Love Lab

At Fujisaki Girls Academy, student council president Natsuo Maki is the epitome of grace and perfection, admired by all the young girls who attend the school. One day, Riko Kurahashi walks into the student council room on an errand, only to discover Natsuo practicing her kissing techniques on a pillow, an act that is neither graceful nor elegant. Riko soon discovers that Natsuo desires more romance in her life, leading her to practice "romantic situations" in secret.

Sympathizing with her, Riko agrees to help Natsuo with her love research. Named "Love Lab," the project practices the essentials of love and romance, such as bumping into each other "accidentally" and holding hands. Soon, the entire student council joins in on the fun in the Love Lab too! Through their research and real life encounters, what will they learn about romance?

Weaving together funny characters and comedic situations, Love Lab builds a story of friendship and romance, while never missing a beat with the laughter.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Episode 1 was previewed at a screening in Tokyo on June 30, 2013. Regular broadcasting began on July 5, 2013.

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Supporting

Arai, Satomi
Japanese

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Toba, Yousuke

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Kananiwa, Kozue

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Maruyama, Hiroo

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Kamata, Hajime

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Opening Theme

"Love Shitai! (恋愛（ラブ）したいっ!)" by Fuji-Jo Seitokai Shikkou-Bu (eps 1-12)

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Ending Theme

"Best FriendS" by Fuji-Jo Seitokai Shikkou-Bu

Reviews

Nov 15, 2021

Fishymonster_

Recommended

My biggest pet peeve with comedy anime, which is especially prevalent in moe comedy anime it seems, is when emotional tension is undermined by poorly placed gags or jokes. Sure, I'm watching the show because it's funny, but if a show was ONLY funny and nothing else it wouldn't be interesting. This is something that love lab does NOT DO. They actually handle the more dramatic scenes really well. They still interject comedy in them here and there, but it's well-placed. This is not the funniest show I've ever seen, though it did make me laugh a decent amount. What I love about this show ...

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Apr 3, 2021

Tsunega21

Recommended

Mostly a Cute Girls Doing Cute Things anime, but it had me laughing out loud and had me on the brink of tears.

Hilarious, brilliant OP and END songs, kinda tropy at times but I loved it.

For Shoujo ai fans, there isn't any but the friendships are really great to see develop and the girls have great chemistry. Top voice acting and brilliant music throughout.

If you're a fan of the CGDCT genre of anime watch it, only 13 episodes, every one of them is fantastic. Great to see how the girls take on the challenges and the way they go about it unexpected and a ...

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Mar 15, 2022

PixelB

Mixed Feelings

Love Lab is a surprisingly decent comedy that tries to incorporate melodrama when it really doesn't need to. In fact, it only muddies the waters and it makes you wonder what the identity of the show is going for.
Love Lab is built on a comedic premise about girls dreaming about their ideal guy and fantasizing about them in unrealistic scenarios: the childish fantasies fuel the show and characters, and it's what makes the comedy charming. Yet, on the other hand, you have a decent amount of conflict and drama in a comedically themed show.
I never really expected this show to be realistic or anything beyond ... comedic since it's not really what it was aiming for in the first few episodes, and it doesn't fit the theme of the show at all. It makes sense, considering that despite the girls in the show doing research on love, there's no romance at all, and there's just fantasies and imaginary scenarios.
It definitely is strange that there is such an emphasis on drama in this show despite its silly premise. I wonder why there's always shows like these, which can't make up their mind on focusing on a set of genres that don't clash with each other? It's fine if a comedy has some drama, and it sometimes is expected. After all, a show can't always be a pure gag. There's bound to be some story or character development arcs. A good example of this Boku no Tonari. It's a comedy too, but it maybe used a couple episodes of drama at most, with emphasis on comedy. Contrast this to Love Lab, where every single arc after the first in the show has some sort of conflict and drama, with comedy sprinkled in between. There's some intermission scenes with pure comedy, but for the most part, you're going to be seeing some melodrama unfolding.
I'd say that perhaps 30-40% of the show is melodrama, which is a decent chunk of the show, and if I were to judge purely based on that content, then this show would score not nearly as high as I rated it. Comedy carries this show hard, and so I just kind of find it weird that it's not the focus half the time.
If the show wanted to be more serious, it should have taken a more serious direction. Have a show be about research on love and with drama sprinkled in? Why not actually introduce romance or Yuri, so there actually is some sort of drama and conflict that makes sense with the theme of the show? Instead, the show does stupid things like introduce consequences to a light-hearted action like punishing student council members for an unannounced broadcast. Does it really make sense that this would be a problem in a comedy show? Come on. Even the final arc of the show really forces the conflict and is precedented on a terribly predictable misunderstanding that everyone would have figured out. The show could have still resolved the conflict in a reasonable manner if it was framed better, but instead, it drags out the melodrama for no particularly good reason.
Again, and it's like I'm a broken record at this point, but Love Lab would have succeeded a lot more if it decided to go with a theme that it stuck with. If it wanted melodrama, it should have built a cast of characters and introduced relationships and stories that fit it. Otherwise, just focus on the comedy, please.

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Poll: Love Lab Episode 13 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) Stark700 - Sep 26, 2013	151 replies	by WELLERM »» Dec 9, 2023 8:33 AM
Poll: Love Lab Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Sep 19, 2013	88 replies	by WELLERM »» Dec 9, 2023 8:33 AM
Poll: Love Lab Episode 11 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Sep 12, 2013	66 replies	by WELLERM »» Dec 9, 2023 8:32 AM
Poll: Love Lab Episode 10 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Sep 5, 2013	81 replies	by WELLERM »» Dec 9, 2023 8:32 AM
Poll: Love Lab Episode 9 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Aug 29, 2013	69 replies	by WELLERM »» Dec 9, 2023 8:31 AM

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Kurahashi, Riko

Mizushima, Sayori

Enomoto, Yuiko

Tanahashi, Suzune

Ikezawa, Masaomi

Nagino, Satoshi

Minami, Momoka

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