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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Hayami, Saori
Japanese

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Toba, Yousuke

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Kananiwa, Kozue

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Kamata, Hajime

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Maruyama, Hiroo

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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

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Sep 28, 2013

Florete

Recommended

This show is not yuri. I don't want to spend a lot of time on that fact, so I'll just throw it out there immediately and move on.

So, MAL review reader, if you're reading this line, you probably started your trek of this review by checking out the number I dropped in the "Overall Rating" section. Intrigued, perhaps you even clicked those words to bring up the breakdown of numbers I awarded the show for various aspects of its creation. You would then have noticed the number "10" in the story section and probably asked yourself, "What? A perfect 10 in story for a comedy? ...

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May 10, 2014

MAND4

Recommended

Well ... that was a freaking surprise. If someone told me, based on that synopsis, that Love Lab is a hilarious and heartwarming journey all through, I'd have him jump off a cliff into my love lab of death. Glad no one did. Regrets would be far too many.

So, where do I even begin? It's quite hard seeing as I'm still kind of thinking about the anime. I'll just begin by saying this: do not let title or the synopsis drive you off. If you think that this anime is filled with cute girls (it kind of is) doing cutesy things (it kind of is) ... and that's all it is, then you're wrong. Not blaming you though, I only decided to watch this after seeing a short, hilarious clip on YouTube. So yeah ...

The story is surprisingly good. Where majority of anime comedies fail, Love Lab managed to go up a notch. Almost nothing in the anime happens just so "you can have a couple of laughs". Somewhere, somehow, it all kind of ties up to the end of the story and the conclusion. It starts in a light tone which continues all throughout. Yeah, there's some drama, but it's not over the top. It doesn't try to shove tears into viewers eyes or anything. It's simply there to give more depth to already great characters.

The story follows Riko and Mika, two seemingly total opposites when it comes to ... well, everything. Mika is a perfect girl, nicknamed even "Princess", while Riko is a tomboy, nicknamed "The Wild One". They're both admired by other girls in the school but for all the different reason. Fate (and by fate I mean teacher) has its hands in them meeting one another and then the adventure begins. Along the way they're joined with some other (equally hilarious) characters and you're bound to like at least one of them, if not all. To be quite frank, the story is not deep, but it's extremely well executed. It's a story about friendships and how lies sometimes make it hard. Nonetheless, everything that happens is a part of the story. It's not just a sidetrack business trying to make you laugh.

Another impressive part of Love Lab are the characters. There are five main characters (seven if you include guys), and they're all enough unique to have their own charms and likeness to them. Mika is a delusional perfectionist who does everything on her own and wants desperately to have a boyfriend. Riko is her straight counter-part, who's "Master of love", and never fails to make you laugh with her comments. She's not as smart as Mika, but you admire her for what she is. Then you have Suzune, shy and timid but equally enthusiastic about their quest to learn how to seduce boys. There's also another duo of hilarity, Sayori and Yuiko; Sayori being composed, seemingly cold and detached person with quirky remarks and affinity for money, and Yuiko being not-so-annoying tsundere. All of them have distinct personalities and they all bring something to the table when it comes to comedy.

You see them grow closer and closer as friends, and you actually believe in their friendship and you feel worried when it feels as if it's going to collapse. There are some over the top moments, but most of the time it's down to earth funny.

When it comes to the production department, it's nothing amazing but it's good enough looking to the eyes. Anime-only-comedy was done extremely well, and I really loved most of the expressions of the characters. They were cute when they were meant to be cute, and they were extremely ugly when they were meant to be ugly. Backgrounds were lacking but that's to be expected from character-focused anime so no complains there. Soundtrack was lacking as well but, from what was there, it fit solidly.

Overall, Love Lab was extremely well done, definitely above average and on sub-par with some other hilarious comedies. Its drama wasn't there to suddenly shift the tone to dark and try to appear more mature, but to give more depth to already established characters. I really do recommend Love Lab if for nothing else but its hilarity.

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Jul 23, 2013

SpleenMachine

Recommended

I almost didn't watch this show.

My friend was giving me the rundown on this season's lineup, and mentioned that he was disappointed that the Yuru Yuri crew were working on a show that was being described as being, "Yuru Yuri, but lewder." I was a bit sad, Yuru Yuri is one of my all time favorite shows, and seeing the talent behind it make, what I assumed to be, a show with the fan service dial cranked up to 11 was just a let-down. Fan service won't put me off a show altogether, but if its the central focus of the show, I tend to ...

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Poll: Love Lab Episode 13 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Stark700 - Sep 26, 2013	149 replies	by 12th-Scammer »» Mar 15, 11:38 PM
Poll: Love Lab Episode 8 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Aug 22, 2013	97 replies	by Yui_Suzumiya69 »» Feb 22, 10:12 AM
Poll: Love Lab Episode 10 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Sep 5, 2013	79 replies	by Beguni »» Oct 23, 2022 7:52 AM
Poll: Love Lab Episode 4 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Stark700 - Jul 25, 2013	103 replies	by izumi_kookie »» Oct 3, 2022 12:32 PM
Poll: Love Lab Episode 9 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Aug 29, 2013	67 replies	by Cabbage_Cat »» Feb 10, 2022 4:35 AM

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