5. Lovely Complex
Back when I was in kindergarten and the class would disperse for play time, the girls would always rope me in to playing house. No gluing macaroni to construction paper for me. I got some weird looks from the rest of the boys in the class, but oh well.
You should see how spotless I keep my apartment.
It all started with shoujo, see. My path to anime fandom, that is. Yes, the first series that made me sit up and say, “Hey, this is cool,” was Neon Genesis Evangelion, a shounen series through and through, but when I started looking for more stuff to watch, it was shoujo that caught my eye. Of course, things change. I don’t watch nearly as much shoujo as I used to. And whenever I stumble upon a shoujo series as fun as Lovely Complex, I ask myself, “Why not?”
That’s not to say Lovely Complex is your stereotypical shoujo show. The standard trappings are there, of course, with a lovesick female protagonist, bright and cheery artwork, and schoolgirl fantasies (no, not that kind) out the wazoo. But the melodrama typical of many shoujo series is nowhere to be found. Lovely Complex is straight up shoujo comedy, and in a year when I was more interested in comedy series than drama series in general, it really hit the spot.
In other words, I enjoyed the hell out of Lovely Complex. Even when the plot was running around in circles, chasing its own tail, I enjoyed the hell out of it. Even when the art got all weird and low budget, I enjoyed the hell out of it. Even when the girl next door showed up and I thought, “Oh no, not another rival!”, I enjoyed the hell out of it. Lovely Complex was by no means a work of art, nor was it particularly poignant or profound in a way many of the shows I watched this year were, but, boy, was it a fun ride.
And that’s something I can say about most of the shoujo series I’ve watched over the years, both the good and the bad. Girls, they have all the fun.
But I guess I figured that out a long time ago, didn’t I?
*deadpans*
I’m still not playing with Barbie Dolls.
Natch.
Yeah …
now if only real life were like a shoujo manga -shot-
This is on my watch-when-spare time emerges list. I saw most of the manga, so although I enjoyed it, I didn’t place as high an urgency compared to other anime series.
I saw two minutes of this and said “I’ve had enough”
thats cause back in the day it seems like there were more shoujo shows that were popular (kodocha, marmalade boy, himechan’s ribbon etc.) but nowdays the only thing that stands out are harem and moe, neither of which are the shoujo genre.
there’s been a serious lack of any shoujo since i began anime blogging. only thing that comes to mind now is ouran, lovecom and shugo chara.
Now we are getting to the good stuff…
I had almost lost in faith in you with your other choices but I definitely agree with you about LoveCom. A good old fashioned romantic comedy in the standard shoujo tradition.
And forget what you heard, sometimes standard and tradition can be a good thing sometimes.
Speaking of which, if they’d only do an anime adaption of Jun’ai Tokkou Taichou life would be a whole lot better.
Anyway, I will also have to agree that LoveCam did lose it’s way at the end. It should have ended at episode 18 and went out with a bang instead of a whimper but that’s shoujo life I guess.
And yes, after the angsty, eroge adaptions, the shamelessly shounen franchises, the violently bland harem overload and the watered down GSD mecha retreads being churned out these past few years, I am all about a shoujo revival as soon as possible.
I think the decline of shoujo anime is attributed to the rise of josei anime.
And frankly josei anime just does the shoujo “thing” better. Between that and magical moe crap, there’s just little space left except for pure, mainstream shoujo stuff like lol Pretty Cure 5.
“I haven’t the foggiest idea”, in French it’s :
“Je n’en ai pas la moindre idée”
:)
I don’t agree.
I got into shoujo anime somewhere in the eighties when they did some great stuff like, Lady Georgie, Rose of Versailles(70’s but I saw it on the eighties), Candy Candy, Anne of Green Gables etc.
Having such good stuff as a background, I can’t stop being somewhat inquisitive when some genres are concerned like this one.
Well, what I have to say is that Lovely Complex was some kind of deception to me, it was going well until episode 6 or 7, but then the story became rather poor with Koizumi always whining and crying in every corner and every 5 minutes, the ending was also mediocre as well.
By the way, if you want a nice recent Shoujo, well not that recent, watch Hana Yori Dango.
Cheers,
Rag.
But the melodrama typical of many shoujo series is nowhere to be found.
A strong attribute, I’d agree. Love the shoujo, it’s awesome, somehow…. I’m perplex why I enjoy it. Light and funny, that’s what I’ll remember this for, because the romance wasn’t too heavy, but the comedy was everywhere. Fun side characters as well.
:)
ahh I really really really love this anime!
The plot is simple, but it’s so sweet in places.
There are some really ‘magical’ moments and other moments where theres a ‘frog in your throat’