(L) Lovely Complex (TV Series!)

[Xinil]

Originally Posted by Slice of Life

To support Ootani a bit: Don't forget that he can't know everything we know. Most importantly, he can't look into Risa's head (and the anime plays a lot in her head). He only sees the sudden outbursts. He also doesn't know that he's the male lead in a shoujo romance.

Risa is giving a lot of mixed signals for quite some time, to put it mildly. "Just forget anything happened." "No, don't forget!", "OK, OK, I'll give you some chocolate if you insist." "What, you don't want my precious chocolate?" "I hate you!" "I love you!" "Why are you so small?" When you drive an inertial mass at high frequencies it won't move at all.

Remember, men have a shorter life expectancy than women. We can't waste time on analyzing such baroque patterns of female thinking.

Of course there are also examples of real thickheadness, for example Sherlock Ootani's attempts to figure out who Risa is in love with. ("Hmmm, shorter than her, in the basketball club.") But that can be chalked off as comedy element. Even if Risa had told him that Mr. X is wearing his pants he probably just would have tried to hunt down the pervert.

I'm going to have to disagree with many of your points. Regardless of the fact that Otani can't look inside of Risa's head, he has no excuse for being such a clueless idiot. It's simple really, he either needs to shut down Risa, or accept her love. For the past 8 episodes or so he's been on the fence. Sure, that's because he doesn't "know what he feels", but what kind of idiot doesn't realize that by not directly turning her down, it leaves her with hope.

I wouldn't say any of the "Just forget it happened" are mixed signals. How many males out there have had this told to them? I'm sure 99% of you had. We KNOW it means exactly the OPPOSITE of what she means. Unless you're mentally retarded, or have never dated a female before (Otani has, so there are no excuses), you should know this. Who even cares what type of psuedo-mixed-signals she may be sending? She flat out said she likes him. That over-rules any signals.

[physics223]

I don't know, he flat out said he doesn't know. Risa could have given him time and simply showed him a restful waiting; instead, she wanted him to desperately fall for her. I know that chasing a relationship, at least congealing one requires a desperation, but I don't think Otani likes that in any way.

[Sorrow-K]

Originally Posted by Slice of Life

Wait, you bought that act?

Doesn't matter if I bought it or not, the point is that Risa did, and it can't be good for their possibility.

Anyway, I think Otani has a long way to go before he can come to terms with whether he likes her or not, and, at this stage, I don't think he thinks he has anything to lose if he comes to the conclusion that he doesn't.

[Lucipher]

i think from this point on the comedy is gona take a huge dive ><...... Man this is why i hate shows centered around a girl they always do this stupid thing where an Ultimate love rival comes in the Perfect guy. Ok now i hope Risa and Otani dont end up together just to spite her. Otani has gotten the short end of the stick(no pun). He gave up his First love for Risa he. The first girl who he accepted to go out with well turned out to be a guy. All his fans left him for other players. The first girl he had a crush on in the Anime ended up with someone else. How much worst can it get for him?

Risa on the other hand was already told why Otani dosnt want to get invole with her yet. She has already seen Otani ditch his first love for her twice. She already saw with that one singer that it just takes more time when it comes with close friends. After all this now she is gona be all over another guy just makes me mad ><

[grey_moon]

Originally Posted by Slice of Life

Remember, men have a shorter life expectancy than women. We can't waste time on analyzing such baroque patterns of female thinking.

Hee hee I said something like that (without the elegance) when I gave my little sister away

[Sinestra]

Originally Posted by Xinil

I'm going to have to disagree with many of your points. Regardless of the fact that Otani can't look inside of Risa's head, he has no excuse for being such a clueless idiot. It's simple really, he either needs to shut down Risa, or accept her love. For the past 8 episodes or so he's been on the fence. Sure, that's because he doesn't "know what he feels", but what kind of idiot doesn't realize that by not directly turning her down, it leaves her with hope.

I wouldn't say any of the "Just forget it happened" are mixed signals. How many males out there have had this told to them? I'm sure 99% of you had. We KNOW it means exactly the OPPOSITE of what she means. Unless you're mentally retarded, or have never dated a female before (Otani has, so there are no excuses), you should know this. Who even cares what type of psuedo-mixed-signals she may be sending? She flat out said she likes him. That over-rules any signals.

im going to have agree if Risa was playing games like a lot of girls are known for (sorry ladies its not all but some) then i could understand Otani's confusion. But Risa came right out with it and he knows he's hurt her serveral times. Dont string her along if you dont know then then turn her down its better than having her have a ray of hope that wont go anywhere. In defense of Otani this was all dropped on him all at once and technically he is acting like a typical guy at that age girls. Hes done some stupid things but if he would just think a little he would save him self some pain

[Polaryzed_123]

Originally Posted by physics223

I don't know, he flat out said he doesn't know. Risa could have given him time and simply showed him a restful waiting; instead, she wanted him to desperately fall for her. I know that chasing a relationship, at least congealing one requires a desperation, but I don't think Otani likes that in any way.

I disagree with this a little bit. My main gripe with Otani is that he's already been given ample amounts of time. When did Risa confess to him? Almost/Over a year ago? How many months does it take to come to terms with your feelings? Sure, Risa has been doing or saying things here and there along the way, but there is a lot of time that has passed between the initial confession and even his initial rejection. The anime only shows us her outburst periods and there could be weeks/months lapsing in between episodes. I think Risa's doing pretty damn well trying to tame her roller coaster emotions over such a long period of time. I can understand her frustration. I wouldn't expect Otani to respond immediately, and I respect that he's at least trying to take it seriously and determine his true feelings, but come on! How long does it really freakin' take?! It just shows how strong Risa is for enduring the torture of not knowing for so long. Most people (especially high school kids) would've given up long ago. So although I admire and respect Otani for taking this seriously, I still have to side with Risa.

[aliensporebomb]

Thinking thinking.
Okay we have to talk.

Spoiler:

I watched the live action dorama version of this and I'm utterly perplexed.
Well, to a degree. I'll get back to this.

In both the live action and the anime Otani is:

This next little bit will discuss pivotal plot points from episode 1-15.

Spoiler:

Unsure of his feelings. He likes her. He just doesn't know how much.

He's not sure if he should make her his girlfriend or just continue the
friendship. I'm sure part of his issue is: if we date and the relationship
tanks then our friendship will probably go down the tubes. Otani loses.

The other issue is: his height complex makes him ponder whether or
not it would work. His ex left him for a taller person. His basketball
performance is constantly evaluated on his height. If he dates her,
he'll constantly be ribbed for the height difference. Otani loses, again.

Deep down, Otani probably hasn't noticed she's pretty or that she
has feminine aspects he might be interested in other than friendship
simply because his issues with height have caused him to have a
somewhat narrow-minded view of who would be suitable.

My point: When he does find someone he's interested in, she's a
virtual clone in terms of appearance to his ex. Otani loses here
too because he'd never recreate what he had before even if the
person looked the same. Then he'd always be looking over his
shoulder to see if any tall people were checking her out. It would
be a disaster.

Then, I hate to say it but Risa doesn't do herself any favors - she
starts behaving in a somewhat clingy, possessive almost stalker-like
way regarding Otani. If she had been smarter she could have amped
up her already considerable assets (de-emphasizing the tomboy
aspect and amping up the sex appeal a bit) and continued having fun
with him as usual. Eventually it would just be a given that they were
a couple because, well, everyone thinks they are anyway and they'd
just fall into it. Instead, she tries to force it a bit and that doesn't
work so well.

And plus, Otani does say something rather interesting "it's rare to find
a girl as fun as her." There are hints he really does like her but he's got
too many reservations about himself to think of her that way, for now.

And ultimately, that's why this is a great story because:

Spoiler:

There's alot that could have been done to further the relationship
but at the expense of the humor and the story. We wouldn't have
had "Risa the Ghost" at the haunted house or some of the other
amusing bits without some of the angst. If he said "yeah, we
should go out" the story would end before it really began.

Question for those who've seen the live Dorama ONLY. If you're reading
the manga or watching the anime don't look at the spoilered bit below.

I mean it.

Spoiler:

I'm fighting a cold so maybe I'm confused due to cold medication but
WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED?

Was a public declaration (admittedly, very public) of her love for
him all that it took to get Otani to accept Risa's love? "That's so
tacky but if you had that why didn't you bring it out before?
It kind of gets me fired up...." okay, go Otani go! but.....

I see that Maity was really just a clever plot device to get Otani
jealous about what he might lose if he didn't act and to look past
the whole height issue and realize that it doesn't matter how tall
you are, if you're good at what you do and you're a good person
you don't have anything to apologize for. So a mismatched height
couple isn't a problem then if you can realize that.

Notice before whenever Maity would comfort Risa after being rejected
if Otani was nearby he'd turn away and not even bring it up at that
point - mainly because Maity was taller and maybe he did feel bad
for hurting her feelings but his thoughts aren't ever heard so you
can't be sure. I would guess a lot of it is inadequacy. "I'm too short,
I don't measure up. Anywhere."

Also, the story really wouldn't work if he really wasn't interested
in her - I see a lot of people posting here going "how awful to force
unwanted love on someone" but it's pretty obvious that he's had
stuff on his mind for some time since her confession.

And, Otani would fume about Maity to her in class but he wouldn't
say what he was really thinking even if he did like her. Isn't it a
little too obvious there?

And the subplot with the sister-in-drag (replacing the Seiko subplot)
and strange television show where women would brag about their
boyfriends was just strange, was that in the manga?

[Polaryzed_123]

aliensporebomb: I agree with that analysis. Its easy to gloss over those points you made and just go with "Otani's so dense" (which he is in certain situations). I think that he is thinking about those things. I know that I would (at least me today, maybe not me in HS :P ) At the same time however, you have to be willing to take the risk or you run the bigger risk of losing your chance. You'll never know unless you try.

[Teletha]

I'm going to have to disagree with many of your points. Regardless of the fact that Otani can't look inside of Risa's head, he has no excuse for being such a clueless idiot. It's simple really, he either needs to shut down Risa, or accept her love.

He already tried that in episode 12 and it didn't work. She's the one who decided to keep going after him. If you look at it as a whole, Otani hasn't done anything that wrong other then being wishy washy towards her. He's shown plenty of times that he cares for her, even picking her a few times over his ex-girlfriend. He just doesn't know exactly what his feelings are towards her. Basically if he took some time he'd probably figure it out. The dramatic circumstances (not remember the fever "kiss", Maity showing up, Risa acting stranger then before... ) are not really entirely his fault.

I'm also on both of their sides, since they are both kind of idiots and pretty much belong together.

[Vexx]

bingo.... I, too, am rooting for both of them because they're both idiots and belong together

[queen_desu]

I loooove it soooo friggin much!

[aliensporebomb]

You have to admit, part of the fun of this series is to see them singing some
weird Umibouzu tune at the top of their lungs (in unison no less) only to have
their friends (who are real couples) looking at them like they're just insane
but they're having so much fun they just don't care.

Yep. 100% compatibility. They're really more "together" than a lot of people
who purport to be couples.

[Risaa]

Originally Posted by aliensporebomb

You have to admit, part of the fun of this series is to see them singing some
weird Umibouzu tune at the top of their lungs (in unison no less) only to have
their friends (who are real couples) looking at them like they're just insane
but they're having so much fun they just don't care.

Yep. 100% compatibility. They're really more "together" than a lot of people
who purport to be couples.

lol!! Yes, I love the scenes in which they demonstrate they're more compatible than anyone else they know, but when it gets right down to actually talking or doing something about it, that's where their troubles begin. They just don't realize how similar they are... they're so cute.

[Pkdor999]

Well my english is very poor, but i'm going to give it a try and post anyway...

Here we have a lot of TV dramas (teleseries) that take the same turn that Lovecom has taken. If the episode last 23 minutes they show images from past episodes almost 7 minutes total and that's very disappointing, maybe is just for understanding the plot, or only for make it longer.

But anyways that's the only thing i don't like of LoveCom, this anime is very funny and gives a point of view, in some things differents and in other very equal, of any relationship a person has been. Poor Risa she is so honest in some things but can't be direct when talking about feelings (maybe we all had the same problem more than once). Otani is an incredible boy, with a lots of talents but the series put him like an idiot sometimes, that's very bad because we all need some reason for Risa liking him.

And for the other characters, Thumbs-up for Nakao, jajaja he rules:"I'm on my girlfriend side's", and for Maity because even if he has some bad intentions he will be an important factor for the history (I¡m just predicting anyway...)

That all. Thanks for the Fansubbers for their incredible job!!!!
Seeya...

PD: I'm gonna have some english class, please forgive the mistakes.

[Risaa]

Pkdor999, thanks for trying your best. You admitted you're not so good at English, but I can understand everything you said. You're even better than some native speakers....

Yes.. Risa's actions usually suggest the complete opposite of what actually comes out of her mouth, but that's something that happens to everyone at least sometimes. She's pretty bad about hiding her feelings and Nobu can often see right through Risa's words... Unfortunately (luckily?) Atsushi can't seem to pick up that what Risa actually says is usually not how she really feels inside. Aah, so complex.

[aliensporebomb]

He should just:

Spoiler:

Grab her and give her a kiss and tell her to mellow out for a while
while he considers his options.

Can you imagine the reaction?

[physics223]

This is the stigma: they're too much of a couple to be a couple.

[ReAn]

Originally Posted by aliensporebomb

He should just:

Spoiler:

Grab her and give her a kiss and tell her to mellow out for a while
while he considers his options.

Can you imagine the reaction?

Spoiler for Response:

I had a girlfriend whom i often kissed to shut up. It's surprizing how much that works. Well.. not to sound like an asshole, it wasn't like mean and misleading it was just her being giggly and causing problems cuz promiscuous giggles send odd messages to those around, so it kept her occupied ~_^.

[grey_moon]

Hmmm has Otani taken too long over it? Maybe, maybe not, but Nobu doesn't seem to think so and Nobu is goddess of sensibility and truth!