Kiss Him Not Me Episode 1 Review:
Here’s a two speed review.
Number 1: This is horrendous portrayal of any kind of romance or characterisation. The fat girl wearing glasses can be nice (or the butt of your jokes) but you don’t even recognise her once she loses weight (and how does weight loss allow you to stop wearing glasses?).
More importantly, her ‘friend’ then advises her to hide who she is on the date (with four boys simultaneously) because if her boyfriend found out she was an otaku it would over. This is an absolutely terrible premise for a story and for a group of characters. Avoid at all costs.
Number 2: The premise is everything I just said above and yet this episode itself is kind of fun. That may actually be worse because it is kind of normalizing the above attitudes and playing them as acceptable but I did not actually hate this first episode.
I hated the idea of this story but the delivery was not bad. It’s kind of pretty and even though the set up for the characters is bad, as individual characters they actually look kind of interesting (though in a first episode we’re still kind of generic kind of way). Will I make it through a whole season of this? I’d say probably not, but I’m at least up for watching the next episode. Advice: Don’t watch if you are planning on thinking it through.
That said, stories aren’t really obliged to present a positive view of the world, romance, gender or characters, nor are they particularly obliged to not offend. So, while I found this a bit painful I’m certain there is an audience out there that will just enjoy the story for what it is without trying to impose their own views upon it.
Kiss Him, Not Me is available on Crunchyroll.
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Karandi James
Will definitely check this out. I first got attracted with the graphics and the synopsis but haven’t really seen it. Thanks for the heads up!
See, I saw this show listed once on MyAnimeList, and I was totally flabbergasted that this was even a conceivable plot line… And then I remembered that it was anime and was not so shocked anymore. Anyway, not something I plan to watch! (But let’s all admit that the title sounds pretty hilarious out of context.)
I think I’ll stay away from this. That premise sounds like something that’d have me seething about 5 min in. And yeah how does one lose glasses from weight loss, or did a pair of contacts magically appear? Speaking of, unless it is from a healthy diet/exercise regime, weight loss drastic enough to render you unrecognizable would probably do a number on your body and not in the good way…yeah I’m thinking too much, aren’t I?
Too much to watch this. Though I was also wondering why the weight didn’t start coming back once she resumed her normal life-style given sudden weight loss isn’t known for being long term without actual changes to diet.
When I first read the synopsis for the show; I was really concerned with the fact that she was fat and then lost weight and then guys took notice of her. That kind of superficiality gets to me as someone who is a bit heavyset and furthers the stereotype that the outside is what matters above all. Also, was annoyed that she had to hide her interests on these dates completely; but at the same time I could actually relate to that. As someone who just started to really express and show my interest in anime and manga – I’ve been feeling a bit judged by really good friends of mine; which makes me close up and actually not talk about the things I enjoy the most. Which makes me think they’re not as good friends as I think..
But I decided to give this one a shot just because. And for entertainment purposes yes it’s good for some laughs but definitely not one to really think about without getting upset. There was only one guy that made an impression on me out of the 4 – her senpai who already took notice of her before her change and that was so far the only admirable quality about him.
The guys definitely need a bit of fleshing out it this is going to work at all.
I had this queued up to watch on crunchyroll because the premise sounded fun. With that said, you pointed out quite a few glaring stereotypes and flaws. I’m not sure I want to invest time in this series after all.
I think it’s one of those you just have to try yourself and if you find it funny the premise probably won’t bother you. If you don’t then you’ll probably drop mid-first episode so not much of a time investment.
I might have to check this anime out for myself just so I can make an informed opinion but I wasn’t too impressed when I heard about it and I agree with your thoughts with the little information I know.
i think ill pass…im not great at just not thinking about it
Makes sense. As I said, I don’t think I’ll make it through the whole thing because the more I think about it the more I dislike it, and yet I didn’t dislike watching it. Weird.