Engage Kiss

Lore & Background

The project centers on Shu Ogata, who runs a small PMC called I&S Office in Bayron City. His only employee is Kisara, a demon girl hundreds of years old who can eat memories. Shu frequently contacts his ex-girlfriend Ayano Yugiri for help, despite their breakup. Shu's goal is to uncover the truth behind a D-Hazard incident that caused his parents and sister to go missing. Other characters include Sharon Holygrail, Shu's second ex-girlfriend who is an assassin, and Kanna Ogata, Shu's part-demon sister who later lives with him.

The anime was produced by A-1 Pictures, directed by Tomoya Tanaka, with music by Yoshiaki Fujisawa. It aired on Tokyo MX and other channels. The opening theme is "Everyone, Scramble" by Halca, and the ending theme is "Love-Brain" by Nanawo Akari. Aniplex of America licensed the series for English simulcast and simuldub on Crunchyroll. The manga adaptation was illustrated by Itachi. The mobile game Engage Kill was developed by Square Enix and ended service on March 21, 2024.

Reader's Guide

Engage Kiss is significant as a multi-platform project that combines anime, manga, and a mobile game, created by Aniplex. The anime features staff known for other popular series: writer Fumiaki Maruto (author of Saekano) and character designer Tsunako (illustrator of Date A Live). The project explores themes of memory, demonic threats, and personal relationships within a PMC setting. Its legacy includes a complete manga run and a mobile game that operated for about a year. The series was accessible internationally through Crunchyroll, expanding its audience beyond Japan.

Did You Know?

• The anime aired from July 3 to September 25, 2022, on Tokyo MX and other channels.
• The opening theme song is performed by Halca, and the ending theme by Nanawo Akari.

Production & Media Ecosystem

Engage Kiss originated as a mixed-media franchise developed under the Aniplex banner, weaving together multiple interconnected properties. The narrative first took shape as a manga serialized in the digital magazine Manga Up!, running from July 2022 through March 2024. Almost simultaneously, an anime television adaptation was produced by A-1 Pictures, with Fumiaki Maruto handling the screenplay and Tsunako responsible for character designs. The animated series aired as a single summer cour spanning July through September 2022. The franchise's expansion into interactive media arrived in March 2023, when Square Enix launched Engage Kill, an action RPG mobile game positioned as both a follow-up and a sequel to the anime's story. This multi-platform rollout—spanning print, broadcast animation, and mobile gaming—gave the project a broad footprint across Japanese entertainment, with each medium offering its own entry point while sharing the same fictional universe of Bayron City and its hidden demon threat.

Plot & World-Building

The narrative is set on Bayron City, a man-made island floating in the Pacific Ocean just off Japan's coast. The city's public face is one of normalcy, but beneath that veneer, mysterious demons have begun appearing with increasing frequency. To prevent public panic, the municipal government quietly contracts private military companies to track down and neutralize these creatures, which are officially classified as D-Hazards. At the center of this covert war is Shu Ogata, a perpetually broke young man who operates a tiny PMC called I&S Office. His sole operative is Kisara, a demon girl who looks like a teenager but is actually centuries old and possesses formidable combat abilities. Despite Shu's apparent lack of ambition and his constant financial struggles, he harbors a deeply personal motivation: years earlier, a D-Hazard incident claimed his parents and sister, and he remains determined to uncover what truly happened to them. This buried grief drives a character who otherwise seems content to coast on the goodwill of the women around him.

Core Cast & Relationship Dynamics

The emotional core of Engage Kiss revolves around Shu Ogata and the women whose lives intersect with his. Kisara, his demon employee, attends a local high school in Bayron City and possesses the unsettling ability to consume the memories of those around her, including Shu's own recollections. Ayano Yugiri, Shu's first ex-girlfriend, is the daughter of AAA Defender Co. chairman Akino and a member of that very PMC. The two met as children, and although their romance has ended, Ayano continues to respond to Shu's repeated pleas for assistance. Sharon Holygrail, his second ex, presents herself as a nun of the Seiten Church but is in reality an assassin embedded in an international anti-D-Hazard organization. Shu's younger sister Kanna, a part-demon, was long trapped in an underground area; after her liberation she initially clashes with Kisara and the team before eventually moving in with her brother. Together, these relationships form a web of loyalty, obligation, and unresolved feeling that defines the series' interpersonal drama.

Engage Kill & the Rising Sun Military Corps

Square Enix's 2023 mobile action RPG, Engage Kill, extends the Bayron City universe by introducing the Rising Sun Military Corps, a new faction populated by a distinct ensemble. Chloe Tang, the player's first recruited employee, hails from a wealthy family and carries superhuman combat training, yet her defining quirk is an insatiable appetite; she has been traveling the world since age eleven, accumulating a turbulent personal history. Shiho Takenouchi handles administrative duties and, despite past trauma from a soul-crushing job at a shady company, proves remarkably competent in accounting and logistics. Aoi Kotobuki, formerly of a North American PMC, brings a stoic, combat-focused demeanor and had never even known demons existed due to Bayron City's information censorship. Emilio Romero Álvarez gathers intelligence from the city's Old Town, where his past involvement in illegal activities gives him deep connections to the underground, and his frequent restaurant visits have made him a local food connoisseur. Noel, a nineteen-year-old mechanic of mixed American and Indian heritage, is often mistaken for a child and honed her extraordinary engineering skills through years of solitary tinkering.