Lovely★Complex (Lovely Complex)

Love is unusual for Risa Koizumi and Atsushi Ootani, who are both striving to find their ideal partner in high school—172 cm tall Koizumi is much taller than the average girl, and Ootani is much shorter than the average guy at 156 cm. To add to their plights, their crushes fall in love with each other, leaving Koizumi and Ootani comically flustered and heartbroken. To make matters worse, they're even labeled as a comedy duo by their homeroom teacher due to their personalities and the stark difference in their heights, and their classmates even think of their arguments as sketches.

Lovely★Complex follows Koizumi and Ootani as they encourage each other in finding love and become close friends. Apart from their ridiculous antics, they soon find out an unexpected similarity in their music and fashion tastes. Maybe they possess a chemistry yet unknown, but could love ever bloom between the mismatched pair?

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

The North American distribution company Discotek released a Blu-ray for the series on January 30th, 2024, which was also the first time the series was dubbed in English.

Episode Videos

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Related Anime

Adaptation:

Lovely★Complex

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Koizumi, Risa

Main

Okamura, Akemi
Japanese

Ootani, Atsushi

Main

Nagata, Akira
Japanese

Ishihara, Nobuko

Supporting

Higashi, Saori
Japanese

Kotobuki, Seishirou

Supporting

Takimoto, Fujiko
Japanese

Kohori, Kazuki

Supporting

Shimowada, Hiroki
Japanese

Nakao, Heikichi

Supporting

Tokuyama, Yasuhiko
Japanese

Kuniumi, Maitake

Supporting

Suwabe, Junichi
Japanese

Umibouzu

Supporting

Smokey, Tetsuni
Japanese

Fukagawa, Haruka

Supporting

Onosaka, Masaya
Japanese

Yoshioka, Mimi

Supporting

Araki, Kae
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Seki, Hiromi

Producer

Abe, Junko

Producer

Uda, Kounosuke

Director, Episode Director

Fukutomi, Hiroshi

Episode Director

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Opening Theme

	1: "Kimi + Boku = Love?" by Tegomass (eps 1-13)
	2: "Hey! Say!" by Hey!Say! 7

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Ending Theme

	1: "Kiss ~ Kaerimichi no Love Song" by Tegomass (eps 1-13)
	2: "BON BON" by Hey! Say! 7 (eps 14-24)

Reviews

Aug 31, 2007

lowell

Recommended

I really, really, really loved LoveCom.

It was cute, insightful, hilarious and endearing. It was my most anticipated episode every week. I always wanted more. I want more now even though I know it's over!

The story is about the tallest girl and the shortest boy in class and their search for love in high school. It turns out they're both kooky, funny and energetic. They're also perfect for each other... too bad they don't see that. The story isn't complicated or new, but it was told so well that it crawled into right into that soft spot in my heart.

The ... romance is built slowly over time and by the end, you're head over heels for them because the creators did such a great job of laying down the foundation and actually showing you how their feelings grow over time. It's not like a lot of shows where all of a sudden in a haze of fuzzy lighting and rose petals, love magically sprouts out of nowhere. Instead, you see a friendship begin, a moment happens, interest blossoms, awareness grows... the whole nine yards. You really get to know Koizumi and Otani over the course of the show and I was rooting like crazy for them.

The characters are so over the top and out of control that it's hard not to laugh. They exaggerate, make ridiculous faces and they over-react to everything. It's really kind of hammy, but that's part of the fun. And it's refreshing to see a female lead who isn't some stereotype of a dominatrix-in-training or a weak, helpless nitwit. She seems like a real human being with strong points and weak points. She isn't afraid to get ugly and imperfect sometimes and I think it's really great that they made her (and, really, him too) full of all these flaws and not-so-attractive traits... and yet so completely charming and loveable. It makes them really... human. I would say that if you like the relationship (without the music and with a lot more actual focus on romance) of Nodame and Chiaki from Nodame Cantabile, you might like this too because there's a similarity in the way that the relationships go both ways and the strength that each of them brings to the relationship.

The art is great too. First of all, they took the time and effort to change the characters appearances day to day and give them all a sense of their own style, which I really appreciate. It's just really thorough and well-executed. I completely agree with YoshikoHatake, there is something about the style that brings Bokura Ga Ita to mind, even though the tone of the story is completely different (BGI felt a lot more serious and the colors and style reflect that somewhat, I think). Music-wise, it's also nice. I don't normally notice the openings and endings that much (I've always hated credits), but LoveCom's are really good in a perky, energetic kind of way, which suits the show perfectly, and I find myself singing along w/ the karaoke. ;)

Enjoy! =)

P.S. I really haven't seen very many romances that do this good of a job at being funny and sweet and tender and honest. If you have, I'd love suggestions!

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May 19, 2015

TokyoSanchez

Mixed Feelings

Can't wait for the hate for this one.

At the start of watching Lovely Complex, I was certain that I was going to love this show, being a fan of shoujo romance. I can't say that I dislike it, but rather I was heavily dissapointed by it.

Throughout the first half, I really enjoyed what it brought to the table. The start was a little rough, but it was a nice twist to an unoriginal genre (I say this way too much with romance anime, but so be it). Otani and Risa are a pairing that are so much fun to watch. The back and forth ... between them was well handled early on. Not only that, but it did extremely well with the themes of unrequited love and beauty is only skin deep.

The thing is, as the anime trotted along, I realized that this was the ONLY thing it did. It kept beating the theme of unrequited love so much that it lost a lot of it's impact. There wasn't a lot of anything else that the characters talked about other than Otani and Risa's relationship until the very end of the series. The saying goes that variety is the spice of life, and the lack of this in Lovely Complex grated on my patience.

This also bears a problem when talking about side characters. The four best friends of Otani and Risa (aside from Nobu who I will get to in a minute) have barely anything to them. They are left sidelined till the last couple episodes, just so the anime could say that they developed them. Hell, the one defining character trait of Chiharu established in episode one, which was she feared men, was not brought back up until episode the second to last episode.

Nobu is the only other character besides the main leads that gets much screen-time at all. All her character is is her yelling at either Otani or Risa to either do something about their relationship, or yelling at them because they did something wrong. I didn't dislike her character, but I just felt I should mention how one note she felt for the majority of the series.

As for the rest of the side characters, most of them are just plot devices to cause tension between Otani and Risa.

Otani and Risa themselves, while frustrating at times, were the best part of the series. Risa is a girl who tries very hard to achieve her goals. Even though she cries a lot, which did get annoying sometimes, it was hard not to get behind her whenever she fails or succeeds. I also liked how Otani dealt with the whole unrequited love thing. I won't spoil it, but he handled it in a way that was frustrating but very believable, which I appreciated a great deal. They aren't the best couple I've seen, as they suffered a lot from the lack of buildup of their relationship due to the stretched out nature of the middle section of the show, but they were an extremely fun couple, for the most part.

The art and animation was not fantastic. While I liked the colour palette they used, and the character designs were well done, and my god the facial expressions were amazing, but it still felt a little flat to me. The animation was stiff as well.

The soundtrack was extremely memorable. Normally romance soundtracks don't have much of an impact on me, but there were a few songs in this one that were fantastically put together. Some stand outs would be World's End, Risa, DUNK SHOOT, Deep Past, and Theme of LoveCom. Complex is also noteworthy, but only because the first 18 seconds are more or less a complete copy of the chorus of The Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby". Seriously, go listen to them both.

The voice acting is also memorable in how everyone has a kansai dialect. The voices of Risa and Otani are very good as far as I'm concerned. There were technically some bad voice actors here and there, Chiharu and Suzuki for example, but there voices were so different that I loved their voices regardless.

Lovely Complex is a show that seems to focus on very specific things, which ended up hurting many other aspects of the show that could of been interesting. And while yes, these things that were so heavily focused on were well done, I was spoon fed so much of the same thing that it left me grasping for something else. It doesn't help when all your characters talk about is Otani and Risa's love life, and basically nothing else until the very end of the series, and that the drama felt very forced, especially towards the end. That being said, the end did leave off on strong note, with everything wrapping up very nicely, even if the drama was forced. Overall, Lovely Complex was a fun show to watch, with some great cutesy moments and comedy moments, but it isn't a show I would highly recommend. Of course, I think I'm in the minority here, so if you watch it and end up loving it, more power to you.

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Apr 17, 2010

360ken

Not Recommended

I really have a lot of bad things to say about this show but I'll warn you if it gets too spoiler-laden. Here starts the review.

STORY- 2 (Dreadful)
Lovely Complex is about two high school kids, Risa and Otani. They are a comedy duo because whever they're together they fight, argue, make fun of each other, and cause a scene, which makes bystanders laugh. Risa is taller than most guys and that's a problem for her because she's desperately searching for a boyfriend. Otani is sort of a dumb jock/trouble maker. He's shorter than almost all the girls and he's also self-conscious about it. ...

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Poll: Lovely Complex Episode 9 Discussion ( 1 2 ) icerydragon - Jun 3, 2007	61 replies	by JoestarEISH_020 »» Apr 7, 3:15 PM
Poll: Lovely Complex Episode 8 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Enn - Jun 1, 2007	98 replies	by JoestarEISH_020 »» Apr 7, 2:50 PM
Poll: Lovely Complex Episode 7 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Kayrhandros - May 24, 2007	82 replies	by JoestarEISH_020 »» Apr 7, 1:10 PM
Poll: Lovely Complex Episode 6 Discussion ( 1 2 ) tainteddonut - May 16, 2007	63 replies	by JoestarEISH_020 »» Apr 7, 12:44 PM
Poll: Lovely Complex Episode 5 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Kayrhandros - May 9, 2007	99 replies	by JoestarEISH_020 »» Apr 7, 12:16 PM

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Koizumi, Risa

Ootani, Atsushi

Ishihara, Nobuko

Kotobuki, Seishirou

Kohori, Kazuki

Nakao, Heikichi

Kuniumi, Maitake

Umibouzu

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