Love After World Domination First Impressions

“V-very well! I’ll be ready and waiting! Farewell, Fudo-… Red! I’ll meet you, whenever you dare! Perhaps the day after tomorrow?”

It’d be fair to say that I went into Love After World Domination with a modest amount of trepidation. The premise itself seemed to have a decent comedic basis, but I was worried my general disinterest in Sentai shows would impair my appreciation for the humor. Pile on the fact that comedies are tricky to evaluate and highly subjective, and there were plenty of reasons to think that looking at this show might be a pain. This show is hilarious. Blending romantic tension with the over-the-top trappings of the Sentai genre is a stroke of genius, and the sharp execution ensured the jokes landed well. Love After World Domination is probably one of the strongest comedies of the season, and I’m looking forward to seeing more.

The Sentai genre is famously a medium capable of being extremely silly. Love After World Domination uses that to its full extent by constructing a parody that effectively targets two very different genres. The more obvious parody is of the Sentai-style itself, as we follow the exploits of the Freezing Sentai Gelato 5, a group of gelato themed heroes. The team approaches every aspect of their combat against evil with the stern heroism that you’d expect, even as they’re shouting out things like, “Vacuum Pistachio Strike!” However, that only makes up the costumed hero aspect of the narrative. It’s also a romantic parody which highlights the absurdity of overwrought romance by combining it with the extremes of costumed characters fighting. Fans of parodies know that the best ones work effectively as members of the genre they mock. Hot Fuzz is a compelling buddy cop movie, Blazing Saddles is still a fun western, and Love After World Domination is an engaging romance. The pairing in question is Aikawa Fudo, aka Red Gelato, and Magahara Desumi, aka Reaper Princess Desumi. Everything about their relationship, from how Desumi assumes that Fudo wants to fight her when he first invites her to meet in secret to how they inadvertently end up holding hands for the first time while pretending to fight, is pure comedic gold and absolutely adorable.

I feel I’ve been running into more lesser known studios than usual, this season. Project No. 9 has been around for a number of years, but their output has never grabbed my attention. I reviewed one of their premieres a few years back for a show called Pastel Memories, and I sampled Didn’t I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?! back when it first aired. Aside from that, a few of their series have caught my notice, but nothing seemed particularly good. They actually had a previous attempt at a Sentai comedy a few years ago with Super HxEros which, I think, was essentially a Sentai show where the characters were powered by ecchi content. I don’t remember it being all that well received, and it didn’t appeal to me that much, but it appears the studio has learned from past missteps. Love After World Domination’s production isn’t anything special on its own, but it succeeds where it matters most. It provides spectacular visual gags, has good comedic timing, and the reactions from the characters can be genuinely hilarious. The openings and endings are both cute, but nothing exceptional. I think I mildly preferred the ending even though it consists primarily of pastel stills. It highlights the main pairing more, and while the opening was fun and varied, it didn’t linger in my memory as much.

Before I wrap up, a few Notes and Nitpicks:

• It does seem like some of the more prominent studios are either having more limited input this season, or are positioned on the backend of the release schedule. This sense is probably being exacerbated by the fact that I’m not following any of the sequels that are rolling out this season.
• I’ve mentioned it in other articles, but I find comedies difficult to discuss for any lengthy period of time. As a result they tend to be my shortest reviews. Carry on long enough, and at a certain point, you’re just pointing at individual jokes and saying, “This was funny,” or “The humor didn’t work in this one.”
• Small disclosure, I will not be looking at the new season of Kaguya-sama as I’ve never actually watched past the first episode of the first season. I was considering writing a review of it back in the day, but concluded that it wasn’t that interesting or funny and no one would be talking about it in a week… Yep, you can just call me Nostradumbass.