Love After World Domination
Love After World Domination is a Japanese manga series written by and illustrated by Takahiro Wakamatsu. It was serialized in Kodansha's shōnen manga magazine Monthly Shōnen Magazine from October 2019 to November 2022, and has been collected in six volumes. An anime television series adaptation produced by Project No.9 aired from April to June 2022.
Plot
In order to combat the villainous Secret Society Gekko, who have burnt half of the world and are planning to burn the rest, the Super Sentai group Freezing Sentai Gelato 5 is formed, consisting of Fudo Aikawa, Hayato Ojino, Misaki Jinguji, Daigo Todoroki, Haru Arisugawa, and their leader Professor Big Gelato. However, things change when Gekko recruits a new member, the Reaper Princess Desumi Magahara. Not only is Desumi a formidable fighter, but she and Fudo also happen to fall in love with each other despite being mortal enemies. Even though neither of them have any experience in romance, they begin dating in secret, trying to hide their relationship from their respective organizations.Characters
Main characters
;Desumi Magahara / Reaper Princess;Fudo Aikawa / Red Gelato
Freezing Sentai Gelato 5
;Hayato Ojino / Blue Gelato;Misaki Jinguji / Yellow Gelato
;Haru Arisugawa / Pink Gelato
;Daigo Todoroki / Green Gelato
;Professor Big Gelato
Secret Society Gekko
;Supreme Leader Bosslar;Kiki Majima / Beast Princess
;Kyoko Kuroyuri / Steel Princess
;Anna Hojo / Heat Princess
;Culverin Bear
;Catapult Snake
;Matchlock Eagle
;Drone Rabbit
;Kira Sanzugawa / Blood Princess
;Ran Ran / Judgement Princess
;Ultimate Phantom
Other characters
;Hellko;Desuo Magahara
;Kirumi Magahara
;Urami Magahara
;Tsurami Magahara
;Fudo's Mother
;Anna Hashimoto
;Narrator
Production
The character design of Desumi is referenced to Gwen in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Nai in Mahō Sentai Magiranger.Media
Manga
Love After World Domination, written by Hiroshi Noda and illustrated by Takahiro Wakamatsu, was serialized in Monthly Shōnen Magazine from October 4, 2019, to November 5, 2022. Kodansha collected its chapters into six volumes, which were released from April 10, 2020, to December 15, 2022. The manga is licensed in English by Kodansha USA in digital form.Volumes
Anime
An anime television series adaptation was announced in the May 2021 issue of Monthly Shōnen Magazine on April 6, 2021. The series was produced by Project No.9 and directed by Kazuya Iwata, with Satoru Sugizawa overseeing the scripts, Akemi Kobayashi designing the characters, Satoshi Motoyama serving as the sound director, and Satoshi Hōno and Ryūnosuke Kasai composing the music. It aired from April 8 to June 24, 2022, on AT-X, Tokyo MX, BS Asahi, and TV Aichi. Masayoshi Ōishi and Yukari Tamura performed the opening theme song "Koi wa Explosion" from Episodes 1–5 and 7–11, while Ōishi and Hiroki Yasumoto performed the theme for Episode 6, with the latter doing so as his character Culverin Bear. The ending theme song is "Koi wa Sekai Teiri to Tomo ni" by Dialogue+.Funimation originally licensed the series outside of Japan, but it was transferred over to Crunchyroll following Sony's acquisition of the latter. On April 11, 2022, Crunchyroll announced that the series would receive an English dub, which premiered on April 22.
Episodes
Reception
The series was nominated for the Eisner Award for Best Digital Comic in 2022.The anime adaptation's first episode garnered positive reviews from Anime News Network's staff during the Spring 2022 season previews. James Beckett called it "an extremely cute and surprisingly well-produced romantic comedy", but also critiqued that it could "easily suffer from diminishing returns" with lesser animation and an overreliance on the same jokes. Richard Eisenbeis found the Fudo-Desumi relationship "ultra-cute" and having "a sprinkle of social commentary", but felt the tokusatsu content lacked "subversion" and caused the series to feel "painfully predictable and almost boring" when away from the main couple, concluding that he would check out the manga to see if he might watch more of the show. Rebecca Silverman called it "equal parts super sentai sendup and gooey romcom, and it looks like those two things are going to mesh just as well here as they do in the source manga." Nicholas Dupree praised the production for keeping the Super Sentai humor fresh while displaying some "A+ romcom blushing", "cool fight choreography" and proper cheesecake in its fan service, concluding that: "I'm not going to tell you this show is deep or thought-provoking or even particularly romantic, but what I will say is I had a big dumb grin on my face the entire episode."
Fellow ANN editor Lynzee Loveridge chose Love After World Domination as her pick for the Best Anime of Spring 2022, praising Fudo and Desumi's relationship throughout the series, concluding that: "Love After World Domination isn't going to break the mold. Sometimes the animation is limited and the art doesn't always hold up either, but I enjoyed watching it with my husband every week and it always left us with a smile." Allen Moody, writing for THEM Anime Reviews, felt the series' outlandish premise was too tame and restrained in execution, the Fudo-Desumi pairing "disappointingly conventional" and a lack of focus on the supporting cast, concluding that: " while some of the jokes work just fine, there were some missed opportunities as well."