I Want to End This Love Game

愛してるゲームを終わらせたい (Aishiteru Game wo Owarasetai)

8.0(1)

OtakuDen

7.4(36,186)

MAL Score

Ranked #2536

Popularity #2382

Comedy
Romance
School

Episodes: 12
Duration: 23 min per ep
Aired: Apr 14, 2026 to Jun 30, 2026
Status: Finished Airing

Synopsis

For the past four years, childhood friends Yukiya Asagi and Miku Sakura have kept a private competition going: the “love game.” It’s a simple challenge—confess your feelings and see who blushes first—but Yukiya can’t seem to outplay Miku, even after studying her favorite manga and tweaking his look in hopes of gaining an edge.

By the time they reach high school, the rules have loosened, letting them try nearly anything to throw the other off balance and force a conceded loss—only for most rounds to end in a draw. Their feelings are increasingly obvious, yet neither is willing to call the game off, even as staying composed becomes harder with every exchange.

Otaku Consensus

Felix Film’s adaptation wins on compact rom-com pacing: Azuma Tani’s direction and Keiichirou Oochi’s series composition keep the 12-episode two-hander brisk, performance-driven, and more emotionally pointed than its simple setup suggests. Reception settled in the “good, not flawless” zone, with MAL’s 7.43 and AniList’s 75 matching reviews that praised the character development and vocal chemistry while repeatedly singling out rough early CGI and merely decent animation as the chief drawbacks.

Why You Should Watch

If you want a school rom-com that treats flirting as emotional brinkmanship rather than disposable sitcom misunderstanding, this is the spring 2026 romance to sample. It scratches the same itch as Kaguya-sama: Love Is War and Teasing Master Takagi-san, but with a tighter two-lead focus, a stronger coming-of-age angle, and less dependence on ensemble chaos. Kaito Ishikawa and Miku Itou carry the show’s rhythm: pauses, stammers, and defensive confidence matter as much as punchlines. The appeal is watching two tsundere-coded leads gradually run out of safe emotional distance, not waiting for a gimmick to refresh itself. Go in if you want romantic tension with comedy, compact pacing, and visible stakes; skip it if rough early CGI breaks your immersion.

Key Characters

Y
Yukiya Asagi(VA: Kaito Ishikawa)
Kaito Ishikawa gives Yukiya a deliberately over-prepared coolness that makes his smallest cracks funnier than louder rom-com reactions.
M
Miku Sakura(VA: Miku Itou)
Miku Itou’s performance leans into Miku’s confident teasing and tsundere guard, making her feel like a co-lead rather than a romantic prize.

What Makes It Stand Out

1
A true two-lead structure defines the show: AniList marks both Male Protagonist and Female Protagonist at 92%, and the official main cast data lists only Yukiya and Miku as main characters. That narrow focus keeps the comedy and emotional progression tied to vocal performance rather than a rotating friend-group dynamic.
2
Felix Film’s production became part of the discourse because CGI is prominent enough to be tagged at 77% on AniList. Early reactions specifically criticized the CGI as rough, even while noting that the voice acting and story made the anime watchable.
3
The broadcast format is lean: 12 episodes aired from Apr 14 to Jun 30, 2026, finishing in a single spring cour without a split-season pause. That compact run suits a romance built on repeated escalation rather than long-form worldbuilding.
4
The tag profile is unusually specific for a school rom-com: Heterosexual 93%, Tsundere 83%, Coming of Age 80%, Shounen 80%, and Video Games 53%. That mix positions it as shounen romance with game-like tactics rather than pure slice-of-life comfort watching.
5
The creative spine is easy to identify: Azuma Tani directs, Keiichirou Oochi handles series composition, and Yuuki Fukuchi provides character design. The result is a show whose strongest craft element is timing: set-up, pause, verbal strike, and emotional recoil.

Fun Facts & Trivia

Fun fact 1: The heroine Miku Sakura is voiced by Miku Itou; the shared given name is an easy-to-miss casting coincidence.
Fun fact 2: Yuuki Doumoto is credited as Original Creator, while Yuuki Fukuchi handled the main character designs for the anime adaptation.
Fun fact 3: Tomokazu Sugimura appears twice in the design credits, serving as both Sub Character Design and Prop Design, with Ryousuke Tanigawa also credited for Sub Character Design.
Fun fact 4: The visual pipeline lists Masanori Nishiyama as Art Director, Natsuko Ueno as Color Design, and Jun Kubota as Director of Photography, separating background direction, palette, and compositing into distinct credited roles.
Fun fact 5: Its reception is consistent across major anime databases: MAL lists 7.43/10 from 23,249 votes with a #2449 rank and #2616 popularity, while AniList reports 75/100 and 1,055 favourites.