Real quick, say “To Lie Angle.” It sounds close to the Japanese pronunciation of “triangle.” Love To-LIE-Angle sounds like “Love Triangle.” That’s the joke in the title of this harem comedy anime by Merryhachi, which runs in Comic Yuri Hime magazine. 

It is, in my opinion, the only clever thing about Yuri anime Love To-LIE-Angle, streaming on Crunchyroll.

Hanabi has come to Tokyo to start a new life. She’s very excited to be staying in a dorm for her school. Instead of the modern high-rise she imagines, the dorm is an old fashioned Japanese style building. The first person she encounters is a girl she was best friends with all of 6 years ago, so of course she doesn’t recognize her. That always happens to me. Just the other day I forgot what my best friend looked like because I hadn’t seen them in a while.

The residents of the Tachibanakan are female and thus, have breasts and crotches, with which Hanabi imagines coming in intimate contact for presumably comedic effect. In episode 3, we are treated to almost-subliminal cuts of of sexual imagery that have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the scene playing out.

I was thinking about “fanservice” this morning. I find it depressing to imagine that there are humans who need their attention drawn to secondary sexual characteristics to be prompted to think of something as “sexy.” To my mind there is a huge gap between enjoying the female form (which I do) and thinking that breasts jiggling unrealistically (or a drawn ass stuck in our face with spilled water to stand-in for bodily fluids, or a hug imagined as a three-way rape) is somehow “sexy.” It’s utterly dismal to know that there are people who think that this is funny and sexy and yes, I absolutely think less of people who do. /sigh/ I know I come off as a judgmental jerk, but I think that sexual dysfunction is not funny, objectification is not sexy, and emotional immaturity is not cute, even a little.*

For me, the best thing about this anime is that each episode is 3 minutes long. 

Ratings:

Art – Eh
Story  – UGH
Characters – Eyeroll
Service – Yes
Yuri – Uh-huh

Overall – This is a thing I watched.

If you find the hijinks of Love to-LIE-Angle hilarious, please read the Guest Review guidelines, contact me and we’ll give you space for a review!

In the meantime, I will sob for the live-action drama of 2DK, GPen, Mezamasheitokei that will never be made.

*Just yesterday I was reminded of the “Yaoi/Yuri paddles” being sold at conventions in the 2000s. The folks who came up with the idea tried to give me one but I would not take it. I found them ludicrous and insulting and explained this patiently to everyone who came by my table to show me they had wasted money on them.  I noted that they could have bought 4 books for the price of a useless hunk of wood that did nothing but tell people they were sexually immature.