Love*Com – The End

Some of my favorite shojo manga are ending this year, and they’re all ones I’ve followed since their beginning, whether it was in the pages of Shojo Beat or as tankoubon. The first one up was my longtime Chicago afternoon pastry companion, Love*Com.

The story actually ended in volume 16, so volume 17 was actually a compilation of bonus stories written specifically for the tankoubon by Nakahara-sensei that gave us a look at the duo’s past relationships and how they happened to intersect. None of the stories felt forced or tacked on, leaving the series with an end that fit its path beautifully.

Love★Com

Judging from the manga offerings of recent years in Japan, one of the new “Odd Couple” trends in shojo manga is a tall girl and a short guy who fall in love despite the earth shaking dealbreaker of a few inches in height. Of the ones I’ve read, however, I’d have to say that Love*Com (ラブ★コン) is the best executed.

The first volume starts out with each of them developing crushes on members of the opposite sex in their summer school class, and it just so happens that Koizumi is close friends with the girl Otani likes. They make a deal to help each other land their dream date, which later turns into a competition to find a boy/girlfriend in general, then unexpectedly leads to Koizumi realizing that she’s in love with Otani. There’s a reason its full name is Lovely Complex.