By Aya Nakahara. Released in Japan by Shueisha, serialized in the magazine Bessatsu Margaret (“Betsuma”). Released in North America by Viz.

I was a little harsh on Volume 16 of this series, feeling that it ended up dragging things out too long (which is the fate of many shoujo romances, to be honest). Strangely, though, I liked this final volume of scattered stories far more, and feel it’s a good final volume to this goofy love story.

These stories appeared a few months after the serialization ended in the magazine, and read very much as if she was trying to construct them for the volume. As such, they tie together really well, drawing on each other’s strengths. First we get a chapter devoted to Otani, in middle school, showing off his determination and compassion. Then we see Risa in middle school as well, and see her cheerful outlook (and tendency towards obliviousness). Finally, we get a chapter with “their first meeting” – when the two of them don’t realize who the other is, due to poor lighting at a concert.

It is particularly hokey – there is not one shred of originality in the entire volume – but then, I never read Love Com for the stellar plotting. It’s pushing your buttons, but it pushes them well, and you find yourself laughing, and going “awww” at just the right moments. There’s also a nice tie-in to all the stories showing a boy constantly changing schools, and how Otani and Risa – at different times – pull him out of his shell.

We then get one final post-series chapter, which mostly deals with Risa having to face up to Otani having a life outside of her. Risa’s always had hideous self-image problems anyway, and is having troubles making friends at her fashion school (as opposed to Otani who immediately gets friends flocking around him like birds), so winds up thinking this is all a reflection on her and spiraling into a depression. Otani, to his credit, knows something is wrong this time, and talks things through with her.

I appreciates the two still being themselves. Otani forgets Risa’s birthday, and for once (I’m used to the manga cliche), it wasn’t a fakeout leading to a big party later – he really did totally forget. And it wouldn’t be Love Com without Risa freaking out, stressing out, and sobbing. Luckily, things end happily and with big grins.

Love Com has always been a frothy ice cream soda sort of series – for all its occasional forays into relationship angst, it’s almost an antidote for more realistic, depressing series like Sand Chronicles or We Were There. (Part of this might simply be the trend of the magazine it ran in – the titles licensed over here from Bessatsu Margaret tends to be fluffy, happy romance, while Shogakukan’s Bessatsu Comic, Betsuma’s rival, tends to have a lot of angst and sadness brought to North America.) I did feel it ran on too long, but this was a perfect way to wrap up the series, looking back on what made it fun in the first place – Risa and Otani.

By Aya Nakahara. Released in Japan by Shueisha, serialized in the magazine Bessatsu Margaret (“Betsuma”). Released in North America by Viz.

Everyone knows the tragedy of a great series with low sales cut off in its prime. You see it a lot here in the US, with superhero comics. And it’s all over Japan, with Weekly Shonen Jump being particularly unforgiving of its newbies. But Japan also has the opposite problem, which is when a series gets popular, and you get an anime or a live-action movie, so the artist has to continue it. Unfortunately, it’s almsot done. So what happens? Plot complications, waffling, brief breakups, focusing on side characters…

It’s sad when a series you really enjoyed hits this wall, but that’s what’s happened with me and Lovely Complex, aka Love*Com. The early volumes had both fantastic comedy (the facial expressions in particular were a thing of beauty) and some sweet romantic angst. I read each volume religiously, and couldn’t wait for Koizumi and Otani to hook up.

And then they did. Woo hoo! And… wait, there’s 9 more volumes to go? Uh-oh. Even this volume, the second to last, has issues. It’s actually the last volume of the main series proper, but there’s another one due out in 2 months, which will have a bunch of ‘side stories’.

What’s worse, they couldn’t even fill this volume! Sometimes in early volumes of manga, you see ‘one-shots’ that have nothing to do with the main story, inserted into the manga by the author to fill space and to get her old work in a book. Which is fine. But you rarely see it later on, after a book has become popular. This volume has a 40-page ‘dramatization’ of the lead actor from the live-action Love*Com film, and it’s OK, I guess, but it’s so hyper-realistic that it’s totally out of sync with the rest of the series.

As for the main series, we have one more side-character to get paired off, as the artist seems to be falling into the ‘must pair all the spares’ habit that shoujo does a lot. (Marmalade Boy made fun of this, noting that it deliberately left two guys un-hooked up in its manga.) So we meet a new girl, and she’s not what she seems, and she has a crush on Kohori, so they try to help her out. And it turns out that when she comes out of her shell, she’s awesome! If this sounds cliched, yeah.

To be fair, if you don’t like cliches, don’t read any shoujo manga at all. And I did like the student film they put together, where Otani finally (if indirectly) says that he loves Koizumi. It was very sweet, and her reaction was wonderful. And the play Otani-Boshi was hysterical, especially Koizumi’s improvised ending. Nice to see one great blast of the comedy this series was known for.

But overall, I can’t help but think this is a classic example of a 17-volume series that should have been 8 or 9. It’s staggered to an ending, but I’ll probably be re-reading the earlier volumes more.