A sentiment among visual novel fans is that the vast majority of visual novel-to-anime adaptations tend to be lackluster, with only a small handful receiving praise, such as the universally acclaimed Steins;Gate and Clannad, the generally well-liked Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works (ufotable), and Higurashi by Studio Deen. More recently, the infamous Nukitashi by Passione has also garnered attention.

I find that I tend to enjoy some anime adaptations that others dislike, such as Chaos;Head, Rewrite, Grisaia, and even Umineko. They may not be perfect adaptations, but to me, they capture the tone of the series and characters well enough. Even if they move a bit fast, I enjoy seeing scenes from the visual novel in anime form. I think, for the most part, they do what anime adaptations are supposed to do: create cool, memorable moments to spark interest in the original source material.

However, the Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai (shortened to Majikoi) anime is probably not the worst visual novel adaptation ever—there are others that completely deviate from the story or have worse art and pacing. Still, Majikoi is by far my least favorite visual novel-to-anime adaptation for several reasons.

It’s worth noting that my all-time favorite visual novel is the original Majikoi. I was excited when the anime was announced, as I knew many of my friends would never read a visual novel, so an anime, if decent, could introduce them to the title.

Unfortunately, Majikoi screws up right from the first episode. On one hand, it’s a cool CliffsNotes version of the Kawakami War from Momoyo’s route, setting up her bad ending as the prologue to the rest of the anime. I kind of like the idea of this: despite Yamato failing to win Momoyo initially, it could lead to an anime where she gets more development, realizing there’s more to life than fighting.

However, in my opinion, the Majikoi anime fails from the first episode, both for original visual novel fans and anime-only viewers looking for an amusing harem slice-of-life show.

I tried showing the first episode to my friends, but it was clear they were confused, dropped into a big war with characters fighting without context. This was before the rest of the series aired, and I realized what a mistake it was. My friends were even less interested in the title because there was no hook—just random characters with weapons fighting. It felt like the anime expected you to have read the visual novel, which I think is a terrible approach.

The anime should have spent at least the first three episodes introducing the characters, as the original visual novel did, showing how the friend group started with the core six bros and gals, then later introducing Chris and Yukie alongside jokes from side characters.

In an ideal world, the entire anime should have just been the original visual novel's common route. It’s 10 hours in the VN, packed with fun unique over the top slice-of-life comedy around the Kazama family, great character moments, and cool fight scenes.

Sadly, the anime handles character introductions in episodes two and three, and what they did to the characters can only be described as a massacre.

On paper, the characters retain their base personalities from the game: Momoyo is an extremely strong, cocky woman obsessed with fighting; Wanko is the energetic, wholesome, devoted girl who trains daily to stand alongside her big sister; Miyako is the over-the-top pervert who’s openly in love with Yamato due to their past; Yukie is a socially anxious, shy girl who uses ventriloquism with her phone strap to express her inner thoughts; and Chris is a proud, spoiled German foreigner obsessed with justice.

In the visual novel, their humor, depth, and appeal were evident early in the common route, relying on unique, over-the-top jokes tied to their personalities, pasts, goals, and group interactions. Sadly, the anime feels like a generic ecchi harem anime—a genre that was super popular when it was released. This meant rewriting the five main heroines into generic harem tropes, like getting caught naked by the protagonist and calling him a pervert or being overtly in love with him with little depth.

By focusing on the harem aspect, the anime neglects what I loved about the original childhood friend group: its tight-knit dynamic, including three to four bro characters alongside Yamato. While the guy characters exist in the show, they’re extremely minor, feeling like generic bros instead of the close bonds from the visual novel. Sure, they hang out in their secret base like in the game, but the interactions lack depth. It’s just shallow ecchi harem comedy with faint traces of the goofy, unique humor from the original.

While many side characters appear and do mildly funny or cool things, the issue is the same as with the main cast: there’s barely any proper introduction. Beyond episode one’s chaotic fight, we hardly learn their personalities, flaws, strengths, or motivations, so their fight scenes and roles feel inconsequential. They’re nowhere near as funny or memorable as in the visual novel.

Speaking of character changes, one that makes no sense is what they did with Takae Tachibana, a character noted as a former member of the Big Four, later surpassed by Yukie, before the story started. Takae had a compelling personal journey in her routes in Majikoi S and A-5, sequels to the original VN, a wholesome journey of coping with her bad luck. The anime, however, turns her into the closest thing to a main antagonist, giving her bizarre robot arms powered by spiritual energy or something. She also gets an anime-original lesbian lover, Saki Mimori. This could have been fine if it was hinted at in the visual novel, but it comes out of nowhere, and we’re expected to care emotionally despite zero context for her transformation, just to give the anime an antagonist.

It’s frustrating because I want to like the plot idea where Takae and Saki were supposedly abandoned by Japan, tying into Yamato’s goal of becoming prime minister to restore faith in the country. But it’s rushed and gives no reason to care, especially since this plot only matters in the second half of the anime.

Then there are the secondary antagonists, the Itagaki siblings and Shakadou, who are main antagonists (or at least one of them) in the original Majikoi true route. The anime tries to make them threatening, but it feels like a joke. They’re defeated far too easily compared to the visual novel. For example, in the game, Tatsuko is so powerful that even Momoyo struggles against her. In the anime, Miyako somehow beats her with arrows, punches, and her love for Yamato—something she could never do in the original.

On top of that, all the main heroines fall in love with Yamato at the same time and are equally obsessed with him, which never happens in the visual novel. Miyako is the only one consistently in love with Yamato in the game, so having all the heroines’ personalities revolve around vying for him, with shallow interactions, is super disappointing. There are cringe-worthy moments where the heroines fight over Yamato’s attention and put each other down. One especially egregious moment is when Momoyo and Wanko’s sisterly bond is temporarily broken in an obnoxiously out-of-character scene—something that never happens in the visual novel.

To top it all off, the anime ends with none of the heroines winning, all so they could do a "title drop" in the final second of the last episode. Admittedly, this is one thing the anime does better than the visual novel, which barely touched on “loving someone seriously.” But the buildup is cringe, generic, unfunny, and makes many characters more unlikable than they should be.

Overall, the Majikoi anime is incredibly disappointing at best and, at worst, something I low-key hate. It has some moments—the comedy occasionally works, the action scenes are serviceable, and including Yamato’s prime minister goal and belief in Japan (which even the visual novel sequels forgot) was a nice touch.

Sadly, between the heroines’ hit-or-miss generic ecchi harem comedy, becoming unlikable in uncharacteristic fights over Yamato, the loss of the Kazama family’s close friend dynamic, and a half-baked plot with wasted potential, it’s not sure what it wants to be. It may not be objectively the worst visual novel-to-anime adaptation, but it’s easily my least favorite as a huge fan of the source material.

I cannot recommend this anime to fans of the original visual novel or to people just wanting a fun action ecchi harem show. There are many better anime series out there, and for the love of God, just read the Majikoi visual novel instead, you can get it on Steam.