Love★Com

Long story short (not):


Only for those who like a long, arduous journey of unrequited love, and waiting for the payback/reward when he likes her back.


When I first read the summary, I was not expecting such a painful onesided love. The girl takes her time falling for him, and she takes an even longer time getting him to love her back.



This type of formula is hard to find in shoujo, one that I like in a masochist kind of way.


Most manga nowadays don't take a lot of time in showing how/why they fall in love with each other.


Nakahara Aya is good with friendship romances. She lets them interact/develop first. While like most shoujo, I still don't fully see why they like each other, at least she tried?


Like I mentioned before, I first thought this manga would be a lighthearted breezy series about nice, average kids falling in love, despite height differences, and just facing hardships after getting together.

I thought the guy would be smiley, nice, gentle and a little passive. Boy was I wrong.


I thought it'd be almost episodic like Horimiya too.



The male MC in here is manly, brusque, blunt and almost rough. He still has a bright disposition, and is still determined despite always being called a midget. He's not good with emotions, especially showing them in gentler ways to people he care about.



Nakahara Aya isn't one to put in a lot of romance/tension in this manga. That's one of the things, preference wise, I wish she'd add more in.


Up till they get together, progression wise, had good buildup. Despite me being annoyed with the female MC for being desperate, embarrassing and trying so hard. I would have given up.


I'm used to mangas introducing a male rival early on to get the guy jealous and realize he likes her, but since he didn't like her at the time of confession, realistically it wouldn't make sense. Also the payback/reward wouldn't be as great.


So personal bias aside, the girl did try to get him to like her back. It was frustrating, but finally, finally the male rival in the form of sensei appears.


When they do get together, I thought it was good, for Nakahara Aya standards.



I would say, nakahara Aya is the type to use less standard tropes, and keep their interactions on a friendly level. Not that it's bad, I really wished she kept the buildup of their relationship, instead of it fizzling out by the end.



I truly felt the series loses its focus and she lost grasp of what to do when the side characters stories come into play. It get silly, especially with the grandfather arc.



The whole period when they broke up briefly, had I not had a friend who went through a similar situation, I would have thought was a very forced situation in the manga.



But it's a good lesson. How do you handle the opposite sex when you are in a relationship? It's about personal space/time vs obligation vs trust do communication.


Do you have to report every little thing, or only when the opposite sex is attractive? (In my friend's case that was the issue she had with her bf, hanging out alone with a very attractive friend).


But there Are issues you should report, like staying over in their home to comfort them, hanging out for a few hours alone. What if the friend wasn't attractive, should you report to your bf/gf if you are away for a few hours?


It's judgment, if you think it's something that will worry your gf/bf definitely, vs if you are not sure, vs you should do it regardless if the friend is not attractive at all.


It's tiring, this cycle. Relationships will never be fully ok even with trust. Communication is important. It's always easier to just tell them beforehand, because then it seems like there was nothing to hide in the first place.



On the other hand, when you tell your gf/bf, and they Still don't want you to hang out with that person. Then it comes down to, restricting their freedom, even when there's already trust and communication.


And why? Because even the strongest of love/feelings is not concrete. No matter how small the chance, feelings can change, and unpredictable situations do arise that you have no control over.


Like I mentioned before, the manga loses its focus and fizzles when the side stories started. The relationship with the main leads get stagnant, it goes nowhere and becomes very bland.


Sure the whole grandfather arc was to show how devoted and loyal the guy is. He'll never cheat on her no matter how hot the woman is.


But nakahara Aya could have shown this in a less roundabout way, faster and more direct.



It gets really silly when side characters you hardly see throughout the manga get a few chapters for their love lives. It would have been better had nakahara planned ahead better and incorporated these characters more into the manga early on, rather than cramming them all at the end.


Especially the female MC childhood friend. He had potential with his role, but was nonexistent/useless for the entire manga.


The main leads remain friendlike, but I wished there were a few more moments of gentleness, buildup and tension between them.


It's only natural they have misunderstandings and fight, and it's great they kept their friendship side but, things do change when you start to date. You fight and grow closer, closer in ways that can be shown in the manga.


You don't need to take away the friendship, but you can certainly add more into their already existing relationship.


I don't need them having sex, but certainly a little more kissing, hand holding, tenderness and intimacy could have kept this manga from completely falling flat by the end.


That's one issue I found with all of nakahara aya's mangas, but it's also a personal preference thing.



There could also be moments when the male MC could be more gentle and tender, instead of always being so brusque, especially when he's called out for it.


Realistically, this type of relationship of name calling and hitting all the time can be viewed as abusive. It's mostly for the humor, I know I know.

But the humor do get stale fast, and though there are some funny moments, nakahara's repetitive humor isn't my style.


I would say I liked the Premise more than the execution, but nakahara Aya did do a sufficient job in making us feel the pain/frustration of unrequited love and feeling the payback when he does like her back.


I wished most shoujo female MC weren't this stupid though. And the guy being an utter DUMBASS when she first confessed.



And I would have liked to see Sakisaka Io handle this exact premise. Or another mangaka that can balance reality with enough shoujo moments that can satisfy both sides.



Overall, buildup was good till the side stories started, then it gets really silly and convoluted.


I Did like that one moment when the female MC dressed up to model and he found her cute. You see, typical shoujo tropes aren't bad, and Nakahara Aya is good at making them work and less cringe worthy and overly mushy.



That's the thing, nakahara Aya handles situations so it's not overly mushy or forced, that's why if she can add in a few more tropes, and have better focus and buildup, this manga could have been way better.


Should you read this? If you like this type of premise of slow unrequited love and forgoing the terrible end. Note, if you are like me, you'd want more than the minimal romance given by the end of the series.

You can read the chapters here

Added the Award Winning tag since this got the Shogakukan Award for best Shoujo back in '04 and the first volume was named by the Young Adult Library Services Association as among the best graphic novels for teens in 2007.

It's not bad. Its really long though. Both protag are dimwitted. Otani is clueless to feelings, and is too prideful to admit it. Koizumi on the other hand, is also dimwitted but very truthful about her feelings. The series is pretty much them having misunderstanding and reconciling at the end, rinse and repeat. Overall, it's a good series.

Well, I read it.  I really liked it, but wanted to beat the male mc about the head and shoulders for a large part of the journey.  I noticed that Risa's brother really liked the mc, but warned him about his sister.  WTF???  She was a ditz, but for 90% of the manga, she was a rocket scientist compared to him.  Grandpa should have been taken out with the burnable trash.  Yeah, in the end he bought some vintage crackers for the mc, but any asshole who hires hookers to involve their yakuza boyfriends in his granddaughter's life needs to feed the fish in Tokyo Bay.

 

I know, I know - it's all manga, and nobody gets hurt.  I really liked the story, and enjoyed reading it, but I wanted to put the whup on a number of characters at a number of times during the story progression.  How in the %^&*()_ could anyone refrain from killing the childhood friend?  He had all the redeeming features of a brown paper bag of feces set alight on someone's porch.  Humor's one thing, and total turdlappers are another, and he was in the latter category from his first appearance.  

 

I'm an old geezer, who's all for familial respect for elders (being one myself), but some of this is just too much.  Certain persons in my family were hard to deal with, but we tended to banish devious scumbags.  

I fully agree  with you. 

Well, I read it.  I really liked it, but wanted to beat the male mc about the head and shoulders for a large part of the journey.  I noticed that Risa's brother really liked the mc, but warned him about his sister.  WTF???  She was a ditz, but for 90% of the manga, she was a rocket scientist compared to him.  Grandpa should have been taken out with the burnable trash.  Yeah, in the end he bought some vintage crackers for the mc, but any asshole who hires hookers to involve their yakuza boyfriends in his granddaughter's life needs to feed the fish in Tokyo Bay.

 

I know, I know - it's all manga, and nobody gets hurt.  I really liked the story, and enjoyed reading it, but I wanted to put the whup on a number of characters at a number of times during the story progression.  How in the %^&*()_ could anyone refrain from killing the childhood friend?  He had all the redeeming features of a brown paper bag of feces set alight on someone's porch.  Humor's one thing, and total turdlappers are another, and he was in the latter category from his first appearance.  

 

I'm an old geezer, who's all for familial respect for elders (being one myself), but some of this is just too much.  Certain persons in my family were hard to deal with, but we tended to banish devious scumbags.  

cute! a little on the long side, but in the end it wasn't too bad. 

 

btw this manga is completed..

Pity it's not available here, but it's still worth pointing out that Love Com is one of the great comedy romance mangas (and anime). It's hilarious, touching, classic. Wonderful stuff. Well worth buying if you can get your hands on it.

I totally agree.  I have the first 15 or 16 volumes, and I plan to pick up the rest (I'd thought they'd ended it before)!

Aren't the pages of ch 15 out of order?? >>

to anyone whos yet to have read this manga YOU MISSING A GOLD SERIES
better read it before its gone from internet

I like a comedy that stays a comedy to very end instead of turning into sappy drama. Great props for Nakahara Aya for managing to keep it up all through in a way that made me laugh, cry, aww at the cuteness, and often all at the same time. Def one of my favourite manga.

This manga and its anime made me cry many times I have lost count - Made me laugh that my sides hurt - Made me feel fuzzy inside that it felt like a dream.

The live action movie was nice too. LOL i forget but either Risa or Otani had this funky older sister- what a hoot!

this is ont of the best couple in all shoujo that i have read

shoujo scan groups be crazy

just watch the anime.

luckily i still have some chapters of this one on my old hdd.

Pity it's not available here, but it's still worth pointing out that Love Com is one of the great comedy romance mangas (and anime). It's hilarious, touching, classic. Wonderful stuff. Well worth buying if you can get your hands on it.

vol. 4-17 are on their forums. Can't speak for vol. 1-3 as scanlation groups are dead and gone. It is also licensed in a number of languages so you should be able to purchase it if you so desire... it's a nice manga.

can we download it from their homepage?

so arent all magas licensed in some sort of way?

The scanlating group, Ochibichan, doesn't allow licenced manga to be up loaded. Sorry.

what lol they were taken off while i was in the middle of reading them lol

so, the chapters?!?