-Before reading, please take into account the following:

2. Spoilers ahead, and tons of profanity probably.
3. If you want to know whether you should watch this, the short answer is no. If you do, please get drunk first or reconsider.
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It really is too sick to call this love. It is incredibly amazing how the age gap is the least problematic thing about this anime. I may have used After the Rain in the title for this review, but do not be fooled. I am not stupid enough to believe that this show ever was near the level of that show, even if I didn't enjoy that one either. Koikimo was an awful experience and I deeply regret making my cousin watch the remaining 8 episodes with me because holy shit, did he cringe and cuss me out for making him watch this trash and be uncomfortable with Ryo's shenanigans. There are plenty of things that I loathe about this show but first thing's first. It is hideous and the production value is not much higher than the garbage that was Noblesse. CGI pedestrians, CGI fish, stiff animation, backgrounds that are hideous and so flat that they look worse than the default ones in Ibis Paint ( They made a brick wall look FLAT. Man, someone needs to send the people who worked on this back to school.) The art is not completely terrible, but most of the time the characters look very off-model. Ryo is supposed to be handsome, yet his love rival clearly looks better than him, the characters look like they are gliding and not walking, and if the visuals weren't bad enough, Ryo's voice acting was horrible. I can't tell if his mic is too close, or if there is an echo, or what the fuck is even going on there. The best things about this show were the opening and ending theme. Both very nice in the music department and while I dislike the visuals in the opening, I do like the use of colors. It was also reminiscent of the opening of After the Rain, except the latter was very fluid and Koikimo is as stiff as it gets.

Right off the bat, I am going to tell you what I hate about this. Ryo Amakusa and Ichika Arima. These two are not just the most toxic couple I've seen in a while, but they also are the most boring protagonists I have seen to this day. The love rivals for each of them (If you can even call them that, cuz they were used as mere fuel for the fire and then tossed aside like garbage), are way more fun and interesting than our actual protagonists. Arie was a cute weeb who was kind of dumb but had a good heart, and Tamaru was the awkward kid who clearly deserved better than Ichika's crumbs. I am glad they did not get their respective crush in the end, cuz Ryo and Ichika are assholes and dumb as hell. The cast wasn't anything special, but boy, did it have characters I personally wanted to beat up. From here onwards it is just gonna be a list of them, and my rant about why I fucking hate their guts.

Rio. If any of your friends act like this girl, run as fucking fast and far as you can. There is a word in Mexico we use to call people like Rio, and it is "alcahueta" which is basically used for people, usually women, who are way too lenient on someone. Rio goes thru hell and back to make Ichika give her brother a chance, and I can't believe nobody ever fucking called her out for being this way. Tamaru called her a busybody but this goes way beyond that (giving the address and phone number of your friend to your insane brother who is crushing on her?wtf?). They say crazy can run in the family. In this case, it is obviously true. Ryo and Rio are both incredibly annoying and just jerks in general. It was unbelievable how she had mostly no issue whatsoever with her brother stalking her so called "best friend". Now, this is probably reaching on my part, but this script is so fucking bad that I don't even care. Why is Rio suddenly concerned about Ryo's friend taking a picture of her and Ichika in episode 5? she even went as far as to say, "We have the right to decline to get our photographs taken.", yet has no issue with her brother taking pictures of Ichika without her permission. How is this behavior supposed to make sense? this probably was supposed to be funny, but for me, this show stopped being funny after the tuxedo mask joke in episode 1 (I am remembering all this from memory so if it doesn't happen in that episode, fuck me I guess). Nearing the end of the show, Rio somehow gets even fucking worse and basically says she hates how Ichika is being half-assed about accepting her brother. Mind you, Rio's brother doesn't deserve anyone's fucking pity. This is a stalker with ZERO remorse for the bullshit he pulls, and he should be glad that Ichika's moronic brain never made her think about filing for a restraining order. Rio, trash, which is kind of the standard in this series.

Ichika. I felt bad for this girl in the beginning. Ryo was clearly making her uncomfortable in episode 1, yet somehow she ended up feeling bad for him and apologized for speaking her mind. This is a common trend, as she also is the one apologizing in episode 8 after she called him out for his horrible attitude. It also was insanely uncomfortable to watch as she told Ryo in the beginning that he was bothering her, and he just flat out saying he did not fucking care. Why I no longer feel sorry for her? well, she is a fucking idiot, that's why. It is one thing for a character to be naive, but some just love being morons. Ichika is very aware of Ryo's insanity and while he had brushed off her complaints aside, she still kept answering his calls and even striking up conversation with him as if it wasn't a big deal. Part of this is because she probably felt some sort of responsibility (Rio had been happier because thanks to Ryo's interest in Ichika, they were now bonding like siblings. You could argue that siblings gossiping about another girl's intimate life is a big red flag but well, what fucking ever.) She flat out lied to Ryo's father, by pretending Ryo had helped her a lot and hiding the fact that he intensely stalked and harassed her for six fucking months. Man, I had no expectations when starting this show weeks ago, but my god did they make me wanna punch myself repeatedly to knock myself out and stop cringing. This is basically what I said in my review of the Given movie but, Ichika has self-esteem issues. Just like the book I quoted before when speaking about Haruki, the one called The Perks of Being a Wallflower, "We accept the love we think we deserve." In Ichika's case, she thinks a stalker is what she deserves and honestly, it is pretty fucking sad.

Ryo. How can I even describe this man without letting intense rage fill my body? it is impossible. Ryo is one of the worst anime characters I've had the displeasure of knowing, since Fukuyama from Girls Bravo, and Akihiko from Given. Ryo begins as a tired office worker, who also happens to be a womanizer, that we as the audience are supposed to sympathize with, that almost falls to his death after being too dizzy from having fucked someone's brains out the night before. It is baffling how this cartoon man never faced repercussions for his shitty attitude, and how he knew he was trash, but the show never fucking went the full mile and make him see why he was wrong. The show attempted to gain some sort of pity for him by making us notice his daddy issues, yet failed miserably since no matter what they showed, it still seems like his father is strict at most and Ryo is still a loser. Ryo's issues with his father came into play way too late in a show with only twelve episodes, and the resolution to the whole thing was underwhelming, to say the least. Never, and I mean NEVER, does Ryo stop being a fucking creep. From thinking about taking a toothpick Ichika used, to doing a countdown for Valentine's day in order to pressure Ichika into giving him something, to taking video of her dripping food into a chocolate fountain to use for something. Ryo is like Johny Bravo but Japanese. He is annoying, doesn't learn from his mistakes, and is completely dislikable. He said in the end that he would wait for Ichika to become an adult and move at her pace. What does it fucking matter after everything he has done? this is like Akihiko from Given asking Haruhi if it is ok to touch him, even though he sexually assaulted him a few scenes back. What in the fucking fuck? This comparison will probably get someone pissed off but I clearly don't care, if my After the Rain review is anything to go by. Ryo's behavior reminds me of Tachibana, the protagonist of the before mentioned anime. She was infatuated with her boss, and many times tried to guilt-trip him into giving her attention or going out with her. Ryo is even worse and want to know why? because he is an adult, trying to guilt-trip a teenager into feeling bad for him and then dating him. What a fucking tragedy and what a fucking loser.

TLDR; This show is dreadful. I am glad I chose not to watch it weekly and just binged the majority of it in one sitting. No fucking way that I would have been fine seeing tragedy after tragedy each week. If you want a romance anime to watch, this is clearly not fucking it, and you will be wasting your time. You are into the age gap trope? there is way better shit than this monstruosity. Plenty of times the show felt too fast or too slow, and I still do not know what even was the fucking plot of it all other than getting the fucking nasty office worker to hook up with the moronic high schooler.