Otani & Koizumi
At 172 cm (about 5'7"), high school student Risa Koizumi is way taller than most other girls. This makes her very self-aware, which she tries to cover up by acting strong-willed and sarcastic, rarely showing her more sensitive side in public. That her name means "Little Spring" doesn't help much either.
Then she meets Atsushi Otani ("Big Valley"), captain of the basketball club, although he is short for a guy at 156 cm (5'1"). Otani's personality is a bit rough around the edges, so he and Koizumi don't hit it off well at first. Most of the time they try to one-up each other with snide remarks, giving them the reputation of being the high school's "All Hanshin-Kyojin" (referring to a comedy duo with one tall and one short member).
Despite all this they become good friends, since they share the same musical obsessions and zany sense of humor and promise to help each other out with their crushes. It is only a matter of time then before Koizumi discovers she might feel more for Otani than just friendship. But does he feel the same for her too, since she is way taller than he is?
The anime (and live-action movie) is based on the
shojo manga by Aya Nakahara and preserves much of the snark and energy of the original. The rollercoaster-ride of Koizumi's and Otani's relationship gains a lot of depth by way of a cast of lovable characters, which makes the series a pleasurable watch till the very end.
Tropes:
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Otani surely isn't Mr. Sweet most of the time
- Almost Kiss: Koizumi and Kohori
- Angrish: Koizumi slips into this occasionally.
- Aw Look They Really Do Love Each Other: Otani/Koizumi
- Beta Couple (the matchmaker friends)
- Beware The Nice Ones: Suzuki fails to get into the same college as (sweet, meek, quiet) Chiharu, and seriously considers breaking up with her because he feels insufficient as a boyfriend. When she finds out, she picks up a desk and throws it, just barely missing him. She remains angry enough for a while to involuntarily tear magazines in half whenever she remembers it, too.
- Bishonen: Suzuki, Otani, Haruka, Kohori, but especially Maitake and Seiko
- Butt Monkey: poor Kohori
- Class Trip: with a very central role to the plot
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Mimi towards Otani at first, though she gets better. Otani and Risa towards eachother, and Haruka towards Risa, though he later gets better too.
- Completely Missing The Point: Happens far too often with Otani. (See Oblivious To Love)
- Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming: Episodes 18 and 19 are this back to back.
- Crowning Moment Of Funny: Episode 19. Good job buddy, indeed!
- The Dandy: Haruka
- Dogged Nice Girl: Koizumi
- Dropped A Bridget On Him: Seiko
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Koizumi has to do this over, AND over, AND over, AND over again until things go right.
- Falling In Love Montage: Koizumi imagines this would've happened, had she and Otani been of 'normal' height
- Huge Guy Tiny Girl: Inverted, to Otani and Koizumi's great irritation.
- Huge School Girl
- Jerk Ass: Koizumi's grandfather, "Jii-chan," who gives Otani nothing but hell from the second the two meet, to the point of arranging for a vicious gold-digger to seduce Otani away from Koizumi and break them up. She hits the wrong target, but the fact that he tried is bad enough. Possibly upgrades to Jerk With A Heart Of Gold when he reveals that his late wife was even taller than him, and the height disparity caused their relationship a lot of trouble, so he doesn't want to see the same thing happen to Koizumi. Possibly.
- Jerk With A Heart Of Gold: Otani
- Kansai Regional Accent: Most of the cast
- The series is interesting for both playing the dialect completely straight (as an aspect of the region rather than the characters in general), but also playing the character trope completely to the hilt. Aside from the "manzai duo" of the main couple, they go to freaking Maido Academy. Maido... really.
- Karaoke Box
- Kimodameshi
- Leaning On The Fourth Wall: Generally, the narration boxes in the manga belong solely to Koizumi's thoughts. Once in a while, some pop up that seem to belong to Otani... except the "camera" then pulls back to reveal that one of their friends is holding up a sign and a marker
.
Otani: What are you doing?
Nakao: (holding up a marker and a sign next to Otani's head that says "I'm sorry for being mean to you.") Your true feelings.
- Lucky Charms Title: Lovely★Complex or Love★Com.
- Matchmaker Crush: The 'matchmaker' part takes place in the first episode when both of them try to fix each other up with two of their friends (said friends end up together at the end of the episode). The crush part comes later.
- Memetic Mutation: AHDSAKAFAJDAGS!
- Mistaken For Cheating: Koizumi, during several events involving her coworker Kohori. Later thought of Otani when he spends the night with a gold digger
- No Guy Wants An Amazon: Quite literally
- Not What It Looks Like: Otani and Koizumi's first 'kiss' was a result of him passing out and falling on her face.
- Oblivious To Love: It's truly frightening how hard Otani has to be clubbed across the head with Koizumi's interest. She confesses to him, and he thinks it's a joke. A friend says that, yes, she meant him. He says, "Don't lie." When he asks what the guy she loves is like, she describes him perfectly, and he guesses she means another member of the basketball club. It takes her repeating that description and saying, "He's in here," when they're in a room alone together, and he still doesn't get it until he's had a good long think about what she's said. What An Idiot.
- One Head Taller: Koizumi and Otani
- The Rival: Mimi
- School Festival
- Sexy Man Instant Harem: Maitake.
- She Is Not My Girlfriend: Both Otani and Koizumi say this, even after the former has kissed her of his own accord.
- Shojo: Though it tends to make fun of itself more often than most
- Sick Episode: Otani gets sick, Risa helps him out.
- Sickeningly Sweethearts: Nakao and Ishihara.
- Slap Slap Kiss
- Skater Boy Syndrome: Subverted in that Koizumi's not actually going out with someone else but Maity-sensei takes it upon himself to make Otani jealous, getting him to FINALLY realize he likes Risa.
- Transsexual: Seiko is an EPIC version of this trope.
- Tsundere: Koizumi comes pretty close at times
- Unlucky Childhood Friend: Both Haruka and Mimi.
- Unrequited Love Switcheroo: Played with, as Otani starts realizing he has feelings for Risa just when she's deciding to give up on him for the last time.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Koizumi and Otani, so much, before either even begins thinking of the other as potentially date-worthy.
- Will They Or Wont They: One of the best examples in recent anime history. After about the halfway point in the manga, it becomes more a case of "Will They Or Won't They Stay Together?"
- Yandere: Mimi, though she gets better.
