Lovely Complex anime review threads always fixate on the height difference like it is some revolutionary concept but that is the least interesting thing about this show. Yeah you have got Risa standing at 172cm and Otani at 156cm and everyone calls them All Hanshin Kyojin because they bicker constantly. The real meat here is how it captures that specific brand of teenage awkwardness where you like someone who treats you like garbage half the time and you cannot figure out if you are being too sensitive or if they are really clueless.
I have watched this series three times now and it hits differently depending on how old you are. When you are sixteen it feels like a guidebook for what not to do. When you are older it feels like a war flashback to every stupid crush you had on someone who was obviously wrong for you but you could not see it because hormones. The show is messy. Risa cries constantly. Otani is denser than a black hole. The animation looks like it was drawn in 1995 instead of 2007. But it works. It really works despite all those flaws because it understands that first love is not cinematic and perfect. It is ugly and repetitive and makes you want to scream.
The Height Gimmick Is Just the Setup
Most people describe this show as the tall girl short boy anime and sure that is the hook. Risa towers over her classmates and Otani looks like he should be in middle school. Their teacher pairs them as a comedy duo and their friends constantly joke about them getting together. The height complex mentioned in the title is not just physical though. Risa thinks she is too big and ungainly to be feminine while Otani compensates for his stature with aggressive confidence and basketball skills.
But here is the thing. The show does not really care about the height difference after the first few episodes. It becomes background noise. The real conflict is that Risa falls for Otani hard and he treats her feelings like a joke for way too long. The height thing is just the excuse they use to avoid admitting they have chemistry. I saw some data that said viewers on Reddit often get frustrated with how the show uses the height difference as a crutch for comedy when the emotional stuff is way more interesting. They are not wrong but they are missing that the comedy is what makes the drama bearable. Without those stupid chibi faces and exaggerated reactions this would be a depressing show about a girl chasing a boy who cannot see what is in front of him.
The All Hanshin Kyojin nickname references a real Japanese comedy duo with a similar size difference and the show milks this for laughs every chance it gets. They do bits in class. They argue in the hallways. They have this weird sibling energy that fools everyone into thinking they hate each other when really they are just comfortable enough to roast each other constantly. It is a weird setup for a romance but it works because it gives them a foundation of friendship before the feelings get messy.
Why Risa Koizumi Carries the Whole Show
Let us be honest. If this show followed Otani's perspective it would be unreadable. Risa saves this anime. She is loud and insecure and she cries at the drop of a hat but she is also relentless. When she decides she likes Otani she does not just sit around waiting for him to notice. She plans. She schemes. She gets terrible advice from her friends and follows it anyway. She is every teenage girl who ever wrote a note and threw it away three times before handing it over.
What makes her work is that she is not trying to change herself to fit some ideal. She tries the feminine angle for like half an episode and ditches it because it is exhausting. She stays loud and tall and opinionated and somehow that makes Otani fall for her despite his initial rejection. Reviews on MyAnimeList constantly point out how refreshing it is to have a shoujo protagonist who does not pretend to be someone she is not. She is not the prettiest girl in school. She is not graceful. She is just a solid friend who happens to have a massive crush on the shortest guy in class.
Her friendship with Nobu is another strong point. They have this gross codependent best friend energy where they cry together and share clothes and Nobu gives her the worst romantic advice possible but it comes from love. There is this scene where Nobu starts crying and Risa tries to comfort her and they both end up sobbing because they realize they do not know how to comfort each other when the roles are reversed. It is funny and sad and exactly how high school friendships work. Risa is not perfect. She gets jealous. She says dumb things. But she is always trying and that makes you root for her even when she is being an idiot.
Otani and the Problem With Dense Male Leads
Now we need to talk about the elephant in the room. Otani is frustrating. Not just a little annoying but genuinely maddening at times. He ignores Risa's confessions multiple times. He calls her an idiot constantly. He gets jealous but will not admit he likes her until like episode twenty something. Some critics argue that his behavior borders on abusive with how he verbally puts Risa down and the show never really punishes him for it.
I think that is a fair read but also I remember being a teenage boy and being that clueless. The show portrays his density as a defense mechanism. He is short so he developed this aggressive personality to compensate and he literally cannot conceive that a tall pretty girl would really want him. Every time Risa gets close he pushes her away because he thinks she is joking or he thinks he misread the situation. It is realistic in the worst way. First relationships are full of this kind of miscommunication where one person is terrified of vulnerability so they act like a jerk instead.
But yeah sometimes you want to reach through the screen and shake him. When he finally does confess it is satisfying but the road there involves a lot of Risa crying and a lot of Otani being oblivious in ways that stretch believability even for anime. He has this whole complex about being short that drives his character but it does not excuse him ignoring her feelings for fifteen episodes straight. The basketball stuff is cool though. Seeing him dominate on the court despite his size gives you insight into how he sees himself. He is small but he refuses to be small and that stubbornness applies to his romantic life too which is why he fights his feelings for so long.
The Pacing Gets Weird Halfway Through
The first eight episodes are golden. Fast paced funny great chemistry. Then the middle section hits and it is a loop. Risa confesses. Otani rejects her or misunderstands. Risa cries. Her friends cheer her up. She tries again. This cycle repeats for like ten episodes and it drives some people nuts. One detailed review mentions that the middle drags because Otani takes forever to figure out his feelings and the show invents reasons to keep them apart.
The pacing covers roughly two years of high school in 24 episodes which means they skip a lot of the boring school stuff but they also skip some development that would have made the relationship transition smoother. They jump from friends to almost lovers back to friends so many times it gives you whiplash. The manga handles this better apparently but the anime rushes through arcs that needed more room to breathe. There is this whole subplot with a substitute teacher named Maity that feels like filler even though it is supposed to make Otani jealous. It goes on for three episodes too long.
The summer festival episodes are solid but then they hit the school festival and you feel like you are watching the same episode twice. Risa tries to get Otani alone. Something interrupts them. Risa gets sad. Repeat. It is realistic that falling for a friend takes time but watching it happen in real time can be exhausting. You start yelling at the screen for them to just talk to each other like normal people but then you remember they are sixteen and sixteen year olds are terrible at talking.
That Kansai Dialect Choice
Almost the entire cast speaks in Kansai dialect which is unusual for anime. Usually you get standard Tokyo Japanese with maybe one character using Kansai for flavor. Here it is everyone. Risa and Otani are both from Osaka and it shows in their speech patterns their humor and their general attitude. They bicker like an old married couple in a way that feels specifically Osaka.
THEM Anime Reviews notes that this adds authenticity but can be hard to follow for non native speakers. The voice actors really sell it though. Akemi Okamura as Risa brings this perfect pitch of exasperation and hope to every line. Akira Nagata as Otani has this gruff but vulnerable quality that makes you forgive some of his denser moments. The dialect makes the show feel grounded in a specific place rather than being set in generic anime high school land.
The jokes land differently because of the dialect too. Osaka humor is more blunt and self deprecating and that fits these characters perfectly. Risa can call Otani a shrimp and it sounds playful instead of cruel because of the intonation. When they get emotional the dialect makes it feel more raw less polished. It is a weird choice for a shoujo anime since most aim for that standard Tokyo neutral sound but it gives Lovely Complex its own flavor that you do not forget.
Art Style That Aged Like Milk
Okay let us address the visuals. This came out in 2007 but looks like Kare Kano from 1998. The colors are faded. The backgrounds are plain. The character designs are simple to the point of looking cheap sometimes. They use a lot of still frames and speed lines to save budget. When they animate the basketball scenes you can tell that is where all the money went because the rest of the time people are sliding across the screen or standing in one place while their mouth flaps.
But the facial expressions save it. When Risa gets angry or sad they distort her face into these exaggerated chibi forms that are genuinely hilarious. The animation might be limited but the expressiveness is not. You always know exactly how she is feeling because her face contorts like a rubber hose cartoon. The daily outfit changes are a nice touch too. Risa does not wear the same uniform every day she switches up her street clothes constantly which adds a layer of realism that most anime skip.
The height difference is conveyed well through shot composition even when the art is sketchy. They always frame Risa looking down and Otani looking up and they use that visual for both comedy and those quiet moments where they are really seeing each other. It is not pretty by modern standards but it is distinctive. You will not confuse this show with anything else from that era because it has this weird washed out look that screams mid 2000s shoujo.
Side Characters Who Deserved Better
The supporting cast is weak and that is being generous. You have got Nobu who is Risa's best friend and she is supportive and that is it. You have got Haruka who shows up to create a love triangle then disappears. There is Suzuki and Chiharu who are the boring perfect couple that Risa and Otani are jealous of. There is Seiko who gets a few episodes about her own crush then gets forgotten. None of them get arcs that resolve satisfyingly.
According to some viewers the side characters feel like plot devices rather than people. They show up when the main couple needs a push then vanish when they are not needed. The manga fleshes them out more but the anime is so focused on Risa and Otani that everyone else becomes wallpaper. It is a shame because Seiko had potential and Haruka could have been an interesting rival if he had stuck around.
Even Nobu who gets the most screen time of the friends does not really have her own life outside of cheering up Risa. We do not see her home life. We do not know what she wants to do after high school. She exists to be the voice of reason and occasionally the voice of terrible advice. That works for the story they are telling but it means when the show tries to give the side characters closure in the final episodes it feels unearned because we do not care about them the way we care about the main pair.
The Music Actually Slaps
Despite the dated animation the soundtrack holds up. The first opening by Tegomass is catchy J pop that fits the energetic tone. The second opening switches to a rap pop hybrid by Hey Say 7 that some people hate but I think it fits Otani's character since he is into rap. The background music during emotional scenes hits hard. There is this one piano piece that plays whenever Risa is having a moment of realization and it never fails to land.
The voice acting carries the emotional weight when the animation cannot. When Risa confesses for real in the later episodes you can hear her voice breaking and it sells the scene better than any fancy camera work could. IMDb reviews often mention how the voice acting makes the characters feel real even when the plot gets repetitive. The ending themes are mellow and jazzy which gives you time to breathe after the drama.
They also use music diegetically in smart ways. The Umibozu concert episode where they go see their favorite rapper is a standout because it gives them something to bond over that is not just their height complex. Otani knows all the lyrics and Risa gets into it too and you see them having fun together without the romantic tension ruining it. The music in this show is not just background noise it is part of who these kids are.
Is It Problematic or Just Realistic
There is a debate about whether this show glorifies unhealthy relationship dynamics. Otani is mean to Risa. She keeps coming back. He rejects her publicly sometimes. She cries and tries harder. Some people see this as teaching girls that if a guy is mean to you he likes you. Others see it as an accurate portrayal of two awkward teens who do not know how to communicate.
I lean toward the second interpretation but I get the criticism. The show does not explicitly condemn Otani's behavior early on. You are supposed to forgive him because he is insecure about his height. But insecurity does not excuse ignoring someone's feelings repeatedly. If you are sensitive to that kind of thing this show might make you angry. It is not a perfect healthy relationship model. It is a messy depiction of two kids figuring it out badly.
The power balance is weird too because Risa is so physically imposing but emotionally vulnerable while Otani is small but emotionally distant. They meet in the middle eventually but watching Risa cry over him again and again can be hard to watch. You want her to move on and find someone who appreciates her immediately but that would not be realistic. Teenagers fixate. They obsess. They cannot see the red flags because everything feels like life or death. The show captures that toxicity accurately which is not the same as endorsing it.
Lovely Complex Anime Review Final Verdict
Lovely Complex anime review summaries always call it a classic and they are right but with caveats. This is not a flawless masterpiece. It is repetitive. The art is ugly by modern standards. Otani makes you want to scream. But it is also one of the most accurate depictions of how terrifying and exhilarating first love really feels. Risa's determination to keep loving someone even when he does not see her at first is painful to watch because most of us have been there.
If you want a romance where everything goes smoothly and the couple communicates perfectly look elsewhere. If you want to remember what it felt like to be sixteen and crying over someone who did not text you back this hits the spot. Experts agree that despite its flaws it captures something authentic about teenage romance that cleaner shows miss entirely. Watch it for Risa. Put up with Otani. Skip the middle episodes if you have to. Just do not expect a polished perfect love story because those do not exist in real life either.
The show ends where it should and gives you enough closure to feel satisfied without dragging into college arcs or unnecessary drama. It is a complete story about two weird kids who find each other and learn to be less insecure. That is worth something even if the road there is bumpy. It is funny and sad and annoying and sweet all mixed together which is exactly how high school felt. If you have not seen it yet and you like rom coms give it a shot. Just brace yourself for the secondhand embarrassment because there is a lot of it.