YMMV / First Love Monster

• Audience-Alienating Premise: It seems like your typical shoujo romance with a Cast Full of Pretty Boys... except for the fact that despite appearances, several of the male characters are actually in elementary school and the high school-aged female lead falls in love with one of them even after learning his real age. Unsurprisingly, the anime adaptation flopped in sales because of this.
• Designated Hero: Chiaki comes off as unnecessarily mean at best, scummy at worst – constantly mocking and belittling a shy and insecure guy for no real reason, encouraging another teenager to prey on an elementary schooler who's implied to still be grieving for his late mother, and making the Loving Bully argument in light of Atsushi's abusive behavior towards the aforementioned teenager.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: "Fan" is a bit of a stretch, but some viewers would rather have Kaho end up with Kouta instead of Kanade, due to the former's wholesome crush on Kaho and him averting the controversial Age-Gap Romance ordeal.
• Fetish Retardant:
  • The series' main joke is that three of the five main boys (who are all designed to be Pretty Boys) look like teenagers, but they're actually in elementary school and this extends to their behavior as well. This was a major turn-off for many.
  • The main couple has a scene suggestive of sexual intercourse at one point. This would have been fine if one of them weren't eleven at the oldest.
• Fridge Horror:
  • That human fifth-graders (10-11 yrs old) have the bodies and voices of fully grown adults, which would imply a serious growth disorder.
  • Gin; it's more disconcerting than funny that a fifth-grader is so unhealthily obsessed with male genitalia, makes double entendres and possesses detailed sexual knowledge.
• Humor Dissonance: The reason this series is at best regarded as So Okay, It's Average – a large number of viewers find the jokes too unfunny.
• No Yay: For some, Kaho x Kanade. Need we say more?
• Poe's Law: Viewers can't decide whether or not the series is a parody of anime romcoms, not helped by it essentially being an Indecisive Parody (see main page).
• Squick: The entire premise can be considered this for many, since it focuses on Kaho (a high school girl) falling in love with Kanade, a boy who appears to be the same age as her, but turns out to be much younger than he looks. Even worse, Kaho is actively encouraged by Chiaki to romantically pursue Kanade, even though he's in fifth grade.
• Strangled by the Red String: Arashi doesn't care about his girlfriend and seems only interested in his creepy Otaku interests, and Chiaki looks more like she's putting up with him than in love with him. The latter even flat-out says she only stays with him because of his looks.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: The series has a contentious premise to say the least, and the anime aired at Otaku O'Clock on all channels it was on. However, the manga is classified as for Shōjo Demographic.
• The Woobie: Kōta, whose crush is in love with someone else, a child for that matter, and whose crippling shyness and relationship inexperience gets him regularly bullied.