Engage Kiss – 01

「クズと悪魔と男と女」 (Kuzu to Akuma to Otoko to Onna)
“A Loser and a Demon and a Man and a Woman”

While this season is all about the heavy hitter sequels (and first-time adaptations) premiering later on, anime always leaves room for a surprise (or six) and first up to try its luck there is Engage Kiss. Big budget endowed A-1 Pictures anime original – seriously just look at that animation – concocted by Maruto Fumiaki with an ambiguous plot and characters designed by Tsunako of Date-A-Live fame? Darling we have an interesting one on our hands. Interesting indeed.

Right out of the gate Engage Kiss lives up to its production credentials in effectively giving us the quintessential sci-fi harem story of the 2010s. Main man Shuu (Saitou Souma) is a veritable vagabond, living in a rundown apartment with no food or electricity because he chose to give up a previous job for the sake of something better. What’s that better thing? Good question, we don’t really have the full picture yet, but suffice to say it involves near-magical resources, secretive societies – and demons. Seems someone is letting the monsters run loose and Shuu is one of the parties out to stop the monsters – or in this case, bid for the contracts to stop them. Honestly not that bad a setup; compared to the usual teenage boy finds OP abilities and gets mission to save the world, a more balanced setup keeps things moving.

Of course just because Shuu lacks those ubiquitous powers doesn’t mean they’re not present at all as the pink haired (and thoroughly yandere) Kisara (Aizawa Saya) proves. This girl is basically the lynchpin of Engage Kiss: not only is Kisara the top of the harem pile, but she’s also a demon (ridiculously strong demon at that) who has apparently formed a contract with Shuu which necessitates powering up through some haughty facetime. And maybe more besides – don’t deny, you know full well that this scene isn’t just insinuating sexy times after we got a little explanation later in the episode. Given this is the same mechanic fellow season mate Kinsou no Vermeil features it’s quite funny seeing it pop up here too, but in the current setup it does give some indication how things are going to play out in Engage Kiss over the next few episodes. Expect the origin of that demonic contract to become front and centre before too long, Shuu’s and Kisara’s relationship to be both fleshed out and tested as stronger and more challenging threats make an appearance, and Shuu forced to make a choice between cutesy French kissing demon girl and ex-girlfriend (and totally not still in love) Ayano (Lynn) because yes, that aspect also exists here. What did I tell ya, this one is 2010s harem through and through.

Although a few more episodes will be needed to get a good handle on just where Engage Kiss is heading, without a doubt this one is going to be a very intriguing ride. Between half-interesting anime-original story and some frankly impressive animation work there’s the potential for something great here. All we’ll have to see is how well this one can rise to the occasion.

Preview