"I'm not a good girl, so when I'm with good men, I'm at unease. That's why I'm comfortable with Fujiwara. It might be a feeling you can't understand."

i have avoided watching netsuzou trap for a long time due to its reputation as being one of the poorest romances of all time. its low ratings and generally negative reception has always made me wonder if it was worth watching, especially when one of the more popular reviews on this site recommends the outright banal sakura trick over this. it was only when one of my friends mentioned the manga that i made a snide comment about it without even realizing that i hadn't watched the anime or read the manga and merely parroted what i thought was correct about the show: it was some shlocky, pandering, fetishistic garbage where yuri wins and the better-written hetero couples are discarded in favor of the writer's love of lesbians, or something to that degree.

so it was absolutely shocking for me to start watching it only to get swept away in a tragedy about the propagation of abusive relationships, how relationships can become perverted into abuse, and how this affects those who are close to the abusees.

the general story is that the timid yuma has finally gotten her first boyfriend, takeda, but yuma's nervous, so she goes to her best friend, hotaru, for help because she's more experienced with romance; hell, she has a hot boyfriend, fujiwara. so hotaru agrees and helps yuma, first with kissing, and then as yuma's relationship supposedly grows deeper with takeda, yuma helps her learn all the other fun things about sex and sexuality. first base, second base, third base. they go round everything before takeda even has a shot, and hotaru's oddly pushy about going as far as she can go.

of course, playing around with someone who's not your boyfriend messes up your relationship with him without proper communication, and this is not an instance where yuma and takeda are thinking about polyamory; takeda doesn't even know what's going on. their entire relationship is thrust into jeopardy while all the time spent with hotaru creates feelings inside her--sex is, after all, very passionate and irreversibly transforms relationships, and yuma feels guilt as she tries to balance her feelings towards her two lovers, especially as her feelings towards hotaru are more overpowering.

let me get this straight (heh): when watching this show, expect visceral negative reactions straight out of the gate that do not stop until you reach the end or you give up on the show entirely (which, given its unfair reputation, is dropped a lot). as the abbreviation of this show lets you know off the bat, as it is literally the abbreviation for the japanese word for cheating, there's going to be a lot of cheating. takeda loses and hotaru wins by corrupting her best friend into being okay with a relationship with her. there is no happy ending at all in this and the further you watch, the more you realize that everyone there is a lost cause--if not for being despicable human beings, then for not being able to move on and find someone better. only takeda stays likeable throughout out of the cast of four, and naturally he's the one whose screen time is spent holding out hopelessly.

i'd understand exactly why people would hate this show from this premise, but what makes the story work is its most unlikable component.

"Fujiwara, have you ever been in love?"

now, hotaru's relationship with fujiwara is, without a doubt, abusive. let's push subtext out of the way; he's physically abusive. he's mentally abusive as well, and emotionally abusive; it wouldn't surprise me if he was sexually abusive as well. he's a blackmailer. he's a misogynist. he's a sadist who lets his methods of torture leave the bedroom in uncivilized manners. from the first moment you see him alone with hotaru, you can tell fujiwara cares less about her and more about the status of love and probably how good he feels whenever they get adventurous in bed. he is pure poison. he is a horrible person who has probably done much more damage to hotaru than hotaru could ever imagine doing to yuma.

so great, he's yet another unlikable character, and the worst one in this show--which is an incredibly high bar, may i add--how on earth is this guy the linchpin of this work?

the answer lies in hotaru and how she views her relationship with yuma. the abuse that fujiwara lays thick upon her is normalized. fujiwara cheats; why can't she? he plays underhandedly to get what he wants; why can't she? bit of whining about not wanting to? fujiwara doesn't care; why should she? the lover finally acquiesces under the weight of guilt and pressure and all sorts of what have you into a sense of comfort, scared that she's not going to know what to do once the relationship ends? well, if fujiwara accepts that as love, what's stopping her from doing the same? i'm not saying that this is at all morally justified; it's merely justified in service to the plot, and after a bit, you see yuma starting to do a few disreputable things for the sake of hotaru. and the cycle continues.

and so, naturally, with hotaru being able to lead, and with yuma being a much, much less toxic individual than fujiwara (granted, you have to be a bit more saintly than johan liebert to be better than this guy), they eventually get together, but not before going back to their relationships and realizing that they want each other more than their boyfriends.

actually, this is a nice segue to the other thing of note in this show, which is probably one of the few things people are 100% certain on: it's a yuri born from two heterosexual couples. a lot of stock yuri tropes and phrases are used here: the girls aren't kissing; they're practicing kissing. when they fondle, it's practicing. they play lesbian. when they make love, fujiwara calls it an opportunity to join in. when they work at the same place, their love becomes fanservice. because they are two girls, the relationship is inherently seen as lesser, which amplifies the drama when yuma realizes how much she wants it and that love knows no gender for her, and more importantly, when fujiwara dismisses it over his own selfish desires.

it's, in the grand tradition for a show like this, incredibly messy, but it makes for some incredibly juicy drama if you're able to stomach it.

this show is also incredibly trashy. there's a lot of ecchi in it. they get physical a lot. there's a lot of sex that's portrayed offscreen and even a sexual act that's done onscreen. of course, there's a lot of cheating. there's a lot of drama and at times it almost reads like gossip. but yet, it's that which honestly makes it more gripping. while seeing the trainwreck happen, you want to see who survives and you want to see the damage done, and this show does a great job at that. the amount of visceral-ness in the negative reviews is a testament to that.

netsuzou trap is a perfect name for the show, because everyone gets trapped, everyone suffers from unrequited love at one point or another, everyone's trapped by the power of love as it wraps around their neck; as for it being ntr, it's a win and a loss, a win because fuck fujiwara, and a loss because poor takeda. it's incredibly bitter and incredibly painful to watch, and the tag calling it a tragedy is perhaps more apt than the one calling it netorare. going into it with these expectations instead of hoping the loser would win (guys, it's literally abbreviated as ntr) definitely let me get some interesting insight on this show and i would say it was, while not a great watch, an entertaining time. take it as the romantic and somewhat psychological tragedy it is, and know that even if the netorare was ultimately destructive, that it's the point of the show.

i would rate it higher for its interesting plot, but unfortunately for the rest of the show's aspects, its poor quality is an example of "what you see is what you get". creators in pack are a rather cheap and unknown studio. there's a lot of tilts and pans on stills and near-still images. there's a good amount of incorrect lip sync to the original audio track. the art style is rather plain and can feel stilted at times. there's a lot of moments where there's movement that just comes to a screeching halt, particularly when heads turn.

the audio is passable, but that's kind of it. there's a rather limited soundtrack that sometimes works in its favor. the voice acting is really good, though, especially from ai kakuma, who sells a very good performance as the emotionally-ruined yuma. daisuke ono sells a very threatening fujiwara, too. for a show with as niche an audience and as low a budget as this, it's honestly quite impressive what the voice actors can do to give it a bit more life. the op is also a cut above what should be expected of this kind of show, and the ed was lesser but still pretty good.

all in all, netsuzou trap is an incredibly ugly, incredibly difficult, incredibly rough, and emotionally stressful ride that will stir a bunch of negative feelings in you as you watch all the characters suffer for the sake of love and you will probably end up pitying takeda and hating everyone else even--especially--with yuma trying to fight her feelings as she realizes whom she truly loves. is it true love? that's left for us to figure out for ourselves through the thick fog of discomfort that it seeks to provide. i'd say at least hotaru got a happy enough ending.

but was a happy ending really the point?

"A kiss is no big deal, right?"

netsuzou trap is incredibly misunderstood as an anime. it's low-rated because it's uncomfortable and frustrating, and seeing takeda lose is incredibly painful. but when dealing with the idea that it's a story about abuse, it makes sense why there's no sugar and sakura flavored coating to sweeten everything. and as painful as it was, i found it to be enjoyable for that reason. it's an interesting, if not somewhat trashy, romantic drama that peers into the darker side of what love can be and how it can be perverted.

for its flaws, and given it's a tv short, i'd recommend giving it a watch if you're looking for something that gets quite heavy and trashy.