English Dub Season Review: Love of Kill Season One

Based on the Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Fe. The story of “Love of Kill” (or “Koroshi Ai” in Japan) takes place in a modern age, with the main character Chateau Dankworth being a bounty hunter. In the world this show is set in, It’s kinda dystopian as Organized Crime syndicates have a great influence within the society this universe is set in and can put bounties on people they deem dangerous, and various companies decided to make business chasing these wanted people and Chateau just so happens to work for one of them. One day, Chateau out of sheer happenstance, encounters someone capable of overpowering her in combat. Even less so that the mysterious man would take an immediate interest in her—to the point of aiding her missions. However, Chateau makes it clear that she has no plans of entertaining any personal involvement with him.

Chateau’s company is soon tasked with eliminating Ryang-ha Song. A Korean expert assassin and a former member of a powerful Asian organization. Coincidentally, Ryang-ha is the very same man that has been pursuing her. Despite his background, Chateau reluctantly agrees to meet with Ryang-ha as part of a deal: in exchange for going out with him, he will provide her with the locations of current targets, dead or alive. But when the past begins to haunt both killers, their arrangement may need to come to an end, as their entanglement puts their lives at grave risk…

On the technical side, The series was animated by Platinum Vision and directed by Hideaki Ōba, with Ayumu Hisao handling the series’ scripts, Yōko Satō designing the characters, and Kei Yoshikawa composing the music. The opening theme song is “Midnight Dancer” by Toshiki Masuda, while the ending theme song is “Makoto Period” by Aika Kobayashi.

At its core, Chateau is a bounty hunter who one day gets courted (by force) by a very lonely assassin named Ryang-ha and follows their very dysfunctional relationship. But in all seriousness, it’s an action-oriented story that deals with the psychology of its characters rather than the connections between them. The bond between the two leads slowly develops as they become stronger allies. Although love is not the main focus, they have many nice moments together, but it’s not “lovey-dovey” and often feels one-sided dynamics. As a character, Ryang-ha Song carries the show for the most part. As he’s charismatic and funny for someone who comes across as a creepy stalker assassin. While Chateau herself is a very one-note character who fails to reciprocate Ryang Ha’s advances and has the emotional depth of a coffee table, but when she does break out of character for intense story moments, it’s nice to see.

Honestly, I’m usually tough on character development, because, for me, that’s the most important thing you have to have in a good story. The first few episodes of the story are more of a slow burn but it’s never tiring or taking shortcuts. The proceedings in all honesty left quite a bit to be desired because it was mostly flashbacks. I don’t usually mind this, but I felt like there was very little going on throughout the series to justify some of Chateau’s actions and feelings towards Ryang-Ha. However, the partnership between the two was good enough to keep me watching at least until the ending left a bad taste in my mouth for not being some grand action-fueled climax…

Overall, the story has potential as a live-action film given how grounded in reality the setting and characters supposedly are, but that’s the only good thing I can say about this. It’s somewhat enjoyable, but it wasn’t perfect. I began to find it more difficult to retain the story due to some, bad spots of poorly done animation (especially the lack of a moving mouth for the character “Jim”), plot contrivances, and sometimes implausible story decisions. If you can look past a lot of these animation and direction problems, there’s a watchable show here, but this may not be for everyone, but I’ll be shocked if season 2 actually becomes a thing…