Love Com (ラブ★コン), also known as Lovely Complex, is a Japanese romantic comedy manga series written and illustrated by Aya Nakahara. It was published by Shueisha in Bessatsu Margaret from 2001 to 2007, with its chapters collected in 17 tankōbon volumes. The series is about the romance between a tall girl and a short boy who are treated as a comedy duo by their classmates. The story has been adapted as a live-action film released in 2006, a 24-episode anime television series broadcast in 2007, and an adventure game released for PlayStation 2 released in 2006. Two drama CDs have also been produced. The manga and the live-action film were licensed in North America by Viz Media. The anime series was later licensed by Discotek Media, who also re-licensed the live-action film. Two spin-off stories, Love Com Deluxe (published in Deluxe Margaret in 2009) and Love Com Two (published in Betsuma Two in 2012), were collected in a single volume in 2012. In 2004, Love Com received the 49th Shogakukan Manga Award for the shōjo category.

Plot

Love Com is a love story between a boy and a girl in Sakai, Osaka. The girl, Risa Koizumi, is 172 cm tall—much taller than the average Japanese girl. The boy, Atsushi Ōtani, is 156 cm—way below the height of the average Japanese boy. Because of this, the pair are called the "All Hanshin Kyojin" after a popular comedy duo that has a similar height difference. During summer school, a very tall student named Ryouji Suzuki (from another class) shows up and Risa immediately falls for him because he is tall. There is a girl that Atsushi likes as well, so Risa and Atsushi decide to put aside their differences and help each other get their love interests. Their efforts fail spectacularly as Suzuki and the girl whom Ōtani had a crush on, Chiharu Tanaka, end up becoming a couple. All is not lost though, since Risa and Ōtani become close friends. As they get to know each other better, Risa's feelings for Atsushi begin to blossom, and her love life gets complicated from there on.

Characters

Creation and development

According to the afterword of volume 6, Ōtani ("big valley") was going to be named Nakatani ("middle valley"), but Aya Nakahara changed her mind because naka was "too middlin." Almost all of the characters speak in Kansai dialect.

Media

Manga

Written and illustrated by Aya Nakahara, Love Com was serialized in Shueisha's shōjo manga magazine Bessatsu Margaret from 11 August 2001 to 13 November 2006. Additional chapters, released under the title Love Com Plus (ラブ★コン プラス), were published in the same magazine from 13 March to 12 May 2007; a final chapter, released as Love Com Final (ラブ★コン ファイナル), was published in the same magazine on 11 August of that same year. Shueisha collected its chapters in 17 tankōbon volumes, released from 25 March 2002 to 25 September 2007. The manga is licensed in English in North America by Viz Media, who published the volumes from 3 July 2007 to 2 March 2010. The Viz edition is licensed for distribution in Australia and New Zealand by Madman Entertainment, which released volume one in May 2008. The series is also licensed in France by Delcourt, in Italy by Planet Manga, in Mexico by Grupo Editorial Vid, in Spain by Planeta DeAgostini, in Taiwan by Tong Li Publishing, in Hungary by Mangafan, and in Vietnam by TVM Comics. A spin-off volume, titled Love Com Two, was released on 25 September 2012. It contains the one-shot chapter Love Com Deluxe (published in Deluxe Margaret on 28 March 2009), the three-chapter story Love Com Two (published in Betsuma Two from 12 May to 13 July 2012), and Nakahara's one-shot story Honey Going.

Volumes

Live-action film

Love Com was adapted into a live action film, directed by Kitaji Ishikawa with screenplay by Osamu Suzuki. It starred Ema Fujisawa as Risa Koizumi and Teppei Koike as Atsushi Ōtani. It was released in theaters on 15 July 2006, and on DVD on 1 January 2007. An English-subtitled DVD was released in North America by Viz Media on 19 February 2008. In January 2024, Discotek Media announced that they had licensed the film, and it is set to be released on Blu-ray in March of the same year.

Anime

The anime television series was produced by Toei Animation and directed by Konosuke Uda, with music by Hironosuke Sato and character designs by Hideaki Maniwa. The opening theme songs were "Kimi + Boku = Love?" (キミ+ボク=LOVE?) by Tegomass (episodes 1–13) and "Hey! Say!" by Hey! Say! 7 (episodes 14–24); the ending themes were "Kiss ~ Kaerimichi no Love Song~" (キッス〜帰り道のラブソング) by Tegomass (episodes 1–13) and "Bon Bon" by Hey! Say! 7 (episodes 14–24). It was broadcast on TBS, CBC, and MBS from 7 April 2007 to 29 September 2007. In April 2012, Discotek Media announced that they will distribute the Love Com anime on DVD in North America in one subtitled boxset, which was released on 16 July 2013. In October 2023, Discotek Media announced during a livestream that it will receive an English dub produced by Sound Cadence Studios for the first time, and it was released on Blu-ray on 30 January 2024. The staff for the localization garnered controversy when writer Brendan Blaber wrote on social media that he hated the original show, criticized its writing and voice acting, and changed the script and character personalities in an attempt to make the show watchable. He also stated they re-wrote transphobic parts of the show. Discotek Media stated they would no longer work with Blaber as a result of his admittance of this, though also defended the changes by stating dubs often "punch up the comedy" of anime and that all changes were approved by the show's original producers.

Episodes

Reception

Love Com won the 49th Shogakukan Manga Award for the shōjo category. The English edition of Love Com has been favorably reviewed, with praise especially for Nakahara's comedic timing, sympathetic characters, and deft depictions of emotions. A reviewer at Anime News Network praised it as "the standard by which all other modern romantic comedies should be measured" for its handling of the range of its characters' emotions. The first volume was named by the Young Adult Library Services Association as among the best graphic novels for teens for 2007. The live-action film of Love Com was named by Young Adult Library Services Association as one of 16 films that are 2009 Fabulous Films for Young Adults on the theme of coming of age around the world.