First Impressions / Koi to Uso

「小さな嘘」 (Chiisana uso)
“A Small Lie”

Hot damn Koi to Uso, you certainly know how to surprise. Having Neji-kins get along swimmingly with the wife to be? Getting the betrothed to not only meet her main competition, but legitimately befriend her? Actually creating some logical starting points for a little relationship drama? I think I was just won over. Sure the whole premise of state-arranged marriages appears set to take a backseat now (unfortunately), but with developments like these, I don’t think I’ll mind too much.

Probably the main eye opener for me this episode was Neji’s temperament. His timidity and fear is perfectly understandable given the bureaucratic circumstances, but I expected his mindset—like with many other romance stories—to be dragged out and annoyingly abused for all its worth with any and all girls. Instead, however, the kid quickly built an understanding with Ririna and actually espoused his weaknesses and desires to her. Of course part of it is due to Ririna’s inexperienced, standoff-ish—but no less cute—personality, but having Neji alone open up to someone is already a huge sigh of relief for me. The true tell though will come once Neji and/or Ririna inevitably fall in love with each other. It’s pretty obvious already that it’s in the cards, particularly once both begin the Ririna love counselling program, but how they treat their affection is the big unknown. Normally I’d bet on Neji excessively waffling about to the detriment of character and viewer alike, but the marriage aspect adds an intriguing degree of severity he cannot ignore. Plus there’s Ririna’s social inexperience which all but ensures she will get hurt bad once the romantic infighting begins—not something future husband is likely to forget about. Damn, I think I’m getting excited.

The real unknown, however, concerns Misaki. She’s smitten hard with the weird hair and already making friends with her main rival—pretty clear the fireworks are not far away. The key will be what sets this drama bomb off. It can either be some third party love interest like the subtly manipulative Yuusuke is hinting towards, or (more likely) Ririna growing increasingly fond of her newly betrothed. Just have some intimate Neji-Ririna conversations in front of Misaki, stir in a little public wifely touchy feely (not like Neji struggles with that), and presto, instant drama. Hell couple it with the machinations of a guy after Misaki’s heart and you even have dessert. There are a lot of ways to take the inevitable breakdown of relations here, but you can be sure that one way or another, Neji will quickly learn the downsides to freewheel harem building. Unless all of that is completely wrong and Ririna pulls the forbidden love card by finding happiness in Misaki’s tender embrace. Impossible you say? Just look at those eyes. It wouldn’t take much for both girls to learn that sharing is caring when it comes to their best boy.

Before I dream of surprise first base yuri though, first comes friendship and for that Neji must kiss Misaki. Hilarious demand on the part of Ririna, but given her fascination with romance, I can kind of see the plan succeeding. It’s a crazy start for Koi to Uso and not at all what I expected, but hell, with these developments, I think I’m here for the long haul. Not entirely sure on blogging this one through yet, but if the show keeps it up, I know where my interests lie.

 

ED Sequence

ED: 「Can’t you say」 () by Roys

Preview

End Card

16 Comments

    1. Seriously doubt it will, like the suits and corrupted text last episode I expect it’s simply setting up for the inevitable drama. Much easier to induce heavy pain and suffering if both girls are legitimate options and Neji has no experience with choosing.

      Pancakes
      Reply

  6. Ririna’s personality is so much different than what I expected! I was sure she was going to be an annoying tsundere abusive type, but I was dead-wrong.

    Overall, the anime is really cute! It’s one of the most adorable I’ve seen in a while.

    On the other hand… I might be alone on this, but I thought the fanservice scenes and ED were kind of distasteful (cringey almost). Maybe that just means the show isn’t targeted towards me.

    Anon
    Reply

    1. Hah you’re not the only one, I was also expecting her to be annoying at best, but lo and behold the cute side. Especially like her logical way of explaining her romantic enjoyment 😛

      As for the fan service stuff I think it’s mostly there to tease considering the source material never really ventures beyond PG13. I wouldn’t expect it to overshadow the base romance in any serious way.

      Pancakes
      Reply

  8. Just have some intimate Neji-Ririna conversations in front of Misaki, stir in a little public wifely touchy feely (not like Neji struggles with that), and presto, instant drama.

    Director Pancakes here offering an insight to storytelling haha

    But seriously, like you Pancakes, I think I’m sold too. (no sales pun intended) This episode has easily proven how this show won’t go terribly wrong and might stay on its path to be a show truly about love. I mean, I could still be wrong because there’s the government (“Thanks anyway!” -Neji, 2017) which might just intervene in the near future episode but hey, I’m glad the emphasis is not there because I did get worried after episode 1. Here’s to more kissing next episode! lol

    Kaineng
    Reply

  9. I was going to root for Ririna and Yukari until Takasaki mentioned all the things she liked about him. I can tell it’s going to be a love triangle. Because of the society, I feel like Takasaki will end up with Ririna but guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

    lunascha
    Reply

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