Love Lab Review

Now that the summer anime season has finished I'm going to be reviewing all the shows I had been watching for the past few months. I've enjoyed them all a lot for different reasons, but I thought I'd start with Love Lab. A shoujo comedy with a sparkle of romance, this show was a lot of fun to watch and had me chuckling on multiple occasions. This is a spoiler free review, so if you're interested in checking this anime out, I'll be going over the good and the bad so continue reading!

Love Lab Episode 10 Highlights & Thoughts

This week offered us a light and fun episode of Love Lab. Although not a whole lot of development moving the story forward happened we did get some perspective by means of new characters (involving siblings) who enlightened us on Mizushima’s and Suzu’s past. It was a lot of fun to watch, so Spoilers ahead let’s discuss what happened.
Mizushima’s Reluctant Fashion Show

It opens with a funny skit of dressing up Mizushima for her next prospective date. What we get is some funny shots of her in different ridiculous outfits and her stumbling around without her glasses. It’s nice to see this fun scene that makes light of the serious Mizushima and pokes some fun at her for once. I enjoy that a slice of life comedy can make a scene worthwhile and funny even though it doesn’t develop much for the story (*cough* *cough* Servant x Service this week *cough*) so I appreciate the thought that has gone into this show week after week that’s made it so enjoyable thus far.
A History of Romance..?

The next scene involves Mizushima still as we get an introspective on how her relationship with her current boyfriend all started. It’s done in the perspective of her boyfriend which is nice as he is not only mysterious but he demonstrates to us how he would remain interested in her despite the fact that they barely see each other. If you’ll notice from the above screencap, their relationship starts on the wrong foot but it’s actually an endearing moment. He gets to see an expression of hers that shows there’s more to her than most other people notice. It’s a bit strange but I like that they’ve shared her relationship past with the audience and in the perspective of her boyfriend to boot. I just don’t understand why they give him no eyes. What’s with that anyway?
The Girls’ Siblings

There’s also a short segment involving the siblings of Suzu and Enomoto. Seeing Suzu as a toddler is pretty adorable, and the scene is too cute. They also poke a bit of fun at an old anime classic My Neighbor Totoro. There’s also a moment from Enomoto’s brother who’s very strange and a bit scary too. He also dons the feature of no eyes. That just adds to his scariness in my opinion. Both scenes are funny and a change of pace to feature some of the other girls for a few minutes.
Suzu’s Perspective

Lastly we get a few minutes featuring Suzu and getting a little taste of how things look from her view. She’s pretty self conscious which can be frustrating to watch but she is sweet and admires her senpais a lot. We see how even though she’s close to the other girls she still looks at them from more of an outsider’s opinion as she gets easily flustered by Maki and Riko. Either way it’s nice to see her featured for a little bit as she’s typically in the background.
So that was this week’s episode. A lot of fun and funny too. I could probably watch this show for more seasons if it continued because of how well they can make the girls’ daily lives interesting and charming, even if a whole lot doesn’t happen. I’ll probably look into the manga for that reason. I’m looking forward to further developments coming next week as well!
Christina

Love Lab Episode 8 Highlights & Thoughts

A lot happened this week in Love Lab, and not all is happy go lucky in the student council anymore! We get to understand the perspective of the Newspaper Society a bit better while seeing the back of Mizushima’s boyfriend’s head! (SCANDAL ALERT! *cough not really*) The episode leaves on a big cliffhanger while the whole episode is a wave of ups and downs regardless. So let’s get into the highlights of this dramatic episode. Spoilers Ahead!


It begins with Riko wanting to reinvent herself and demolish her title of The Wild One. I like how she has this funny nickname that she thinks is terrible, but it suits her well! It’s not terrible to be wild, I’m not sure if the translation from English to Japanese translates over but wild can be a compliment! Anyone else think her feminine obsession is overrated? Anyway we get some cute and funny banter between the 5 girls involving this sudden change of heart.

And didn’t we all forget about the Newspaper Society? We’ve had no clue what was up their sleeve and even at the end of this episode we still don’t. How can they keep this secret from us for a span of 3+ episodes? This time around though these two have caused much more serious trouble, snagging candid shots of Mizushima with her boyfriend. Does Mizushima even like the guy? It seems like she enjoys just having him around to say he exists. Anyway, we find out that the Newspaper Society has had some friction with Mizushima and the gang as they cut their budget and were demoted from Club Status to an Honorary Society. But even those facts are not sufficient as this isn’t their motive, so what is it exactly? I’m excited for next week’s episode to find out!

My bets are on the fact that Mizushima and Momo have some unfinished business between each other, anyone else get that impression? So because of the bad blood between the two groups Mizushima ends up being blackmailed into admitting to the school faculty that she has a boyfriend (although she admits it semi out of choice). So we know something is up her sleeve as she’s cunning enough to make the best out of these bad situations. I really liked that she was the showcase for the second half of this episode as we get to understand her and how clever she is. She’s easily becoming my favourite character (currently it’s Riko) but next episode will be the judge of that!
So that was the episode! It was full of drama and questions, and it revitalized a dry one from last week where not much happened. This week it leaves us wondering what’s going to happen to the school council, but I know Mizushima won’t lose her accounting position so easily even though she got expelled from the school council! So I’m excited to see just exactly how she intends on getting her rightful place back on next week’s episode.
*Ahem* We also got this golden moment. Let me now erase it from my memory.

Anyone else feel uncomfortable with the blatant black face?

Christina

Love Lab Episode 7 Highlights & Thoughts

This week I watched the 7th episode of Love Lab, and it was quite a funny episode. We get some good interaction between the 5 girls which makes for a fun watch. We get a few teasers for what to expect in the upcoming episodes, but not much else this episode. It’s still enjoyable though, so let’s get into the highlights. Warning Spoilers ahead!


The episode begins with Nana from the school newspaper hopelessly trying to snoop on what the school council girls. The moment is short lived and we don’t get much tension between them and the school council, but we do get a funny scene of Mizushima and Enomoto just watch her struggle. Mizushima is so ruthless, she’s one of my favourite characters on the show for that reason. She observes a lot more than she tampers with, but when she does tamper it makes for an enjoyable scene. I’d like to see the confrontation that unfolds between her and Riko. The tension seems to build all the time. Will she reveal Riko’s lies? If anyone’s going to I imagine it would be her.

The second part of the episode consists of the girls all visiting Riko. Of course her little brother Ren falls for Maki. It’s funny how extremely he changes around her compared to the other girls. Unfortunately for him Maki is oblivious, and moreover uninterested in younger boys! Perhaps there will be more of Ren’s struggle to win over Maki. It would make for some funny scenes. Too bad he doesn’t have short curly hair, then maybe he’d be more her type.

And so in the last few minutes we see Satoshi reappear! I knew he wasn’t going anywhere. I’m excited to see what happens between these two. It’s pretty obvious Riko is almost falling for him, while he’s still hopelessly attracted to her. It’s a fun spin on the story that will make for a gratifying ending if they end up together! And Yan makes another appearance as well. Will he terrorize Maki’s ego some more? Probably.

And that was the episode! Once again we’re teased with the tension between the school newspaper and the girls and yet nothing comes of it! The teaser at the end shows that they are planning something, but let’s be honest, are they even a threat anymore? Or were they never one? I want to see more conflict! This episode had some nice jokes but not a whole lot really happened. Nothing that I felt was direly significant except the end scene with Satoshi. Despite the lack of development it was enjoyable though. I’ll be expecting episode 8 along with some story drivers to make this anime move! Until then!
Christina

Love Lab Episode 6 Highlights & Thoughts

This episode was another fun one as we got introduced to 2 more characters, both who are mysteriously connected to Riko. The episode doesn’t have much focus on the other characters, (Suzu, Enomoto and Sayori are barely in it) but it’s nice to learn about Riko and her history with boys (and moreover learn about her credibility, or lack thereof!). Spoilers are ahead and with that out of the way, let’s talk about the episode!

The episode begins with Riko’s morning, we get to see her family life with her brother and mother. It seems like both of them give her a hard time. They both claim she’s not feminine, but I disagree! Either way we get to learn that she’s been rejected in the past. Maybe we’ll get to learn about this later on the show? Maybe not? Who’s to say yet. It is interesting to know that she has bad luck with guys, making her lies to Maki all that more potent. Either way I’d like to know more of her past, so this episode is a nice addition to her story.

We find out about her old soccer teammate Satoshi who once confessed to her. Unfortunately for him, Riko doesn’t even remember this! She does end up remembering him though, although with age he’s changed and grown up a lot. I guess back then he didn’t really matter to her, but who knows if we’ll see him pop up again later on in the story. It seems like he has unfinished feelings with her.

Maki also gets her moment to shine (although she’s really confused by the whole situation). A boy calls her cute! … Just to call her stupid? Will he pop up again as well? Probably. It seems like those two definitely have unfinished business. I do think he’s going to cause more frustration than happiness however. Unfortunately for Maki, this episode isn’t really about her so the moment is short lived. I’d like to have Maki find her first boyfriend though, she’s so determined! It’s cute to see that she’s not forgotten in this episode.

The episode ends on a bit of a cliffhanger. If you remember from last episode there was a cliffhanger ending involving the school newspaper. Wonder what happened? Well they remind you right at the end of this episode. A bit strange as I thought that’s what this episode was going to be about. I almost completely forgot about that from last week’s episode until they kindly reminded me! I hope this finally gets explored as this could get all the girls into a lot of trouble if they get exposed. Somehow I know everything will work out for them though. For Riko though? She might take the fall on it, who’s to say? I’m anticipating next week’s episode for sure.
Christina