Romantic Killer – Season 1 Episode 12 Recap, Review & Ending Explained

Last Story!?

Episode 12 of Romantic Killer begins this finale with Hijiri asking Rio (Riri’s boy form) where Anzu is. Meanwhile, Anzu’s bleeding as she stares at Yukana. Tsuchiya tells Hijiri to continue working and let him, Tsukasa, Arisa, and Rio locate Anzu. Rio’s worried about Anzu as he looks at his dirty wand. Tsukasa spots Yukana and Anzu. Yukana spots Tsukasa and rushes toward him with her knife.

Multiple thoughts and memories flow through Tsukasa’s head at a rapid pace. Tsukasa knocks Yukana to the ground and orders her never to come across him or his friends again. Yukana thinks he’s playing around, but Anzu reiterates his words. The cops arrive while Anzu falls to the ground. At the police department, one of the officers escorts Anzu to her friends. Everyone is relieved she’s okay.

Tsukasa’s father arrives and grabs Tsukasa’s head. He forces Tsukasa to apologize to Anzu alongside him. He tells Anzu he plans to take Tsukasa with him, but Anzu stops him. She tells Tsukasa’s father that he will be staying in the city with her and scolds him for his poor fatherly behavior. At Anzu’s house, Anzu speaks with her mother on the phone.

Tsukasa enters the room, and Anzu tells Tsukasa that her mother will be flying home soon. Tsukasa thanks Anzu and tells him she’s always looked out for him. We get a flashback to their first encounter at the store before Anzu broke his phone. It turns out that multiple girls from his other school wouldn’t stop texting him. We get more scenes from prior episodes from Tsukasa’s perspective.

In most instances, Anzu was unexpectedly helping Tsukasa avoid conflict with other girls. Anzu and Tsukasa hug each other. The next day, Anzu’s mother arrives, and Anzu explains the situation further to her. Arisa says Tsukasa would like to stay with Anzu longer, and Anzu’s mother doesn’t object to the idea. Anzu asks where her father is, and Anzu’s mother says her father stayed behind to look after Momohiki.

Sometime later, Arisa asks their mother what Yukana’s punishment will be. Arisa’s mother doesn’t know. Meanwhile, Yukana’s uncle apologizes to Hijiri for his niece hurting his friend. Hijiri says he’ll let it go, but if she tries to hurt his friends again, he knows what he’ll do. Riri sits atop a tree and is happy to see Hijiri taking charge of the situation. However, Riri says they’ll take precautions to ensure their safety.

In her mental ward, Yukana says she’ll never stop her attempt at attaining Tsukasa’s love. Suddenly, Riri arrives and startles Yukana. Riri introduces himself as a wizard who couldn’t utilize magic because of his wand’s condition. Riri looks at Yukana with threatening eyes as the scene fades to black. After some time, Riri visits Anzu and tells her he handled some business.

He jokes with her for a bit and says goodbye. Anzu meets up with Arisa, who tells her that Yukana developed amnesia and doesn’t remember anything from the past few years, including Tsukasa. Tsukasa’s happy that he can start his life anew. Meanwhile, Anzu’s father arrives with some chocolate, video games, and Momohiki. As she’s cuddling Momohiki, Anzu realizes that she has her favorite hobbies in her possession.

Tsukasa and Junta discuss Tsukasa’s newfound feelings for Anzu. Junta knew he’d end up falling for her and feels he was out of Tsukasa’s league anyway. Tsukasa tells him not to worry, as Anzu probably views them both as friends. Anzu called out for Riri in another room. A new wizard named Kate reveals themselves and tells Anzu that Riri is gone and no longer assigned to her case.

Kate tells Anzu that Riri can no longer visit the human world, and Anzu asks why. Before Kate can respond, Junta enters the room. He notices her talking with Kate and freaks out. Anzu’s surprised while Kate’s shocked she forgot to cast the illusion spell. Anzu spills the beans to Junta and Tsukasa about Riri’s true nature and what he had planned for them. While it’s difficult to fathom, Tsukasa and Junta believe Anzu’s story.

Tsukasa tells Anzu it’s all okay because meeting her led to him defeating his trauma. Junta tells Anzu that it led to him reuniting with her, so he’s happy it happened. Kate tells Anzu that Riri’s forbidden from entering the human world because he committed a taboo. Kate explains Riri used magic for personal reasons. By erasing Yukana’s memory, he committed a taboo.

Tsukasa wonders why Riri would do that, and Kate explains it’s because Riri was personally invested in her and not for work purposes. Kate said Riri was about to face the worst punishment, but thankfully the company vouched for him. Riri will be subjected to menial tasks in the dungeon for the rest of their life. Anzu explains to Junta that the company is covering up Riri’s actions to maintain its public image.

Finally, Kate says Riri negotiated the return of Anzu’s three favorite hobbies. Anzu swipes Kate’s wand and threatens to dirty it if she doesn’t bring Riri back. Anzu tells Kate she already informed them of their mission, so there’s no point in going against her. Riri makes a phone call and informs Anzu that management allows Riri to return for 15 minutes.

Kate summons Riri and Anzu asks him to turn into Rio. Riri complies, and Anzu puts them in a chokehold for disappearing without telling her. Riri’s willing to accept any punishment for his actions. However, he’s surprised when Anzu thanks him. Tsukasa thanks him, but Riri feels like they should forget about him. Anzu tells Riri she can’t forget about him. She tells Riri to tell her what he wants.

With tears in their eyes, Riri tells Anzu they’d like to stay with her. Kate tells Anzu Riri’s time is up, but Anzu asks Kate to put a spell on Riri, so he can stay in this world. Riri says she can’t cast spells if it doesn’t pertain to her love life. But Anzu says she can use spells if it does pertain to her love life. Anzu proposes a theory that there could be a 0.001% chance that Riri can become her love interest.

Anzu says she can’t just take her potential love interest away from her. Kate casts the spell allowing Riri to stay in the human world. After that debacle, we’re shown Anzu, Tsukasa, and Junta walking together. Anzu says his family decided to head overseas, leaving Junta, Tsukasa, and her alone together again. Hijiri arrives in his vehicle and greets them.

Anzu thanks Hijiri for helping prevent Yukana’s uncle from sweeping the case under the rug. Hijiri wonders how she knew that and flees. While Anzu ponders what to do, Riri stumbles upon them in his girl form. Riri tells Anzu that they have a new rule to announce. Riri says if Anzu doesn’t prioritize her love interests, her things will get confiscated again.

Riri says if she doesn’t achieve a happy ending with someone by the time she graduates from high school, her things will be gone forever. Anzu’s enraged while Riri taunts Tsukasa and Junta that there’s a chance she’ll choose them. Meanwhile, Kate is looking for her next assignment, which happens to be Yukana. Anzu, Junta, Tsukasa, and Saki head to school.

The season concludes with Riri flying into the sky in his wizard form. He tells the audience that Anzu’s romantic love life is slowly but surely advancing. The season concludes with a “to be continued” title card.

The Episode Review

The last episode of Romantic Killer will leave many fans decisive. This episode didn’t close the book on Anzu’s journey, which can be worrisome. As of this review, there isn’t any news about this series having a second season despite its cliffhanger ending alluding to one. On that note, some viewers may not adore Yukana’s outcome.

Although getting her memory wiped is a nice punishment, it feels like Yukana got off easy. From continuously torturing Tsukasa to her attempts at killing Anzu, she should have served some jail time for her actions. Giving her a chance at romance and wiping her memory feels like a strange move. Gripes aside, it’ll be interesting to see how Yukana will redeem herself in a future season.

The whole Riri and Kate situation feels contrived. There were many rule-breaking and bending moments in this episode that left me puzzled. At the same time, it feels great to have Riri as a part of the Ikemen options for Anzu. Riri and Anzu had great chemistry together. They provided me with the most laughs. While I’m still rooting for Tsukasa and Anzu to be together, I can’t ignore Riri’s enthusiasm.

This chapter is a decent finale for Romantic Killer’s first season. As stated earlier, I’m unsure if this series will resume or conclude here. Hopefully, viewers can look forward to more episodes down the line. It would help build upon Anzu’s relationships while expanding upon the series’ lore involving Yukana’s fate and Riri’s organization.