Living and learning to love together!
"It's not right for me to live with so many girls under one roof!"
— Asahi Kashiwagi
Love Flops is an original anime series produced by Kadokawa Corporation and animated by Passione. Directed by Nobuyoshi Nagayama (My Girlfriend is Shobitch, Happy Sugar Life), it aired from October to December 2022.
20 Minutes into the Future, Unlucky Everydude Asahi Kashiwagi has a bizarre dream of a mysterious girl in a white dress. This dream ends when he is awoken by his talking alarm clock, Loverin. He watches the news before school and an AI fortune teller states that people with his birthday are destined for a fateful encounter, with five key words marking his fate. Throughout his morning routine, he encounters five people in incidentally sexually charged situations and when he arrives in class he finds that all five of them are transfers into his class.
Things get stranger when Aoi, the only one native to Japan, confesses her love to him. The other four follow suit. Baffled, Asahi decides to return home, only to receive a message from his father. All of them, including the Bulgarian boy, Ilya and his homeroom teacher, Mongfa, are potential brides for him. They will be living with him until he makes a decision on which, if any of this people he's going to marry. Hilarity Ensues.
Love Flops provides examples of the following tropes:
- 20 Minutes into the Future: It's implied that the series takes place some time in the future, as robots and Artificial Intelligence are rather common. This is later confirmed to be the case, especially with the reveal of just how advanced AIs have become and the fact that bananas have apparently become very scarce.
- A-Cup Angst: Amelia has a complex about her small breasts and is the butt of several jokes, but pretty much all of the girls feel insecure about their chest size in comparison to Mongfa's bustiness.
- Accidental Pervert: The universe contrives Asahi to grope the girls' breasts, make his face plant into their crotches, and for a banana he's carrying to conveniently end up right by his crotch, a cleaning robot actually steals a girl's bra and panties. This is likely the simulation's physics engine warping him into these scenarios.
- Action Girl:
- Mongfa is actually quite a capable fighter since she's actually a cybernetic killing machine trying to escape her old life.
- Karin is a Magical Girl Warrior who uses her powers to fight off an Alien Invasion.
- Alien Invasion: Episode 6 has "Ball Taker" aliens invading the world with the objective to sterilize all men.
- All Women Are Lustful: Every woman Asahi comes across is incredibly attracted to him. and they tend to openly lust after him. This is a product of them being AI that only understands the physical aspect of love initially. In the real world, women act as you would expect people in their position to act.
- And Your Reward Is Edible: Asahi was paid for his services playtesting the VR simulation in bananas. Notably, these bananas are implied to be incredibly rare in the time period this series takes place in.
- Arranged Marriage: All five of the transfers were arranged to be "potential brides" by Asahi's father. This includes Ilya.
- Art Shift: Through Episode 7, the anime uses an odd line style using a solid color rather than traditional black lines. After the reveal, characters in the real world use the traditional style.
- Bad "Bad Acting": In episode 5, Mongfa makes a poor job of acting like she doesn't know how to fight or who the people attacking her and Asahi are.
- Beach Episode: Episode 7 centers around a trip to the beach. Things get worse from there.
- Bestiality Is Depraved: Played for Laughs as both Asahi and Ilya gets mounted by a large horny dog in the first episode, with both being very creeped out by it.
- Between My Legs:
- When Aoi confesses to Asahi at the end of episode 1, there's a shot of her framed between his legs as she tries to gather the courage.
- In episode 4, just after Ilya lost her towel, Asahi walks in on her and the audience is treated with a show of him staring at her between her legs. At first it makes him look like he's seeing her naked, but she's actually donning the Tengu mask while using Hand-or-Object Underwear.
- Bigger Is Better in Bed: In episode 4, Asahi is in awe at how large Ilya's package is. It turns out to be a fake Gag Penis.
- Black Comedy Rape: Asahi is nonconsensually penetrated by a dog in the first episode.
- Boob-Based Gag: Mongfa's large bust is often a source of gags, causing Asahi to get Distracted by the Sexy, the other girls to feel self-concious and causing Marshmallow Hell when she hugs others.
- Bound and Gagged: When Asahi gets kidnapped by some villains, he's tied and gagged in BDSM gear, much to Mongfa's delight when she arrives to rescue him.
- Brain Uploading: All of the most recent AI tech in the series' future is based on the brain uploads of Asahi's deceased Childhood Friend, Ai.
- Ceiling Cling: In episode 2, Asahi finds Mongfa clinging to the ceiling in his bedroom in order to surprise him.
- Childhood Friend: All the girls have moments of recollection of Asahi. This is because their memories are based on Asahi's real Childhood Friend, Ai.
- Clothing Damage: While playing ping pong, Mongfa hits the ball so hard, it ricochets on the wall and hits Karin so many times it destroys the entire outfit on the spot.
- Crash-Into Hello: Asahi meets both Aoi and Karin by crashing on them while trying to make his way to school, and accidentally sees under their skirt both times.
- Crippling Castration: The "Ball Buster" alien invaders try to sterilize humanity by slapping chastity belts on males, which then explode, taking on their genitals. When they're defeated, everyone's genitals also magically return.
- Cyberspace: The first seven episodes take place in a simulation to teach AI girls about love.
- Cyborg: The underworld boss was almost killed by Mongfa in the past, and had to turn his body into a cyborg to survive.
- A Day in the Limelight: Every potential Love Interest gets one in episodes 3-6. When it's Aoi's turn, she initially appears to be Ret-Gone... only for her to use her control of the simulation to Ret-Gone everyone else and reveal herself as a Yandere. From this point on, Aoi is the series' main villain, with her obsessive love having negative effects even on reality.
- Deadline News: In episode 6, one of the aliens attacks the broadcast, sterilizing the male reporter on the spot.
- "Dinner, Bath, or Sex" Offer: In episode 2, when Asahi returns home, he finds all five of his suitors at his house and they welcome him home and give him the stand "Dinner, bath or me" offer, which annoys him given they're an Unwanted Harem.
- Disney Death: Episodes 10 and 11 climaxed with Mongfa, Karin, Irina, and Amelia sacrificing themselves, but at the end of the finale, they have been uploaded into bodies of their own in the real world.
- Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: In episode 8, Asahi gets these once he learns the truth about the Cyberworld.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Ai appears in a dream in episode one, and in the OP. Her face is pixelated in the latter, however.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Asahi is able to better process Ai's death by talking with her in the simulation. Doing so solves the crisis created by her malfunctioning, and in Asahi's real life, he's more capable of opening himself up to new relationships with people. The other AI girls who had been deleted in their attempt to reach Ai, were restored with new robotic bodies in the real world. Yoshino's research was effectively used to give all AI human emotions.
- Fake-Out Make-Out: While Mongfa is being pursued by some thugs in episode 2, she pulls Asahi into a corner and starts sucking at his neck, tricking the men into thinking they're just a couple. Expect when they're gone, she still keeps on sucking him until he almost passes out.
- Flung Clothing: When the girls take off their swimsuits in the Beach Episode, they dramatically rip them off and flung them in the air in this fashion.
- From Dress to Dressing: When Asahi gets his hands cut in episode 5, Mongfa rips off her qipao in order to bandage his wounds.
- From Roommates to Romance: By the end of episode 2, Asahi and his five suitors end up all living together at his house, leaving to several romantic and sexual tension gimmicks.
- Gag Censor: Whenever nudity occurs that isn't covered by Scenery Censor in the broadcast version, the character's naughty bits get covered by Loverin making different expressions, such as an impressed face when covering Mongfa's chest but a disappointed one when covering Amelia's chest.
- Gag Penis: Ilya sports one in Episode 4. As she is actually a girl, it's made by placing a tengu mask over the Modesty Towel covering crotch.
- Gay Option: Ilya. In episode 4, it's revealed that Ilya's actually a girl named Irina who was Raised as the Opposite Gender.
- Gonk: The proprietress of the hot springs in episode 4 is a tall, old woman with bizarre facial features, to the disappointment of Amelia who expected her to be a great elegant beauty.
- Gray Rain of Depression: In episode 8, when the depressed Asahi visits Ai's grave, it's under the pouring and a grey scenery.
- Groin Attack:
- Karin punches Asahi in the crotch after their Crash-Into Hello, when she thinks he has a Raging Stiffie over seeing her underwear.
- Asashi gets hit in the groin by a ball when Mongfa unleashes her Super-Strength while playing ping pong.
- Hot for Student: Mongfa boldly goes after Asahi alongside the others in the second episode. When Asahi points out that such a relationship is illegal, she brushes it off as a natural attraction.
- Hot Springs Episode: Episode 4 has the cast visiting a hot spring resort, resulting in the expected fanservice shenanigans and Ilya being revealed as a girl.
- Instant Costume Change: The girls inexplicably change outfits in an instant a couple of times, such as in episode 2, Karin manages to change out of her school uniform into a wedding dress or in episode 5 when Monfa is able to switch to a battle qipao in an instant. This is a hint that they're in a digital world.
- Labcoat of Science and Medicine: Yoshino, Ubukata and all their fellow AI researchers all wear white labcoats as their uniforms.
- Lens Flare Censor: In the broadcast version of episode 7, some convenient light rays cover up the naughty bits of Asahi and the girls when they get naked on the nudist beach.
- Love Confession: Episode 2 has Asahi receiving a love confession for all five of his "brides", which weirds him out given he just met them. This is because they're all AIs who don't fully understand how a real relationship works.
- Magical Girl: Karin accepts a deal to become one which is explored in Episode 6. She uses the Power of Love and the Power Of Lust to defeat alien invaders who wish to sterilize humanity. Irina and Amelia get in on the action to fight their way into the simulation's central area in episode 10.
- Marshmallow Hell: Given she's both tall and busty, Mongfa tends to bury people into her breasts when she hugs them.
- Mid-Season Twist: Halfway through the series, it's revealed that the entire harem setup is actually a virtual simulation that Asahi willingly took part in. Each member of the harem was actually an Artificial Intelligence, and the simulation was meant to teach AIs how to love.
- Missing Mom: Downplayed. Asahi's mom isn't seen nor mentioned during the first half of the series, because he's in the Cyberworld where she's irrelevant. In the real world, he lives with her.
- Multinational Team: Of the main cast, only Asahi, Aoi, and Yoshio are Japanese. Karin is German, Ilya is Bulgarian, Mongfa is Chinese, and Amelia is American. They will occasionally slip into Gratuitous Foreign Language to remind the audience of their ethnicity. It turns out that this is because each of the girls in the harem is an Artificial Intelligence designed by a team from a different country.
- Modesty Towel: During the Hot Springs Episode, both Asahi and Ilya keep themselves wrapped in towels while bathing together, but while Asahi has it on his waist, Ilya brings it up to his chest because she's actually a girl and is trying to hide her chest.
- Ms. Fanservice: All five of the girls are played for fanservice at different times, with the story often putting them in fanservice and perverted situations and providing several Male Gaze shots on their bodies.
- Naked Freak-Out:
- In episode 2, Aoi is mortified when she loses her panties and a gust of wind ends up exposing herself to Asahi.
- In episode 4, when Karin suffers from Clothing Damage and ends up completely naked, she yelps and dives under the tennis table while covering herself with her hands.
- In episode 5, Asahi is deeply embarrassed about being caught tied up and naked by Mongfa, especially when she describes what she saw as "adorable".
- In episode 12, Asahi panics when he discovers he's naked in front of Yoshino and Ubukata, with the former amused while the later yelling at him to Please Put Some Clothes On.
- Naked People Are Funny: As part of his status as a Butt-Monkey, Asahi often ends up naked in front of a girl, with his humiliation Played for Laughs.
- New Transfer Student: Four of the five girls are new transfer students that moved into Asahi's class. The last one, Mongfa is the new teacher who just transferred in.
- Not What It Looks Like:
- In episode 3, Asahi goes to talk to Amelia in her room but he ends up hearing suggestive moans and assumes he just caught her masturbating, but she was actually practicing her kanji (albeit with a hentai book).
- In episode 5, after Asahi and Mongfa's adventure with the underworld criminals, they arrive home and pass out on the sofa in a Sleep Cute position, while he's half naked and covered in lotion. When the girls find him, they assume they had sex in the living room sofa.
- The Peeping Tom: Asahi has a hard time bathing without one of the girls (usually Karin or Amelia) attempting to peep on him, be it at his house or at the hot springs.
- Perverted Sniffing: Karin often steals Asahi's clothes so she can sniff them.
- Pervert Revenge Mode: In episode 1, the universe conspires to put Asahi in Accidental Pervert situations with his transfer suitors and they often retaliate with violence. After that, they all end up falling for him and no longer seem to mind whenever they he gets into an Accidental Pervert moment.
- Posthumous Character: Ai, who passed away of a brain tumor two years prior to the events of the series.
- Post-Kiss Catatonia: Asahi falls to his knees in a trance after having a Fake-Out Make-Out session with Mongfa.
- Rank Scales with Asskicking: The underworld boss is much tougher than the rest of the mooks working for him, even before the reveal that he's a cyborg.
- Ret-Gone: Aoi is seemingly gone with no explanation in episode 7, until it's revealed she grew too jealous of the simulation and has started to take control of it, and uses said control to erase all of the other girls instead.
- Revenge by Proxy: The underworld boss that wants revenge on Mongfa for her destroying his organization attempts to get his revenge on her by killing Asahi, but that just triggers her into becoming a Violently Protective Girlfriend.
- Robotic Reveal: Mongfa seemingly strangles the underworld boss, but soon after he comes back, revealing he's not easily killed since he's now a Cyborg.
- Rule of Symbolism: Bananas. While the Visual Innuendo and Erotic Eating are obvious, in reality, bananas symbolize how the real world society has become overly dependent on the AI based on Ai's consciousness, to the point that massive parts of their system glitch up when said AI goes through emotional distress. This parallels the Cavendish banana, which Yoshino's company is named after, which is similarly critically endangered in the time period this anime takes place in because of the genetic uniformity of the breed.
- Series Mascot: Loverin, the pink cartoon bunny that serves as Asahi's alarm clock.
- Sexy Surfacing Shot: In episode 2, Asahi finds Amelia scuba diving in the tub to peep on him. When he demands her to leave, she just stands up in the bath, revealing she's naked, much to his shock. The view of the audience is blocked by his head.
- Shameless Fanservice Girl: Subverted. During the Beach Episode, the cast ends up in a nudist beach and seemingly none of the girls mind stripping in front of Asahi... but then it's revealed they put an eye-covering mask on him.
- Share the Male Pain: After Yushio gets hit with the Ball Buster aliens sterilizing bomb, every boy clutches their crotch in sympathy and horror.
- Shoulders-Up Nudity: During the Beach Episode, when the girls get to a nudist beach, several shots only display them from the shoulders up, alongside some Scenery Censor and Lens Flare Censor. One shot in particular has all of them side by side, with the small Amelia getting cropped at the neck while the tall Mongfa has most of the top of her breasts still visible.
- Sideboob: When Amelia is watching Mongfa undressing in episode 5, there's a shot of the side of Mongfa's chest, in order to emphasize its size, and thus Amelia's envy.
- Sleep Cute: In episode 1, Asahi first meets Mongfa when she decides to sit right next to him, even though they're in a completely empty train, then she quickly falls asleep and rests her head on his shoulder, causing him to be very uncomfortable. At the end of episode 5, they also end up falling asleep together atop each other once they get back home.
- Thanks for the Mammary: When Asahi first meets Mongfa on the train, she falls asleep on top of him and starts cuddling him, and they eventually end up on the floor, with him accidentally cupping her breasts. She's still sleepy, but still instinctively attempts to kick him and barely misses, and he promptly runs away.
- Toast of Tardiness:
- Asahi first meets Aoi while she's running to school with a piece of toast in her mouth. Naturally, this results in a Crash-Into Hello.
- Episode 8 has Asahi running to school with a banana on his mouth.
- Too Hot for TV: The broadcast version frequently covers the girls with Scenery Censor and Lens Flare Censor to make it suitable for television.
- Toplessness from the Back: When the girls bathe at Asahi's house, the only thing shown is their bare backs that are turned towards the audience. There are also similar shots when they undress during the Hot Springs Episode.
- Transformation Sequence: Karin gets the cliché Magical Girl transformation sequence in episode 6.
- Unsettling Gender-Reveal: Episode 4 mostly resolves around Ilya trying to prevent her true identity from being exposed while also sharing a bath with Asahi. After many shenanigans, it does end up happening when she loses her towel and gives him a full frontal view.
- Undressing the Unconscious:
- Inverted in episode 4. Ilya slips on a bar of soaps and ends up hitting her head and passing out while also up losing her Modesty Towel in front of Asahi, giving him an Unsettling Gender-Reveal. When she next wakes up, she's in a bed wearing a robe and realizes with dread he must have dressed her, and thus knows her secret.
- In episode 5, Asahi is kidnapped by the villains to lure in Mongfa, and he wakes up to find himself tied and naked in a strange bedroom. When she arrives to rescue him, she doesn't miss the opportunity to enjoy the view.
- In episode 12, Yoshino stripped down Asahi while he was in the Cyberworld to check on his vitals. He's not pleased about it when he wakes up.
- Unwanted Harem: Asahi is very reluctant to have all these girls move in with him.
- Villain in a White Suit: The underworld boss that's pursuing Mongfa is a huge man wearing a pristine white suit.
- Wardrobe Malfunction: When trying the open-air bath, Illya ends up losing her Modesty Towel to a gust of wind, forcing her to rely on using a Tengu mask to hide her face and cover her body with her hands to prevent an Unsettling Gender-Reveal.
- Wham Episode: Episode 8 reveals that the world that Asahi was in for the last few episodes was in a simulation to teach multiple AIs, the girls, about human emotions, with the episode's post-credits scene revealing that Aoi has started to hack the digital infrastructure of the planet.
- World of Technicolor Hair: Most characters tend to have impossible hair colors (Asahi and Ai having deep blue, Mongfa having bright green, Aoi having purple, Illya white, and Amelia bright red) and this is never treated as anything out of the ordinary.
- Year Inside, Hour Outside: The VR simulation that the first six episodes take place in was perceived by Asahi as two months. Outside the simulation, only a day had passed.
