Rikei ga Koi, Episode 12 [END]: Science Tried Falling in Love

Shinya reunites with the missing Ayame and they share a moment of the highest theoretical value.

Proof 12: “I Knew I Could Fall in Love with You, So I Tried to Prove It.”

Hmm.

Shinya, you magnificent science-type! You did it. You really did it! That guy promised to give Ayame a kiss of the highest theoretical value in an earlier Rikei ga Koi episode, and he delivered. He meant the mood was going to be of the maxed-out value, because those two would need to define a whole bunch of parameters for a kiss of the highest theoretical value. Science trying to make a perfect kiss between Ayame and Shinya would require a second season. Establishing the perfect mood for a first kiss was a first order goal for this season. Mission accomplished there, and it looks like Shinya and Ayame are getting a head start on designing their own perfect kiss.

As a side note, Yamamoto’s explanation of trying to heighten the drama between Rikei ga Koi’s lovers to make the reconciliation that much sweeter satisfied me. She was wrong, but her justifications did not surprise me. Let’s just stop trying to make every love story about Romeo and Juliet. Those two died! Shakespearean comedies were about lovers getting happy endings. The characters in them face a lot of complications too, but their reward is almost always a wedding. Please people, read Shakespeare’s comedies. They’re good!

Heh.

Uh oh. Ayame didn’t bring her phone. Rikei ga Koi is going to put her through a lot in the season finale. Everyone, panic and stop acting like calm, rational science-types! Shinya knows the gift was suspiciously shattered. Ena saw the whole thing! She didn’t care enough to leave the couch to stop playing her game, though.

Yeah, Yamamoto planned the whole thing. At least she didn’t break the real gift. Romeo and Juliet is the wrong love story to aim for. Rikei ga Koi is supposed to be a comedy. Stabbing oneself and drinking poison are hurdles too high to jump for a successful relationship to work. Yamamoto has a twisted personality. She doesn’t mind if others find out about her subterfuge if she achieves her goal of dramatic tension.

Wow, Ayame really is clumsy. She tripped again and broke her heel too. And sprained her ankle. She’s not having a good night.

Hey, isn’t a sunrise just as good as a sunset for mood lighting? I sense a plan coming together for a certain Rikei ga Koi main character. There he is! And he’s complaining about her apology proposal! Because, of course, Shinya would.

Aw. Ayame made so many mistakes on her paper because she was too emotional. About Shinya! She’s in love with him, you know. These two wouldn’t count this sample of one as enough proof for that, though. Oh, just hurry up and hold her, Shinya!

Ah. The instrument Shinya was holding at the beach in the last episode was a sound meter. The dude’s been trying to find the perfect place for his first kiss with Ayame this whole time. Welp, I guess Rikei ga Koi is going to make that happen right now.

Nice. Crashing waves. Sunrise colors. Shinya found his max level mood point. There’s going to be a kiss of the highest theoretical value! Proof! Show’s over, time to go home. Oh, not yet for these two.

Haha. Ena got back at Yamamoto by inflating her room service bill. Anything for her manga, right? I hope the real life Rikei ga Koi mangaka did some quality resort hotel “research” for this part of the story. Oh, Shinya. If Ayame didn’t smack you with her pointer you don’t have to worry about being so forward with your kiss. I like Ayame being presumptuous too. Hold her more, Shinya-kun. Yes, you do have ulterior motives. Feeling her nice thighs and big breasts is awesome! And down he goes. He’s a weak geek who should work out a little bit more. Ikeda should have some advice for him. Yay! Greedy Ayame is fun! She won’t let him go now. Shinya is still claiming to do this all for science instead of for Ayame, but he’s not fooling anyone.

Har. Ikeda was standing in front of a poster instead of an anime gag background. Back at the lab, Shinya and Ayame want to do a whole bunch more kissing. More experiments! Very nice. The literal equation for love! Or at least graphing a heart.

Final Thoughts.

That’s the end, and that polynomial is how you graph the shape of a heart. That is a very fitting inscription on a gift from Ayame to Shinya. It’s uncommon for anime romantic comedies to be set outside of high school, so I jump at any story that has an adult world setting, like an office romance or between university students, and hope for the best. When Rikei ga Koi came around, I had higher hopes because the situation and the characters fit my own university experience so closely. I was happy to see they succeeded.

I had my doubts, because Shinya’s character fit the anime stereotype of the proud, intelligent male teenager you usually see as the student council president. They hardly ever show that guy doing the stuff that makes him odd and calculating. Rikei ga Koi gave us a whole season of that kind of character doing his weird hobbies, except they gave him a bombshell lady companion to challenge him on everything. Ayame and Shinya’s chemistry worked out great.

Overall, I enjoyed the storytelling, but I was disappointed with the animation quality in a couple of episodes. I’m used to watching weekly anime series, so I know when to expect dips in quality as the season goes on. Rikei ga Koi is the first anime I’ve watched where the studio finished production before the premiere.

I watched it on a weekly release schedule because of my geographical location, but in Japan, this show dropped on Amazon Prime all at once. Silly me, I thought this meant that Rikei ga Koi would have consistent production values throughout. Uh, no. The production lags happened in the later episodes as the staff were probably having scheduling issues that belonged in the video game software death march to the final deadline, instead of the weekly scramble we associate with anime.

Streaming and binging is the future of passive media, so I keep hearing, but it still requires people to make it. I think the expectation that the production staff will fix the animation for the disc sets, or whatever physical media comes next, will still be a valid concern. I do hope that if consumers buy a season digitally, that the publishers replace the problematic episodes with the updated versions, but the cynical part of me, like a Rikei ga Koi science-type, needs to see proof. If there’s an example of this happening for another anime series, please let me know.