Sleep Is For the Weak

PG-13 for romantic hijinks; official series website (manga) and info website for everything else (ah, all right…it’s just Wikipedia)

Like most good shoujo love stories, this series has an incredibly stupid premise: a really short boy and a really tall girl fall in love despite the odds. The odds of…I don’t know what, exactly, but since boys like short girls and girls like tall boys, a high school romance between our heroes is JUST SO DAMN EDGY.

Anyway, it doesn’t matter–this series is great. The characters are all flawed but likable, like those really great, free-spirited friends you had in high school (before they became stoners). The whole thing is super Kansai, so crazy references and dialect will come hurtling at you at top speed, but it’s not much of a problem if you get good subtitles. The English script for the manga is done by the amazingly talented Pookie Rolf, so it sounds slangy without being hard to read, and I guess that’s the least offensive way to translate Kansai. The manga art is also lovely, and the show animation slick and pretty. The movie is the weakest version, in my opinion, just because it’s EXTREMELY strange. It’s entertaining and definitely funny, but the strange factor is just really, really high. There’s also a Japanese PS2 game for Lovely Complex…but although I have a Japanese PS2 and love buying crazy games for it, I’ll have to pass on this one. KANSAI. I understand precious little Japanese in my games as it is.

Educated impression: Worth a try for everyone. (Lianne)

Trackback URI | Comments RSS