[Anime] Lovely ♥ Complex

LOVELY COMPLEX
by Aya Nakahara

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Risa Koizumi ("Little spring") has issues with her height. At 170cm, she's the tallest girl in her class and stands out so much she's often nicknamed Oizumi ("Big spring"). Despite her appearance, she's a perfectly normal girl, even if she'd rather stay up late playing videogames than do something more "feminine".

Atsushi Otani ("Big valley") has issues with his height. At 156cm, he's one of the shortest guys in his class and is often called Kotani ("Little valley") by accident, which annoys him to no end. Despite his height, he's determined to play basketball and tries his best to do well in the school team.

Together, they are considered the comedy duo of the class and many see them as a couple, even though they're constantly bickering and at each other's throats.

The story then follows the lives of the two (mostly from Risa's point of view) as they go through school, deal with insecurities about their appearance and at some point, maybe, possibly, fall for each other?

Nah.

Besides the two, other important characters in the series would be




Chiharu and Nobuko, two of Risa's classmates



Suzuki, new student who Risa immediately develops a crush on



Mayu, Atsushi's former girlfriend (as well as Chiharu look-a-like and vice verca)



Haruka, Risa's childhood friend and determined to make her fall in love with him



and later on Seiko, a kouhai who falls for Otani and hides a secret (!)


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


The manga:

Serializing in Bessatsu Margaret since 2001, LoveKon is up to 16 volumes now and still ongoing. Viz has recently licensed the series and has been serializing it in english in Shojo Beat. The first volume will be published in July, under the title Love*Com.

Up to 26 chapters have been scanlated.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


The anime:

Produced by Toei, the anime began airing quite recently and has been great so far. Focusing more on the comedy and mixing up events here and there just enough to keep things interesting even for people who've already read the manga.

So far twelve episodes have been subbed.

caps:

Animation isn't anything spectacular, but it's charming enough and while the character designs are quite different from the manga, both styles work well. Overall, there's a bright, cheery, colorful look and feel to the series.

Akemi Okamura (Fio in Porco Rosso and Nami in One Piece, among others) is wonderful as Risa and they even have Yuki Matsuoka (Osaka in Azumanga Daioh) playing Mayu.

more caps:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


My thoughts:

I originally watched the first episode of the anime, and enjoyed it enough to see if there was a manga on the series. As was said, the visual styles differ greatly between the anime and manga, but it was the anime's character designs that originally drew me to the series in the first place.

All in all, it's a very fun, very cute, unusual little romantic drama, with the added win of Risa's ldladyface:





Happily, the anime has been very succesful in bringing them to animated form <3


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Links:

Lovely Complex Official Site
Lovely Complex anime - Toei's site for the anime series

Love*Com - Viz media's site for english Lovely Complex.
Volume 1 - Volume 1 of the english release, released July 3rd.


Manga:

http://gotlurk.net/ - The best place for LoveKon scanlations. Go to #lurk @ irchighway and download the volumes from Neverwhere

bot commands:

Type or copy-paste the following lines on the channel:

/msg Neverwhere xdcc send #1179
/msg Neverwhere xdcc send #1180
/msg Neverwhere xdcc send #1181
/msg Neverwhere xdcc send #1182
/msg Neverwhere xdcc send #1183
/msg Neverwhere xdcc send #1184
/msg Neverwhere xdcc send #6861
/msg Neverwhere xdcc send #6862
/msg Neverwhere xdcc send #6863

and you will be sent each available volume and chapter by the channel bot, one for each line.

Anime:

Episode 1:
KissSub (XviD .avi)
Blue Storm (h264 .mp4)
Infinite Zero (.mp4)
Shinsen-Subs (.avi) - NEW

Episode 2:
KissSub (XviD .avi)
Blue Storm (h264 .mp4)

Episode 3:
KissSub (XviD .avi)
Blue Storm (h264 .mp4)

Episode 4:
KissSub (XviD .avi)
Blue Storm (h264 .mp4)

Episode 5:
KissSub (XviD .avi)
Blue Storm (h264 .mp4)

Episode 6:
KissSub (XviD .avi)
Blue Storm (h264 .mp4) - NEW

Episode 7:
KissSub (XviD .avi)

Episode 8:
KissSub (XviD .avi)

Episode 9:
KissSub (XviD .avi)
Gear Fansubs (XviD .avi)

Episode 10:
KissSub (XviD .avi)
Gear Fansubs (XviD .avi)

Episode 11:
KissSub (XviD .avi)

Episode 12:
KissSub (XviD .avi) - NEW

How ya doing, buddy?

The art style isn't to my liking, but the humor is more than enough to make up for it. After only watching the first episode, I think the characters have been established well and I've decided to follow the series.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

On the .com I complained about the Kansai-ben that everybody speaks, but I'm actually loving it now. Kansai-ben is hilarious in itself, and the show's writing is pretty great also. The art is the only thing I'm not really sure about, but it's original and I feel like I may just not be used to it, and will grow to like it.

My only major worry is that it's going to turn out really sappy later on. That's not really this show's strong point in my opinion.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I have read up to the 16th volume, I personally think the story is mediocre. The story is very typical and it will usually end up in cliche. Oh well, at least the anime will be released, will be much easier for worldwide fans to enjoy the story.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I downoaded the first episode because the description on A-S gave me the impression that it was about lesbians, one tall and short, but it looks like it's just a typical couple with a height difference. Skimming through the art style loked rough and not to my liking, but I'll sit down and properly watch it to give it a chance one day.

I was speaking idiomatically.

I read the preview when the latest Shojo Beat arrived in the mail and decided the anime was definitely worth a look. True, the art is sub par and the storyline is cliche, but I'm a sucker for the school romance genre so I'm hooked. Plus, Otani is so damned cute and I can totally relate to Koizumi and the disadvantages of being the amazon in school. -_-

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

What other manga has the author done? The art style looks familiar...

FELIPE NO

I liked the first episode of the anime. It's very funny. I think this is a good anime to get into.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

This is actually one of my sis favourite manga title... and I didn't like it at first, however just before the anime was released. I started reading

I quite like how the story develops. However since the actual dialect is in Osaka-ben, it is so hard to understand >__<

The comedy is good~ dun really mind the art (very shoujou-style), music is okay too... plot is definitely interesting

How ya doing, buddy?

KissSub has released episode 5, rejoice!










Fun ep, *SHOCKU* revelations, though the anime is moving at a fast pace. 5 episodes in and we're already at the end of the third volume. I wonder if they're aiming to cover the entire manga in 13 episodes or so.

Originally Posted by Dhsu

What other manga has the author done? The art style looks familiar...

Though the artstyle is very similar to many other shojo titles, to answer your question, she has a few others series, namely

Seishun no Tamago
Benkyou Shinasai!
Love! Love! Love!
Ringo Nikki
Hanada

There's nowhere I can't reach.

That was one of the best episodes so far, some really funny jokes in that one. And it almost seemed like there's some small character development though I'm not fooled by it yet. I'll believe it when I see it.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

[19:52:36] * You were kicked by Lord_Styphon (6)
[19:52:36] * Attempting to rejoin channel #animespot



As Styphon pointed out to me today, Lovely Complex 6 is out, rejoice!

Another good ep, even though Otani's utterly oblivious nature begins to grate almost as much as in the manga.









Funny stuff either way, and we've now reached the big turning point. Not to mention the episode was especially win for



I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Episode 6 was hilarious. Best episode so far, it was so funny I had to watch it again. I'm glad there is some form of development in the relationship though, I was really worried it would turn into another Ranma 1/2, but it's totally working so far.

My favourite joke of that episode was when

Spoiler:

Nobuko kicks Koizumi in the back for arguing with Otani after she blows the "Otani-kun~ <3" speech.

I was laughing so hard during that whole scene I couldn't even follow the next few minutes and had to rewind.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Episode 7 is out from KissSub!

Higher on drama than laughs this time, it was great, sobering stuff. Slowly moving into the most tedious part of the manga storyline, I hope they cut corners at all the right places.

Otani's denseness knows no bounds at this point, unfortunately ;_;
Vengeful spirit Risa was still hilarious

caps:

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I thought this episode was mostly hilarious, but it did have a serious edge at the end. The All Hanshin Kyojin comedy show was super funny this time, too.

I recently rewatched the first episodes, and this show has really taken off compared to the first 3 or 4 episodes, which I thought were still sort of iffy at times. It's becoming one of my favourites. Each episode so far has been better than the last, and I'm really looking forward to it now.

But I almost certainly never would've tried it if it wasn't for this thread. <3

FELIPE NO

Seeing as I skipped last episode's announcement (though I always keep the first post updated with episode links), we're up to episode 9 now!



Another fun ep, this one had a particarly large amount of gold moments.

moar caps:

Next ep will also have the BEST NAME



How ya doing, buddy?

That sounds like a great plan indeed!

I really liked this episode, this show seriously becomes better as it goes on. I still think episode 6 and 7 are my favourites though, so many funny faces in those two!

Most amazing jew boots

Whoa, a new group, Gear Fansubs, has already released episode 10 (as well as 9). I don't know how much was the lesser translation and how much was the total lack of energy in animation, but this ep was a bit disappointing. Not that this part in the manga was especially exciting, but even the few potentially hilarious comedy set ups lacked flair. Hell, I had a hard time picking up good cap moments.

I get a creeping feeling they're getting less and less funding










Still, the next ep preview looked good, so perhaps this is the "episode 4" of Lovecom.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I'm up to episode 7 now, and I'm really enjoying this series. It's just that crap like

Spoiler:

Seiko turning out to be a boy is lame beyond words. Apparently, being outrageously queer and hitting on straight guys is okay if you're crossdressing.

kind of ruin it for me. Oh well. Still a nice show nonetheless.

How ya doing, buddy?

It seemed to improve a bit with proper subs, but episode 10 certainly wasn't the strongest ever. I'm still really enjoying it though!

I'm not sure what you're trying to say Bukkake Bandit, but okay.

Most amazing jew boots

He's saying he thought Seiko was hawt and he turned out to be a boy. BETRAYAL!

SUCCESSED!

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Qwarky

He's saying he thought Seiko was hawt and he turned out to be a boy. BETRAYAL!

SUCCESSED!

Actually, Seiko's character annoyed me endlessly from the first moment (s)he appeared in the series.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Oh man, I don't know if anyone else is watching this show still, but I absolutely love it. The writing is unbelievably good! I've never seen a Japanese love comedy with such expert development and pacing, it's incredible.

Of course I'm posting this now because of the recently released new episode, but it's overall absolutely true, I'm just in love with this show, and every time I think it might become lame it does something so awesome it makes me completely love it again.

FELIPE NO

I'm not sure if anyone really noticed but do they speak in a different dialect compared to most other anime? I mean, to point a easily picked out part would be them using 'a-ho' rather than 'ba-ka' (stupid/idiot).

Just thought it was an interesting note.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by Quiksilva

I'm not sure if anyone really noticed but do they speak in a different dialect compared to most other anime? I mean, to point a easily picked out part would be them using 'a-ho' rather than 'ba-ka' (stupid/idiot).

Just thought it was an interesting note.

I thought I wrote a post about this already, but it seems to have disappeared so yeah, they're speaking Kansai-ben. Although "aho" is actually used in Tokyo too but it's very grave as an insult, but in Kansai-ben it is the other way around completely (baka is really rude and aho is kinda friendly-playful). When I first started this show I wasn't that familiar with Kansai-ben and I was pretty weirded out by all the "aho"s flying around.

I love Kansai-ben as an accent, it's so goofy! That's one of the main reasons I got into this show, and then I was drawn in by the great story of course.

Jam it back in, in the dark.