Common Name: Masamune-kun's Revenge
Alternative Names: Masamune-kun no Revenge
Score: 7/10, 4/5
Length: 12 Episodes
Genre: Comedy, Romance, School Life
Summary: When he was young, Masamune Makabe was bullied because of his weight and wealth. None were as brutal as the girl who broke his heart and gave him the nickname "pig's foot," Adagaki Aki. Years later, Makabe has changed his name, slimmed down, and transferred to the same school as Adagaki. Now the stage is set for his ultimate revenge plan--find her, make her fall for him, and then dump her as cruelly as possible.
Review: If hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, it's definitely not as petty as a man scorned. In fact, at a first glance, this show seems to follow that same petty trend we had with "Kiss Him, Not Me" last season. I am, of course, referring to that idea that weight loss = instant romance magnet. After a little more examination, though, it turns out that really isn't the message behind that choice. Rather, it's just another one of the many misunderstandings and flaws in Makabe's revenge plot that causes him far more trouble than it's worth. So, instead of being a cringey comedy founded on an insulting premise, Masamune's Revenge is equal parts half-decent romcom and cautionary tale--one that decries the worth of revenge. There are, after all, quite a few moments when Makabe forsakes his own happiness just so he can make another person's life miserable.
Yeah, revenge is definitely more important than having an all-inclusive harem.
Joking aside though, Makabe is kind of a terrible person and the show openly acknowledges that fact. While he may have grown up a little, slimmed down a lot, and trained himself physically and mentally for the day he'll get the chance to ruin Adagaki Aki's life, his awful attitude hasn't changed in the slightest. After all the years, he's still a socially awkward but standoffish brat who thinks he'll get anything he wants without effort or threat of repercussion. For example, most of his "genius" revenge plan hinges on the idea that Adagaki will fall him simply because he's hot and has read a lot of shoujo manga. So, you can imagine how confused he is when Adagaki finds him utterly repulsive. To be fair to Adagaki though, that's kinda par for the course with her, since she's the "cruel princess" of Yasaka High School, renowned for her determination to socially destroy any man that approaches her with romantic interests. In other words, she's just as awful as Makabe.
I'm noticing a lot of similarities to a mech show about revenge with food-based nicknames.
Where Makabe has his "dark" past filled with bullying, rejection, and humiliation that drives his desire for revenge and closure to that chapter of his life, Aki has her own skeletons to deal with as well. For example, Aki has a metabolism that forces her to eat an unreasonable amount of food (I'm talking like 8K calories a day). Of course, since she's insistent on keeping up her "noble" appearances, she can't be seen gorging herself in public. So, with the help of her maid/childhood friend, Koiwai Yoshino, she hides from public sight while she eats enough to keep her stomach quiet. On top of that, it's fairly obvious that her distrust toward men has something to do with a boy she liked abandoning her when she was young. So, it is with great relish that she destroys any man who approaches her, publicly humiliating them and branding them with a nickname as she rejects their romantic (and less savory) advances. Since Makabe's already been branded though, he's not even remotely concerned about receiving another name, giving him the freedom to pursue her with reckless abandon, with extra emphasis on the word reckless. Since this is a romance story though, his plan does eventually start to work. Aki doesn't trust him, but she doesn't actively turn him away either; that might be due to the blackmail potential more than anything else though. However, since this is a romcom anime and Aki is the tsundere character, she and Makabe might as well be arguing about how many kids they should have.
Or maybe a piece of that boy you love to hate?
Since this is a romcom though, things aren't that simple. Whenever the two of them start to grow closer something/someone always shows up to reestablish that wedge between them and keep everything strictly PG-13. It is through the introduction of all these wedges that Makabe starts to form something of a harem full of people he's turned away for the sake of his revenge. None are as interesting or engaging as Aki's primary antagonist, Fujinomiya Neko, who is everything Aki is not. Where Aki is stubborn, blunt, and flat as a washboard Fujinomiya is adventurous, cunning, and...a well-rounded individual. More than being physical and mental opposites though, Neko stands to be a rival who is willing and able to take away something Aki doesn't even realize she wants, Makabe's attentions.
In other words, they're reluctant best friends.
There is, of course, a catch to her advances though. While I won't go into the details of what exactly that catch is, for the sake of leaving some things unsaid, it is fairly obvious that her intentions aren't nearly as malevolent or spiteful as the rest of the cast. In fact, unlike most other rival characters, she even has the decency to just kinda bow out once her time in the sun passes. It's really too bad that such a solid character is stuck in this underwhelming mess of a show. While it is solid in almost every aspect, except the art which fluctuates in quality as frequently as the love-hate relationship Makabe and Aki share, it falls to most of the same mistakes and traps that litter the romance and comedy genres. I'm referring to is the show's practice of steadily introducing new characters who keep the show's comedy fresh while they also build drama and tension in the show's "complicated" romance. While this may be a serviceable practice, it also reveals how little there is to work with the show's main cast of characters. Makabe is a petty egomaniac who acts conflicted or empathetic when the moment calls for it but he always reverts back to his desire for revenge because that's his sole motivation. Aki is much the same in that that she's too proud to be anything more than a tsundere character who's as romantically engaging as a dead fish but at least she gains a new quirk each time her character starts to grow stale. Put simply, this show has enough novelty to be interesting but doesn't do much to set it apart from its contemporaries. It's a fun and easy romance that will hopefully reach a satisfying conclusion in its second season, assuming it ever gets one.