Tachibanakan To Lie Angle – Anime Series Review

Episodes: 12

Genre(s): Slice-of-Life, Yuri

Aired: Apr 2018 – June 2018

Also known as: Love to Lie Angle, 立花館To Lieあんぐる

Summary: Natsuno Hanabi moves back into her hometown to live in a dormitory where she quickly becomes involved in a steamy love triangle.

Review: First things first: this series is a short. Each episode is three minutes long. I feel like I had to open with this since some people are very much put-off by such short episodes.

Secondly, such a time constraint basically defines everything for the series, including the pacing. There’s not much to work with when you only have three minutes but Tachibanakan To Lie Angle tries its best. Unfortunately, the end result is a mess that is largely rushed but occasionally dips into, dare I say, suspense via cliffhangers. If one binges the series then it’s not a big deal if at all, but it certainly was noticeable while I was watching the series week after week.

Lastly, the hectic and inconsistent pace stifles characterization and character development. Again, it’s all due to how each episode only lasts for 180 seconds or so, but it does cause the characters to feel offensively cliché. Or perhaps I’m the one who is overly sensitive since I either mildly disliked or thoroughly detested the three central characters in the series (who also happened to be involved in the titular love triangle). Oblivious and bland protagonist? Yikes. Clingy and whiny childhood friend? Eep. Emotionally underdeveloped girl who is sexually aggressive? Not as bad.

But even the last of the three girls is inherently problematic when one considers her age. Then again, sexually active high school students isn’t anything new in any sort of romance genre in anime and it is fiction… Be that as it may, I feel like it’s something to note. More adult yuri that revolves around college students or working adults sure would be nice to have…

With all of that being said – I sure did like the brief ED that played for each episode and the arrangement that showed up in the last episode was rather beautiful to listen to. It was a nice note to end on for an average or sub-average show at best.

tl;dr – a raunchy love triangle featuring annoying and/or controversial characters in a series that should take you less than forty minutes to watch in one sitting The only thing I can truly vouch for is the ED (musically, that is) but even that obviously can’t be to everyone’s taste.

Consider watching if you’re in need of a short series or running out of yuri to watch, but it sure isn’t a first-choice or even a second-pick. Its status as a C-list show is also questionable.