# Love and Lies (2017)

> A rebellious teen secretly in love with his classmate must navigate a government-assigned marriage in a near-future Japan that enforces matchmaking.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/62828

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 12
- Episode runtime: 24 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: animation, drama, romance
- Network: TOKYO MX, Sun TV, BS11, tvk
- Cast: Kana Hanazawa, Yui Makino, Ryota Osaka, Shinnosuke Tachibana
- TMDB rating: 6.2/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7158574/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: mild
- Complexity: simple
- Violence: none
- Tone: wistful, tender, tense, anxious

## What critics say

Audiences rate the series negatively, with a modest audience score that reflects a middling reception of its romance-triangle premise.

## Synopsis

Love and Lies (2017) is a Japanese anime romance series adapted from a manga and produced by LIDENFILMS. Set in a near-future Japan where the government assigns marriage partners to sixteen-year-olds through a compatibility system called The Red Threads of Science, it follows average high schooler Yukari Nejima (Ryota Osaka), who defies the arrangement by confessing his long-standing crush on classmate Misaki Takasaki (Kana Hanazawa). Their brief, fragile romance is cut short when Yukari receives his marriage notice, and his assigned partner Ririna Sanada (Yui Makino) becomes fascinated with his illicit affair. The engine of the story is the tangle of secret feelings, competing loyalties and the constant risk of punishment for disobedience, with each episode tightening the knot between the three. Told in a single twelve-episode season, the series plays as a school-life love triangle with an overlay of dystopian pressure. Its tone is wistful and tender, with moments of anxious tension and a sense of teenage yearning under state control. Fans of Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, Your Lie in April and The Hunger Games will find resonance in its mix of youthful romance and rebellion against an oppressive system.

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