Love Flops: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.5

Love Flops: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie Review

Love Flops is a romantic-comedy anime series with a lot of comedic hijinks for genre fans. The series features animation produced by Passione (High School DxD Hero, Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers). Executive produced by Asuka Yamazaki (Bibliophile Princess, Bloom Into You), Daijō Kudō (Konohana Kitan, Wasteful Days of High School Girl), Hirotaka Kaneko (Muteking the Dancing Hero, Villainess Level 99), Jirō Hirosawa (Luminous Witches, The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess), Katsuya Tasaki (Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer, That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime), Kei Fukushima (More Than a Married Couple, But Not Lovers, Osamake: Romcom Where The Childhood Friend Won't Lose), Satoshi Kobayashi (Midnight Occult Civil Servants, The Rising of The Shield Hero), and Shingo Kunieda (BNA: Brand New Animal, Harem in the Labyrinth of Another World), Love Flops is not going to break new ground but it will find some footing with the target audience of romantic- comedy fans.

Love Flops will appeal to fans of the genre who enjoy scenarios with one guy and multiple girls – and the questions posed. Produced by Akihiro Sotokawa (My Senpai Is Annoying, Tesla Note), Arihiro Katō (Overtake!), Jōtarō Ishigami (My First Girlfriend is a Gal, Isekai Cheat Magician), Shō Tanaka (Blade Dance of the Elementalers, Tada Never Falls in Love), Shuka Nishimae (The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess, Bibliophile Princess), Takahiro Hibi (Osamake: Romcom Where The Childhood Friend Won't Lose, Our Dating Story: The Experienced You and The Inexperienced Me), Takuji Wada (The Most Heretical Last Boss Queen: From Villainess to Savior, Villainess Level 99), Tomoyuki Ōwada (Diary of Our Days at the Breakwater, The Quintessential Quintuplets ∬), and Toyokazu Nakahigashi (Midnight Occult Civil Servants, Space Battleship Tiramisu), Love Flops offers some solid fun for the right audience. The opening theme song is performed by Q-MHz. Ending theme songs are performed by Hiroaki Suzuki (endings 1-6) and Takayuki Ishikura (ending 7). Love Flops features voice-work by Japanese voice actors Ryota Ohsaka, Miku Itō, Ayana Taketatsu, Hisako Kanemoto, Marika Kōno, and Rie Takahashi.

Asahi Kashiwagi (Ryota Ohsaka) doesn’t have the best of luck with the ladies. Asahi might have daydreams about being a ladies’ man but that doesn’t mean his goal will come to fruition. One interesting development for Asahi is that the popular artificial intelligence (A.I.) guru and fortune reader foretells a possible future with Asahi being pursued romantically by a number of women.

Surprised by the fortune reading, Asahi finds it hard to fathom being surrounded by sexy ladies left and right. Yet something happens to propel Asahi towards his ladies’ man dreams – with five sexy women now pursuing him. Now Asahi is surrounded by a group of gorgeous ladies – Aoi Izumisawa (Miku Itō), Amelia Irving (Ayana Taketatsu), Bai Mongfa (Hisako Kanemoto), Karin Istel (Marika Kōno), and Ilya Ilyukhin (Rie Takahashi).

Not only are these hot-as-hell va-va-voom babes surrounding Asahi left-and-right but everyone ends up deciding to live together under Asahi’s roof. Can Asahi’s dreams really be coming true? Romance is in the air with Asahi having his fantasies become reality. Can Asahi even stop these women from all grabbing hold of him all at once? The babes are ready.

The characters are decent and add to the fun of the series. Love Flops avoids one of the pitfalls of some romantic comedy anime series by having an interesting cast. The characters do exude some fun and interesting personalities. The character designs by Kazuyuki Ueda (BanG Dream!, Hinako Note) are certainly well drawn and add to the subtle charms of the series.

One of the greatest things going for Love Flops is the series animation. The animation style is a true highlight and one of the things worth commending. The art style is more joyful and colorful than audiences might expect. Some romantic-comedy series can look bland and boring. This series is decidedly colorful and robust. The aesthetic for the series highlights the animation direction well.

The cinematography by Kouji Hayashi (The Demon Sword Master of Excalibur Academy, Love is Like a Cocktail) also highlights the animation and helps to bring out the best in the production. The visuals definitely flourish more because of the cinematography and the aesthetic style achieved by the series cinematographer. Hayashi understands the romantic-comedy language of the series and brings colorful vibes to the production.

The score by Kenichiro Suehiro (Goblin Slayer, The Eminence in Shadow) adds a decent backdrop to the production. The score by Suehiro has fun with the genre and characters. The music helps add to the romance.

Written by Ryō Yasumoto (Steins;Gate 0), Love Flops is a decent romantic comedy series. The series has fun exploring the dynamics between the characters. These elements help to bring out the best in the production. The characters could have been more forgettable in lesser hands but instead offer up a decent backdrop.

Directed by Nobuyoshi Nagayama (My Girlfriend is Shobitch, Happy Sugar Life), Love Flops is going to work well with some audiences. Nagayama is a talented director for this type of series production. Something about it just works and the genre is a nice fit for the director.

Love Flops: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Released on Blu-ray by Sentai Filmworks, Love Flops is presented in 1080p MPEG-4 AVC encoded high-definition in the original television broadcast aspect ratio of 1.78:1 widescreen. The high-definition video presentation looks exceptional on the release. The quality of the presentation shines with impressive and colorful animation. Background art and line art look crisp and well defined.

The presentation certainly is a lot better due to the quality of the encoding. Sentai provides a solid presentation quality on the release and it certainly helps to reward fans seeking the best possible encode. Streaming services are comparatively more compressed and the video bit-rates aren't as high as on physical media.

Love Flops: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The release includes a selection of lossless audio options: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 and Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (with English subtitles). The lossless audio on the release is impressive and adds to the presentation quality. The sound direction by Hisayoshi Hirasawa is wonderfully encoded. The English subtitles are good and are free from egregious issues.

The presentation highlights one of the major benefits of Blu-ray disc and physical media – the superior sound quality. Audio enthusiasts who want the absolute best possible quality will want to opt for the physical media presentation as it provides superior encoding and higher bit-rates. Lossless audio is an essential component of the physical format and streaming services only provide lossy (non-lossless) audio presentations.

Love Flops: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Japanese Promo (HD, 1:46)

Episode Previews (HD, 13:58)

Clean Opening Animations (HD, 3:04)

Clean Closing Animations (HD, 10:44)

The release could have used some more expansive supplemental features. The one downside of the release is the lack of a more robust extras package. Fans would have appreciated getting a selection of featurettes, audio commentaries, and photo galleries – highlighting the production art alongside early sketches. Unfortunately, the extras package is somewhat average at best.

Love Flops: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Love Flops is an entertaining and worthwhile romantic-comedy anime for fans of the genre. It might not be a total home-run for some but it does have some nice romantic qualities. The series also has a nice animation style and the production highlights these impressive qualities. The Blu-ray release also provides excellent video and lossless audio.

The one area of the release that is lackluster is the supplemental package – simply put, some more extras would have added some additional value. Series fans who want to own the release with the best possible presentation quality and also have a permanent copy on their shelf will find the set satisfying and worth picking up. Recommended.