I’m Not Going to Lose! x Are You Like Me?
What they say:
A beautiful girl named Guri, who has a mysterious item that forces two random people to kiss and turns them into couples, appears in front high school student, Aino Seiji. Despite being dressed up as a shinigami, she’s actually cupid. Suddenly, Guri tries to kiss Seiji, and then… Unavoidable and uncontrollable–A forceful love comedy that starts with an angel and a kiss!!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
We learn a bit more about Yuzu’s past with Akane in episode 4. Perhaps the most important thing we learn is that she and Akane aren’t the only people who have a role to play in this past. There’s another girl with them, a pink-haired gal who seems to be quite evil, if the way she tossed Yuzu’s doll into a fountain that was randomly filled with piranhas was any indication.
Following the flashback beginning, Guri and Seiji learn that Yuzu doesn’t actually attend their school, but instead goes to what appears to be an all-girl institute. Of course, she doesn’t remain there. After swapping places with her body double, the first thing Yuzu does is grab the morning trash from her sister’s house, which I can only assume she enshrines somewhere in her bedroom. Perhaps her closet? Once she has memorialized her sister’s garbage, she goes to Seiji’s school and idles the day spying on her sister.
Yuzu is a very interesting character. Unlike Guri and Akane, who are firmly set in their tropes, Yuzu feels a lot like a mishmash of various tropes that were thrown together at random. She’s a siscon ojou-sama with a stalker fetish. I’ve never seen a character quite like her. It makes the anime more interesting than it would have been otherwise, for the novelty if nothing else.
While the bit where we learn about her past is quite short, I feel like this went a long way toward helping flesh out her character. It also did an okay job of bringing Seiji and Yuzu closer together. I don’t know if this will result in her falling for him, or if she’ll retain her siscon ways, but at least now she’s not just that creepy chick who has a major girl crush on her blood sister.
After the mini Yuzu arc, we’re introduced to another character calling herself Shikimi, who has come to Seiji and Guri because she’s in love with someone. Shikimi has asked for their help. She apparently heard that Guri started a love consultation business, where they hook people up. Of course, not everything is at it seems, and Shikimi is much more than she appears at first glance.
In Summary:
This episode was, overall, not bad. It has some surprisingly dark humor, which I can always appreciate. My one real complaint is that this episode ends on a cliffhanger, so now we have to wait another week to see what will happen. Outside of that, I thought this was a good episode that furthered the harem humor and plot.
Grade: C+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
