Friday, July 20, 2007

Lovely Complex 14

Blogger’s Note: I’ll get back to the earlier episodes. Please bear with me.

Summary

Lovely Complex has reached about the halfway point and the third year has begun in episode 14: A Killer Crush on Maity! [1] In episode 13, Otani and Koizumi capped off their second year with an Umibozu concert. Otani managed to catch a fever right before the concert, and Risa visited her bedridden friend. She met his parents, and they talked.


Risa was thunderstruck when Otani revealed that he didn't have any attractiton to Risa. He said: “Even though the two of us are alone in this room right now, I don’t feel a thing.” Moments later, Otani leaned close to Koizumi, brushed his lip against hers. This light kiss seemed to contradict his earlier words.


­ Otani puts the moves on Koizumi?


Otani recovered in time for the concert and when they met for the concert, Koizumi showed up with a surgeon’s mask, which signified that she was sick. Otani seemed ignorant of where she might had gotten the cold, which was his lips. He then revealed that he did not remember the kiss. Koizumi fell into the black pit of despair.


Another family watches powerlessly as their child is enslaved by otaku-dom.


The first fresh scene from episode 14 displays the horrified faces of the loving Koizumi family coming to grips with their daughter transforming into an otaku. She specifically indulges in the smooth, suave electronic seduction of a dating sim character known as Cain-sama. Risa eats up Cain-sama’s canned lines with gusto. Even as she tries to escape into her fujoshi fantasy land, the images of Otani’s denials gnaw at her still.


Risa becomes a full blown fujoshi.


Risa drags her carcass to school the next morning. Nobu excitedly tells her that they are all in the same class: Risa, N2, Chiharu x Suzuki, and Otani. Risa spazes out at Otani’s name. When the real McCoy shows up and starts joking as usual, Risa jumps down his throat. Nobu beats a hasty retreat, leaving Risa alone with Otani. He confronts Risa about her foul mood since the Umibozu concert.


Risa grabs him by the collar and demands her first kiss back. Otani is taken aback by the tearful request, moreso because he can’t remember the alleged smooch. After pretending to call for an ambulance, he tells her to pull it together and stop hallucinating. In short, our short friend is throwing napalm on the fire. Koizumi predictably explodes.


Risa readies for her guest appearance in the next “Devil May Cry”.


Risa spaces out while walking with Nobu and Chiharu. Nobu asks Risa if something happened at Otani’s place. Risa hysterically denies it. They are interrupted by a bishonen trying to get by the hallway. The newcomer is the spitting image of Cain-sama.


Legacy of Cain-sama: Shojo Reaver


The smitten Risa moves aside, but the mysterious stranger does not go quietly. Instead, he smooths Risa’s furrowed brow with the tip of his finger, warning her against wrinkling her cute face. He entreats her to smile, just like Cain-sama.

Risa is moved. Chiharu is stunned. Nobu undergoes hypovolaemic shock [2]. Nobu is not sure why she feels so cold, until Risa squeals “Cain-sama”. Much of the remaining female studentry is as drawn to him as the male students are repulsed. Risa waxes on about his tall, glacial good looks. Chiharu points out that Cain-sama is the diametric opposite of Otani. Risa doesn’t deny this; rather, she declares that Cain-sama is the One for her.

Risa is still mooning over Cain-sama during the year’s first homeroom, when Otani asks about her syrupy mood. She reveals that Cain-sama said the she was cute. To Otani, Cain-sama is just a video game character. Coupled with her earlier allegations of a kiss, Otani is chilled to the core.


Otani fails his SAN check.


The familiar homeroom teacher waddles in and immediately picks out All Hanshi-Kyojin as his class reps again. They contest the nomination in stereo. Nakano-sensei interrupts them by announcing that there is an assistant teacher for homeroom. It is none other than the beautiful Cain-sama who reveals his true name as Maitake Kunimi or Maity. The girls go wild. Nobu and Otani are creeped out.


Risa's senses go on an extended vacation.


Caught by Maity’s spell, Risa volunteers to be a class rep and volunteers Hanshin as the other nominee. The class enthusiastically accepts. The teacher calls them All Hanshin-Kyojin. Risa objects until Maity approves of it, and then she eagerly embraces the name. Otani becomes physically ill at this point.

Nobu begins intervention, demanding to know if Risa has cast aside Otani in favor of a hollow dating sim character. Risa laments that she could reset if it were a game. Nobu swiftly chastises her for being unrealistic, but beneath Risa’s fujoshi madness is a growing fatigue at Otani’s refusals and rejections of her.

Risa walks home with Otani after an eventful first day. Otani asks her about what’s been eating at her. She tells him to drop it. He then remembers to give her a souvenir Umibozu towel from the concert. Though she is happy about the gift, she feels worn down by the pendulum of push and pull with Otani.


Koizumi in doubt.


In English class the next day, the girl go ga-ga over Maity-sensei while the guys are grossed out. Maity calls on the slumbering Otani. Nobu tries to awaken him, but to no avail. Maity blows into Otani’s ear. Otani screams in primal, soul-wrenching horror at the queer ambush.


Maity’s Super Flaming Critical-Strike Rose-Scented Assault


After class lets out, Maity calls Risa to help out as class rep. Risa zealously agrees. Nakao tells his teammate that the coach is out, so Otani skips on class rep duty to organize the basketball club.

Risa isn’t happy about being stuck with the work by Otani and wonders why she’s drawn to him. She stops by the gym to complain to Nobu. Nobu steps up in Otani’s defense and informs Risa that Otani is the new team captain. Risa is again impressed by his resolve and focus. Risa leaves a message for Otani that she’ll be in the classroom. As she leaves she still wonders why she’s drawn to Otani, but frames the question in a positive light; there are too many reasons to pin any one down.


Otani on the mind.

While alone in classroom, Risa reminisces about the strange guy she’s fallen for and the good times. Otani shows up tired. Risa expects him to help; he complains about her dragging him back into the role of class rep. She answers that she would have felt bad for Maity if there were no volunteers; the name sends him into convulsions. The needle digs deeper as she jibes about the ear-blowing incident. Risa enjoys teasing him.

Otani turns serious and tells her not to go for a “cold” guy like Maity. His words lead Risa to believe that he wants to stake a claim over her. They make her happy, but she refuses to get her hopes up again. Just when she’s mulling over her thoughts, Otani remembers what happened during the sick visit. He reenacts the event by bringing his face close to hers.


A dramatic re-enactment.


She flushes at the possibility that he recalls their first kiss. He describes each detail, until his face came close, then he drops the bomb: he saw a grain of rice stuck in her hair. Koizumi digests this revelation for a moment. Instead of a kiss, the dumbass got close to make a crack. She tells him that she ate quickly to visit him, which is why the rice ended up in her hair.

Rice, rice baby.


He apologizes about the rice, but it was his brutally honest words that wounded her: “Even though the two of us are alone in this room right now, I don’t feel a thing.” Compounding the pain, he accidentally kissed her and raised her hopes in spite of the harsh words.

Otani says what any man would say in this situation: “Huh?”

Koizumi grabs him and kisses him. When he freaks out, she knows for certain that it was all a paradox-laden bit of vulgar shojo magick [3]. With her built-up hopes demolished, she declares that she’s finished with loving Otani and flees from the classroom. Otani is stunned. He follows her from the classroom door, but doesn’t follow. She barrels past Maity-sensei with tears flooding her eyes.

Maity looks thoughtfully at her retreating back. Otani sinks into his own heavy and perhaps dark thoughts, while Koizumi is at the end of her rope.


Direction of Tomorrow


Commentary

The series has slowed down, not in time, but in the movement of the story. The plot has ebbed and flowed with Risa’s emotions and hopes. This has not made the comedy fans happy, but is a necessity to develop and ultimately move forward the shojo storyline. Being shojo these days means that emotions are paramount, and unless Risa is annealed by fires and hammers of rejection and struggle, her happy ending will be too easily won.

While the end of this episode was melodramatic, it was built up well by genre standards. Risa was made to hope and brought the audience up with her fond memories, which all came tumbling down with one grain of rice. The dramatic end also sets up the next episode.

In the defense of Lovely Complex, this IS her first love and her self-esteem is at stake. She is painfully aware of her height when it comes to boys and his rejection doesn’t help her self image.

The scene still maintains some of the humor that has brought it this far. After Otani tells Risa about the rice, she screams “I am Japanese! Rice is a staple in my diet! I eat plenty of rice!” The outburst was well timed as are many of the jokes in the series.

While Risa has donned the angsty role, Nobu picked up the comedy mask. Her super-willies at Cain-sama’s phoniness are the perfect foil to Risa’s fujoshi gushing. She also serves as the bridge between Otani and Risa. When Risa didn’t know about his captainship, Nobu filled her in. And logically, she would know about Otani through Nakao. When Otani wanted to know about Cain-sama, Nobu gave him the scoop on Risa’s illness. The directors have expanded Nobu’s role, and the voice actress and the animators have stepped up to the challenge.

Episode 14 also introduced a new opening and ending sequence. At first blush, the new music can suck a golf ball through a garden hose. Despite the audios, the visual maintain their quality. The opening is more dynamic and has a flying scene reminiscent of the Karekano opening. The ending visuals are a real treat and shows series of painted stills. I would guess that they emulate oil colors on canvas. I’m not certain, but these images ARE emotive.


Clean Closing Shot

= = =

[1] KissSub fansub.

[2] Symptoms of hypovolaemic shock:

· Cool, clammy skin due to vasoconstriction and stimulation of vasoconstriction.

· Rapid and deep respirations due to sympathetic nervous system stimulation and acidosis.

· Hypothermia due to decreased perfusion and evaporation of sweat.

· Thirst and dry mouth, due to fluid depletion.

· Fatigue due to inadequate oxygenation.

· Cold and mottled skin, especially extremities, due to insufficient perfusion of the skin.

[3] Vulgar vs coincidental magick. Vulgar magick was a flagrant disruption of reality and invoked an immune response from reality. What we saw was definitely an entropy rote known as Accidental Kiss. Reference: Whitewolf’s Mage: the Ascension 1st Ed.