"ROMANTIC KILLER" (anime series)
Review by Dennis D. McDonald
Red-haired Anzu Hoshino is as fascinating a teenage female character as Marin Kitagawa. ROMANTIC KILLER and MY DRESS-UP DARLING are very different series with the former incorporating many more fantasy elements than the latter. What comes through with both comedies is a respect for the characters and intelligent treatment of some serious underlying themes.
Since childhood Anzu has been obsessed with videogames, chocolate, and her pet cat. She has no interest in dating or romantic entanglements. One day her parents leave for overseas work. She is left alone in the family house (if you watch enough Japanese anime you might get the impression that a lot of Japanese high school students live alone).
Suddenly an annoying and intrusive wizard appears who informs Anzu her three loves — videogames, chocolate, and her beloved cat — will be taken away and that Anzu instead will “fall in love” in ways not unlike the “dating sim” videogames Anzu is familiar with. Anzu is NOT pleased by this turn of events.
At this point the viewer will not be blamed who rolls his or her eyes and switches to something more “serious” and less silly. But what follows is a series of encounters that end up surfacing some very serious emotional issues — peppered along the way with some silly and laugh out loud comedic situations. Be prepared, though; at one point the story takes a very serious turn as we learn more about one of the main character’s emotional baggage.
The production design, artwork, and sound in this anime are top notch. Characters are sensitively drawn and are expressive emotionally, sometimes in very subtle ways. Facial expression and body language are excellent. Sometimes chraracters transform temporarily into cartoonish exaggerated forms typical of anime but here the effects are well suited to the characters. For example, Anzu’s occasional views of herself as a muscular female cartoon character are hilarious given her diminutive real life persona and her obsession with videogames.
I watched the subtitled version. The Japanese voice acting is universally excellent, expressive, and at times impressively subtle and sensitive. English subtitles by Megumi Hunter correspond well with the timing and tone of what we see and hear and are very easy to follow.
Review copyright (c) 2022 by Dennis D. McDonald