Lovely Complex

ラブ★コン (Lovely★Complex)

9.0(2)

OtakuDen

8.0(321,464)

MAL Score

Ranked #705

Popularity #372

Comedy
Romance
School

Episodes: 24
Duration: 24 min per ep
Aired: Apr 7, 2007 to Sep 29, 2007
Status: Finished Airing

Synopsis

Risa Koizumi and Atsushi Ootani are both hunting for romance in high school, but their height difference makes it harder than either expected—Koizumi stands 172 cm, while Ootani is 156 cm. Their luck worsens when the people they like end up falling for each other, leaving the two of them equal parts embarrassed and disappointed. With their sharp back-and-forth and contrasting statures, even their homeroom teacher treats them like a ready-made comedy act, and classmates start viewing their constant bickering as a kind of routine.

Lovely Complex traces how Koizumi and Ootani begin supporting one another in love and gradually grow into close friends. Beneath the noisy arguments and misunderstandings, they discover they share the same tastes in music and fashion—hinting that their “mismatched” pairing might have more potential than either of them wants to admit.

Otaku Consensus

Toei Animation’s Lovely★Complex remains a shoujo rom-com with unusual staying power because Kounosuke Uda’s direction turns classroom embarrassment into fast, slapstick timing rather than soft-focus wish fulfillment. Fans and reviewers consistently single out Risa and Ootani’s chemistry as the engine, while the most repeated criticism is real: the opening stretch can feel rough, and the romantic hesitation becomes frustrating before the payoff feels earned.

Why You Should Watch

Watch Lovely★Complex if you want a shoujo rom-com that treats embarrassment as a contact sport: loud reactions, deadpan classroom heckling, and jokes that land before the sentiment arrives. It scratches the same relationship-comedy itch as Toradora! or Kimi ni Todoke, but with a more Osaka-flavored, manzai-style rhythm and a heroine whose tomboyish energy keeps the series from becoming a porcelain-doll romance. The 24-episode run gives the central duo room to be friends, rivals, co-conspirators, and emotional hazards to each other without rushing straight to payoff. Viewers who like romance built through everyday banter, shared pop-culture taste, and repeated social humiliation will get the most from it; viewers who need cool, composed leads may bounce off its volume.

Key Characters

R
Risa Koizumi
Risa stands out as a female protagonist whose appeal comes from comic ferocity, tomboyish stubbornness, and the rare shoujo willingness to look ridiculous before she looks romantic.
A
Atsushi Ootani
Ootani is memorable because his basketball-coded confidence, dense romantic instincts, and explosive banter make him both the series’ most lovable obstacle and its best comedic partner.

What Makes It Stand Out

1
Toei Animation’s TV adaptation favors elastic expressions, sharp reaction cuts, and slapstick escalation over glossy romance staging, matching AniList’s high Slapstick tag score of 84%.
2
Director Kounosuke Uda structures much of the comedy like a schoolyard manzai routine, with Risa and Ootani constantly swapping between aggressor, straight man, and punchline.
3
The series uses its full 24-episode April-to-September 2007 run to let romantic momentum stall, regress, and restart; that patience is also the source of the common complaint that the middle can be frustrating.
4
Its AniList tag profile is unusually specific for a school romance: Female Protagonist 95%, Shoujo 94%, Primarily Teen Cast 89%, Tomboy 66%, Basketball 46%, and Transgender 41%, signaling a broader texture than standard confession-driven classroom drama.
5
Hironosuke Sato’s music and Makiko Kayahara’s credited music selection support a rhythm-heavy comedy format, where timing, mood shifts, and reaction beats matter as much as romantic set pieces.

Fun Facts & Trivia

Fun fact 1: Lovely★Complex is based on the work of original creator Aya Nakahara, with Hideaki Maniwa handling the anime’s character designs for the Toei Animation version.
Fun fact 2: The show finished its original broadcast run in a compact 24 episodes, airing from April 7, 2007 to September 29, 2007.
Fun fact 3: Its database footprint is unusually strong for a 2007 shoujo comedy: MyAnimeList lists an 8.03 score from 321,464 votes, Rank #705, and Popularity #372, while AniList records a 78/100 score and 4,924 favourites.
Fun fact 4: The credited visual production team includes Midori Tanaka on art design and Tsutomu Tsukata on color design, with Masahiro Gotou credited for editing.
Fun fact 5: The sound-side credits are unusually granular in the available staff data: Kentarou Washio handled sound effects, Hironosuke Sato composed the music, and Makiko Kayahara is separately credited for music selection.