineup. That is to say, this anime is better watched at how you want to than what it shows. In other words, you need an open mind to truly enjoy this anime and adapt with how the relationships are protrayed. But to be honest, none of the main cast is any unique by writing standards. They're set up to carry their role as how the story protrays them to be. Furthermore, Engage Kiss supporting cast and antagonists are heavily overshadowed by our main trio protagonists. Yes, even Sharon, the badass nun we see is no match for the lips of Kisara or Ayano when it comes to getting television time.

Animated by A-1 Pictures, you can tell right away it's from their studio. Let's face it, character designs does look fluid but often lack the 'wow factor'. By anime adaptation standards, I had expected this show to at least make the D Hazards look unique. Unfortuantely, it falls short and the action scenes doesn't truly impress either. However, if you're looking for some fan servicy kisses, then look no further. As the title states, you're going to see a lot of kisses being engaged between the main cast. Oh and sometimes, there's also saliva because the anime wanted to the kisses look more engaging.

Engage Kiss knew its intent from the start by engaging a show about an unsettling utopia, demons, and a whole load of kisses. Mind you, that's not a flaw and it's actually quite a catchy way of getting our attention. But sometimes, you have to wonder how much is too much. Those kissing segments can be very distracting and even in later episode when the plot deepens, you sometimes forget what the anime's true purpose is about. That is, Engage Kiss is still watchable but you're not going to get a masterpiece from this folks.

Recommendation: Trashy, full of plot holes and fanservice, and tonally all over the map. It's like a throwback to anime from 15 years ago and your enjoyment of it will depend on just how fond you are of that era.

Engage Kiss is Anime As Hell basically from the opening moments of the series. The protagonist, Shuu, is a loser that bums money from his demon girlfriend, Kisara, and he fights other demons by sloppily french kissing her to turn her into an edgy one winged goth girl. The love triangle between these two and the protagonist's ex girlfriend, Ayano, forms the core of the early ... series. It sometimes gets tiring watching two cute girls argue over which of them loves a scumbag more, and you learn little about any of them through all this idle bickering. This all leads into a questionable shift in tone that ends up being a constant problem throughout the series.

Around the end of episode 3, the series takes a jarring turn into tragic melodrama as Shuu's backstory and the particulars of his relationship with Kisara start to be revealed. It comes across poorly after 3 episodes of goofy romcom antics, and the series is never able to pick a lane and settle into a comfortable rhythm as it flips between these two modes for its entire run. Several episode-closing moments that are intended to be weighty and emotional are also comically undercut by the chipper opening lines of the ED crashing into the scene like the damn Kool Aid Man.

Overall, I think the show would have been better served by sticking with the silly romcom stuff rather than make frequent half-hearted attempts to Get Serious in a show with a premise that's difficult to take seriously even when it's firing on all cylinders. That is exemplified by my personal favorite character in the series, Sharon Holygrail, the slutty, motorcycle-ridin', hard-drinkin' combat nun. Her mere existence is ridiculous and over the top in the exact ways that I want anime to be. The most enduringly memorable scene of the entire series involves Shuu literally poisoning his own dick and then having sex with her to paralyze her. That is the kind of stupidity I was hoping for from this series, not the kind of mediocre angst that often brings the show's momentum to a stop. Engage Kiss is at its best when it leans into comical excess and doesn't take itself seriously rather than attempting dramatic plot developments. It's very fun in those best moments, but is too inconsistent to give an unqualified recommendation to.

Engage Kiss was one of two A1 pictures anime originals this season, and unfortunately, I have to say that it kind of disappointed me. It's not that it's bad, but there were some pretty big pacing flaws and just flaws with some of the characters and the story in general. To me, it was an anime with a pretty promising concept that failed to deliver on its potential.
Art: 8
One thing I can’t take away from it though is the fact that the art is great. I thought the character designs were a bit generic, but the animation was really stellar. Every fight scene was ... also pretty hype to watch. I do think the music was kind of just okay which is my biggest issue with the art.
Characters: 7
Personally, I’m a bit torn with the characters. I think some of them like Miles, and Ayano were done really well, but I can’t stand behind the MC. The main character is genuinely not a good person, and I think defending him is okay, but not the number of times they did defend him throughout the anime. But it's not all bad with Shu, as I think some of his choices are a little justified to a point, and his backstory is genuinely depressing, but sometimes I felt like he went too far.
Story: 5
To be honest the story felt like lost potential, too inconsistent. I think there were a lot of good moments with the story, but it felt like they tried to fit too many things within the 13 episodes. I think this anime would've been a lot better if the pacing issues were solved and it just had more episodes to really explain each event that happened because at the end of the day it just felt like the anime jumped around too much which could lead to some confusion. Overall it wasn’t a bad anime, but it could've been a lot better. 6/10

A good representative of its genre, but no more.

The first three episodes look perhaps tedious, but at one point the anime starts to speed up and get interesting with some small hints of a detective component.

The artwork and animation are beautiful, the characters although, to some extent, a copy of characters that already existed (both in appearance and in behavior), but there is something unique about them nonetheless.

The plot is ordinary, it's just easy to follow. There are even some moments where the characters are moved, perhaps even a tear is shed.

Give this anime a chance, you definitely won't be disappointed.

While only 3 episodes having aired, this show feels incredibly mediocre.
while the story and its setting seems kind of interesting. This one just seems like it's gonna be more waifu bait

6-story like I already said it seems interesting though I don't think this will go higher than it already is mainly because of the characters.

3-Characters: the characters are incredible dull they have nothing really to them besides this girl has pink hair and has tropes of a yandere. The show does try to show some interesting aspects by showing instead of telling making us think of the characters more ( this is later ruined by ... a simple example of "oh I'm gonna tell what's wrong with this character" instead of making the audience think)

7- Art. The art seems fine it has some pretty good shots but it doesn't feel like anything special.

6- Sound. Opening is good but the sound overall seems lacking from the futuristic gun sounds to its soundtrack. It all seems lacking.


Overall a solid 5.

Brazilian portuguese:
Vou ser bem sincero, o anime não merece apenas uma media de 6 pontos, claro que voce cai de paraquedas no meio da historia sem uma unica explicação, até que o decorrer da historia tudo é explicado, gostei do desenvolvemento da historia e dos personagens em si, e meus companheiros, disparado a ultima cena foi de tirar risos, quem diria que a “comedia” viria a calhar no final da história, anime bastante recomendavel para quem está entediado, anime 7/10 bastante subestimado
inclusive é a segunda vez que faço essa avaliação, por apenas alguns caracteres minha avaliação foi removida, ao mesmo tempo isso é bom e ... ruim

English:
I'll be very honest, the anime doesn't deserve just an average of 6 points, of course you fall from a parachute in the middle of the story without a single explanation, until the course of the story everything is explained, I liked the development of the story and the characters in si, and my companions, shooting the last scene was to laugh, who knew that the "comedy" would come in handy at the end of the story, highly recommended anime for those who are bored, anime 7/10 quite underrated
this is even the second time that I make this review, for just a few characters my review was removed, at the same time this is good and bad

Overall: I really like this anime, though not sure if it's one I'd recommend among other animes.

Small synopsis: Pink-haired Demon girl, Kisara. And Regular guy Shu, start a business to get hired to defeat demons. But even though Kisara loves him he still pays a price for her help. Ayano, his ex, also helps from time to time, and clearly still loves Shu.

Now the reason I'm not sure I'd recommend is the story can get a bit off pace or confusing at times. It could be because they mention important info in one line a few times and don't mention it again. But while I ... think the story was good what really kept me around were the characters and the funny interactions they had with each other, and the character development. They also had some sexy interaction lol, but not too much. The season concluded in a sweet spot where you could accept it as the end, or they could make a season 2. Ultimately a good anime in my book.

Here is my review of this anime in 2022!

Story (7)
The story is about a man who is living with a demon girl to fight a demon but He must sacrifice something in return for activating the great power inside Her. Not only that, but He's really broke so they need money to survive. It becomes interesting when the main character is getting weaker because of that sacrifices since He must do that in order to kill a demon or mission that He has taken for money in return. The stronger the demon girl becomes the weaker the main character. You have to watch it if ... you want to know that He must sacrifice since this is not a spoiler review :P

Art (7)
The art in this anime is good. I like the effect that they use in this anime. But I prefer a lot of scratch animation in the battle scenes to make it more living. It is quite boring when the fighting is not intense.

Sound (8)
All the sounds that they used were suitable and adjusted to the animation.

Character (8)
The main and supporter character is very memorable since they have a unique personality.

Enjoyment (7)
It's enjoyable to watch this movie in 2022.

Overall (7)
It's recommended to those who love action, demon, and super power anime!

HOT TAKE: This anime has a scoring average on MAL of 7 because of the animation only. I felt so empty watching this anime every time. At first, I wanted to watch it because I give most animes a chance. And, I was very impressed with the first episode because of the beautiful animation and potential. However, I was left uninterested by the 4th episode. I felt no connection to the characters of the show or thought any of them were interesting. And, found myself watching the anime solely because of the animation.

The Problems:
- Uninteresting characters (a lot of them)
- the story is very boring ... where in each episode the MC fights an enemy and then the MC has a few interactions with the main two girls and a few side characters.

I felt like nothing really happened besides one thing (MC's sacrifice for his goal, which I won't spoil) and that's about it. No real main villains or arcs, just a repeat of the same story. I always end up dropping one or two animes each season and this might be the one. I won't recommend it unless you like these generic fighting animes with a splash of romance.

Engage Kiss (2022)

Can you binge this? Yes
Should you? I perhaps should not have.

The show tries to be deep and hard about demons and morals and fighting them through sacrifices but then it's just a harem. Even turns out Shuu isn't that nice a guy either but at least he has progressed 5000% more than most other harem protagonists and his sister... get this... she wants to be just his sister. That shouldn't be such a shock but here we are.

The art is pretty good but also sucks. Imagine showing a Cobra helicopter from the outside correctly but inside with side-by-side seats.

The sound ... hasn't really got anything that needs a surround sound which sucks, it is all I want!

The characters are all very generic and have a specific trait whether they are a nun, a girl that can't get over someone, or a demon. Oh and a sister that only wants to be a sister which again is crazy unusual!

The show has a city of autonomy run by dictators. It has private military units that do what they want for money. Demons with a half-arsed reason for being bad and then a main character who isn't really a nice person generally but is tricked over and over with his harem. For a part of the show, I thought Shuu has this deep sacrifice but then I realized perhaps not. Oh and the sister who wants to be just a sister, again crazy! goes from being the most powerful you can ever know to then after the power of love and friendship being just a normal girl that could kill everyone again.

It is your generic let's try and fail to camouflage a harem behind as little smoke as possible. It is not the first and will certainly not be the last of its kind. 6/10, it is honestly not the worst show just not the best.

Not bad but felt more like seasonal fodder

While I'm not saying the anime was bad it did often find itself dragging alot along the way with pacing and what was actually playing out, the setting didn't do much justice with it being on an independent island which was kind of a bit in the future although it was hard to tell since the stuff they used was very futuristic but then you look at alot of other things and they ended up being our current tech of today.
The MC is quite trashy with not much personality, probably how women like their male protagonists but ... had an entertaining dynamic with Kisara who's the demon Shuu is in contract with to help him find out about the past.
The art style used is nice when it comes top character art and carrys the show a little but for the romance part there's not much going for it on that end as for most of it, it's just Shuu giving Kisara power and just doesn't feel like romance until say the last 4 episodes.

In terms of recommending this to others i wouldn't go out of my way to watch this as while it does conclude a bit it just feels like nothing has changed so If you're to watch this keep in mind it's nothing extravagant or new to the table.

I wanted to like this show, with the demon fighting demons. I was even willing to overlook how convoluted the plot was, with the whole thing about contracts with demons not being clearly explained and yet central to the story.

But in the end, I just could not take the stupid, hackneyed, cliched, and stupidly pointless menage-a-trios jealousy side story. "Hey, let's have adults in this story and have them act like 14-year-olds!" And everybody on the story committee, said "Wow. Brilliant. How fresh and innovative." If the show were better on other fronts, I could tolerate that.

But it's not. It's a second-rate story, and ... it's made unwatchable, for me, with this trite nonsense. He is clueless, she is still crushing, and second she is a demon acting like a super-possessive imouto in love with her nee-chan. Gag. Who has time to waste in their life for this garbage?

Not me.

It's really a pretty decent anime, the story of this anime is like a puzzle every episode shown is a piece and when you reach the end of it you will know how interesting the story is. The art style and animation are pretty decent. The characters are also interesting. The fights shown are also good. The starting few episodes may be boring but from the middle it gets interesting and when you reach the ending it becomes good. There were some flaws but when you complete this series you will enjoy it.
What I liked about the series are the characters and its story.
I give ... it 6/10.

I have to get a round of applause to this in how the finale was handled. The title is completely ironic or misdirective, I guess. It was well played out and all of the build up around the last three episodes set it up nicely. It wasn't show up at the last minute and get killed at the last minute, though there was the end of the big enemy that was a bit abrupt for my liking. The focus was put on what had been directed through the entire show though, which was nice to see consistency.

Despite all of those pros, there's enough about it ... that just feels off. I can't exactly explain it but as I watched each episode with just like things weren't flowing correctly maybe? It's like each episode is broken up into different sections and they were kind of clunky sometimes. The animation seemed a little old school in style and color, but that didn't entirely detract out of anything other than the backgrounds. The visuals are big for me and to see just a bunch of dull, drab, same colored scenes with little vegetation over and over and over got to be just a bit much. It wasn't exactly exciting and you can see where the budget got cut.

Despite reading it a 7, I have to say that I kind of have mixed feelings on it because I can see where some people would like it and others wouldn't. It's definitely not something that will ever go on my rewatch list, but it might be worth someone taking a gander at it one time around.