Koi to Uso / YMMV - TV Tropes

Accidental Aesop: The anime pays only superficial attention to why the forced intimate experience was traumatic for Lilina, however this scene and its consequences give a fairly obvious message to the viewer that any intimate relationships should be voluntary and considered. And of course, this shows how important the credence between partners is.
Anvilicious: After going through Nisaka's backstory, Lilina gives a rather emotional speech on how no one should get to decide what is normal, followed by Misaki pointing out to Yukari that Nisaka was like any other person in love. They're pretty transparent about the pro-gay themes.
Arc Fatigue: Nisaka's Day In the Limelight had quite a few readers bemoaning its length. As it took up over twenty chapters (three in the compilations) covering the beginning and end of Nisaka and Yukari's friendship and the former's backstory, on top of the whole thing being kicked off by Nejima's ill-advised kiss with the boy, people who were originally all for leaning more about Nisaka were eventually put off.
Base-Breaking Character: Of all the main characters, Yukari and Misaki come the most under fire by fans.
- Though Yukari does have his interesting quirks like his kofun hobby or his interactions with Lilina and Nisaka, his indecisiveness in choosing a girl and his lackluster personality compared to his circle make some fans feel like he's undeserving of the situation he's placed in. His actions in Chapter 184 did not help matters, given he makes out with Nisaka and asserts that he never has and never will feel romantically towards the boy after the fact, and after Nisaka makes his confession.
- Misaki's initial reasons for falling in love with Yukari are seen as too shallow to some fans, and her mysterious circumstances and her repeatedly coming back to Yukari despite the fact that she wants him to succeed and be happy are constantly criticized. It also factors into Die for Our Ship a little, since her getting together with Yukari gets in the way of the family dynamic Yukari and Lilina have.
- While Lilina is regularly warmly received, she still does have her critics. Her constant flip-flopping over her feelings and her not being honest with herself mark points of frustration among readers, while she still does get points for actually learning about Nejima and coming to love him honestly.
Captain Obvious Aesop: Although it is pretty obvious that love does not consist solely in sexual attraction to attractive people, the series is clearly trying to play it as a harsh and cruel truth to life that needs to be realized.
Die for Our Ship: Fans of Lilina often hate Misaki's tendency to hide her feelings and push Yukari away, finding her dishonest and wishy-washy. Many theorize that her unknown "secret" involves not really loving Yukari. In turn, Misaki fans exaggerate Lilina's dependence and Tsundere traits.
Ensemble Dark Horse: The government officials, Yajima and Ichijou, after their backstory and own Love Triangle was revealed.
Epileptic Trees: Due to Nisaka's androgynous looks, the lack of information concerning him, and the fact that his father keeps hiding his IDs, some fans theorize that Nisaka's big secret is not that he's gay, but that he's actually a Bifauxnen.
Fan-Preferred Couple: Or rather, fan preferred Polyamory. Many readers are quite vocal about the best ending being for Yukari to Marry Them All and end up with both Misaki and Lilina, and often Nisaka too.
Ho Yay:
- Yukari and Nisaka. Yukari often thinks to himself how handsome Nisaka is and how lucky he is to have a guy like that as a friend, and Nisaka is actually in love with him. This is to say nothing of Chapter 184, where Yukari forcibly kisses him twice, once with tongue... to prove that they can still be friends despite Nisaka kissing him in his sleep and confessing.
- Chapter 204 and 205 basically act as a sort of break-up for the pair. They have Neji and Nisaka outline why they like each other, with Neji even musing that he's not sure what he feels for the other boy if not friendship. When they finally decide to end their friendship, the hug they give each other is way more intimate than any they'd ever given to each other before.
Les Yay:
- Misaki and Lilina have a lot of intentional or unintentional Ship Tease, in particular their line "I love them both!" has long been turned into Catchphrase. This is especially true of Lilina, who seems to experience "joy" at the thought of a kiss between Misaki and Yukari. All this becomes an additional reason, why many fans want to see their three in one romantic relationship.
- Misaki's old friend Igarashi seems to admire Misaki and care about her finding happiness a little too much, believing that watching Misaki is what taught her about love.
Memetic Mutation:
- "The government's always right", seeing that a large part of the story is Yukari's growing feelings for Lilina and that most of the government-matched couples shown in the anime have very little of the hidden darkness the manga's world implies.
- The unusually large eyes of the characters are so striking that the artistic style of this work is nicknamed "extraterrestrial".
- Given the frequent Typecasting of Kana Hanazawa as a Romantic Runner-Up in romantic stories, many fans joked that her appearance in the cast is a spoiler, and now obviously Yukari will choose Lilina.
Rooting for the Empire: Despite the glaring flaws in the Yukari Laws, some fans would rather prefer that a similar system was implemented in real life, in the hopes that they end up with their most compatible person. And given that Lilina has good chemistry with Yukari, some fans even wonder why he's fighting the system at all.
Ship Mates: Those who ship Yukari/Lilina generally like to have Nisaka/Misaki as a secondary pairing (either natural or government mandated), despite the obvious hurdle.
Ship-to-Ship Combat: Fans of Lilina and Misaki tend to be at each others' throats as to which is the better girl. Fans of Lilina call Misaki dishonest and undeveloped outside of her interest in Yukari, whereas fans of Misaki find the idea of arranged match Lilina winning over the girl Yukari chose on his own to be a major message ruiner.
They Copied It, So It Sucks!: Because of several superficial similarities in this manga and Scum's Wish, many people mistakenly called Koi to Uso a rip-off of the latter when it was announced for an anime adaptation.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Many fans would like the author to devote more time to Nisaka and his experiences, considering his positioning in the plot is very interesting and that his Gayngst is portrayed rather neutrally and sympathetically. Given that he's not put in for Dude Looks Like a Lady or Token Minority tropes or fan service helps for some fans, too. They finally get their wish Chapter 181 onwards, to mixed results.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Everything about the Yukari system. We get some explanations on how it's supposed to work, how long it's been implemented, and we do hear about a few consequences and flaws to the system, but aside from this the Yukari Laws ultimately serve as a plot device to keep the Love Triangle in place, and the only real problem with everyone is themselves, not the laws. Many readers wished the series would be more in-depth about the Yukari Laws, or at least make the story so that we get to see the uglier side to it as well as its good side.
Vanilla Protagonist: Yukari lacks any distinctive quirks or personality traits and is simply an everyman surrounded by more emotionally complex characters.
What Do You Mean, It's Not for Little Girls?: The series is often mistaken for a shoujo romance drama outside of its home country because of the themes and the drama surrounding the protagonists. The live action movie Gender Flipping the premise surprised no one because of this.

YMMV / Koi to Uso

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