Tuesday 21 June 2011

Anime review: Lovely Complex

Lovely Complex tells the love story between two students Risa Koizumi, who is very tall, and Atsushi Otani, who is very short. The height difference is our entry point in their relationship and the peculiar twist of their love story. Apparently is very difficult for tall girls in Japan to find a boy, not that I know anything about this particular problem being on the opposite end of life spectrum.
Anyway this is a Romantic Comedy (Maybe I should say LOVantic COMedy, do you get it? LOVely COMplex, LOV-COM?). A very conventional one I must add. They dislike each other intensely, then she understand she loves him but complications ensues. This seems all very easy but watching this I realized how rare a good romantic comedy is those days, and not for lack of trying. Hollywood seems to give us at least five of those every year, mainly with Jennifer Anniston, and they are all not very funny and not very romantic either.
The mix of romantic and comedy elements that Lovely complex achieves so well is really difficult to obtain. Even when the fun part is actually funny the romantic part is often forced in. It’s like lighting in a bottle. This makes Lovely complex something special. A story were the fun and the romantic part are all very good and support each other, making for a better whole.
It is not without defects, the male protagonist is so stubborn that after a while we were actively wishing for her to stop chasing him and go with one of her others suitors. In spite of this Lovely Complex is a nicely crafted story that brought a smile to many evenings.

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