There's a common phrase when it comes to love, "opposites attract." What does this mean exactly? Men fall for women? Innocent girls go for the bad boys? An outgoing person finds the quiet, reserved type attractive? Whatever the case, these types of relationships form all the time. And with the Lovely Complex, it is no different. But as an anime, the show is not as good as people make it out to be.
STORY
Lovely Complex stars Ootani, the short (and short-tempered) guy, and Koizumi, the tall (and equally short-tempered) girl. Due to their antics, they are usually seen as a comedy duo. But as their time together increases, Koizumi begins seeing Ootani in a new light.
The show itself is comprised of about four separate arcs: All-Hanshin Kyojin (their nickname in school) acting as friends, Koizumi realizing her feelings for Ootani, pursuing him, and the conflicts that arise between them. The show starts off strong but by the halfway point, it devolves into repetition and ultimately weakens.
The first arc helps to demonstrate the comedy of the show. Relying mostly on funny reactions and gags between Ootani and Koizumi, it worked to get a laugh out of me every now and then. Their relationship was filled with "idiots" and other relevant names. They seemed more like brother and sister with the way they acted towards one another; hostile yet you know that they care about each other. At this point, it is also becomes apparent how fast the shows pacing is. It should not be taken lightly when I say that the show progresses very quickly through events and time. By the end of the show, it has covered the entirety of their high school lives, meaning about one year per eight episodes. This doesn't necessarily hurt the show, but it does leave many details either left to narration or skipped over.
The second arc deals with Koizumi coming to terms with her feelings for Ootani. This was the strongest part of the show for its sense of realism. The show doesn't have the couple come together immediately. Instead, it plays off the relationship they have currently and sets up a believable situation in which Koizumi learns that falling in love and having that person love you back are not the easiest things to have at the same time.
The third arc consists mostly of Koizumi attempting to woo Ootani. However, it is at this point that the show starts to degrade. Where it had a nice sense of realism beforehand, it throws this out of the window in place of illogical choices and repetition. As stated before, the pacing of the show is quick. Therefore, Koizumi's advances actually last for quite a while. So long, in fact, it goes against sanity. I can believe having a crush on someone for a long period of time, but when that person doesn't reciprocate your feelings after having yours known for an extensive period of time, it starts to become a little ridiculous on the part of the confessor. Going back to repetition, much of this arc consists of the same thing over and over: Koizumi loving Ootani, attempting to sway him, her failing, her wanting to give up, then her realizing she can't. It gets rather annoying quickly that she comes to the same conclusion constantly while still holding out hope.
The final part of the show involves many complications that arise between Ootani and Koizumi's relationship. By this point, I was getting perturbed at their sometimes stupid choices that they were making, and this portion was no exception. A lot of the comedy had been removed and was replaced by their high school romance drama. A part of me wanted to like the romance that was happening but their was just something about the relationship that just never really felt as if the two really cared about one another. Whether that is Ootani's apprehensiveness or Koizumi's baffling decision making, whatever it is, I never felt myself rooting for them to finally end up together.
ANIMATION
Watching Lovely Complex is somewhat rough. The art style for the show makes it look as if it was created in the mid-90s, despite being created in 2007. The environments and locations are pretty average and the character designs are pretty plain if not forgettable.
In terms of animation, the show is also pretty bad. For the animation that is present, it is not executed properly and usually pretty choppy. Furthermore, the show loves to employ repetition even in its frames; it constantly uses previously aired material through flashbacks. Again, this starts to happen more in the second half where the show begins to go downhill.
The show could get detailed when it wanted to, especially when drawing the character's faces during key moments, but for the most part this never occurred. Instead, the show mainly stuck to drawing the characters in joke poses or ways.
CHARACTERS
Something interesting I found about the Lovely Complex was that I actually preferred the side cast to the main cast throughout much of the show.
Koizumi starts off being a rather loud and abrasive girl looking for love. And this is pretty much the extent of her character. Yes, her feelings for Ootani change over time, but beyond that, nothing else does. Having so much time elapse, there should have been more development on her part outside of "I can't live without him." It's sad because she is quite unique when it comes to main female leads; she isn't super nice and pretty. She's pretty much the atypical lead girl, both in personality and growth.
The same argument can be had for Ootani. He begins as the hot-headed shorty but outside of coming to terms with his own feelings, he doesn't grow either. This is a big problem when you are the star of a show.
While I found Koizumi and Ootani to at least be okay characters, I actually quite liked the rest of the cast. Characters such as Nobuko, Seiko, and Haruka not only provided more laughs than All-Hanshin Kyojin did, but they also were the ones to provide us with plot points and character insight. And while they may also have only one trait attributed to each of them, that's fine; being side characters, I wasn't expecting huge progress from them. But even so, the show does look at each of them, if only for a bit.
And this was the issue with them; outside of Nobuko, the character was usually introduced, used for a few episodes, then discarded. He or she might make a cameo later on, but for the most part, he or she was forgotten.
SOUND
The first OP is at least okay. It sounds older than it probably intends to be, but it is fun and fits with the first half of the show nicely. The second OP, however, is not good. It has a mix of rap and pop to it that doesn't feel appropriate for the show. The first ED is actually pretty good. It has a jazzy and mellow feel to it that complements nicely with the antics that take place before it. But like the second OP, the second ED is just bad. It sounds like it came from a boy band; its too much pop and does not go with the shows feeling at all.
The rest of the soundtrack is pretty bad as well. There is nothing memorable from it or even anything worth mentioning.
As for the voice acting, Akemi Okamura's role as Koizumi and Akira Nagata's role as Ootani were nicely done on their end. Their voices sounded pretty unique and the different tones and inflections they used throughout the series were done well.
ENJOYMENT
You will be hard pressed to find another guy who likes romance in anime as much as I do. But as I said previously, I just could not get fully invested into this one. Perhaps I just did not like Koizumi and Ootani's characters enough to care about them getting together. The romance elements are definitely there but it just never felt as if they really had feelings that complemented each other. Koizumi would always let us know due to her narration but Ootani seemed as disinterested with everything as I did with the show.
The comedy itself is good during the first half, as said previously. A lot of the jokes fall flat during the second half, and I distinctly remembering shaking my head at the "Grandma joke" for how completely unfunny it was, despite the characters thinking so. I think that may have been the problem that the show created for itself. By focusing so much on comedy to begin with, it becomes harder to appreciate the romance introduced later down the road.
In the end, Lovely Complex's appeal comes from its characters, simply because it is lacking in almost every other department. But since I didn't particularly enjoy All-Hanshin Kyojin, my experience with the show was just not as enjoyable as it should have been.
SUMMARY
Story: Fine, experiences a harsh half-life
Animation: Bad, art style is old and the animation is lacking
Characters: Fine, weak main cast but strong side cast
Sound: Fine, split on OPs and EDs, bad soundtrack but good VAs
Enjoyment: Fine, better comedy than romance
Final Score: 4/10
