Japanese Movie – Lovely Complex

Information image
Alternative Titles: ラブ★コン, Rabu★Kon, Love Com
Country: Japan, 2006
Director: Kitaji Ishikawa
Cast: Ema Fujisawa, Teppei Koike, Nami Tamaki
Type: Romance, School, Comedy
Rating: 4/5

***spoilers included
Summary: This movie traces the love life of students as they go through high school (from grade 9-grade 11-I think). Risa Koizumi (Ema Fujisawa) is 172cm tall (5′8″) and, as a result of her height, has never had a boyfriend. She was rejected by a boy she liked becuase she was taller than him, and vowed never to date anyone shorter than her. Atshushi Otani is her classmate and is 156cm tall (5′1″). [side note: Risa's name is 小泉リサ meaning "Small Spring" and Otani's name is 大谷敦士 meaning "Big Valley"] Simliar to Risa, he was rejected by a girl taller than him, so he vows never to date a girl taller than him. So, the two of them meet in first year and they immediately hit it off. They are always bickering and arguing, especially about their height differences. Otani calls Risa “Beanstalk, Giraffe, Amazon etc.” (I don’t know how Amazon refers to her height…and maybe that was in the Anime) and she calls him Midget, Shorty…They also like to call each other Idiot. All their friends think that they are perfect for each other, but they refuse to acknowledge this fact. Their classmates and teacher call them Comedy Duo All Hanshin-Kyojin. I think it has something to do with their height, also, their bickering is funny. Throughout their first year, become really good friends, but don’t have romantic feelings for each other.

They are both fans of a rapper Umibouzu (no one else sees why he’s so good), and they go to see his concerts. One Christmas, they were suppose to go see his concert, but Otani’s old girlfriend invited him to a Christmas party. Risa told him to go, but was feeling lonely becuase she had to go to the concert herself. She starts to fall in love with Otani after he ditches his girlfriend becuase he made a promise to Risa first. From that point on, her feelings for Otani become stronger, but she tries to repress it becuase he’s shorter than her. She feels that he wouldn’t want to date her becuase of her height. Her two closest friends discover her crush and pressure her to confess it to Otani, but she is hesitant.

In grade 11, on her birthday she confesses, but he treats it as a joke. Risa thinks it’s because the idea of her being his girlfriend just doesn’t exist in Otani’s reality (this is from the anime. In the movie, she thinks it’s because of her height..and that he doesn’t like her that way). Everybody in the school knows that Risa likes Otani, except Otani. They make it a project for Otani to realize that Risa likes him, but it’s hard work. Finally, at a school festival (? each class hosts an event, like a haunted house or a coffee shop), he realizes that he’s the one she likes. After a long time of thinking it over, he rejects her, because they’ve been buddies for so long. His feelings for her are still confused, though, especially when his love rival, Maity, comes along. Kuniumi Maitake (Maity) is an assistant teacher that Risa falls for (after giving up on Otani). He’s also a super basketball player and challenges Otani to a game (in grade 10, Otani became the captain of the basketball team, so he’s pretty good…and popular with the younger girls). He’s losing the game big time when Risa encourages him by saying that height doesn’t matter and that she still likes him. It’s then when he realizes that he needs her. The End!

Impression: I watched the anime after watching the movie, and it really filled in the blanks for me. It was hard for me to keep the summary short because of the huge time frame it covers and all the things to talk about! It’s not that complicated (the main goal was to get Otani to realize that Risa liked him), but there were many steps in the process. Okay, so there were other themes to: the line between friendship and girlfriend/boyfriend…um…rejected love and persistence. In the anime, she was rejected so many times, but she still liked him. Otani is genuinely a nice guy, so that’s why she keeps liking him, even though he doesn’t like her. He’s also really oblivious. It was really funny (in the anime) when he’s the only one who doesn’t know who Risa liked and he started getting offended. HAHA.

Anyways, back to the movie. It’s funny and Risa and Otani are so cute! There were some random parts that were supposed to be funny (I guess comic relief), but I didn’t find funny (like that tv show where the girl talks about her boyfriend and their teacher’s wig). That was kind of dumb…and the scene with her sister and her “boyfriend”. That was dumb as well I liked their close/supportive friendship and all the joking they do. It’s mostly hurling insults at each other. There was one point where Risa would be mad at Otani because he was oblivious to her feelings…haha, I forgot what my point was. This movie and anime shows emotions really well. I was surprised at the amount of understanding Risa had for her (and Otani’s) emotions. They also talk about their emotions really well (good communication once Otani understood what was going on).

It’s something fun to watch that doesn’t take too much brain power Some really sweet scenes and funky clothes! Haha, my sister was mentioning how weird their clothes are. I also liked Teppei’s acting. He had some nice expressions I would suggest watching the anime, as well. There are way more love rivals (Risa has 2 and Otani as 2 as well) and there is more context to some props (Otani’s wrist band, how they got their nickname, Umibouzu).

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Tags: Ema Fujisawa, Nami Tamaki, Teppei Koike