Loveless

In the world of Loveless, each person is born with cat ears and a tail, which disappear only if that person engages in a sexual intercourse. Because of this, they have come to symbolize virginity and innocence. Additionally, fighting is only done by "fighting pairs" or couples, where one is known as the Sacrifice and the other as the Fighter. The first receives the damage while the latter attacks.

Ritsuka Aoyagi is a 12-year-old boy, who for some unknown reason suffers from amnesia. His brother got killed recently, and as if his life has not been hard enough lately, on his first day at the new school he gets approached by a stranger called Agatsuma Soubi, who claims to have known his late brother. Ritsuka finds out that Agatsuma and his brother used to be a fighting pair, and that Agatsuma has inherited Ritsuka now that his brother is gone. Together, they try to find the truth behind his brother's death and the organization known as the "Seven Moons," which may have been responsible for it. All the while, it seems that Ritsuka and Agatsuma are becoming closer than they intended to be…

Aoyagi, Ritsuka Main

Minagawa, Junko Japanese

Agatsuma, Soubi Main

Konishi, Katsuyuki Japanese

Sagan, Natsuo Supporting

Saiga, Mitsuki Japanese

Sagan, Youji Supporting

Yoshino, Hiroyuki Japanese

Aoyagi, Seimei Supporting

Narita, Ken Japanese

Kaidou, Kio Supporting

Takeuchi, Ken Japanese

Nakano, Yamato Supporting

Kakazu, Yumi Japanese

Sakagami, Kouya Supporting

Kugimiya, Rie Japanese

Minami, Ritsu Supporting

Koyasu, Takehito Japanese

Hawatari, Yuiko Supporting

Ueda, Kana Japanese

Kananiwa, Kozue Producer

Matsukura, Yuuji Producer

Kon, Yuuko Producer

Kobayashi, Junka Producer

Reviews

Oct 25, 2024

99rotac

Recommended

Funny

(I would like to preface this review by stating that my emo babysitter with an invader zim tattoo showed me this anime when I was 12. I ended up wearing cat ears to my grade 8 school photos.)

Loveless is a surrealist-emo anime that any kid who spent too much time online in the early 2000s can relate to. The main character, Ritsuka, is a 12 year old Neitzsche-reading catboy with an abusive mother, an incompetent predatory therapist, and a mysterious- also predatory- man grooming him and making him fight battles that Ritsuka doesn't understand. Ah, middle school- some things never change. Every adult in Ritsuka’s ... life is utterly failing him, he constantly lashes out in fear, and the one person who he cares about- his older brother- is now missing. It fully encapsulates the urgency of the 12 year old experience.

Right off the bat, Loveless shows you that it isn't afraid of getting accused of doing what it is, in fact, blatantly doing. It doesn't waste time making excuses. It just does what it does and depending on your age you'll either think "somebody call child protective services" or "I am 12 and this is the best thing I've seen since I google searched Emos Kissing yesterday." It establishes itself quite openly as a fucked up story about fucked up people and death and love and, most of all, sex. The entire story is about sex, and the terror of living in a world where you're surrounded by things you can neither escape nor fully understand. From the moment we learn that the characters’ cat ears represent virginity, to the erotically-charged fight scenes, we are quickly left having to grapple with what this show is about— scrambling trying to figure out what message it's conveying. Is this an endorsement? An indictment? Is anyone else uncomfortable- is that even intentional, on the part of the artist? Or is the unsettling knot in my stomach just a by-product of being led to expect simple clear-cut moral messages from my animays? Maybe it's just a story about being a tween for those who have been there, with the black emo bangs, cat ears, depressed pout, withdrawn eyes, unaddressed trauma, and social struggles. Because back then you didn’t think about how weird it was that adults were flirting with you online while your parents fought in the kitchen, and it didn’t feel weird to watch Loveless and resonate with Ritsuka's alienation, wishing some beautiful older person would whisk you away into another realm, even if it was scary or painful or gay- maybe that's what you secretly wanted all along, or maybe that's just what you're comfortable with because instability is all you’ve ever known, oh, and also, you're gay.

Watching this as an adult, it's clear just how naïve, immature, and traumatized Ritsuka is, and that the way the older man- Soubi- behaves towards him so incredibly, obviously creepy it would almost be funny (in the flabbergasted 'I cannot believe this was such a popular anime- how did they get away with this?' way) if it wasn't ultimately just... unsettling. It might be easy to brush all this off as a typical Yaoi Moment, but this story goes out of its way to establish itself as ambiguously as possible. Ritsuka *also* seems heart-wrenchingly uncomfortable with everything happening to him, and unable to cope with any of the ways Soubi treats him... Even after he develops "feelings" for the guy. After all, he is a child, and as the title itself suggests, this is not a love story. This dramatic clash of shoujo and shounen, yaoi and yuri, Neitzsche and catboys, bondage and sadomasochism, and the immense power of words, all flows together so coherently in a way that neither suspends nor engages our disbelief, but rather forces one to translate what's happening beyond the disorienting haze of anime magic and into the jarring reality of the situation being presented before you can fully grasp the true horror and- dare I say- Camp, that is the glue which holds Loveless together... and if all of that goes over your head, well, then it's just another questionable anime where some creeps wanted to draw a tsundere shota being preyed upon by an older bishie--- and I'm unwilling to sit with something so pointless and gratuitous being one of my favorite anime series’ as a tween. There has to be something good I can take away from this, god dammit--- and it cannot just be my grade 8 school photos!

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Aug 28, 2024

Mel_Luna

Mixed Feelings

While the creator’s intentions may be open to interpretation, the series offers a compelling depiction of Ritsuka Aoyagi, who struggles with a profound need for affection and validation that he fails to receive from his family. This absence of familial love drives him to seek solace and acceptance in all the wrong places.

Ritsuka finds himself isolated, not only from his peers, who fail to understand him, but also from adults who seem bewildered and incapable of offering the support he needs. Ritsuka endures emotional neglect that contribute to his sense of alienation. As he navigates the complexities of puberty, he is thrust into a reality ... governed by unfamiliar rules, pushing him to leave behind the safety of childhood.

Loveless captures the raw and often painful journey of a young individual caught between the desire for love and the starkness of a world that offers little compassion or understanding. This portrayal serves as a powerful commentary on the impact of emotional neglect and the lengths to which one might go in search of emotional fulfillment.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Aug 24, 2024

Moshimochi284

Not Recommended

Loveless is yet another early 2000's "BL". I say BL in quotes because calling this show a BL is like calling Yarichin B***h Club the pinnacle of BL anime
(fun fact: neither of those statements are true). And the sad thing is, it is possible for a show following a similar formula to find some success (as proven
with Descendants of Darkness), which just makes this mess of a show all that more depressing.

Visuals: The artstyle of this show is one of the few things about this show that I actually liked. While it is just more of the same early 2000's anime
artstyle (which I already ... like), there was also a certain dreamy and ethereal vibe to the visuals of this show, which I particularly love.

Characters: The characters in Loveless, much like the story, alternate between being barely tolerable at times and just plain bad for the most part. I will
be talking about the main characters in detail during the next section of the review, so this part is to mainly discuss the side characters. The majority of
the side characters in Loveless are, to be frank, just straight up annoying and unrealistic to an unpleasant degree. And to be honest, I'm still rather
surprised myself that I think this, since I usually tend to have a rather high tolerance for what people call "annoying" characters. But in all honesty, for
the most part I really did find all of the side characters to be truly unbearable. And to to top it all of, of course the one side character I actually did
like, Kio, got the least amount of screen time (*sob*)! I suppose I could also use this portion of the review to discuss the antagonists (yes, I said anta-
-gonists, as in multiple of them), but my feeling about them are for the majority the same as they were for the side characters.

The Ship: And now for the part of the review I was most looking forward to! I only have three words to say: What. The. Heck. BL anime is no stranger to
questionable ships, but not only is this REALLY pushing it, but I don't even know if you could call it a ship. Let's start by first talking about the age
gap. A common trope in BL anime that although I don't really care for, tend not to mind for the most part. But here... Boy do I mind!! I am stunned that this
anime thought it would be okay to ship a BARELY 13-YEAR OLD middle schooler and a COLLEGE STUDENT?? And of course one of the first things that said college
student did upon meeting the middle schooler was to to force a kiss on him. I'd say more, but, y'know, spoilers. The second thing I want to bring up is the
lack of actual love in this so-called "BL" anime. It is revealed multiple times that Soubi's (the college student) isn't even a result of an emotion he
himself feels (once again refraining myself because of spoilers) and Ritsuka (the middle schooler) just goes along with his advances because he's just
flustered an/or that desperate for someone to love him. Another thing worth mentioning here is that 2 out of the 3 main female side characters are in love
with Ritsuka for apparently no reason (one of whom is once again worryingly older than him).

Story: By far the worst part of the show. Half of this show's description on MAL can just be disregarded because what could have been an interesting
concept to explore is just turned into an excuse to give certain characters a pair of cat ears and a tail. Not to mention that the majority of what or why
anything happens is never really explained properly at any point throughout the whole show.

OST: The one other redeeming quality of this show. While I don't particularly care much for the opening and ending, I found a lot of the background pieces
(especially the piano ones) to be rather enjoyable.

Overall Thoughts: Despite all of the bad things I've said about this show, the main reason I'd warn people against watching tis show is just because it's
flat out boring. Inbetween the semi-explained bits of nonsense that Loveless calls a story there are long streches where pretty much nothing happens, and
your time would be better spent watching any other BL anime.

Sincerely, Moshimochi284

Other BL you should actually watch:
- Descendant of Darkness: Another early 2000's not quite BL with fantasy elements that actually kinda pulls it off
- Gravitation: A proper early 2000'sBL that is one of my top BLs overall

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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