Love and lies is beautiful in it's own way.

Love and Lust, two entirely different things yet so similar that we humans don't generally differentiate one from another.
Indeed we are sceptical about it always but still no idea about what is what.

Most people believe lust is the just dark side of love but there's little to no truth towards it.
Sure it's not actually love, but lust teaches us so many things too.
Things like caring about other people(we actually do, just think about it), it enhances our nature of adjusting, everything feels pink and we can't stop flying.
Love offers these things as well but more.
The only thing that distinct lust from love is time.
Love takes time, Love ain't selfish and it doesn't die.
Lust, on the other hand, will feel honest and true till the day you find someone prettier and whoosh, your fairy tale is over.

Lust begins on the basis of looks and indeed evolves over time when the two people get to know each other well but in the end, it will always be about appearance.
Though just like I mentioned above, it's not bad. We are just too naive to understand it.
Lust is as innocent as we are, it makes us go through a roller coast ride, screaming and yelling with happiness along the way yet when the ride is over we want more, we are never satisfied.
Love has no thing such as satisfaction in its memory, Most of the time you wouldn't even know it's love till that person is gone.
Why am I saying all this? Because "Love and lies"  made me realize the ground reality behind both the terms to an extent I never knew.

Love and lies is one such anime, one such original anime that's not ashamed or embarrassed to talk about these things.
As I progressed through each of its 12 episode series  I was constantly surprised and shocked by it's broad, bold and carefully crafted narrative, one which I haven't witnessed in a long long time.
But just like most of the other series with a strong focus on narrative, its characters feel boring and uninspired relatively.
This is strictly a tale to be remembered for its story and not it's characters.



"Love and lies" offers one of the most interesting plot lines I have witnessed in any medium.
It's actually very refreshing and a welcome change  for me since Animes and other mediums generally focuses on creating interesting characters these days and moment to moment progression
rather than a broader narrative.

A little bit about story-

It's set in near future in  and the Japanese government have undertaken a strict policy known as "The red threads of Science" to encourage successful marriages
 and improvise the birth rate of  their country.
As a result, when the children turn the age of 16, they are assigned a marriage partner on the basis of a variety of compatible issues and there is no other option in it.
The person has to marry the partner they are assigned, reluctantly or otherwise.




What  I found most interesting as well as intimidating at the same time is the fact how bold the anime is in its approach.
It touches on all those taboo stuff that one would hesitate to talk about.
From sex, to display of intimate scenes in a very bold manner( in a serious anime), to the first time probably in any anime I have watched-introduce a gay character and the most important of them all- Try to define both
Love and lust, not necessarily stating which is right and wrong because let's be honest everybody at some point of life have got confused between the two.
It breaks boundaries through its story telling, starting off with the two supposedly main characters- Misaki Takazaki and Yukari Nejima.
The latter a clumsy, good for nothing -just turned 16-year-old high school guy who thinks he has been in love with Misaki since his childhood days.
Misaki-A stunning display of beauty(no doubt a waifu) with her big ocean eyes and the hair of same colour, a big bust and a staggering attention to those make her an eye candy and it's not a bad thing.

Aside from her looks, She's a  friendly soul loved by all and has been unconditionally in love with Yukari since the day he shared his eraser with her in school when no one helped her.
Fast forward to a few years later, They are together in high school and she's falling for him more and more every passing hour till the day the unthinkable happened- Yukari confessed to her that he too is in lovewith her. They kiss and before their dreams could come true Yukari receives a letter containing the name of his assigned spouse which is someone called Ririna Sanada.

Ririna quickly steals the show as soon as she's introduced. She's the most interesting character in this story.
Ririna's character actually progresses with each episode, unlike others.
In the beginning, she's shown as a socially awkward lady  who has no friends and studies in "only girls" school that too one of the top rated in the district, She's also revealed to be her class's topper
and her classmates are all pretty envious of her because of that.
Even in appearance, she's largely different than Misaki.
She's petite with rose blonde hair and large eyes resembling a cute little doll.
She looks smaller for her age and was often sick during her childhood.

As the story progresses, Ririna learns to care both for Misaki and Yukari, trying her best to keep them together.
What's interesting is how her chemistry evolves with Yukari along the way.
In the beginning, she found Yukari just another delinquent but the more time she spent with him the more she got used to him.
Seeing his passion for historical stuff such as Burial mounds made her happy.
She would often just gawk at him while he tries to explain about these things to her, his shinning eyes at such moments probably made her fall for him.
She got attracted towards him for what he was, accepting the good and the bad along the way.
Once she even asked him to take her to see Tenjinyama Mould, a historical artefact which was probably too boring for her but Yukari was jumping up and down in excitement.
She was doing things to make him happy.
These little moments proved that Ririna and Yukari's relationship was awkward but natural, it was like a melting ice cream, progressing at a slow rate.
The government had scientifically chosen them for each other, there was no mistaking it.

The point is, Love is a relationship, a relationship between two souls and bodies. Both are equally important though intertwining of souls is the first step.
A relationship works with commitments, sacrifices and adjustments and ultimately you will love your partner for what they are.
You will love them for the things they are passionate about, the things they are scared of and also the little things they themselves are unaware of.
I guess that's what love is. You'll love them no matter what, you won't be scared of losing your love because there is no such thing, you won't be selfish, you won't be possessive.
These traits define love and this is exactly what was blossoming between Ririna and Yukari which took them a while to realize.
Yukari was more of himself when he was with Ririna, In front of Misaki, he was always nervous and hesitant.
Though one can't say Misaki's and Yukari's relationship deteriorated by the end.
They had their own spark, their own chemistry.
Every time Misaki would look at Yukari the camera would shift to her blue eyes and a beautiful soothing piano score would start playing in the background ( my favourite score in the entire anime).

What allured me the most is the fact that the direction of the narrative is such that nobody could be judged for good or bad.
There is no such thing as good or bad, right or wrong in the real world.
It's actually all a relative concept.
The message is clear.
Even if we have been together with someone for a very long time it doesn't necessarily mean that we were in love, It may or may not be the case who knows.
Love is easily confused with lust.

What Misaki and Yukari have is equally important and precious as what's cooking between Ririna and Yukari.
I can't actually describe this in words but I hope you got the idea.
The ending of the story is as rebellious, enchanting and surprising as it's entire tale, one I wouldn't spoil.
But I can assure you that you would be awestruck just like me.

I absolutely have no idea where this story will go and  I can't wait for the next season.
I hope it would be everything the first season was and more, hoping it would surprise me and keep me hooked through its bold attempt towards storytelling in the anime industry.