Renai Flops

Renai flops came out of nowhere and became one of my fave shows of Fall 2022. While the first half follows the usual path of a generic fan-service harem rom com, it becomes something more substantive in the second half and truly won me over. If you’re someone with a short fuse and low tolerance for non-sense, I can tell you right now Renai Flops won’t be for you. Its first episodes are intentionally trope-y and very generic. But if you’re too quick to drop the show, you’ll miss out on seeing how the show actually deconstructs some of these generic tropes. While the first fewepisodes largely feature your usual harem shenanigans, the second half contains a pretty major plot twist that turns the world upside down and changes how you look at the reality these characters are living in. Many of those generic tropes from earlier episodes will take on a totally different meaning if you’re able to stick it out. The closest thing I would compare it to is Muv luv, of which it clearly takes some inspiration and in a way parodies. While I am a sucker for ecchi fan service moments and harems, I actually enjoyed the second half of the show more. I thought the fan service was a little half-assed and weak compared to other shows like this, so getting an actual good story that made sense and fleshed things out more was welcome. The MC is actually pretty solid which is a rarity in shows like this as well. While he is not Kiyopon or Yuichi levels of cool, he’s pretty competent and makes smart decisions which is nice to see. I enjoyed the art style and designs of the characters a lot. The girls were intentionally made to appeal to different peoples’ “ideal” and they did a good job of making a diverse set of looks for sure. I’m very partial towards Mongfa, but the other girls are good as well. While Renai Flops may seem like a mediocre show that you can skip, I really do highly suggest checking it out if you’re into big plot twists and the intersection of technology/reality. There’s some legitimately good writing in this show that has unfortunately been under appreciated. Renai Flops gets 8 out of 10.

Ahhh another rom-com type show for me to watch and review… How bad could this show be? Renai Flops sure made my heart flop. Not in a good way… for at least the first 6 episodes. We’ll get to that way later… Before we begin, let me backtrack to the beginning… the very very eye stretching beginning… Renai Flops (at least the first half) is what you get when you put together all the possible rom-com tropes into one show and press copy and paste 1000 times. True Insanity… For example the guy (let’s call him Steve) “falls” down a set of stairs only to “accidentally”pounce on an unexpecting girl walking by. Sound familiar? If you do know what I mean, you know what happens next in the story… Oh and of course there is “accidental” groping in this rom-com and I don’t know where to begin with the other crazy shit that I saw here… So original… And yes this is basically copy and paste for the first couple of episodes. Holy shittt… It really was hot shit with no set storyline. I felt like I was drunk watching the show even though I was sober the entire time. Not good… 🙁 It was almost uncanny sort of bad. Too trash to be true... Like the whole show is supposed to be geared towards Steve, a teenage dude going through that rough patch in his adolescence with his hormones. *wink* *wink*. The first half of the show feels engineered like it's supposed to be a fantasy world to help a certain someone escape reality, a certain someone like Steve… Maybe…. Who knows? Do you know because I dunno. Are we humans living in a simulation? Are anime and manga just a figment of our imagination? Yes… Who knows which question I could be answering above? It could be one of them… all of them… none of them…Thiz werlde iz notslddl;fksd’;f’asdadksdd;’ ddsfdlfllk,rsdlvksedlvkadkvldsk……………………………………………….. *Error…* *Error…* Error…* *Brain Overheating…* *System Rebooting* Sorry about that, I had a mental system error there. Had to restart my brain… Basically that’s how abrupt the plot twist hit me when it occured during the show. I won’t tell ya what happened or when it did but oh boy did it change the tone and really gave the show points for creativity and dedication to the storyline. Still very trippy though. All I can say is that Renai Flops flopped but in a somewhat good way. The show’s slow start and confusing story in the beginning is what turned off the show for many viewers, and I can understand why viewers felt that way. However, real show showed its true colors during the second half, and you MUST watch it all the way through if you decide to pick this one up. The concept of Yin and Yang are everywhere in our world, so you must watch through the painful and bad beginning to enjoy the latter half of this misunderstood title. Balanced. I’m not saying it's great, it’s not even that good either but it ain’t bad for a rom-com show. 5 out of 10 for me. *Disclaimer* I have nothing against any Steve or Steve’s in the real world. Steve was the first name I could think of. Using the MC’s real name is boring… Steve is more relatable imo… Sorry in advance if your name is Steve. Anyways, what are you still doing here… Go watch the show… or not… ok bye… Overall: 5/10

This anime started off as your normal ecchi harem series except it felt rushed and was all over the place. It was almost like they mashed every stereotype of anime wifu together all sloppy like. In fact, I almost dropped it. However, the episode I was about to drop it on everything changed. Suddenly, with out saying too much, things were happening that peaked my interest, and from that point on the show went from sloppy and bad to actually really interesting. While most people would hear that it’s better in the second part and skip the first, there is some important information in thefirst part so I wouldn’t. So while the first few episodes might not be that good, I do recommend you watch them through to the end as the ending of this anime is really good. It’s also the first time in awhile I couldn’t foresee the twist, hook, or ending (although the ending was similar to what I expected).

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