Plot
Love★Com is a love story between a boy and a girl. The girl, Risa Koizumi, is 172 centimetres (5 ft 8 in) tall—much taller than the average Japanese girl. The boy, Atsushi Otani, is 156 cm (5 ft 1 in)—way below the height of the average Japanese boy. Because of this, they are called the "All Hanshin Kyojin" after a popular comedy duo that has a similar height difference.
During summer school, a very tall student named Ryouji Suzuki (from another class) shows up and Risa immediately falls for him, as she has had bad luck with boys in the past because she is tall. There is a girl that Atsushi likes as well, so Risa and Atsushi decide to put aside their differences and help each other get their love interests. But as they get to know each other better, Risa's feelings for Atsushi begin to blossom, and her love life gets complicated from there.
One notable fact about Love★Com is that instead of speaking standard Japanese, almost all characters speak in Kansai-ben (the story takes place in Osaka)While having one or two characters speaking Kansai-ben is common in many anime shows, having all characters doing so is unusual in media produced for a nationwide audience.
Characters
Risa Koizumi (小泉リサ, Koizumi Risa?)
Drama role by: Ema Fujisawa, Voiced by: Akemi Okamura
The protagonist, Risa Koizumi is not your average Japanese high school student. Standing 172 centimetres (5 ft 8 in), Risa's height is well above that of most Japanese girls her age (the average height for a female is 160 cm (5 ft 3 in)) Ironically, her surname means 'little spring'. She and other characters compare her to a giraffe. Risa can be impulsive and strong-willed at times, and is rarely willing to display her softer side. She had a crush on Suzuki before he started dating Chiharu. In the beginning of the series, Risa is 170 cm (5 ft 7 in) but she gains 2 cm (0.79 in) in height to become 172 cm (5 ft 8 in).
Risa starts developing feelings for Ōtani and soon admits to herself that she likes him. She then starts trying to confess. Failing the first time, Nobuko and Nakao try to help, Nobuko often giving Risa advice on what to do. Finally she very directly tells him. She immediately regrets it, and tells Ōtani to pretend it never happenened, but in spite of herself she tells Ōtani once again that she likes him. Ōtani responds that he couldn't see her as a girlfriend yet, so her new goal is to make Ōtani regret that and make him like her as well. Eventually they start going out.
Atsushi Otani (大谷敦士, Ōtani Atsushi?)
Drama role by: Teppei Koike, Voiced by: Akira Nagata, Voice actor for game/drama CD: Takahiro Sakurai
Atsushi Ōtani is one of the main characters. He is very short for a boy, standing 156 centimetres (5 ft 1 in). The average height for a male in Japan is 171 cm (5 ft 7 in). Like Koizumi, Ōtani's surname (roughly, "big valley") is a pun on his diminutive stature, and he can be thoughtless and rude; at heart, however, he is kind and a little silly. Ōtani is also the star player of the school basketball team.
His ex-girlfriend is Mayu Kanzaki, the manager of his middle-school basketball team. She broke up with him for a much taller boyfriend, and this is one of the reasons Ōtani is sensitive about his height, but he later finds out that wasn't the reason she broke up with him, it was because she was in love with someone else already who just happened to be tall. He doesn't know quite yet how he feels about Risa, and only responds that he can't see her as a girlfriend (at the moment) when Risa confesses her feelings. But later, he realizes that he does care for her, and he kisses her. Later on in the series, Otani gets the wrong idea when Risa keep doing suspicious things with her co-worker Kohori, and then breaks up with her. However, after seeing how devoted she is to him, Otani reconsiders and they make up on Christmas Eve.
Nobuko Ishihara (石原信子, Ishihara Nobuko?)
Drama role by: Nami Tamaki, Voiced by: Saori Higashi
Fashionable and charming, Nobu is Risa's best friend. She is generally wiser than Risa or Chiharu in the ways of love, and is always ready to offer her advice. She's mostly the one who sets up all the 'alone time' moments with Risa and Ōtani, but it usually ends up failing and Risa goes back to her for comfort. She's utterly in love with her boyfriend, Nakao, and is always calling him her 'honey', 'darling', and 'baby'.
Heikichi Nakao (中尾平吉, Nakao Heikichi?)
Drama role by: Yusuke Yamazaki, Voiced by: Yasuhiko Tokuyama, Voice actor for game/drama CD: Kenjiro Tsuda
Nobu's boyfriend and Otani's best friend. Considerate, sensitive, mild-mannered and easygoing. Nakao is absolutely dedicated to Nobu, and when he is not playing basketball with Ōtani, he can usually be found helping with her match-making schemes.
Chiharu Tanaka (田中千春, Tanaka Chiharu?)
Drama role by: Risa Kudo, Voiced by: Kazuko Kojima
One of Risa's closest friends, Chiharu has such a shy, demure personality that she fears most boys her own age. Ōtani once harbored a crush on her (she resembles Kanzaki, his ex-girlfriend, or vice-versa), but Chiharu instead fell for the gentle Suzuki. The two are now a couple. When everybody starts making college plans, Suzuki and Chiharu applied for the same college, but Suzuki got rejected. He sadly tells Chiharu somebody else would be able to protect her. For the first time, Chiharu breaks out of her shy character and violently lifts up a desk and throws at him (narrowly missing), frustrated that Suzuki thinks he can be replaced. They later make up and Suzuki promises to join Chiharu in her new school the next year.
Ryoji Suzuki (鈴木涼二, Suzuki Ryoji?)
Drama role by: Hiro Mizushima, Voiced by: Kenjiro Tsuda, Voice actor for game/drama CD: Masaya Onosaka
Chiharu's boyfriend. Suzuki's cool demeanor is often mistaken for standoffishness, and so he has few friends. Oblivious to Risa's crush on him, he develops feelings for Chiharu, and eventually asks her out. Like Chiharu, Suzuki is shy and easily embarrassed. When failed to get into the same university as Chiharu, he promises to try again the year after.
Haruka Fukagawa (深川遥, Fukugawa Haruka?)
Voiced by: Masaya Onosaka, Voice actor for game/drama CD: Ryotaro Okiayu
A handsome, effeminate young man who developed a childhood crush on Risa when she defended him from a gang of bullies. Though he is popular with many of the other girls (dating seven at a time), he says it's all preparation for when he goes out with Risa, but she always rejects him. According to Risa his grandmother is English. It is also suggested that he might have a crush on Seiko.
Seiko Kotobuki (寿聖子, Kotobuki Seiko?)
Voiced by: Fujiko Takimoto
A blonde who has a large crush on Ōtani, although she is biologically male, stating that God placed her in a wrong body. Her given name is Seishirō, but she prefers to be called Seiko, as it sounds more feminine. She kissed Otani, but he later found out she was biologically male when she took off her shirt when tending to his injury in the school infirmary. Seiko was afraid that Ōtani would think she was disgusting, but Ōtani stated that he didn't and they remained friends.
Mayu Kanzaki
Voiced by: Yuki Matsuoka
She is the ex-girlfriend of Ōtani. She looks very similar to Chiharu (or Chiharu to her), which is one the most likely reasons that Ōtani had that crush on Chiharu. They started dating in middle-school, and she was the manager for the school basketball team. She broke up with him, leaving him completely heartbroken, because she was in love with someone else who was tall, causing his inferiority complex.
She invited Ōtani to the team Christmas party, and though Ōtani accepts, he ends up going with Risa to the Umibōzu concert instead. She then visited Ōtani's school to see him, but encountered Risa and Nobu. Risa is convinced that Ōtani is still in love with her, so she goes to clear up a misunderstanding. It is then that Mayu tells him that it was not because of his height that she broke up with him. However, she appears again later, after having broken up with her boyfriend. When she asks to meet up with again, he says "Sorry, I can't because if I do there'll be an idiot who'll cry."
Umibozu
Drama role by: Susumu Terajima
A popular rapper that both Risa and Ōtani are avid fans of, leading to Nobu's suggestion that the two are compatible. Risa and Ōtani accidentally cross paths with Umibōzu while on a class trip, and learn that he is actually a devoted family man, with a wife and son with a similar story of how they became a couple. He is named after the mythological creature Umibōzu due to his bald head.
Kuniumi Maitake (舞竹国海, Maitake Kuniumi?)
Drama role by: Shosuke Tanihara, Voiced by: Junichi Suwabe
Student teacher at Risa and Ōtani's school. Maitake, who prefers the nickname "Maity" or "Mighty", is taller than Risa and extraordinarily good-looking. He bears a resemblance to "Cain-sama", a character in one of Risa's favorite visual novels, and soon acquires a legion of female fans. Gaining affection from Risa, Ōtani soon becomes jealous and quickly starts to realize his feelings for her. It is later revealed he has a fiance, to the disappointment of his fan club.
Mimi Yoshioka
Voiced by: Kae Araki
Ōtani's next door neighbor. She is in love with Ōtani, and brings him milk every day so he could reach her height, about the same as Risa's. Since Ōtani does not not have feelings toward her but does have feelings for Risa (who is exactly the same height as Mimi), she becomes jealous of her. She acts accordingly two-faced between them both: acting sweet towards Ōtani, yet acting sour to Risa behind his back.
Risa's Senpai
Drama role by: Shugo Oshinari
Dancing Yoshiko
Drama role by: Eiji Wentz
Kohori Kazuki
Voiced by: Hiroki Shimowada
A young student who works part time with Risa in Ikebe. He is notably shorter than her, although slightly taller than Otani (158 cm.), and has distinctive black hair with a red streak. Risa soon discovers that he is also an avid Umibouzu fan. He very soon develops feelings for Risa, who admits to herself that she finds him 'cute'. Against her better judgment, Risa attends an Umibōzu concert with Kohori which leads to her temporary breakup with Ōtani. He even tells Ōtani that he is in love with Risa, which causes Ōtani to slug him. Around chapter 60 in the manga, Risa's classmate Abe is shown to have a crush on Kohori.
Matsubara-san (松原さん, Matsubara san?)
The manager in charge at the restaurant where Risa works. She wears glasses and is quite nosy. When she is intoxicated, she turns wild, and does things that she won't remember the next day.
