Alternative TitlesSynonyms: LoveCom, Love Com Japanese: ラブ★コン
Information
Type: TV
Episodes: 24
Status: Finished Airing
Aired: Apr 7, 2007 to Sep 27, 2007
Duration:
24 min. per episode Rating:
PG-13 - Teens 13 or older
L represents licensing company
StatisticsScore: 8.441 (scored by 12793 users)
Ranked: #822
Popularity: #88
Members: 20,329
Favorites: 1,202 1 indicates a weighted score
My Info
Popular Tags
comedy romance school shoujo |
SynopsisRisa and Otani are always being laughed at as the comedy duo. Risa, a girl, is taller than the average girl, and Otani, a boy, is shorter than the average boy. The two are always bickering and even their teacher sees them as a comedy act. But as their friendship develops, so do Risa's feelings toward Otani. (Source: AniDB.net) |
Related AnimeAdaptation: Lovely Complex
Characters & Voice Actors
Staff
Reviews
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kiriska
22 of 27 people found this review helpful
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24 of 24 episodes seen
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| Overall |
8 |
| Story |
8 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
9 |
| Character |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
Girl meets boy and girl likes boy. But girl is also half a foot taller than boy and thus, epic drama ensues!
S T O R Y - I don't read/watch a lot of shoujo, but from the start, I figured it was a pretty basic plot and as a result, probably a pretty generic story. I was right -- it's a lot of what you would typically expect from shoujo: lots of silly romantic drama, lots of hilarious shenanigans, and the your handful of cute, fluffy moments scattered throughout that always feel like an shot of diabetic sweetness straight to your black, black heart. And it was wonderfully done for the most part. As predictable as the overarching story can be, it was still very engaging and fun to watch. The slice of life approach makes the episode-to-episode drama slightly less obvious, and I really loved that time actually moves throughout the series.
I suppose time progression would logically be more common in slice of life and shoujo series, but since I don't dabble into the genre much, it was very refreshing for me to experience. The series begins as the characters start high school and ends neatly as they graduate. Time moves at a pretty fixed pace, so there's no awkwardness in transitions. I was also really happy to see the beginning, creation, and progression of a relationship -- the series doesn't just end when they get together (I refuse to count that as a spoiler; I mean, c'mon. Did you ever have any doubts?), it keeps going and explores some of their problems and potential future. All in all, it's wrapped up pretty nicely. The story, while fairly generic, is solid, well told, and just silly and fun. The pacing is steady, and though things do feel like they're being dragged along occasionally, the feeling never lasts long. It's a good thing to watch after a shitty day. I'm actually really sad it's over for that very reason.
C H A R A C T E R - Risa Koizumi is a very dramatic girl. It's fun at first; after a while it got a little tiring. But then I came to realize that wait. Girls really ARE like this! They ARE overdramatic and hysterical and crazy and thoroughly ridiculous. After realizing that amazing truth, I didn't mind so much anymore. Risa is just a girl. And that's how they are. Honestly, I can't call her unrealistic in good conscience because everything she does, every over-the-top reaction she has, I can imagine someone I know in real life doing the same. Considering that, I think Risa's actually a pretty damn well done character. She's very sympathetic and easy to relate to, even when she's crying for the fifth time in five episodes. And she grows -- her feelings for Otani evolve and mature a lot throughout the series, and through you're constantly reminded of this progression through three-second flashbacks, it is something that's nice to look back on.
Atsushi Otani is an idiot. It's fun at first; after a while, it gets a little frustrating. But then I came to realize that wait! Boys really ARE like this! They're retarded and stupid and dense and miss all the obvious signs and are super awkward when they do finally get it! Amazing. Once again, I found Otani's depiction to be hilariously accurate on many levels. He does tend to be much less dramatic than Risa, but that's not surprising considering the male stereotype and the fact that his point of view isn't focused on as much until the second half of the series. Though both Risa's and Otani's feelings are undoubtedly romanticized greatly, I found the slower development of Otani's feelings a lot more interesting -- you know what's going to happen, but watching everything unfold is still interesting.
The supporting cast of friends do a great job of contrasting their lovey-dovey relationships with the irregular, often immature, and haphazard relationship of our protagonists. This makes them all noticeably idealized to the point where they're more roles than in-depth characters, but I guess that's all they really needed to be. Seiko and Haruka were fun gimmicks as well. Still, Nobuko was a pretty convincing best friend for Risa, likely because she had the most screentime of the supporting cast.
A R T S T Y L E & A N I M A T I O N - The animation and art jump around a lot in this series, so there's a bit of bad and a bit of good. The opening and end themes had a lot of fun variation to them, though all seemed pretty typical of shoujo, especially in the sense that they played around with the characters' fashion and style a lot. In the episodes themselves, the characters jumped back and forth from a pretty lazy and generic style to a really hilarious caricature style to a super, sparkle-filled, shiny, pretty shoujo style. The first of those three was the most common and got annoying sometimes because there would be strange discrepancies in how certain things (people, buildings, objects) look and I noticed some variations in height differences and proportions, especially for Risa whose lanky shape stands out a lot when the proportions change. The second was really amusing, especially since many of the SD faces are uniquely and hilariously grotesque and the characters don't hesitate to point this out themselves. The final style naturally showed up in all the super romanticized and climatic scenes -- its those scenes they saved their animation budget on, I'm sure -- making everything that much sweeter. It's predictable, but hey, it's gorgeous and cute and it works, dammit.
Another thing I'm sure is pretty common in shoujo, but that I appreciated all the same, was the fact that fashions changed from scene to scene, episode to episode. I loved that characters changed their clothes every day and had a lot of seasonal fashions; they would also be scene shopping occasionally and the clothes they buy would show up later, etc. I also loved that Risa's hair was constantly changing -- sometimes it coincided with her mood and emotions; sometimes it coincided with events or the weather; sometimes it was just different. It's not that big a deal, really, but it makes the characters that much more real and easier to relate to.
Overall, Love★Com's animation is just average, but it's good enough and the style definitely suits the series.
M U S I C - The first time I heard the first opening theme, "Kimi + Boku = Love?" by Tegomass, it confirmed all the stereotypical expectations I had for the series. It's upbeat and cheerful-hopeful, the vocalist's voice has an endearing, dorky quality to it, and the even the name of the song is corny as hell. It felt very right. End themes are generally slower, more somber, and more thoughtful compared to opening themes, and the first end theme, also by Tegomass, was no different. It kind of struck me how different the vocalist sounded. It also felt very right, and both songs really grew on me during the first half of the series.
Surprisingly though, the second pair of themes for the series are even better! I absolutely adore how the second opening, "Hey! Say!" by Hey!Say! 7 starts. In conjunction with the colorful animation sequence, it suits the series perfectly. It's the kind of music that I imagine Risa and Otani would listen to in addition to Umibouzu, and the lyrics are adorable. The same can be said for the second end theme, "BON BON," also by Hey!Say! 7 -- it's much more upbeat than the first end theme (though still reasonably thoughtful and kind of reminiscent) and once again, just adorable.
Love★Com also surprised me by having a really nice general soundtrack. The theme that played for all of the more depressing scenes was especially pretty and sweet to listen to. For other series of Love★Com's technical quality, I usually don't notice the soundtracks because they're generic and bland, so it's definitely worth noting that the music in this actually stood out. It's one of those soundtracks I wouldn't mind listening to outside of watching the actual series.
V O I C E A C T I N G - If you actually know Japanese or if you are just a gigantic dork, you might notice that pretty much all of the characters in this series speak in a Kansai dialect, which makes sense since the story takes place in Osaka. I found this pretty awesome because while a lot of series will have one or two characters that speak in the dialect, few have the full cast speaking in it. The last time I heard so many "aho"s instead of "baka" was in BECK. It's really interesting and neat to hear because even if you don't understand the language that well or realize that it's a different dialect, if you've seen a lot of subbed anime, you'll be able to pick up on slight changes in pronunciation and vocabulary (the most obvious things that I caught were "na" instead of "ne" and "chau" instead of "chigau"). For Risa, I also found her pronunciation of "Otani" to be occasionally distracting because she stresses the "o" a lot more than I would normally expect.
Other than fun dialect stuff, the voices themselves were pretty average. Risa's isn't that memorable, but it works well enough for her role. I was more impressed by Otani's voice because I found that he had a wider range of emotions and a much more recognizable tone overall -- his voice has a really unique inflection when he's upset or surprised, but it's also very charming when he's being serious. Other notable roles: Nakao was surprisingly soft-spoken, which goes great with his character, but was still surprising to hear because few people ever speak that quietly. Seiko's voice was obnoxiously high-pitched, which also went great with his/her character, but it also made me really glad s/he wasn't in too many scenes...
O V E R A L L - Lovely Complex was a much more enjoyable series than I thought it would be, but I'm always happy to see cliches work out. It's very true -- there are no original ideas left, so all there is to do is write good stories. They don't need to be original stories, just good stories, solid stories, fun stories. Lovely Complex fullfills all of above, so even though you know they're going to live happily ever after, you can still enjoy watching it for what it is. As I mentioned earlier, I watched episodes of Love★Com at the end of bad days. They're a shot of sugar and laughs, straight to the vein: adorably effective. Now I need to find another drug. read more
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lowell
56 of 73 people found this review helpful
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24 of 24 episodes seen
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| Overall |
10 |
| Story |
10 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
9 |
| Character |
10 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
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! read more
Recommendations
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They both stuggle to confess their feelings to the guy their in love with .. mean while someone is struggling to tell her that he loves her ! The stories are really similar to each other and they both talk about confessing while going threw other conflicts .. ^^
Girl confessing her love to boy. Both have same kind of humour.
Girl loves boy, but boy doesnt love girl...
Itazura na Kiss constantly reminded me of Lovely Complex... Though not all the same, the shoujo-type art style is somewhat similar, and of course both anime are love comedies.
The art is the same. And both are about Highschool love and rough roads
Both are about Highschool love.
Both of these anime have the similar high school love comedy aspect to it. What makes both of these anime good is that one-on-one couple, girl chasing the guy aspect. It just focuses on that one relationship instead of a weird complicated love triangle. So if you're into simple, sweet, but dramatic romance i highly recommend you watch this :]
Since the first episode, i was constantly reminded of Lovecom. Think, silly girl wanting to confess her love and fails, the Romance and comedy is aspect is major in both and the girls in both ways are really amusing. It is also similar in ways to see how the male's feeling for the female develop and change.
Both series are the typical shoujo romance, with both sets of main characters not liking each other in the beginning.
Similar shoujo romance series that sets up from high school until graduation.
The both female characters are fighting for their love and they can't let go off anymore.
They have fighting spirits that help them overcome everything. Even if the first time they were "brushed off" by their love, they just continue to be around him and ask him for some things, so they can start liking each other.
And a bit and a bit the feelings are becoming love and the feelings are getting equal.
Sometimes there are truths which have to be overcame by the characters!
Both about girls that love their man no matter how much they get rejectedxD
Both males fail at showing their emotions.
Both females are less than perfect... both are clumsy and have big voices.
Both of these anime have heroines who try very hard to get the boy they like to return their feelings, no matter how many obstacles they come across. Additionally, both of these anime went beyond and delved further into the situations and problems that creep up as a couple (though Itazura na Kiss went on much further along in their relationship).
As is typical with most shoujo, there's a dose of drama along the way- though what these two anime have in common is the fact that these dramas aren't dragged out. They get resolved rather fast and there's a similar sense of warmth that both series give off. Both are light-hearted, with a nice balance between comedy, drama, and general sweetness in their romance.
Itazura na kiss reminded me Lovely Complex when I watched it. Also the kind of comedy is similar.
If you liked Itazura Na Kiss then it's impossible for you not to appreciate Lovely Complex, a realy good anime full of love and fun..you will surely enjoy every epiosode!
They are similar in plot (I wont give out information because it would just ruin it, *hint* when its confession time). Itazura has Comedy but compared to lovely complex it is more serious.
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Both involve two both (of the opposite sex) that don't get along at first and try to set each other up with friends but end up falling for each other
Both in Toradora! And Lovely Complex the male protagonist likes the female protagonist's friend. Comedy is similar, in some ways.
Are both Romantic, Slice-of-life school anime which share similar aspects in the dynamics between the main male and female characters. Storyboard seems to follow the same formula.
From episode one it was easy to tell who SHOULD REALLY be going out, even though they both try to go for other boyfriend/girlfriends (in each show), also making me having to cover my mouth in laughter so I wont wake up people and just about falling over from the hilariousness (is that even a word?) of it.
Both have a guy and a girl working together to get together with another guy and girl.
Both of these animes have a guy and girl that initially hang around each other because of ulterior motives, but while doing so they slowly start to gain feelings for each other. Also both are romantic comedies that are in a school setting.
Toradora and Lovely Complex both share similar a plotline in general: For some reason the two main characters come to agreeing on helping each other out trying to find their love , but as the story progresses the two characters instead fall in love between themselves (though we don't know what will happen in Toradora yet.. :P)
And also not to leave out that both shows are very entertaining, hilarious shows.
Both are great school romance animes with nice art and characters.
Those who like Toradora, will definatly find Lovely Complex as intersting, if not even more. Lovely Complex, like Toradora, has a misleading image at the start, but the same deep charater development in the middle. The plotline drives the watcher mad and leaving him wanting for more. The animation is top of the class, there is a wide range of many, interesting, and deeply developed charaters, and excellent voice acting.
Both of the female protagonist are really bossy. It's easy for the viewer to tell, as well as the two protagonist friends that the to mains characters should be going out. The comedy in both of these is similar. The only difference in comedy is from some of the dialect from Lovely complex since it's all from Osaka.
Both series are romantic comedies about two people who have problems with love. Also they are dealing with similar complexes. In Toradora they are misunderstood for their looks and in Lovley Complex there are problems around their heights.
Also the humour and atmosphere are like each other. Funny, liively and energetic with a little drama ^^
Both are great romantic comedies.
The main couple are very similar, as is the overall feel of the show. Lovely Complex focuses a bit more on comedy though (a very unique kind) and the romance happens much earlier on in the series.
Both are a in a School Setting, both are great comedies and both give a suitable amount of drama.
It both goes over a boy and a girl helping each other 2 get a similair person 2 like them
they both have a similair style
i like both of them but i think toradora is just a little bit better because its quality and stuff are more new then
lovely complex
A storyline which revolves around a similar idea: girl and boy who have a strange relationship try to help each other find love, but end up with each other.
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Opening Theme#1: "Kimi + Boku = Love?" by Tegomass (eps 1-13)
#2: "Hey! Say!" by Hey!Say! 7 (eps 14-)
Ending Theme#1: "Kiss ~ Kaerimichi no Love Song (キッス～帰り道のラブソング)" by Tegomass (eps 1-13)
#2: "BON BON" by Hey! Say! 7 (eps 14-)
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Related ClubsRandom Anime Claim Club, chiaki's favorites!, *~Atsushi Otani Fanclub~*, Watch Anime Together Club Headquarters, ~ Takai's LEAGUE ~, Camish FC (noktasiz i ve noktali s gorunmuyo lan -_-), Shoujo Anonymous, THE BEST ROMANTIC AND COMEDY ANIMES, ._:AnImE/MaNgA tO LiVe ACtiOn:KuRaBu:_., The Muddykipz Fanclub, The Lighthearted Anime Club, Anime Comedy Club, Anime Pairings FC, Days of Youth, Gingers of anime, Naruto vs. Bleach vs. ALL, TegoMasu, Otaku, SUPER HAPPY FUNTIME!!! *for crazy people*, -=Lovely Complex Hotties=-The Romantic Manga, Anime and Drama Club, Anime Addicted, Maity Fan Club!, Mahou Shoujo Spam Club, Fantasy Romance, We Love MASKS!!~, anime club, Kansai-ben Research Fan Club, Lovely Complex, The funny fan club!, Beautiful Romance, Comedy Explosion, Romance Lovers, Lovely Complex, Canon pairings in Anime, Add Live Action, Claim a School Delinquent, Chemicals React:RisaxOtani, •·.·´¯`·.·•Anime Canada•·.·´¯`·.·•, Whatever Everything Whoever Anything, ©FanArtsClub©, Lovely Complex, Love Central, Anime Midgets Club, Anime art that r0cks!!, Shoujo Wonderland-少女アニメと漫画大好き, [HIATUS] Teach A Character [HIATUS], Slice of Anime Life, UPIS Anime Club, Asian Drama Addicts, Suwabe Junichi Fan Club, Anime couples, Unrequited Love Club , Random Anime & Manga Club, POWA Club, hey! say! 7 , Secret favorite club , Love Couples of Mal , Trannehsexualz: Haven For Teh Other Bodeh Parts, Designers' Clan see all
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