English Dub Review: I Want to End This Love Game “My Childhood Friend Refuses to Accept Defeat”

Overview:

Yukiya and Miku are trapped in a game of their own making. The struggle continues until one admits defeat.

Our Take:

The thing I loved most about this episode happened about halfway in. In the first half, we almost exclusively follow Yukiya and his internal thoughts. So we learn pretty early on that he’s actually in love with Miku, and it’s not only a game to him. I began to wonder if we would see Miku’s thoughts in the same way or if that would be the hook of the show. Luckily, we did get to hear her thoughts as well, and of course, she’s in love with Yukiya as well.

What I don’t like is that they both have this idea that they can’t tell the other how they feel until they get the other to slip up in their game. I’m not going to lie, I find this annoying. It feels like this show is trying to be like Kaguya-sama: Love is War without realizing what made that series special. What was unique about that series was that the two leads didn’t realize they were in love with each other and had a superiority complex about making the other confess first.

It wasn’t a bad first episode or a great first episode. I like the characters enough so far, and even if I wasn’t reviewing the show, I would probably give it a few more episodes to see what new things it might try. The last two seasons of anime have seemed to have a lot of romance shows, must be something in the air. Most of them have been pretty good, so I’m going to hope that this one follows in that same path. At the very least, it’s nice to hear some new voice talent get leading roles. I’ll talk about them more once I get a few more episodes in.