The Story: The story follows the lives of an unusually tall girl and an incredibly short boy. However, despite their drastic height difference, they are only five inches apart. The girl stands tall at a height of 5'7", while the boy stands much shorter than her. I believe this unique contrast in their physical appearance is one of the many reasons why their relationship feels so authentic and interesting. Second of all, the typical romance trope of Shonen romances is that of a popular girl and unpopular guy (Horimiya, Dangers in my Heart, Bunny Girl Senpai) or for Shoujo unpopular girl and the popular guy (Kimi no Todoke, Ouran Host Club, Maid-Sama!). Rarely does a romance break this trope. The ones I can think of are both unpopular (Clannad, Oreigaru, Tsuki ga Kirei) or popular (Kaguya-Sama). LoveCom does break the traditional Shoujo trope and makes them both unpopular yet popular at the same time... They are unpopular in that both of them usually do not have gals/guys chasing after them (Ok the short guy does have some girls (And a guy?) chase after him but that is just as a pretense for the actual romance and had no substance whatsoever), but yeah they both are the whole Hanshin-Kyojin comedy duo. I liked this aspect of it, made the show very realistic. What made it even more realistic was the character growth endured by both of these characters. Both of them did not want to go outside of their comfort zone and date people outside of their height range, but then they realized that "Oh yeah there's more to a relationship than height."
I would like to highlight a few negative aspects of this story. Firstly, the short guy in the anime seems to be quite dense and unable to take a hint. This is why we have the popular "guys can't take a hint" memes haha. Furthermore, at the beginning of the story, we are introduced to Seishiru, a character who is biologically male but identifies as a girl. However, it is unclear whether she identifies as transgender or not, so I can't assume that she is transgender or not, which confused me a whole ton. Although Seishiru promises to pursue the short guy, there is no evidence of this happening in the anime. This can be disappointing for fans who were looking forward to seeing her character development. Similarly, the childhood friend of the tall girl in the anime seems to be in love with the tall girl yet he does not pursue her at all whatsoever. These storylines were sorely missing in the anime.
What I liked about the story: Dude the part where the short guy rejected her at the start, no joke it made me cry. For a Rom-Com it making me cry??? Preposterous. It is unbelievable that this show made me cry. I was very invested in the story in the first 13 episodes. By the way, this is one of >5 shows to ever make me cry out of 400+ so this is quite a big deal. Second of all, a lot of romance animes show the struggles of relationships but not to this degree (Okay maybe except Clannad: After Story but I feel that is an exception). I wish both of them were a bit more supportive of each other, especially the short guy being more compassionate towards the girl and the girl not being a goofball, but then that is the charm in the relationship. They understood each other very well and came over these differences. So I had to rethink their relationship once again which is quite something for a comedic show.
I absolutely loved the comedy in this show! It was an incredible experience. Even though I watched the dubbed version (sue me), I still enjoyed it thoroughly. The show's unique aspect was its frequent breaking of the fourth wall, which added a touch of hilarity to the already amusing plot, similar to Gintama. Additionally, I was able to pick up on several references that were included in the show, making it even more enjoyable.
Animation and music: This is a nearly 2-decade-old anime. But the animation was good and OP1 was way better than it had any right being. Solid for the time but has aged, especially the CGI.
Overall: 9/10. Seriously amazing and the only romance to crack over an 8/10 (Other than Kaguya and Clannad). Nice job LoveCom
Thanks!
-CyanCheetah
