「恋の科学」 (Koi no kagaku)
“Science of Love”

Bloody hell KtU, just when I think I have a handle on you, in comes something else entirely unexpected. Honestly I expected some serious shenanigans in the near feature—it’s been heavily teased the past two weeks—but in this manner? The writer has some balls I’ll give him that. I mean I can get behind a little kissing action here or there, but full on tongue, and guaranteed once a day? My eyes can only take so much lewdness.

Alright tongue in cheek aside, the jaw dropper this week was obviously our pretty boy Yuusuke quietly coming out of the closet. Honestly I never saw this coming, I had the kid firmly pinned either as Misaki’s competing love interest, or at worst a childhood friend. While prior familiarity is still not out of the question—see those reciprocal glares—Yuusuke’s love for Neji definitely eliminates whatever plan I anticipated KtU would follow going forward. Typically you’d expect the usual fight over the “best” girl, but KtU has again flipped that script (as with Ririna last week) by firmly centering Neji as the prime love interest, and with male competition to boot. Instead of a love square as I originally thought, we will likely have a sort of love pyramid with the dweeb on top. Sure Yuusuke may not stand any real chance here (unless Neji proves bisexual), but the wrench this will throw into the future cat fight will be a sight to behold. Don’t deny, you know it’s coming. After all Ririna may be this story’s “inevitable” winner, but it’s still unknown whether it will be out of her duty as betrothed, or out of genuine love for Neji. With KtU’s focus on the choice of love, it would be wrong to count Misaki out just yet. Yuusuke’s interest guarantees the process won’t be so simple.

Speaking of Misaki though, the other intriguing shift this week concerns her relationship with the two betrothed. Instead of allowing Misaki to distance herself, Ririna is, if anything, increasingly determined to insert her into the relationship. Part of it may be due to Ririna’s curiosity, but I suspect the reason is to paper over her first twinges of interest in little Neji-kins. It’s already a given Ririna will fall in love with the kid eventually after all, the only question is how and when. Will it be before or after actually seeing them kiss? After getting husband and mistress dating under the table, or once pushing Neji into openly accepting his love for Misaki? The competition is here only for flavour, Ririna’s feelings are (for better or worse) what will primarily determine how this story unfolds. The fun and games begin once our cutie pie realizes her love, and I bet it won’t take too long.

With such a crazy setup and only the promise of more to come, KtU’s plot makes me very enthusiastic for what is to come. Sure it might crash and burn spectacularly, but I’m down for seeing this one through. Consider KtU picked up for coverage, with such an intriguing romance scenario, it only makes sense to stick with this one until the bitter(sweet) end.

 

Preview

End Card

29 Comments

  1. Aaah… So we have a real love, a love triangle, yaoi love (that scene O_o), and a possible yuri love between two female MC. What`s next? A love square? With all of this love potential craziness, surely it is a good pick to blog… Great choice pancakes.

    Jeffers
    1. We can also expect a possible inversion (g1 to b2 and g2 to b1) of pairings and stuffs (no relationship is formed at the end scenario)… Wew… This show is hard to predict.

      Jeffers
    2. I’ll laugh hard if yuri does enter the picture. It’s being teased so hard in spots, but I don’t know how well it would mesh compared to Yuusuke. Unless it’s hate-love yuri, I could see that after Misaki discovers Ririna also loves the dweeb 😛

    1. You’re not the only one, they’re very soft spoken and it’s off putting a lot of the time. Neji not doing much I can understand, but you’d expect at least Ririna would raise her voice at times. She certainly has the personality for it.

  2. I’m really enjoying the unexpected twists the show keeps throwing our way, but the usual “MC is afraid to do anything” trope is off putting. Dude, your fiance is asking you to make it with another girl while she’s in the room too. That’s how many of those old penthouse 3-way letters used to start! Jump on that!

    seltzermx
    1. Heh all I could think during the bedroom scene is “why are hanging back? Sit between them, put an arm around each of their shoulders, and get that party started!” If Neji learned to take the initiative he wouldn’t have to choose, both girls would be completely head over heels for a piece of him lol.

  3. In life, boys like girls, girls like boys, boys like boys and girls like girls. It’s just a fact. It’s a thing that happens. It’s nature. And I am so glad that this series isn’t “OMGGG YAOI x YURI!!! XPPPP” and just simply a story of people in love. Really, it’s wonderful.

    sosbrigade1991
      1. Agreed, it’s still a shocking development, but the way it came out suggests it’s not meant for simple fan service. Right now I don’t expect Yuusuke’s perspective to feature all that much, but if the show tries to explore how homosexuality works in this world, it just went up a notch in my books.

      2. Relationships of a sexual nature outside of marriage have already been noted to be illegal, IIRC, in the series. Since Japan right now doesn’t have same-sex marriage, and the entire point of arraigned marriages was to get people to have kids (which can’t happen in a same-sex pairing), this would indicate that homosexuality is probably even more looked down upon in this show’s universe than in the real Japan.

        On the other hand, since the show also noted that the pairings were calculated in such a way that the overall IQ of the Japanese people was increasing, it is possible that individuals with undesirable traits or with low IQs could be forced into same-sex arraigned marriages (regardless of the individuals sexuality).

        This later point would be an interesting one to explore.

  4. After all Ririna may be this story’s “inevitable” winner

    Given that her rival is voiced by Kana Hanazawa, Ririna’s victory is all but assured. 😛

    Honestly, we should start calling Kana Hanazawa as “Unchosen Best Girl”. LOL

    Magnus Tancred
  5. I am loving this anime!! If I have a guess Misaki was a one point interested in Yuu, but he rejected her over Neji and now Misaki is taking revenge (?). The line at the end of the episode said love (showing. Yuu), then another type of love (showing Riri), and last lies (showing Misaki).

    The faces of Misaki’s friends when Th I passes

    Asoch
    1. Not particularly at the moment IMO, all the confessions are mostly out of the way here whereas Nisekoi stuck with that part for far too long. Have to wait until we get to the “choosing” before a call can be made.

  6. Since this already happen,
    https://randomc.net/image/Koi%20to%20Uso/Koi%20to%20Uso%20-%2003%20-%20Large%2017.jpg
    im kinda disappointed that they choose not to animate the kissing scene from the manga. But since Misaki and Nejima will be kissing a lot soon, i wont complaint (yet).

    https://randomc.net/image/Koi%20to%20Uso/Koi%20to%20Uso%20-%2003%20-%20Large%2030.jpg
    Since reading the manga, i’ve been wondering: that girl got experience! XD i wanted to say more but i dunno if i ended up spoiling but oh welp! Favorite girl Misaki <3

    onion warrior
      1. Naah, i didnt put any suspicious hint there since i ended up choosing not to say it lol XD and judging from the first episode (and as the manga goes by), Misaki is indeed has some experiences (like how she usually positioned herself on topbof him lol)

        Ehem…anyways, im in Misaki’s ship. And tbh i used to find Liliana a tad of annoying in the manga but somehow i kinda like her in the anime; maybe its her choice of seiyuu. I was expecting her to be the squicky high-pitched tsundere but im still surprised how well she sounded in here.

        Onion Warrior
      2. Also, what you said did bring to mind again that scene from the first ep. The way she got on him for the kiss definitely made me think she had experience. And the way Takasaki gave the death stare to Yuusuke, there’s definitely some experience there. Actually, as I ponder it, wonder if it may me a Kuzu no Honkai type thing where they hook up because they liked the same person

        seltzermx
      3. @Seltzermx look whos getting impatient with the episodes XD

        “Also, what you said did bring to mind again that scene from the first ep.”
        Yes EXACTLY my thoughts. Remember how Misaki having this bad vibes whenever she sees Nisaka around? Maybe they were paired together but ended up “divorced” because they both in love with the same person. Nisaka knew he has no chance with Nejima from the start and Misaki does but now Liliana is getting paired with Nejima, hes now rubbing it on her because they both dont get the guy. But idk, just my speculation.

        Onion Warrior
  7. Thanks Pancakes for the first paragraph. I’m not getting worried about finishing this show already. I’ll watch another episode just in case. This show is seriously testing my limits of watching Anime for some reason lol

  8. making the nisaka boy gay was kinda pointless especially since yukari is obviously straight anyway so it would just be a frutile effort on his part in trying to be with him. I doubt the series is going to make yukari have a 180 on his sexuality just because.

Leave a Reply to Pancakes Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *