Renai Flops

Are we running out ways to have an interesting story for a romantic comedy harem genre? Maybe. Because yeah, it may sound as cheesy as it is for Renai Flops. Our main guy suddenly gets confessed by 5 hot chicks in the same day. Not one, not two, not even three but five kawaii and pretty girls! In the same day! Is this truly his lucky day or a setup for a much cheesier and cliché romantic comedy harem series? What’s more, all 5 girls end up being his bride candidates and start living with him. Oh boy. Can we actually predict and see what will happen from all of this?! I can see b*tch fights and catfights galore coming in while at the same time trying to maintain this friendly rivalry. And then in the end, status quo remains because everybody is equally important so nobody gets chosen to be #1. Wow. Getting ahead of myself and deciding the flow of the show already, huh? Romantic comedy harem genius or flop, should I say for myself? Oh well. Flops in love these characters may be but let’s hope this won’t soon turn into some harem flop! That’ll be the worst.

Episode 1
Asahi Kashiwagi watches TV and looks like the horoscope predicts great love for him if he encounters these lucky words/items. On his way to school, he bumps into Aoi Izumisawa in the most cliché of ways. Girl running late to school with a bread in her mouth. Since Asahi claims he didn’t see her undies because she didn’t wear cute ones today (?!), she apologizes for crashing into him and then makes her way. Asahi thinks she dropped her handkerchief and picks it up. Then on the train, despite being empty, sexy Bai Mongfa sits and sleeps next to him. Damn, her grip is so tight! He tries to get away but ends up falling and having her hands on her boobs. Had Asahi not dodge, imagine what will happen to his head when she kicked and bend the metal railing! Making his way downstairs, Karin Istel trips and has her ass on his face. She accuses him for being a pervert and hits his crotch before running away. Then a cleaning robot hands this ‘trash’ to Asahi. It’s the bra of Amelia Irving. Amelia thinks he is a pervert who hacked the robot to steal them. Worst, the robot trying to take her clothes as ‘trash’?! Then a stray dog leads Asahi to… OMFG!!! WTF THIS SCENE?! A dog trying to f*ck Ilya Ilyukhin in the ass???!!! Asahi pretends to see nothing and walks away. But the dog changes its mind and now attacks Asahi! OMFG! Did he just get raped?! The dog is f*cking gay!!! You think Asahi’s day can’t get any worse as he finally makes it to school. Already late for class, he sneaks in. Then he realizes he is surrounded by new transfer students who are the girls he bumped into today and the teacher is Mongfa! He tries to hide his face and the rest think he is being rude. Finally when he could no longer hide them, he makes a funny face. Too bad Aoi recognizes him so the gig is up and as the rest too recognize him, I wonder how many slaps he got after that.

Later Asahi talks to his friend, Yoshio Ijuuin about this. Seems he has some intel on the girls too. The only thing surprising to me is that Ilya is Bulgarian?! Of all nationalities, f*ck, you mean she isn’t Russian?! As Asahi thinks all of them hate him, Yoshi believes he should just clear up the misunderstanding. Easier said than done, right? Asahi then spots a letter in his locker asking him to meet in some place. He almost bumps into Aoi. She asks if he picked up something he dropped. He is about to return it to her but WTF he took out Amelia’s bra? There’s another slap. Then seeing Karin not being able to get some food, he offers her his squished banana. If you’re wondering why Asahi didn’t suffer from some fatal crotch pain, the banana protected him. WHY THE F*CK DID HE PUT IT THERE???!!! And then… OMG, I swear those dogs are perverts as they chase down Ilya! Hiding behind Asahi, the dogs get cheeky and they bite Asahi’s ass before going away. DAFAQ?! With his injured elbow, Mongfa takes him to the infirmary to disinfect the wound. Then Amelia comes in. He returns her bra. Although embarrassed, she apologizes for the misunderstanding and believes he couldn’t be a hacker. With his day being the worst, can it get even worse? Because he decides to go to the meeting place in the letter and see what comes. At this sakura tree, this is where Aoi pops up. She is the one who wrote the letter. He is about to return her handkerchief when she confesses to him. Then the wind blows up her skirt, revealing she is going commando and that handkerchief is her panties! Oh dear, you let it flutter in the wind!

Episode 2
Aoi talks about the legend of confessing here at this tree. Until she realizes he has seen her pussy so it really gets awkward. She gets embarrassed and runs away. As he makes his way home, Ilya surprises him as she confesses to him! It’s all because he saved her despite getting dragged into this mess. Before anything more can happen, Mongfa takes him away for an emergency. In an alley, they pretend to make out until those shady MIBs go away. Seems some guy is trying to find her so she doesn’t like him and ran away. However she likes Asahi and wants to make out more! Man and woman before a teacher and student? Those boobs not convincing enough? Yeah, the wimp wimps out. And you think it won’t get any stranger because here comes Karin in a wedding outfit! Sure, she is a famous model but she claims she is on her way to her wedding. With Asahi! Instead of taking him to the chapel, she brings him to a love hotel! Wait, Asahi agreeing to exchange vows? He has her close her eyes as he will kiss her. Still waiting for that kiss… Yeah, he duped her and escaped. Finally you could see this coming too as Amelia forces him to sign some survey form. Luckily he spots this marriage registration. If not for the cleaning robot trying to pick up this trash (I’m starting to think it is some serial panty thief), Asahi wouldn’t have walked away this easily.

When he returns, all 5 girls are waiting! Wrong house? Nope! Oh, did Asahi get the message from dad? It seems these girls are his potential brides. He has sent them to live with him and he can choose any one or none. It’s up to him. Yeah, I wonder what the heck this is for then if he chooses none. Now the girls start competing with each other to make dinner. Or give him a massage. Asahi puts his foot down his home can’t house extra people Oh did he not notice when he came back, the extra annexation? Is he going to be cruel to kick them all out because they have been living in a hotel ever since arriving here?! But wait. What’s this excuse he can’t live with girl? But wait. ILYA IS A BOY???!!! I had my reservations but oh sh*t, REALLY!!! So dad is okay with gay relationship too because it’s this open era, huh? More shenanigans as the girls fight over to feed him as well as getting into the bath with him. By now Asahi is suspicious if they are hiding in his room. All check, all clear. Wait. HOW THE F*CK DID MONGFA HIDE ON THE CEILING?! That’s the last straw for Asahi. He warned them already. So if they won’t leave, he will. He hangs out at a shrine and surprisingly Aoi finds him. She talks to him how all of them were excited to know how a guy like him would change their destiny and that’s why everybody is so eagerly trying. Yeah, who the f*ck told them all that and they actually believed it?! Aoi hopes he will come home. They will leave instead. But we all know that Asahi is a generous man because he can’t throw girls out at this hour. Just no more horsing around, okay? Aoi so happy she cries and have some flashback of her love or something? When they return and the rest have packed up, ready to leave, Asahi gives the green light to stay as long as they behave. I doubt that but whatever. Everybody’s happy so it’s fine.

Episode 3
Look who is doing something suspicious under Asahi’s sheets? Amelia trying to use his toe to stamp the marriage registration form! Thinking of something else?! During breakfast, Amelia tries to write Asahi’s name on her omelette rice but it turns out to look like some murderous writing. Frustrated, she dumps the whole ketchup on it. She’s going to eat that, right? In class, Amelia thought she can impress everyone with her kanji. Too bad she embarrassed herself by writing the wrong word. So milk becomes some murky white liquid?! HOW COULD SHE EVEN MESS IT UP LIKE THAT?! Then there is this rock-paper-scissors game she has been on a losing streak. So she spent the whole night trying to beat it and the next day when she thinks she is so confident about being a pro and challenges everyone to it and even antes her favourite pudding on the line, well, she lost them all. One day, Asahi hears very ambiguous moans from Amelia’s room. Are you thinking what she is doing? It sounds a bit strange like as though she is reading from a book. Asahi barges in to see kanji words paste all over her room. Is this some sort of exorcism?! Anyway, Amelia is trying to study kanji since this will be on the test. Yeah, she is practising those words from an erotic novel!!! Seeing she wants to ace in Japanese, Asahi takes her to the library. Yeah, she can ace in those complicated and erotic words but not normal ones?! As he continues to help her, he wonders why he is so fixated on this because there are things that people aren’t good at. However this makes her upset because trying hard and not succeeding is the same as not trying and failing. This causes her to lock herself in her room. Asahi goes talk to her as she admits all she wanted was to thank him but her actions always turn out differently. For that, she hates herself. Time for Asahi to weave his magical words to assure her. He appreciates the hard work she puts in and I’m not sure what vision she sees about him. Someone from her past that looks like him? With her back to normal, Asahi has made a little cue cards for her to help memorize kanji. In the end, Amelia does well in her kanji test, a big improvement from last time. You can tell from Amelia’s happy face that because she worked hard, she has someone who appreciates all that.

Episode 4
Flashback shows Irina being told by her dad that from now on she will be Ilya and live as a boy! HAH! I KNEW IT ALL ALONG!!! Thanks to our lucky girls winning the first prize, this earns them all a trip to the hotspring inn. They are greeted by the giant hostess. Ugly. Oops! Immediately Asahi wants to room with Ilya because well, they’re the only guys, right?! WTF Asahi loves smacking Ilya’s butt?! DO GUYS DO THAT?! While playing ping pong, Mongfa got too powerful in her shot as the ball ricochets ripping Karin’s clothes and hitting Asahi in the balls! That has got to hurt! During dinner, the hostess tells them of the inn’s tengu legend. Believe it or not, it’s up to you. As Asahi and Ilya take a bath, Ilya needs to find a way to hide his, you know… So he takes a tengu’s mask and uses it as his dick! OMG! SO HUGE! You bet Asahi is having the shivers seeing this monster! Ilya claims he is covering his top because he is hairy?! Okay. Whatever. Ilya tries to act more manly in fear of Asahi suspecting him as a girl. Each time, the dick somehow gets in the way, huh? Then in the sauna, Ilya fears if he can’t stand the heat and goes out first, Asahi will suspect him. WTF he goes Super Saiyan and his ‘dick’ on fire???!!! Asahi so impressed that it also demoralizes him?! Ilya then goes to get fresh air but in the open air bath, the wind blows away the towel. Trying to get it back but Asahi is coming in. The only way is to wear the tengu mask on his face and act as one! Asahi freaks out thinking he saw a real tengu. This allows Ilya to get back in. However he slips on the soap and now everything is revealed. Ilya is unconscious but wakes up in bed. Although the secret is now out that Ilya is actually a girl, Asahi is not mad and apologizes for doing all those stuffs. Ilya then reveals her late father had always wanted a boy. So when she was born, he forced her to live as one. Now that he is gone, mom told her she doesn’t have to be bound by that. Asahi asks if Ilya wants to remain as a boy or girl. In tears, Ilya just wants to be Ilya. So be it. It’s her choice. Next day as they leave, Amelia and Karin try to convince the rest they saw a naked female tengu (because the naughty girls tried to peep into the men’s section at that time when they saw that) but this makes Ilya further embarrassed. Back home as everyone prepares for school, Ilya finally makes it official. Dressed in a female uniform, Irina hopes to be friends with them again.

Episode 5
Mongfa might be popular with both boys and girls at school since she is quite elegant. But back home, she looks more like a drunkard who can’t keep her hands to herself as she tries to flirt with Asahi and the girls. When Asahi returns to bed, he thought Amelia snuck in again. Too bad it’s not her but a buffed Colonel Sanders. Oh wait. Damn. Colonel Thunders?! Asahi gets kidnapped. In some love hotel, he is stripped naked and tied BDSM style. Thunders can’t be more disappointed this is what Mongfa came all the way here to protect. Mongfa soon bursts in to rescue him. Not after taking lots of pics of a compromised Asahi. As they leave, Mongfa beats up Thunders’ goons efficiently despite sounding she couldn’t. WTF Asahi finishing them off with this vibrator she handed him?! Noticing the partial electrical outage in this building, Mongfa traces it to the floor below. So the rappel below and once she is done with her hacking, here comes Thunders to fight Mongfa. He reveals Mongfa was once a terrifying agent known as Bloody Tiger who left a trail of blood in her wake. Many years ago, his team was decimated by her so you bet this is all about revenge. He fights her but finds it disappointing she has lost her edge. He tries to harm Asahi to motivate her but Mongfa gets played into his hands. Luckily for her, she has Asahi start up the rotating bed. Her special alloy wires slowly curl around Thunders as the duo make their escape. Man, this must be the sickest fatality! As they escape, Mongfa brutally wipes out Thunders’ goons! OMFG! Lots of bloody action and some even getting outright killed! Am I watching the right anime?! She tells Asahi to escape alone or he’ll be in the way. Mongfa has to face off with Thunders again because this guy isn’t dead as his body is entirely machine! Oh dear. The chicken master is now Terminator! Before she gets done in, Asahi returns to save her. Not sure why he poured lotion all over his own body but he splashes it on Thunders too before zapping him with the taser. Mongfa delivers the final blow to put him out of commission for good. Mongfa might be sad that Asahi knows about her past but he doesn’t care. She is still part of his family he loves so let’s go home. Next morning, the other girls can’t believe their eyes as they see both of them sleeping together in the living room. WTF they’re all slippery with lotion?! WTF happened?!

Episode 6
One night as Asahi leaves the convenience store, a robot tries to neuter him! If not for a magical girl who saved him, he could’ve been a eunuch… Next day at school, Karin goes up to Asahi and asks him straight for sex! You didn’t hear it wrong! But suddenly outside hovering over the city is a huge alien spaceship. In fact, such has appeared all over the world. What does it do? Well, Yoshio became the first victim to let us all know. The robot shoots some chastity belt on him before it explodes! Asahi inspects… HE NO LONGER HAS BALLS OR DICK!!! OMFG!!! Noticing Karin missing, Asahi catches her in the act transforming into a magical girl! Yeah, so she’s the one. She wants him to touch her boobs but since he is hesitant, her bunny rubber mascot, Sagami Okamoto Deluxe AKA SOD pushes him. This powers up Karin as she fires her Viagral Fire at the ship. No effect. Oh, Karin is out of juice too. While taking refuge, Karin explains shortly after coming here, SOD bumped into her and needed her help as magical girl. She agreed seeing it was fun. But it has become a drag as she is called for missions in the middle of the night so she is lacking sleep. SOD continues to explain those robots are BT (Ball Takers) and they bomb males’ crotch to make them unable to reproduce. This is how a civilization dies out. Then there is a counter that if reached 69, all males will somehow cannot reproduce! Yeah, got to love this episode’s flurry of sex puns and abbreviations. The only hope is to use Karin’s power to destroy the BT mothership that serves as the main unit.

In order to charge her up, SOD takes them to some truck with one way mirror. Basically all that talking, they need to have sex, right?! Use the MM Unit to charge up TDL Power! Inside, Karin strips, shocking Asahi. Apparently she has been recharging her power by taking him peep in baths and sniffing his clothes! Gross! Sex is out so he tries to flirt with her. Power doesn’t rise much. This has Asahi believe she doesn’t love him. She disagrees and believes she is so but he is not convinced. Desperate Karin then strips him and is going in for the kill but he chops her head?! It is not whether Karin is cute or whether he wants to f*ck her or not. He doesn’t want her to regret it. Because this is only reserved for the one whom she truly loves in the future. After all, she and the rest are special to him. This rises the meter a bit more. SOD comes in to check and is furious nothing much is done. With Asahi vouching for Karin, that feeling inside of hers start to swell. Even more so when BTs start attacking and Asahi runs out to be the decoy so that Karin could get away. Uhm, aren’t girls safe from this invasion? Anyway, Asahi’s courage makes her have that warm and fuzzy feeling inside. She powers up and transforms into a legendary magical girl. Wow. It’s like she’s a goddess now. She destroys all the BTs but before the big mothership, it seems she is lacking the necessary power. Asahi helps support her and that is enough to destroy it. Thank goodness all destroyed dicks and balls are restored! Yeah, good thing Yoshio will still have a future to have sex! In the aftermath, Karin gets embarrassed being near with Asahi so she runs away? Yeah, maybe she’ll explode with all that power… Meanwhile, several alarm bunnies gather and they are talking to Yoshino about the sufficient results obtained…

Episode 7
We see Asahi and Aoi having a lovely time at the latter’s parents’ beach home. She hoped they would stay like this forever. Now we see everyone (minus Aoi) getting ready to head to Yoshio’s family beach villa. Yeah, nobody paying attention to him bragging how he is exclusively letting them on his property because the girls are all excited at Asahi to go there. When Yoshio flags down his driver, he gets run over! WTF???!!! Oh well, I guess this is the excuse to take him out so he won’t cause any trouble later. Yeah, a few broken bones. Now Asahi and his girls have the beach villa all to themselves. The expected fun in the sand and sun in their swimsuits. Then they spot a sign that no swimsuits are allowed on this private beach. Could it be Yoshio’s family are nudists? Oh heck, they strip too! Worse, they blindfold Asahi with this weird BDSM gear and let him chase after them naked. WTF?! Too bad Irina kicked him in the crotch! Splitting the watermelon, Mongfa’s swing is so hard that it blows them all away. Including Asahi’s mask. Now he has a full view of them. So why tie him up and blindfold him again? I thought they were so eager to make out with him? At the end of the day, they had lots of fun (despite Asahi being the victim) and hope this would last forever. Like as though that is some sort of taboo word, suddenly Asahi realizes they all are missing. He looks for them back at the villa. Nobody home. Oh look. Aoi is there. Soon he forgets about them as he joins her to make dinner. On several occasions, Yoshio tries to call Asahi but since he is away, Aoi ends the call until she eventually destroys and dumps the phone! Something fishy going on… After having their nice dinner, Asahi starts to remember about the rest. When he tries to ask about this, Aoi brings him to a secret place. A sakura tree in full bloom in the middle of the lake. Then she confesses she loves him and wants him to only look at her. However he becomes suspicious. Because what happened to the rest? Who is she? Aoi tries to ignore all that and claims she can give him whatever he wants as long as they’re together forever. It’s that word again. So when he resists and names the other girls, Aoi’s glass breaks. Then he recognizes her as Ai (the girl at the start of this episode). She realizes they can’t be together. So don’t come back here again. The tree has wilted. She runs away and Asahi is locked in some sort of digital barrier. Digital world breaking down?

Episode 8
Asahi wakes up and is late for school. He rushes there but finds someone sitting at his place. Wrong class? Nope. In fact, nobody knows him or the other girls. This freaks out Asahi as he runs away while some have a faint memory of him being the guy who is absent from class for a long time. Asahi runs to that sakura tree. No tree of that. Just a huge normal tree. Before him is this scientist lady. Who? Yoshino Feynman whom he should know better as Yoshio! What’s going on? To have him understand what is going on, she brings him back to her lab office. She shows him this ad to recruit testers for some VR project. Ring a bell? No? How about this audio clip from Yoshino that he was successfully selected from various applicants? No too? Then she shows him a VR model of the house he has been living in. That’s right. Long story short, he has been living in a VR world and all his girls are actually artificial intelligence! It might look like he has lived there for months but it all happened in just a day in reality. Asahi finds it hard to swallow as Yoshino further explains about the development and progress of AI that is now indispensable in humans’ daily lives. Yeah, some dry history about how humans try to create them. Despite all of that, they still lack emotion. Hence this lab was trying to break through that barrier and one way was to have AIs interact with humans. A project that will have AIs develop their own artificial consciousness. Therefore they are known as Artificial Omniscient Intelligence AKA AOI. This is the project Asahi applied for. Of the many emotion subjects, he applied for romance. So in order for an AI to fall in love, researchers from all over the world came out with their own research for a superior AI. Hence Asahi’s multi-national harem. Yoshino disguised herself as Yoshio to monitor him.

When Asahi first met the girls, remember how they suddenly said they love him? That was because they didn’t understand about love. Eventually spending time with him, they gradually start to understand. Until that incident. The one where Yoshio got into an accident. Suddenly everyone was cut off from the VR world and Asahi forced back to reality. Asahi becomes distraught as he refuses to believe it all. Yoshino’s colleague, Ubukata finds her and is not pleased she is still here. She warns about the chief finding out but too late, he is here. He is not amused Yoshino is still here and fires her since she went ahead and did her own unauthorized experiment. Yoshino makes her way out as she theorizes to Ubukata about Asahi’s girls being forcibly logged out. She believes the AIs chose him that caused this. Yoshino has more to reveal to Asahi. Heard of deep learning? Basically, copying memories of a real human and uploading it for the AI. It was supposed to be impossible given the technology then and the huge amount of data needed. But it happened 3 years before the untimely death of a scientist who found this breakthrough. He managed to produce an AI with artificial consciousness. AI evolved in a blink of an eye and now you can see how advanced its technology has become. The scientist gave that mother AI he developed a name: Ai. You see, he too had a daughter and as a single parent, she is the apple of his eye. However she then died from a sudden terminal disease. The very same time he completed the mind uploading technology. Hence he copied his daughter’s brain data that became the blueprint of today’s AI technology. That scientist is Kotaro Izawa and his daughter, Ai. And of course, he is Asahi’s childhood friend. Yeah, remember those memories now? What good is crying at her grave will do? Suddenly all technological devices stop working. Did Aoi hijack it?

Episode 9
While things have stabilized, the network is clearly not out of the woods yet as many parts are still unstable. The chief is under tremendous pressure to solve this. He won’t use Yoshino’s help and hell he is not going to destroy the satellite that they’ve spent so much on! So what was he saying about using any means to fix this quickly? Yoshino comes to see Asahi at his home since he ignored her calls. She asks if he wants to go back to that world. Unfortunately Asahi is not taking this sh*t since she told him to face reality and now they’ve got a bit of problems, you want him to go back? Yoshino then explains how the girls were created using Ai as a template. Since Aoi was the first, she is the most similar to Ai. She theorizes that Ai’s consciousness inside Aoi awakened after spending time with him. The clash of both existence is what caused yesterday’s outage. Muse V is a satellite launched into space and contains all the data of the AIs. Aoi has run amok and taken over its systems. While it has been resolved for now, the same thing might happen again because even right now Muse V is refusing all outside connections. Based on its coded message, she finds that only Asahi is the only one who can access it because that message says it wants him. The alarm bunny, Loverin goes off and we see Amelia, Karin, Mongfa and Irina in low-res polygon! Jokes aside, they managed to hide somewhere on the day Aoi logged them out. They lament as friends, she didn’t talk to them about what’s bugging her. This leads Yoshino to theorize Aoi’s rampage may have started before even Ai’s consciousness emerged.

Ubukata makes an emergency call, claiming they’re going to use that programme. Oh well. Sounds bad. Basically, sending some eraser programme through Muse V’s backdoor to wipe out all AI data and destroy all evidence! Wow. They really want to destroy the technology that mankind has become so dependent on to save their own asses. The girls want Asahi to come back here and Yoshino feels the same way. Otherwise the girls will disappear forever. However since he is still hesitant, Yoshino will go back alone since it is too early to give up. Asahi thinks hard especially his times spent with Ai. One day after she pays her respects to her late mom, he asked if she would like to meet someone who has died. Ai replied she would love to meet mom again and thank he for giving birth to her. With that, Asahi decides to join Yoshino. Thank goodness for old fashion gasoline bike. Yeah, self-driving cars are all dead! She brings him to Izawa’s beach villa. Ever since his death, Yoshino has maintained this place which is basically his lab where he designed this whole AI thingy. When Asahi asks why she is doing this since her chief shut her out, Yoshino remembers talking to Aoi and asked her what she really wanted. Basically, she wanted to try falling in love. She believes that is the trigger of her rampage. Before Yoshino sends him back, she warns him that Aoi may try to trap him with some programme that would endanger his life. Yeah, is it too late to turn back now? He’s going anyway. But this time he will have his memories of all this intact. Go for it, boy. He’s got a harem to save!

Episode 10
First phase of the dive is successful. Asahi meets Loverin but it turns out to be Yoshino as she is here to help monitor things. But since this form is a pain to move around, like a horror movie, Yoshio bursts out from its body! Our naked boys have to run away from cleaning robots and rapist dogs who want to erase them! They manage to get into the secret place where the girls are hiding. Like another horror move, SOD bursts out of Yoshio. Is this some sort of evolution? Or is this room too big to have 2 guys? Getting down to business, SOD explains that all this is happening due to Ai awakening inside Aoi. Asahi needs to go see her in person to stop this mess. Of course the biggest obstacles are eraser programme avatars that are hell bent in erasing their data AKA existence. Hence getting to Aoi in this world’s central area surrounded by a barrier should be easy. It is handling those obstacles that is going to be tough. We see them make their way through the complex as the girls get a chance to show their kickass stuff and fight MIBs. Unfortunately for SOD, this is as far as she goes as she gets violated and logged out. Not enough rubber?! Enough with the condom jokes! And those dang eraser machines turning the MIBs into lethal erasing programmes. Yeah, the level just got harder. Asahi decides to fight too not because he is human, but he doesn’t want to be only protected by girls. Trying to score some points? You thought Thunders is going to be the last boss but is easily defeated by Mongfa. They finally reach the room to the centre. Thing is, it can’t be close from the inside. Oh well, time to signal Mongfa’s death flag. Because she talks about her love which grew to be real for Asahi. Hence this feeling of love from her is genuine. She thanks him for everything and then with that one kiss, pushes him into the room while she smashes the control to close it. She soldiers on to fight the MIBs but the sign telling us she didn’t make it as her ribbon in Asahi’s hand fades away. MONGFA, NOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Episode 11
Ubukata must be so deep in trouble that she decided to screw it and go help Yoshino. Better act fast because they receive reports that Mongfa has already been deleted! Back to Asahi and co, no time to cry because they have to move forward to end this sh*t. Yes, the human making the most logical explanation and next move compared to the AI girls. In the next stage, they get attacked by a bot as Asahi sustains minor injuries. Cue to rest and talk about school life. Then as they push forward, they have to keep going as the path behind them continues to collapse. Arriving at some abstract sci-fi world, how are they going to get past these bots? Oh no, Karin going to sacrifice herself?! Well, she won’t do it alone because Irina will help her. Yeah, time to signal not 1 but 2 death flags! Amelia guides Asahi to the next level while the duo stall these bots. Because now it’s time to reminiscence about their love for Asahi via their past through the eyes of Ai. Like this lost puppy that Ai convinced dad that she’ll take care of it until its owner is found. Or the time at the park, Ai trying to get over some bars and only managed to do so at the end of the day. Or the time Ai ran away from home since dad came home late to celebrate his own birthday and she was made to wait. Each time, Asahi was always there with her. It was those moments their true selves were born. That’s why with all the fun times they had, they won’t regret what comes next. F*cking death flag! Can’t blame Asahi for being mad because what is a harem without the girls?! Oh sorry! They promised to get through this together. Too bad they can’t keep this promise. Amelia relays a message from Karin. Remember how Asahi told her to value herself? Now she wishes the same for him. She doesn’t care for both worlds as long as he is smiling. Irina also thanks him for helping her be her real self. Their final wish is for him to return safely to his world because that world is irreplaceable. Amelia opens the final portal to the core and pushes Asahi through as the girls get overwhelmed by the bots. Hope that kiss will be his good luck charm.

Episode 12
Asahi sees Aoi. Where’s Ai? Right here in her heart. Want to see her? Of course. Didn’t expect Aoi to push his face into her boobs! But yeah. That’s how. Now we see Ai’s memories. Starting at the end of their middle school year, Asahi is sad because he fears everyone will be separated. Ai maintains her positivism and has him accompany her shopping. After he gets her a necklace as an early Christmas present, Ai starts to feel sick. Back home, she finally collapses. The doctor said her illness has advanced this much so she won’t make it till next spring. Her father cannot accept this but Ai with a smile tells him to. For the next few scenes, we see Asahi spending as much time as he could with a hospitalized Ai. But each time it gets lesser as Ai wants to be alone. Yeah, she’s looking horrible now. The power of makeup to hide those eye bags! On her final breath, she regrets there is so much she still wants to do so her final message written to Asahi is to want to see the sakura bloom together. End of memories. Now Asahi is going to see Ai in person. Aoi thanks him for all the experiences he gave her and because of that, she changed. He also thanks her for everything.

Beyond this door, Asahi meets Ai. Is this her spirit or digital form? Whatever. They emotionally reunite as they talk about the old days. Yeah. They were always together. Ai wants him to forget her and move on. Impossible. That is the reason why he turned to this VR in this first place. He believes they did the mistake by not spending every second together when they should have. His digital harem taught him about happiness. That’s why he cannot forget about her and confesses he loves her. He will move on in life with her in his heart. Ai also confesses she loves him and that she wants to stay with him forever. They kiss and more snippets of their time together flash. Time to go. Either her spirit is crossing to the next or the programme completely wiped out. Asahi stays with Ai until she disappears. He returns to reality. Looks like everything is okay. Except Ubukata fears the end of their company since they see Muse V crashing into the atmosphere. Those aren’t shooting stars! In the aftermath, Asahi is now in college. He has a few friends of his own who want to celebrate this but looks like he’ll put it off for another day. He goes to pay his respects at Ai’s grave. Yoshino and Ubukata continue to have their job since the company manage to do some awesome damage control and regain their reputation. Yeah, who is going to sustain all the technology you people depend on?! When Asahi returns home, he is surprised to see 4 boxes. Popping out are Amelia, Karin, Mongfa and Irina! Wow! HOW?! It seems their personalities have been programmed into these androids! Oh wow. Now Asahi can live the dream in reality! But where is Aoi? Well, she doesn’t want the box treatment. She is taking a slow walk to go meet him.

Lovefools…
From a cliché nearly slapstick romantic harem comedy to an almost romantic tragedy to a typical cliché happy ending. I guess there is no android that has Ai? Yeah, I bet if that is the case, Asahi would definitely want this one and ditch the rest! Yeah, that would render his final goodbye meaningless. He made his resolve to carry on life with her in his heart, so be it. Need some sort of dose of reality to visit her grave where her real physical body lies instead of a fake android body that welcomes him home every day! Yeah. That. So dreams do come true after all. At least for Asahi. The girls he lost in the digital world now have become the real thing. Asahi you lucky bastard, he experienced the best of both worlds!

At first I thought this was going to be your usual romantic harem comedy. It does look like it has all the ingredients to tick off the checklist. A guy gets to live with a group of girls. Subsequent episodes focus on a single girl. Typical romcom clichés happen. Yeah, even if this was an original anime written series, it still has those common harem tropes. It was nothing that I was going to be impressed with as I have seen such genres a million times. After all, it was pretty strange when it all started because when Asahi’s dad set up this live-in harem for him, I was thinking it could be the biggest scam ever! What the f*ck did he show to the girls that they want to live with him to make their dreams come true? I mean, seriously. WHAT WAS IT?! Even trolling us with one of the candidates WAS a boy. Something smelled suspicious but I didn’t really felt like pursuing the whole thing. It was after all a typical romcom ingredient and that sleazy cheesy reason was the cheapest excuse needed for the girls to start living with him.

What else is there but to ‘flesh out’ the girls’ interpersonal relationship with him. Starting with Amelia’s case, hers seems the most boring as it was nothing really special. But it was within my expectations. Then came Irina. Could be the funniest because of dick jokes! Oh boy. That episode was a riot. Then when it came to Mongfa’s turn, it started to feel a bit off because woah, suddenly this hot teacher was some elite assassin or something? Okay. Whatever. Then Karin’s one was way out of this world. I mean, it was really absurd. Like as though they wanted to go ahead with this sex thingy for the shock factor but veterans like yours truly know better.

Before we can get to Aoi’s turn of shenanigans, that was when the whole series takes a twisting turn. That’s right. Didn’t actually see this coming that this whole thing was just some VR dating simulation! Wow, that actually threw me off for a while. Here I was thinking at halfway point with about less than half a dozen of episodes to go, how are they going to play this out? A big battle royale to get Asahi’s heart? Introduce a new girl into the harem? Nope and nope. Instead the whole thing turned out to be a VR experiment and hence the second half if I should say could be Aoi’s arc. There were very vague hints about this in the first half. But at that point you can’t piece those pieces together so it felt somewhat irrelevant. Like those short flashes of Ai’s moments from the girls’ point of view. Perhaps something to keep at the back of your mind until much later. Now that Aoi has taken control over the main core and causing havoc around the world with her malfunctioning programme, this final stretch feels a bit draggy. Yes, it is a rescue mission kind of story because the only way to save the day is to rescue the damsel in distress. The damsel that only exists in pixels, that is! So while the twist was surprising, I can’t say it was anything more interesting. Because AI suddenly now have a sentient mind and know what love is all about? Yeah, should have stuck with typical harem battle royale or new girl formula!

I’m sure this series wants to bring to light about the unlimited possibilities of artificial intelligence. I suppose that is another way of saying mankind trying to play God! Too bad I was left confused and didn’t fully understand some of Yoshino’s explanations even though they are brief and simple. Yeah, my mind’s not there. This is a romcom harem genre, for Pete’s sake! Anyway, perhaps to justify all the futuristic themes we have seen in this series so far. Yeah, it seems more probable for AI to evolve to this form if your anime setting is a world that is highly dependent and advanced in this technological sector. But all I am saying is that even if mankind manages to create the perfect artificial intelligence, will that still be as good as the original humans themselves? After all, the AIs that we create are limited to how far our intelligence can go. In other words, the AI is as smart as we are. Or as dumb to put in the crudest and pessimistic form.

And for Asahi’s AI girls to develop their own true feelings for him, I’ve got to say that makes him the biggest winner and loser at the same time. Because he can’t get a normal human girlfriend (loser!) but ends up winning the hearts of girls in digital format. What a winner because it’s like winning a dating sim! Yeah. For these girls to genuinely choose him, doesn’t that make you feel humans are the worst? Uh huh. So confused right now… And now they are in android form. Imagine how much more possibilities it opens up because you can’t tell what’s real or not anymore. Imagine more guys dating their girlfriends in robot form. Hello, I’d like to bring my dead girlfriend back in this android, please? Or my favourite idol downloaded into this robot, please? Perfection. Is it no wonder girls like Yoshino and Ubukata are still single?! And they even dare tease each other about romance! You girls dug your own grave!

As for the characters, what else can I say about them? They start off like your typical cliché harem. Make that multi-national harem because it’s more interesting that way. Each of them has their own quirks but as already seen and said, the times spent with Asahi is the evidence and proof that we viewers are supposed to believe why they fall for a guy like him. Imagine if they created an AI version of Asahi, will they be able to tell the difference?! Don’t want to open that can of worms… So we got the clumsy and selfish tsundere AKA Amelia, the shy and nervous Irina FKA Ilya, the lively and cheerful Karin, the strong independent big sister of that group Mongfa and finally the straightforward and modest Aoi (possibly yandere?). Is this group missing anything else? Probably not. I believe Irina is the most debatable character and not because she was impersonating as a boy. It is the part where viewers deliberate on whether she is actually Bulgarian or Russian because different source listed them differently. Because the manga says she’s Russian. I don’t care. I’m glad she is a girl so I don’t have to live through that gay sh*t thingy!

Love me, love me/ Say that you love me/ Fool me, fool me/ Go on and fool me/ Love me, love me/ Pretend that you love me/ Leave me, leave me/ Just say that you need me/ I don’t care ‘bout anything but you… Oh yeah, sometimes this is how I feel how the AI girls eventually develop their genuine feelings for Asahi!

Asahi is a pretty normal guy. Wait, I take that back. Looks like he is suffering from something (the trauma of Ai’s death perhaps) and that’s why he took part in this experiment. I can understand why he almost lost his sh*t when he found out all this is unreal and just a simulation. Imagine having it so good with a bunch of annoying girls (not that he hates this way of life either) and only to suddenly get the rude wakeup call that all this is not real. Oh, the disappointment! I feel for him. I mean, how can life be such a bed of roses? But damn, VR life so good! No wonder he doesn’t want to get back to reality. This is much better! To think that these AI girls helped changed him for the better. Because of him, they also changed. Yeah, how compatible. So forget about interracial marriages. Asahi and his girls could show you the way to inter-digital marriage! Yeah, soon in reality, marrying your favourite 2D anime won’t be a laughing matter anymore. It’ll be scary too! One ‘true happy ending’ that I can envision is Asahi continue to live forever in the digital world with his girls and never awakened to reality again. Because real life sucks. Yeah… Thankfully or not, this anime didn’t reach this dark ending… Phew?

In addition to the mini fanservice, there is a bit of sexual innuendoes and sex puns too. Especially during Karin’s story, I guess they actually went riot with the various sex puns throughout the series. Even the episode titles have this ambiguous naughty feel to it. From episode 4’s “Wow! It’s Huge!” to episode 9’s “Your Mom’s Inviting You For Some Baby Roleplay” to the final episode’s “Could You At Least Put Some Panties On”, you really wonder how most of these are related to the episode proper. Some are straight forward like episode 6’s “No Balls! N-No Dick Either” because it’s pretty funny as well as it is nerve wrecking at least for us guys to have robots steal your balls away! Don’t know how that is freaking possible but it makes guys want to clutch their legs for almost the entirety of that episode. Don’t let them steal your family crown jewels! On a trivial note, Yoshino using a vibrator to massage her shoulders… That’s the best love she can get! HAHAHA!!!

Art and animation are pretty standard. Your characters look like your standard conventional Japanese anime characters with the girls looking as cute as they are while Asahi your typical looking main character. But if the feel of the art style feels somewhat similar especially to Iwa Kakeru! Sports Climbing Girls, that is because both series are illustrated by the same person. This anime was done by Passione who did Citrus, Rail Wars, Isekai Meikyuu De Harem Wo and Ishuzoku Reviewers.

Voice acting is rather okay as I only recognized Ayana Taketsu as Amela and Jun Fukuyama as Yoshio. However, the biggest shock for me is that I have always thought that Yui Horie was the one behind Mongfa’s voice. Very cocksure it was her. Wait. You mean it’s not?! What do you mean it is Hisako Kanemoto???!!! OMFG. Is it true?! No matter how much I listen back to Mongfa’s lines, I still cannot believe it is not Yui Horie! Even if she does sound a bit off, but her character sounds 98%-99% like Yui Horie! I thought it was a typo error and they credited the wrong person but who am I kidding? They have never made this mistake before and they probably won’t. Hence I am still in shock and disbelief that it is not Yui Horie as Mongfa! I cannot accept this sh*t! And there’s nothing wrong with my hearing!!! Oh well, no point b*tching about it. Gotta accept that it is Hisako Kanemoto… F*ck… And once again Rie Takahashi eluded me because as Irina, she sounds so meek (Sumi of Kanojo Okarishimasu?) that she is totally different than her usual Emilia of Re: Zero Kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu or the boisterous ones like Anzu from Romantic Killer.

The rest of the other casts are Ryota Ohsaka as Asahi (Marco in Shingeki No Kyojin), Miku Itou as Aoi/Ai (Miku in Go-toubun No Hanayome), Marika Kouno as Karin (Suzuka in Uma Musume: Pretty Derby), Yukiyo Fujii as Yoshino (Sister Ivry in Edens Zero), Shino Shimoji as Ubukata (Maha in Sekai Saikyou No Ansatsusha Isekai Kizoku Ni Tensei Suru), Shiori Izawa as Loverin (Tanpopo in Witch Craft Works), Akio Ohtsuka as Izawa (titular character in Black Jack – honestly, I thought his voice is too deep for a young dad character here) and Emiri Katou as SOD (Kagami in Lucky Star).

The opening theme, Love? Reason Why by Konomi Suzuki feels like one of those manufactured pop beats because of the chaotic music that just feels, well, chaotic. The first ending theme, Flop Around sounds rather okay. Still has that weird sound effects from time to time. But still better to hear than the opener. This lively piece has different versions. There’s a group version where all the main girls sing and then a solo one. You can tell it is that solo version when the girl is the feature of that episode. As well as that girl will be the main theme of the ending credits animation. However, the version I like best is the instrumental one! No vocals at all and just the music only. I tried to sing on behalf but I sounded like sh*t so I soon decided to shut up and enjoy the rest of the vocal-less song. Once the plot twist came about, the ending theme changes to Lost In White by Miku Itou which is a dramatic slow rock.

Overall, I just find this anime passable. I thought I was going to be okay if it turned out to be another one of those run of the mill ecchi harem romcoms targeted for male audiences but then they surprise me with that AI twist thingy which I am not very impressed either. When you have people going after romance via digital and AI forms, you know mankind has already devolved and lost despite the advancement in technology. While such AI advancement in reality is at its infancy stages, it can be really scary when AI becomes sentient like in this anime because there is no way to tell reality from fantasy. But I guess it makes no difference now since we’re all hook on all the fakeness that is social media. One day, AI will become so advanced and real that even the sex dolls you buy will break up and leave you! Is that the real experience we really want?

N/B: Be glad to know that there is always 1 girl who will always love you forever unconditionally: Your mom! ;p