Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Well guys we have a first this time on the show because the anime I’m reviewing today doesn’t come from Japan but from China. Like I said before in the past other Asian countries are starting up their own animation studios and are dishing out their own animated shows to compete with Japan and last year I got to see a few of these shows. I have to admit it felt weird watching some of these shows, I’m so used to hearing Japanese in my anime that hearing it spoken in another language besides English and Japanese just sounds weird to me but despite this it is nice to see other countries take a shot at anime and catch the eyes of viewers. One of these animes that caught a lot of eyes was Cupid’s Chocolates. Based off a web comic written by Vivian, Cupid’s Chocolate is the romantic/ecchi/comedy about a boy becoming popular in his school and creating his own harem (remind you of anything? *cough* To Love-Ru *cough*). Now normally I would give the name of the studio behind this anime and stuff but unfortunately there’s not a whole lot to go on about this show other than it’s based off a web comic and it comes from China. Well it is the month of love and it is mysterious so let’s dive right in. This is Cupid’s Chocolates.
Episodes 1-5
So the anime starts with our main character Haoyi (again, knowledge of this anime is limited so I have no idea who the VAs are) a regular guy in high school. He lives the peaceful quiet high school life, no activities, no clubs, no goals in life, he just goes to school, chat with a few friends, get good grades, and that’s that (and you thought your high school like was boring. Compared this guy, your high school life looks like a sitcom on Fox Sunday). His peaceful lifestyle changes when Zitong the most popular girl in school walks into his classroom, goes to him, and informs him that she’s pregnant with his child (yeah, I’m pretty sure she’s lying). This shocks Haoyi (as it would any other guy) because for starters he has no relationship with Zitong. He’s never talked to her at all nor does he know her on a personal basis, this is literally their first time chatting. The boys as you would imagine are pissed and start chasing him throughout the school trying to kill him (it’s the FFF, China’s branch). He finally fights back and takes them down but then gets caught by the women’s sports team with amazing abs (yeah, China wishes their athletes were like this) and thrown into the women’s bathroom where he gets confronted by Xuan captain of the sports teams who also has the hots for Haoyi and again this is a girl who he’s never talked to before in his life. She’s not the only one, we also have the top student and silver-haired cutie named Yuan who claims to be married to him and says they have two children back at home (man no offence but you’re a manwhore). He manages to escape the two girls only to get chased throughout the school once again and makes it to the roof where he jumps off the roof to prove his innocence only to get saved by a cupid angel named Mei who accuses him of eating the cupid chocolate which causes whoever eats it to fall in love with the person they shared the chocolate with.
Okay so like me I’m sure you’re confused by that explanation at the end of episode 1 and episode 2 doesn’t even try to clear up the explanation. This is why we have the comic. Okay, so here’s what really happened. A girl wanting to get with some guy followed the instructions of some love ritual which is leave treats on top of the school for two days and offer up a prayer to cupid and she’ll help you with your love life. Her prayer was answered by Mei a cupid in training who transformed her sweets into a cake and waited for her to come back and get the cake. But Mei got distracted by something delicious and left the cake unguarded where it got picked up by Haoyi who was forced to help out the culture festival committee which composed of Zitong, Xuan, Yuan, and a few other girls I’m sure we haven’t met yet (hopefully none of them are yandere). Haoyi took the cake and shared it with them and so all the girls each developed memories of Haoyi being their boyfriend (the best boyfriend they ever had) and they won’t question anything no matter how ridiculous it is (like I said, love is mysterious). The only way to snap them out of it is to fulfill their desire so now Haoyi has to figure out what all the girls’ desire is and make it come true. Getting back to the anime, Haoyi takes Zitong to the hospital where we find out she’s not pregnant (not yet at least). He then takes her home where we find out she’s loaded (it’s not too late Haoyi, you can still get with her) and the security guards find out about the pregnant rumor and attack Haoyi where he manages to escape and hideout in Zitong’s room with Zitong (you are just setting yourself up for temptation aren’t you?). While in the room he figures out that Zitong’s desire is to spend more time with her dad. He’s barely home and the last time they ever did anything together was last year when they went out to have lunch. Haoyi takes action and calls up Zitong’s dad telling him he got her pregnant and calls him out to come face him (you’ve got balls kid). After hanging up the phone Zitong’s father comes home to face to Haoyi (man that was fast. Was he like, camping out behind the corner or something?).
In episode 3 Haoyi comes face to face with Zitong’s dad where he orders his men not to shoot him (oh well that’s nice) but to instead beat him up (yeah that was to be expected). They finally clear up the misunderstanding about Zitong’s pregnancy and then Haoyi lays it into Zitong’s dad telling him to spend more time with his daughter and runs away only to arrive at the backdoor entrance of Zitong’s house where she thanks him for everything fulfilling her desire. The next day Haoyi expects things to go back to normal but once again he gets approached by Zitong who genuinely likes him now. While Haoyi fulfilled her desire erasing the false memories the memories he made with her during those two days with her were real thus they remain (in short what we’re seeing right now is Zitong really liking Haoyi). As this is going on Haoyi gets attacked by Xueli his yandere childhood friend who likes him (we just had to bring a yandere into this mess). The scary part is she didn’t eat any of the cake. She moved to America with her parents and came back on her own accord to make Haoyi hers (and kill anyone or anything that gets in her way). Before she can go on a rampage her mother comes in and takes her down (the mother of a monster is a monster herself) and leaves. After this Haoyi sets up a date with Zitong and then as he walks the hallway he gets slapped by Xuan who says they’re breaking up.
So in episode 4 after Xuan breaks up with Haoyi he has the gall to say she has a bad attitude and that no man will like her because of it (wow Haoyi, you’re an asshole). After this not much really happens. We see Xuan force a couple of boys to do 1000 pushups after losing a bet until Haoyi steps in and stops her where she walks away frustrated and sad (she’s in a whirlpool of fake emotions). The weekend comes and it’s time for Haoyi’s date with Zitong but Xueli locks him in his room with no way out and the parents do nothing to stop her (don’t fuck with the yandere and you might live). He manages to escape by scaling the walls of his apartment building and goes to his date with Zitong which is awkward because neither of them knows what to do or talk about (hey about this pollution, am I right?). Luckily, Haoyi spots an anime convention across the street and takes Zitong to it where we see Xuan is cosplaying and enjoying herself (new best girl found).
Picking up where episode 4 left off, episode 5 opens up with Haoyi and Zitong getting dragged away by Xuan who admits that she enjoys cosplaying but hasn’t told anyone about it because her two images clash with each other. In the past we see that her two friends (the giant girls with amazing abs) were bullied by boys because of their looks (you do know that if they wanted to they could snap you in two? The only thing stopping them is low self-esteem) until Xuan finally tired of watching takes action and stands up to the boys. Soon the females were on equal footing with the boys if not higher and it’s all thanks to their leader Xuan who stood up to them (what would they think of her now if they saw their leader pleasing boys with her cosplaying? They would probably think it’s hot). After hearing her story Haoyi tells her to just be honest with them but she refuses to listen to Haoyi because she hates him (and hate will easily become love). It then gets announce that the female cosplay competition will be starting soon. Xuan wanted to enter but it requires a team of three girls so Xuan and Zitong dress Haoyi up in girl clothes (a trap is born) and go get ready but some of Xuan’s rivals destroy her outfit for the competition that she made herself and she runs away where Zitong goes after her leaving only Haoyi to participate in the first round which is popularity points. He gets Mei to help and Haoyi goes to the competition where he manages to score points with the crowd.
Episodes 6-10
The contest continues in episode 6 where it’s time for the talent portion of the contest and they still haven’t found Xuan yet. So Haoyi goes on stage where he pours his heart out talking about how wonderful Xuan is and she drops in from the raptures where Haoyi catches her and thanks to Mei’s magic get some sweet costumes which win them the competition (screwing the rules and winning the competition. That’s what MCs do). With this event it seems like Xuan’s desires have been fulfilled and after walking Zitong halfway home (yeah she pretty much got screwed over in this arc) he heads over to the house of some lady at night.
At the start of episode 7 Haoyi goes to see his old teacher (why? No idea. Pretty pointless scene if you ask me). The only thing of substance we get from this scene is that Haoyi is actually a very smart kid who does well on tests and stuff but because Xueli would always beat him up for getting higher scores than her he would start getting low scores in order to save himself from her wrath (a covert genius). The next day at school Haoyi challenges the girls of the sports team (we’re still in the Xuan arc? We finished her, let’s move on) to a competition. Midterms are around the corner and Haoyi makes a bet that he’ll get the highest scores with the winner getting the loser (in this case Xuan) to do whatever they want. If anyone beats him they’ll win or if he fails to get the highest scores they win (it’s a contest where the odds are stacked up against him, how can you ignore a bet like that?). The girls agree to the contest and Haoyi begins to study all in his free time for exams.
In episode 8 Haoyi gets the top scores much to everyone’s surprise (thanks for the faith everyone). Since Haoyi won he makes Xuan wear a maid outfit to recruit people for two weeks. While the girls feel sorry for her Xuan is okay with it as she likes cosplaying and for the first time she doesn’t have to hide it which is what Haoyi was trying to do this whole time (nice work Haoyi). With this the Xuan arc is over and we move on to the Yuan arc who shows up at school with his children (what have you been doing all this time?).
We start the Yuan arc in episode 9 with the introduction of Haoyi and Yuan’s children (they’re adorable) all thanks to the chocolate working to fulfill her desire and if Haoyi doesn’t do something soon the people around Yuan are going to start believing what she’s believing and accept it. The kids get lost in the school and cause trouble especially, the boy (he takes after his old man, a troublemaker. Also white hair on a little boy, a little weird). He hides in the girls locker room with Haoyi getting caught peeking looking for him by Xuan and the boy pulls down Xuan’s outfit exposing her athletic body to the school and Haoyi paying for it. As for the daughter, she gets found by Zitong who gives her back to Haoyi. After that he meets back up with Yuan near the front gates of the school and tries to get her to think rationally about the situation they’re in. According to Haoyi those kids are between the ages of 7-8, and according to this anime they’re at least 19 years old (not sure if this is true or not. I’m not familiar with the education system of China) that would mean Yuan gave birth to them when she was at least 12 years old (okay I don’t know about you guys but when I was 12 I didn’t know a thing about sex and I highly doubt these two did either). Despite saying this Yuan still believes she gave birth to them (okay next question, tell me about the day in the hospital or better yet show me footage). He decides to take them home for the day but is worried about whether or not the magic of cupid will affect her family (it be funny if it didn’t). As he opens the door to her apartment he’s greeted by Yuan’s mom who throws a knife at him (yep, I say she’s under the control of the magic. Or not, with mothers-in-law it’s hard to tell).
Alright so in episode 10 Haoyi goes into Yuan’s apartment where we see the family is pretty poor but they make it work. After helping the kids with their homework he watches the news with Yuan wearing a very seductive outfit (looks like a third child will on the way and this one will be real) but he gets saved by Zitong calling him and asking him out on a date to the amusement park this Sunday which he agrees to do. After the call Yuan asks Haoyi to take her and the kids to the amusement park since they don’t spend much time with each other and since he doesn’t want to disappoint his fake kids he agrees to go (that’s very nice of him. Even though he knows this whole situation isn’t real and those kids are fake he’s treating them like they are real and like a real father would). He tries to call Zitong back and cancel their date but he can’t bring himself to do it so we’re doing the double date cliché bit (take it from me man, this cliché will not end well). Despite knowing that he’s screwing himself over in this date he has a plan. He arrives at the park one hour before his date with Zitong. During that hour he’ll spend time hanging out with Yuan and the kids going on every ride and having a good time. Despite having a slight fear of rollercoasters he manages to pull through that one hour and slips out to go meet Zitong at the entrance of the park.
Episodes 11-15
Episode 11 starts with Zitong kissing Haoyi and saying she likes him (alright the most popular in school wants you, take it man). Haoyi believes this is all the work of the chocolate but Mei tells him these are Zitong’s true feelings. He realizes he has to get back to Yuan so he slips away from Zitong back into the gift shop where he runs into Xuan who’s there with some friends still wearing her maid outfit (the deal was to only wear it at school, you’re free on the weekends) and convinces her to keep Zitong company while he’s busy. He returns to Yuan and the kids who are crying because the girl tried to win a drawing contest to win ice cream for them but failed so Haoyi enters a quiz show and dominates earning his family ice cream where Yuan compares his personality to the personality of her father.
At the start of episode 12 Haoyi, Yuan, and the children leave the ice cream shop just as Xuan and Zitong show up where Xuan kidnaps him and hangs him by the stalls in the women’s restroom wanting to know what’s going on here (well by the looks of it I say we have a tsundere jealous that a kuudere is stealing her man). Haoyi explains the situation to them saying he’s trying to help out Yuan and that they ran into each other by accident. They believe him and let him go where he walks them home and Yuan tells Haoyi not to mention her father in front of her mother (if he values his life). Haoyi realizing that Yuan’s desire is to see her father again starts to investigate and goes to Yuan’s elementary school and finds her teacher who explains that in the past Yuan’s dad would always pick her up from school until her parents got divorced and he left never returning to visit his daughter ever again. It wasn’t long after this that Yuan became despondent and kept to herself. Haoyi tries to get contact information from the teacher but has no luck so he goes to his secret source for information a police officer.
In episode 13 we find out that the police officer is Yan a friend of Haoyi who use to look out for him when they were younger. After much digging, Yan manages to find some possible contact numbers of Yuan’s dad and texts them to Haoyi. Once Haoyi arrives home his parents sell him out to Xueli for the night (hey the yandere’s back, //youtu.be/xn7JuZ0TmjU. Oh come on, you can do better than that, //youtu.be/tv4KQbDaCfM. That’s more like it). He survives the night and begins calling the numbers Yan gave him until he finally gets a hold of Yuan’s dad only to find out he’s not Yuan’s biological father (ohh~ not good. This is beyond you Haoyi). He decides the only thing he can do now is talk to Yuan’s mom but when he arrives he finds the two having an argument because Yuan refuses to throwaway a picture of her father upsetting her mother. This causes Yuan to run out of the house and once Haoyi ask for answers she refuses to answer them and shuts the door on him. He then gets approached by their neighbor a kind old lady who tells him what’s going on and it’s something so bad that even he wants nothing to do with it anymore.
So it turns out in episode 14 Yuan’s real father was a soldier who died in the line of duty. To make this situation worst Yuan’s mom was pregnant at the time of his death (single, unmarried, and your boyfriend/husband is dead. Not a good combination if you’re in China). Luckily, Yuija (Yuan’s stepdad) who also had feelings for Yuan’s mom stepped in and offered to marry her. Together they would raise Yuan until his parents found out he got married behind their back and didn’t accept Yuan’s mom. They pretty much disowned him until they were getting so old that they needed his help so he begrudgingly divorced Yuan’s mom and since the divorced hasn’t talked and sent any kind of support to them at all. Haoyi becomes pissed about this situation blaming everyone for being so irresponsible (it’s call life my friend. Shit happens and all we can do is respond to it and adapt to it) and deciding he wants nothing to do with this anymore even lashing out at Mei until later that night when he’s calmed down and admits he was wrong for getting angry and apologizes to Mei. The next day Haoyi begins calling up Yuija talking to him hoping he’ll break and come see Yuan but it doesn’t seem to be working. This might however change when it’s hinted that at the end of the episode Yuan might have been hit by a truck (oh shit we’re doing this scenario?).
In the final episode, we find out that it was actually Haoyi who got hit by the truck instead of Yuan. At the last minute Haoyi pushed Yuan out of the way and took the hit. He would have died had it not been for Mei who stopped the truck from doing anymore damage to him. Despite him getting hit he uses this to scare Yuija and get him to believe Yuan was hit so he rushes to the hospital where they meet and talk. Back with Haoyi he slips into a dream where he meets his kids who have come to say goodbye. The magic is starting to vanish and even though they knew that this was all a lie the time they shared with each other was real and they enjoyed it. A month passes and he gets released from the hospital where all the girls come to pick him up (who you gonna ride with Haoyi). He gets kidnapped by Xueli and we end the season with another girl calling out for Haoyi and the promise of a second season.
Final Thoughts
And that was Cupid’s Chocolate and I actually enjoyed it. For the most part. As far as harem stories goes it’s as cliché as it gets. We’ve got a male lead who’s pretty dense but not too dense and a good guy at the end of the day. He slowly develops a bond with the girls and starts to like them and they in turn start him. The girls are all your cliché harem girls. While Yuan’s backstory was pretty interesting and Xueli is probably the best girl in the series so far, there’s no denying that these girls follow the tropes of a typical harem setting. The comedy is good as is the animation but one of the major downfalls of this show is that it moves really fast. Given that each episode is only 10-12 minutes at best, the anime really has to rush through its story and arcs which means you’ll either miss something or won’t get as much development with some characters as you would have hoped for. This will bother some people who are new to harem animes but for those of us out there who are familiar with them and can spot all the clichés and tropes it won’t bother as much.
Final Score
The final score for Cupid’s Chocolate is a 6/10. It’s surprisingly a good series that I look forward to watching in the future to see what happens next. Who else ate the chocolate and what will Haoyi face down the road? Will there be a major development story wise and who will Haoyi choose at the end? Whatever happens next, I’m looking forward to it and I look forward to checking out more anime from China and other Asian countries. While still a little weird to the ears and eyes it’s nice to see other countries add their own spin to anime (hell, even we’ve been doing that for the last few years or so) and learn to appreciate the creativity of their country. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
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