As I mentioned earlier, there has been a lot of romantic comedies coming out. This one “Wolf Girl and Black Prince” (“Ōkami Shōjo to Kuro Ōji”) is an interesting take on things in the realm of high school love.

The story centers around Erika Shinohara, a 16-year-old girl who tells her friends about her romantic exploits, but she actually has no boyfriend. Well, you had best produce, so she claims that the handsome boy in a candid photo on her phone is her boyfriend, but it turns out that boy is a schoolmate named Kyōya Sata. She has no choice but to make him her fake boyfriend. Unfortunately, Sata may look like a sweet person, but he is actually an ultra-black-hearted sadist. Sata takes advantage of Erika’s weakness and treats her like his dog.

And, I mean, he is really mean. He doesn’t exploit her or really blackmails her, but he is as cold as they come and Erika feels trapped into this all. This is where some of my resentment crops up. A couple of opportunities arise that she could dump him and just write it off as ‘things didn’t work out.’ It also brings up the second question: what if her two friends, Marin Tachibana and Aki Tezuka, are also faking it and they really don’t have boyfriends? Just a thought.

It becomes a game, as Sata will defend Erika’s honor against any interloper, but won’t give her the time of day otherwise. To make matters worse, she finds herself falling for him. Oh, the title? She really is a lone wolf and doesn’t initially feel she needs anyone, but that gets changed. He is the Black Prince, as he is quite mean and evil in her treatment of Erika on general terms. Perhaps I am seeing this wrong. It may be an indictment of what is expected of girls in a relationship and how they are willing to absorb a huge amount of mistreatment in order to give the appearance they have a real, genuine, bona fide boyfriend and are not some lonely spinster, pre-crazy cat lady type, who will eventually wind up, sitting on the couch, eating frosting from the can and watching “Maury” (“You are NOT succeeding in your life!”)

You should at least watch a couple of episodes. The hate-hate relationship might wear on you and the Escape Options offered to Erika are never taken, although it would be logical and helpful. It’s not as frustrating as “Peach Girl”, but there were episodes that moved close to that territory. You have been warned.
On a scale of 1 to 10:

Artwork 8 (Everyone is almost too good-looking)
Plot 8 (Good alterations on something standard)
Pacing 7 (Moves along consistently)
Effectiveness 7 (Some aspects don’t ring true)
Conclusion 7 (It reaches a ‘coupler’, but hasn’t ended)
Fan Service 2 (A similar show would be “Okamisan”)

Overall 7 (Got a bit too soap opera for me)

And remember, it’s first run until you’ve seen it. This one is mine.