3ET: Love Lab

"TELL ME ABOUT LOVE!"

Studio: Dogakobo

Director: Oota Masahiko (Minami-ke, Kotoura-san)

Main Cast: Numakara Manami as Kurahashi Riko, Akasaki Chinatsu as Maki Natsuo, Sakura Ayane as Enomoto Yuiko, Minase Inori as Tanahashi Suzune, Taichi You as Mizushima Saori

Writer:  Aoshima Takashi (Yuruyuri)

Music: Misawa Yasuhiro (Kokoro Connect, Arcana Famiglia)

I wish I could say that I watch shows without expectations. I want to be as fair as I can with each show, judging them on their merits and not on what I expect them to be or who is working on it. That's especially the case with Love Lab, a show about middle school girls studying love. I honestly can not think of a topic that could be duller. Also, with the director and writer of both Kotoura-san, a show I was loathing by its end, and Yuruyuri, a painfully unfunny comedy, working on it, my expectations were in the gutter. Especially since the description is "girls discussing love." Thankfully, there were some pleasant surprises lurking inside Love Lab. Was it enough to get me on board? Let's find out.

I'll start with what the show does well. It does a great job at lampooning girlish notions about meeting and courting men. This is especially fun for me, since I've seen all of these cliches many, many times in all of the anime I've watched. The girl running with bread in her mouth, the princess carry, and the losing your handkerchief all get parodied in the first few episodes. A theme that runs through all of these bits is a rejection of how demure and passive a girl has to be to get a man, which is kind of refreshing to see from anything that Japan puts out.

The toast is central to Japan's theory on how adolescents begin the courting ritual.

Now, these jokes wouldn't work if the characters didn't. Thankfully, the main two girls, the delinquent with a heart of gold, Riko, and the air-headed, hard-working president of the student council, Natsuo, have a great rapport with each other. Riko bluntly shoots down all of Natsuo's flighty, idealistic notions about love, as well as her idea of the ideal man, which is literally drawn on a body pillow. The other characters, the exceedingly shy Suzune, the vindictive ex-president Yuiko, and the money-loving treasurer Saori are not nearly as fun to watch, although that may be because they were left to do the lifting involved in adding some not needed drama to this fun comedy.

Part of the second and most of the third episode is dedicated to Yuiko trying to get the presidency back. This is about as interesting as middle school politcs, because it is middle school politics. Taking a break from legitimately funny criticism of female romantic ideals to deal with this schlock is jarring and completely took me out of the show. Instead of giggling at Riko and Natsuo's antics, I was left cringing while listening to Yuiko complain to Saori about how she should be president and conspiring to reveal what Riko and Natsuo are doing on student council time. It is exactly as childish and dull as I make it sound, and thankfully, all of this is resolved by the end of the third episode. Hopefully, this means that in future episodes, more time will be spent on the good part of the show, the comedy.

"Oh shit, we forgot about the other characters in this show."
"Don't worry, I'm sure they aren't important."

And yes, I plan on watching more of Love Lab. It passes by making me laugh enough to cancel out its flaws. If the other characters will get chances to shine, that would be great. But even if the only characters I have to look forward to seeing are Natsuo and Riko, I think that's enough. The two of them mesh together to tell of both the absurdity and the awkwardness of teenage love. Either way, this is a show that has exceeded my expectations, and a reminder to why I try to give every show a fair shot.