is a Japanese manga by Musawo (also known as ). The series follows a teenage boy who confesses to his long-time crush, despite the fact that he has been assigned a fiancée by the government in an

alternate version A parallel universe, also known as a parallel dimension, alternate universe, or alternate reality, is a hypothetical self-contained plane of existence, co-existing with one's own. The sum of all potential parallel universes that constitute reali ...

of modern Japan. It is published by

Kodansha is a Japanese privately-held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha is the largest Japanese publishing company, and it produces the manga magazines ''Nakayoshi'', ''Afternoon'', ''Evening'', ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' an ...

, and was serialized in

DeNA Dena (in Luri and fa, ) is the name for a sub-range within the Zagros Mountains, Iran. Mount Dena, with length and average width, is situated on the boundary of the Isfahan, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad and Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Provin ...

Manga Box is a manga magazine mobile app developed by DeNA. It was launched on December 4, 2013 as free app foiOSanAndroiddevices and as a website platform. The app hosts manga by Kodansha, Shogakukan, and other manga publishers. Mangaka Shin Kibayashi s ...

app in multiple languages from August 2014 to January 2022. An anime television series adaptation by

Liden Films is a Japanese animation studio and production enterprise headquartered in Kamiogi, Suginami, Tokyo, and has animation studios in Kyoto and Osaka. Establishment Liden Films was founded on February 22, 2012 and, shortly after, joined joint-holding ...

aired from July to September 2017. A live-action film adaptation was released in October 2017.

Plot

In the near future, children who have turned 16 years old are assigned by the government to a partner based on compatibility calculation, in order to increase the country's birth rate. Those who do not marry their assigned partner suffer severe penalties. Yukari Nejima finally confesses his love to schoolmate and long-time crush Misaki Takasaki and discovers she has liked him back. However, when he turns 16, he is assigned another girl, Ririna Sanada. Ririna is not that thrilled about being assigned, and is very willing to let Yukari freely relate with Misaki so she can learn what being in love is really like. The story follows their adventures of the teens as they try to relate with one another while keeping up appearances with the government.

Characters

; : : The first heroine of the series. Misaki is Yukari's first love who is also in love with him. She has short dark hair styled in a bob. She is beautiful and popular among her schoolmates. She first noticed Yukari in fifth grade when he broke his eraser into two and gave her one half after seeing that she didn't have an eraser since first period. She developed feelings of love for him and his many quirks. She thinks Ririna is a bit naive when it comes to encouraging her and Yukari to continue relating with each other as a couple. ; : : The second heroine of the series. Ririna is Yukari's arranged partner. She is a beautiful girl with rose blonde hair and big eyes where she resembles a doll. She is aware of Yukari's feelings towards Misaki and agrees to help him out as she wishes to learn what love is like too, and perks up whenever there is the topic of love among Yukari and his friends. When she was younger she was often sick, and when she conversed with girls she was often candid on her thoughts, so she was unable to make friends. Her classmates are envious of her looks and grades, calling her stuck up. ; : : The main protagonist of the series. Yukari has been in love with his classmate Misaki Takasaki since the fifth grade. Before his 16th birthday, he confesses his feelings to Misaki Takasaki which apparently, turned out to be mutual. He enjoys studying

Kofun are megalithic tombs or tumuli in Northeast Asia. ''Kofun'' were mainly constructed in the Japanese archipelago between the middle of the 3rd century to the early 7th century CE.岡田裕之「前方後円墳」『日本古代史大辞典』� ...

ancient burial mounds. ; : :Yukari's friend who is surrounded in mystery. He becomes aware of the relationship between Yukari and the girls. He is very popular with the girls, that they had one of them date him for six months. Unlike Yukari, he does not have cooking or cleaning skills. ; : : A member of the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare, assigned to Yukari and Ririna's marriage case. He has grey hair in the anime. ; : : A member of the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare, assigned to Yukari and Ririna's marriage case. She has short red hair in the anime and works with Yajima. ; : :Misaki's best friend in middle school who seems to know the reason behind Yukari's sudden partner change.

Media

Manga

''Love and Lies'' was serialized on

's ''

'' app from August 2014 to January 2022. Twelve volumes were released by

. The French version, licensed by Pika Shonen, was first released on November 2, 2016 and the fifth volume was released on June 28, 2017. The English version has been licensed by

Kodansha USA Kodansha USA Publishing, LLC is a publishing company based in New York, USA, and a subsidiary of Japan's largest publishing company Kodansha. Established in July 2008, Kodansha USA publishes books relating to Japan, Japanese culture, and mang ...

, with the first volume being released on August 22, 2017. An official fanbook was released on July 7, 2017 in Japan.

Volumes

Anime

An anime adaptation by

and directed by Seiki Takuno aired from July 4 to September 19, 2017. The four-member rock band Frederic performed the opening theme song titled while three-member unit Roy performed the ending theme song titled "Can't You Say".

Sentai Filmworks Sentai Filmworks, LLC or just Sentai, is an American entertainment company owned by AMC Networks. Located in Houston, the company specializes in the dubbing and distribution of Japanese animation and Asian cinema. Its post-production arm is S ...

have licensed the series and streamed the series on

Anime Strike Anime Strike was a subscription-based video on demand service for Amazon Channels, focused on anime series and movies from various anime distributors. The service launched on January 12, 2017, and was closed on January 5, 2018, after which its ...

and on Hidive outside of the United States.

MVM Films MVM Entertainment, also known as MVM and MVM Films, is a British licensor and distributor of Japanese animation. The company also sub-licenses anime titles from US anime companies such as Media Blasters, Geneon, Nozomi Entertainment, Urban Vision, ...

has licensed the series in the UK. An

original animation DVD , abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV (original animation video), are Japanese animated films and series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the first part of an OVA s ...

was announced on the release of the seventh volume of the manga, with the DVD being bundled with the eighth volume of the manga on November 9, 2018. The release will include two episodes.

Live-action film

A live-action film adaptation premiered in October 2017. Instead of a love triangle between one boy and two girls, it has one girl and two boys. The film stars

Aoi Morikawa is a Japanese actress and model who is affiliated with Stardust Promotion. Biography Morikawa was born in Aichi Prefecture in 1995. She has five family members and was the only daughter, and has two brothers. In 2010, Morikawa won the ''Seven ...

as Aoi Nisaka, the lead heroine;

Takumi Kitamura is a Japanese actor, singer, and model. He is represented by Stardust Promotion's Section 3. He is the leader of Stardust's music collective Ebidan unit Dish. As a member of Dish, he is nicknamed Takumi, stylized as TAKUMI. Biography Kitamur ...

as Yūto Shiba, Aoi's childhood friend; and Kanta Satō as Sōsuke Takachino, Aoi's arranged partner. The film was directed by

Takeshi Furusawa is a Japanese film director and screenwriter. Career Furusawa began making 8mm films in college, and won the scriptwriting award for his film ''home sweet movie'' at the 1997 Pia Film Festival. He enrolled at the Film School of Tokyo in 1997. A ...

and the screenplay done by Erika Yoshida.

Reception

The manga's compiled book volumes have frequently ranked on

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in Nov ...

's weekly top 50 comic charts. Volume 2 reached number 16, Volume 3 reached number 6, Volume 4 reached number 5, and Volume 5 reached number 15.

had reported ''Love and Lies'' as their most popular work with 3.5 million viewers, a month after the manga's launch in August 2014. The series ranked third in the first

Next Manga Award The is an annual award for manga series presented by Kadokawa Corporation's ''Da Vinci'' magazine and Niconico streaming website. It is divided into two categories: one for print manga, and one for web manga. Overview The award was originally ...

in the web manga category.

Works cited

* "Ch." is shortened form for chapter and refers to a chapter number of the ''Love and Lies'' manga * "Ep." is shortened form for episode and refers to an episode number of the ''Love and Lies'' anime

Notes

References

External links

* * {{Liden Films 2014 manga 2017 Japanese television series endings 2017 anime television series debuts Anime series based on manga Anime Strike Arranged marriage Dystopian anime and manga Japanese webcomics Kodansha manga Liden Films Manga adapted into films Manga adapted into television series Marriage in anime and manga Muse Communication Romance anime and manga Sentai Filmworks Shōnen manga Webcomics in print