Engage Kiss

How many times have you been told that this anime was the summer 2022 biggest disappointment? Might have been a bunch of times between tier lists made by youtube content creators or even the community that watched the show. But, if you are someone that is doubting between watching or not watching this anime you found the right spot! Because I believe all those bad opinions are not true and they are only discouraging viewers that could appreciate the art and story this great anime is offering.

First of all, I don’t believe this anime was a masterpiece or something, as there are some lacks of information, plot problems and minor errors. Its just that I don’t know why it was so poorly received by the community when the execution was actually amazing.

Ill rate from 0-10 the following subjects: story, animation quality, character design, soundtracks, direction and enjoyability.

STORY 10/10
I believe its not good to stereotype an anime by its portrait and description, as people are often misleaded into thinking its the typical romcom where it only knows how to take advantage of the cuteness of their waifus by making cliché scenes. However, the plot goes SO MUCH further than that.

The story is set in a world and period like our earth, but the main difference is the presence of demons, these demons terrorize the cities around the world so there are demon hunters that kill them. The main character fights demons for the sake of revenge against the demon that killed his family. For that, he made a contract with a very powerful demon, but theres a catch, every time he desires the power of the demon he has to give up some of his memories. So you can see how chapter by chapter he gives up his most important memories, forgetting the time he spent with people he loved and even forgetting his own family he is fighting for. Its so sad but admirable at the same time, as he is able to give up everything of himself for the sake of revenge.

Finally, I wanted to say that not only its plot, but the mix with comedy also boosts the anime upwards.

ANIMATION QUALITY 8/10
Really well made and polished animation, it doesn’t feel static at all, the camera angles are always in the perfect position.

In the other hand, theres a flaw, a very disgusting but typical one, and that is that even though melee and sword fighting battles are really well animated, background characters dealing ranged damage make no sense, what I mean is that rifles and guns in the anime are so useless as shurikens and projectiles in naruto. Bullets are so weak that the monsters don’t even bother to react to them, and it gives me the feeling of: “why the fuck are you here?” or “get out of the scene if you are so fucking useless”.

CHARACTER DESIGN 9/10
The 3 main girls of the anime feel really unique, we have a yandere (the demon), a tsundere (the blue haired girl) and a kuudere (the monk), each of them has complete different personalities and their interactions with the main character never feel boring or disturbing. The only problem I see is the lack of background information, at most it only shows some little flashbacks and I believe a deeper focus on the 3 girl’s backstory would have made this anime even better than it is.

SOUNDTRACKS 7/10
I know its done on purpose, but there are too many sudden cuts of soundtracks
that make you unable to fully enjoy the scene you are watching as it changes so fast.

Even so, the selection of sounds are decent, but its specially in character development scenes where the soundtracks shines

DIRECTION 8/10
Its weird, because there are so parts where the direction is amazing, but there are some others where you question the ability of the director. Some particular scenes I want to complain about is the endings. He ruins the hype created by the scene with the ending theme, I believe he could had managed it better and be more creative so the ending could blend in with the scene (something like those rezero endings, where the ending plays but the scene is still running).

In the other hand, the director really does well with hiding information from the viewer and showing them little by little so the spectator can play detective and immerse himself into the anime.

ENJOYABILITY 7/10
Its true that the action and romance scenes are really good, there is also really good fan service but there are plenty of boring scenes that are really useful for character development and to give meaning to the story, but it doesn’t take down the fact that its boring.

CONCLUSION
In conclusion, its a really enjoyable anime with a good plot and really well designed characters so don’t let others opinions make you not watch this amazing anime.