LoveCom: Volume 17

by Aya Nakahara, 202 pages

Koizumi and Ôtani didn't meet each other until high school, but, as this final volume of the series reveals, fate has been pulling them together since long before...and will keep them together in the face of whatever the "real world" after high school tries to throw at them.

*sigh* It's the last volume of Love*Com. The kiddos have bickered and mocked and giggled their way through the series, and one imagines they will continue to do so long after the final page is turned. If you need some non-syrupy sweetness and light (and snorts) in your day, read these. I can't even be sad that it's over, 'cause it's just so happy. Banzai! :D

LoveCom: Volume 16

by Aya Nakahara, 183 pages

Graduation day! Koizumi and Ôtani bicker and tease their way through their final days of high school, just as they've done the whole of the preceding year, and fans of the series wouldn't have it any other way. If the two can help their awkward friends with awkward crushes in the process--having a lot of experience in that area, themselves--then so much the better.

Hee hee! This series makes me giggle. It's rare to have such openly happy main characters in a shojo manga. Sure, they have their moments of insecurity and regret, but they always come around in the end. This volume includes a good-sized bonus story, "The Place Where We Belong," about Teppei Koike, the young pop culture idol who plays Ôtani in the live-action film adaptation of the series, and how he and his friend and band partner Eiji Wentz met and followed their dreams.

Love*Com: Volume 15

by Aya Nakahara, 180 pages

Risa Koizumi and Atsushi Ôtani are an odd couple--she's the tallest girl in class, he's the shortest guy, and just seeing them standing next to one another sends their otherwise-encouraging classmates into fits of laughter--but they've long since come to terms with their many contrasts and instead focus on enjoying what remains of their high school life while looking toward the future. This usually entails a lot of giggling.

In this volume, the kids travel to a tropical island for their outgoing teacher Mighty's wedding, but--as seems to happen every time Koizumi and Ôtani go on a trip together--plans do not go off without a hitch. Add to that their friend Seiko-chan's identity crisis, Ôtani's former basketball team's dire straits, and their graduation committee responsibilities, and the duo's going to have one very busy final year.

Love*Com (short for Lovely Complex) is a great romantic comedy. Koizumi and Ôtani pick on each other constantly, but without hurtfulness and with an understanding that they're far more alike than they are different, though it takes them a while to figure that out. Watching them get past that seven-inch hurdle over the course of the series has been much fun and I will be sad when it's over. The art is as much a plus as the characters and story. Nakahara does wonders with expressing her characters' wide range of emotions, whether subtle or exaggerated, and gives them individual wardrobes and hairstyles that change from day to day (and occasionally resurface, just like your own closet's contents) rather than the more usual and easier tack of keeping them in school uniforms and the same dos all the time.

For fun, snickers, sweetness, and some more snickers, you really can't go wrong with this one. :)