Who Does Shu End Up With in Engage Kiss?

Engage Kiss started off pretty basic: a love triangle rom-com that's also part action. Fans were, of course, pleasantly surprised when a weighty third episode suddenly made the story and characters more complex. Out of many questions that emerged thereafter, one of the most pressing is who Shu ends up with in Engage Kiss.

Since Engage Kiss is an original anime, nobody knows what's going to happen or which direction the story is going to take.

What we do have so far are Shu and the two girls in his life, Kisara and Ayano, and his volatile relations with both of them. We can't really say for sure yet who among the two Shu is going to pick, but we've been given enough material to speculate.

In order to come up with a logical guess, we must first hash out Shu's relationship with each of the girls.

Does Shu Love Kisara?

Shu's relationship with Kisara is, in many ways, strange.

For starters, Kisara is a demon while Shu is an average human who owns a small Private Military Company or PMC, which is a kind of company that secretly takes on demon extermination jobs in Bayron City.

Secondly, while Shu and Kisara look like your typical couple, they are actually linked by something far less romantic. Their setup is, in truth, a lot more tragic.

In Bayron City, humans who are willingly in some contract with demons (referred to as demon-possession in the show) give something to the demon in exchange for their help.

In Shu and Kisara's case, Shu makes use of Kisara's massive power as an A-ranked demon to take down demons weaker than herself. Despite her ranking, however, she sometimes runs out of energy which Shu then has to replenish with a kiss, hence the series' title.

However, there's more to these "kisses" than just being the mushy "I am strong with the power of love!" kind of thing.

What actually happens is before Kisara could fulfill her role as Shu's company's strong demon girl, he has to first give up memories of his choosing to Kisara. The kisses are just the way she absorbs said memories.

You can think of it as Shu's memories filling up Kisara's demon power bar.

Right now, it looks like Shu doesn't see Kisara as anything other than his demon helper, even if he doesn't deny being her boyfriend. He is kind to Kisara too, but his actions don't exactly show that he loves her in a romantic way.

Too bad for Kisara, who doesn't miss a beat showing Shu and everyone else that she's crazy about him, and even goes out of her way to make sure he's getting by.

She knows Shu will never love her like she does, but she stays by his side anyway.

Related: How Many Episodes Will Engage Kiss Have?

Does Shu Still Love Ayano?

Ayano is Shu's ex-girlfriend. They were also former colleagues at the city's biggest PMC. For reasons yet to be revealed, Shu suddenly left the company at some point before and it's assumed he left Ayano around the same time.

Even though everybody knows Shu and Kisara are a couple now, the two ex-lovers still regularly meet. It's mostly for work, but it's obvious that Ayano still tries to physically take care of him by buying him food and even covering some of his bills.

It's also thanks to Ayano, whose mom owns the PMC where they both worked, that Shu gets the demon-extermination jobs that he wants.

Without the revelations in episode 3, Shu came off as the sleazy type, juggling and taking advantage of two girls at the same time. But after the circumstances surrounding the three of them were explained, things became a little more depressing.

As previously mentioned, Shu willingly gives up his memories to Kisara so she could fight with her full power, and he'd already given up some of the memories he had with Ayano.

This partly explains why Shu acts insincere towards Ayano. He most likely still has feelings for her, but without memories of the time they had spent together, the feelings probably only confuse him at this point.

Shu had become deadset on achieving his goals, even if it meant throwing away his relationships.

Even so, it's quite clear that Ayano still loves Shu deeply. Without her knowing that Shu is slowly losing his memories of her, it must be difficult to think she's the only one still hopeful for the love they once shared.

Who Does Shu End Up With in Engage Kiss?

Right now, it would be impossible to tell who Shu might end up with in Engage Kiss, although it's safe to say he truly cares for both Kisara and Ayano, even if he's bad at showing it.

With only three episodes currently and with the revelations only being the tip of how the story is going to be, fans could only speculate.

Shu's tragic past involving his family has been introduced, explaining, if not excusing, his choice of letting the girl he loved go in order to save her from his would-be messy revenge plot, and even having to date and kiss a girl he didn't love in the process.

At this point, Shu's choice could really come down to a coin toss, considering he's romantically unsure about either of them. After all, both women are deserving of him with the way they care for him.

Shu might end up developing feelings for Kisara the more things they go through together, or he might end up falling for Ayano all over again after his past memories are all wiped out.

Or he might end up not getting with any of them at all. Let's just hope nobody dies so someone could win.

Engage Kiss made a steep descent (or ascent) into becoming deep and rich, but for a story by Fumiaki Maruto (known for depressing stories such as White Album 2), the sad twist was bound to come at some point.

Fans will have to keep watching Engage Kiss to see how the love triangle involving Shu, Kisara, and Ayano will pan out, no matter how painful it might be.

Read next: The Best Anime Couples of 2022