Love Com

• Ja Kanji — ラブ★コン • Ja Romaji — Rabu★Kon • Genre — Romantic comedy

• Type — manga • Author — Aya Nakahara • Publisher — Shueisha • Imprint — Margaret Comics • Magazine — Bessatsu Margaret • First — 11 August 2001 • Last — 11 August 2007 • Volumes — 17

• Developer — AQ Interactive • Genre — Adventure • Platforms — PlayStation 2 • Released — 13 July 2006

• Type — live film • Director — Kitaji Ishikawa • Studio — Tohokushinsha Film Corporation • Released — 15 July 2006 • Runtime — 100 minutes

• Type — tv series • Director — Konosuke Uda • Producer — * Junko Abe • Hiromi Seki • Yoshiyuki Ikezawa • Music — Hironosuke Sato • Studio — Toei Animation • Network — TBS, CBC, MBS • First — 7 April 2007 • Last — 29 September 2007 • Episodes — 24

• Type — manga • Title — Love Com Two • Author — Aya Nakahara • Publisher — Shueisha • Magazine — * Deluxe Margaret • Betsuma Two • First — 28 April 2009 • Last — 13 July 2012 • Volumes — 1

• Portal — yes stylized as Love★Com, abbreviated for 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 category.

Love Com is a love story between a boy and 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 break, a 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 grow, and her love life gets complicated from there on.

• Risa Koizumi • Ema Fujisawa: • Standing at 172 cm tall, Risa is taller than average Japanese girls (the average height for a female is 158 cm). She can be impulsive and is rarely willing to display her softer side. Risa had a crush on Suzuki before he started dating Chiharu. • Atsushi Ōtani • Teppei Koike: • One of the main characters, Ōtani is a short boy standing 156 cm. Like Koizumi, Ōtani's surname (roughly, "big valley") is a pun on his diminutive stature. He can be rude and lack thoughts, but is kind at heart. Ironically, Ōtani also happens to be the star player of the school basketball team. • Nobuko Ishihara • Nami Tamaki: • Fashionable and charming, Nobu is Risa's best friend. She is generally wiser than Risa or Chiharu in the ways of love and always ready to offer her advice. Nobu is usually the one who sets up all the 'alone time' moments with Risa and Ōtani. • Heikichi Nakao • Yusuke Yamazaki: • Nobu's boyfriend and Ōtani's best friend. He is considerate, sensitive, mild-mannered, and easygoing. Nakao is absolutely dedicated to Nobu, and when he is not playing basketball with Ōtani, he can usually be found helping with her match-making schemes. • Chiharu Tanaka • Risa Kudo: • One of Risa's closest friends, Chiharu has such a shy, demure personality that she fears most boys her own age. She begins a relationship with Ryoji Suzuki during the summer of her freshman year of high school. • Ryoji Suzuki • Hiro Mizushima: • Suzuki is Chiharu's boyfriend whose cool demeanor is often mistaken for standoffishness, thus has few friends. Oblivious to Risa's crush on him, Suzuki develops feelings for Chiharu, and eventually asks her out. • Haruka Fukagawa: • Haruka is a handsome yet effeminate young man who developed a childhood crush on Risa when she defended him from a gang of bullies. • Mayu Kanzaki • Mio Kato: • Mayu is Ōtani's ex-girlfriend. • Kuniumi Maitake • Shosuke Tanihara: • Maitake is a student teacher at Risa and Ōtani's school who looks taller than Risa. • Mimi Yoshioka: • Mimi is Ōtani's next-door neighbor who is in love with Ōtani and brings him milk everyday so he would grow taller someday. • Kazuki Kohori: • Kazuki is a young student who works part-time with Risa in Ikebe. He is notably shorter than her, but slightly taller than Ōtani (158 cm.). • Seiko Kotobuki: • Seiko is a girl who has a large crush on Ōtani. She is transgender, and states that God placed her in a wrong body. Seiko prefers to be called Seiko instead of Seishiro (birth name) because it sounds more feminine. • Umibōzu • Susumu Terajima: • Umibōzu is a popular rapper whom both Risa and Ōtani are avid fans of, leading to Nobu's suggestion that the duo are compatible. Risa and Ōtani accidentally cross paths with Umibōzu while on a class trip, then learn that he is actually a devoted family man. • Ms. Matsubara: • Matsubara is a manager in charge at the restaurant where Risa works. She wears glasses and is quite nosy. • Kiyoji Nakano: • Nakano is the homeroom teacher at Risa and Ōtani's class.

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.

Written and illustrated by Aya Nakahara, Love Com was serialized in Shueisha's manga magazine Bessatsu Margaret from 11 August 2001 to 13 November 2006. Additional chapters, released under the title Love Com Plus, were published in the same magazine from 13 March to 12 May 2007; a final chapter, released as Love Com Final, 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.

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?" by Tegomass (episodes 1–13) and "Hey! Say!" by Hey! Say! 7 (episodes 14–24); the ending themes were "Kiss: Kaerimichi no Love Song" 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 his Patreon account 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 claimed 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 explained the changes by stating dubs often "punch up the comedy" of anime and that all changes that went through were approved by the show's original producers.

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