Spoiler Level: Mild
So where does Love Lab stand? Well, to start with, I stumbled upon Love Lab accidentally, and to my knowledge it was never a very high profile series to begin with. The series has humble origins in a 4-koma, aka. a 4 panel comic series, and was somehow adapted into a short comedy series tallying in at 13 episodes. That said it's not bad; Love Lab is still a decidedly above average show. Much like coffee though, once you've had a sip of the really good stuff it's hard to go back.
Love Lab is a comedy series at heart; it's one of those feel-good comedy series in the vein of Azumanga Daio and perhaps Strawberry Marshmallow (Ichigo Mashimaro). Shortly in I was greeted with light-hearted comedy and a feel-good dynamic. The short version of the plot summary runs: Kuruhashi Riko attends an all-girls school but doesn't really have any friends. One day she accidentally walks in on the student council president (Maki) practicing her kissing with a pillow and so Riko (awkwardly) gets dragged into giving love advice and joining the student council. From there more and more people join the student council and hilarity ensues. The premise isn't half bad (read: somewhat original) and unlike some shows the title actually makes sense. Most of the characters play on well established stereotypes and tropes but there is some real thought put into a few of the characters, namely Riko, Maki, and the chick with the glasses whose name I can't remember. The others are paper thin and rely heavily on their tropes. Considering the series' origins in a 4 panel comic though it's not overly surprising.
Comedy animes are a favourite of mine and I've run the gambit, so I'm a somewhat harsh critic in this regard. (Though as reviewers go you'd probably be getting off easy with me.) Love Lab remains pretty upbeat and interesting but the humor is hit and miss. The first episode started off strong with some great scenes but soon fell into an erratic line-graph of comedy swinging wildly with each episode. There were always at least a few chuckles, but chuckles do not a great comedy make. All in all Love Lab failed any side-splitting moments for me either, which is really a shame because there was candy and confetti inside and now the kids will have to go without. Oh god they've come back with sticks and blindfolds, next paragraph NEXT PARAGRA-
The place where Love Lab really shines is in the animation department. Despite my distaste for pastel colour palettes the series makes it work in a way that I didn't mind. During the action sequences, just a few moments here and there, the animation is silky smooth. It's almost worth watching simply for the fluidity with which the animators tackle the scenes. Where a lot of comedies take the low-budget route for animation, Love Lab, much like Nichijou, took the high road and came out the better for it. Some of the scenes that did actually make me crack up were probably owed in part to the perfect timing of the sequences. The style of the faces and movements are all excellent too as is the art direction in general. The characters are cute and expressive, the story provides just enough momentum to keep a decent pace, and the main characters are moderately well developed for a mere 13 episodes, but somehow all of that still doesn't save the series from just feeling luke-warm as a whole though, especially to anime veterans. In the end I'm left with relatively little to say about the series. You don't have to reinvent the wheel to be good, and Love Lab certainly is in its own right. The directors know the genre and they know how to do it well but that doesn't make the series great either.
The Short Version:
If you're looking for a little comedy sprinkled with some warm and fuzzy feelings you could do a lot worse. Fresher viewers may find the show a little more interesting as the tropes may not be immediately recognizable while anime vets may find the series a bit of a slog unless you are in the mood for it. The comedy is good overall and the premise is unique enough that it should at least pull you into the first episode. Still, all in all this series probably isn't going to make many people's top 10 lists.
Random Thoughts:
Maki and Riko have a great dynamic in the series. Actually my big three all work great together. The action sequences work out flawlessly. I forgot to mention it earlier but it was just a few .gifs that turned me on to the series in the first place.
If you're a soundtrack person, like myself, I wouldn't get your hopes up. Sitting here thinking back I can't remember anything about the OST (original sound-track), which pretty much means it was completely unmemorable and not worth bothering with.
Arbitrary Rating:
Arbitrary rating time! I'm tempted to drop the series down to a 6.5 simply for being unmemorable but the 6 range is kinda of the danger zone for anime. For flawless animation and decent comedy Love Lab manages to bump itself up to a 7.
For:
Love Lab
7 / 10
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