Love Stage!!

TV (10 eps)
3.878 out of 5 from 14,230 votes
Rank #1,649

His father and older brother are famous singers, his mother is a renown artist, Izumi Sena was born into a family of super entertainers! However, unlike the rest of his family, Izumi is an otaku who aspires to become a manga illustrator. One day, he is roped into starring in a television commercial dressed as a woman. The actor Izumi is featured with, Ryoma, falls in love at first sight upon meeting him. It turns out that they had actually met 10 years prior and Ryoma's attraction hasn't changed even after finding out Izumi is a boy. 

Source: Crunchyroll

Content Warning

my anime:

User Stats

38,806 users are tracking this. to see stats.

If you like this anime, you might like...

Reviews

nanaosaki66
1

There are too many positive reviews for this shitty anime. I don't care, I'm about to rant a little bit, so this won't be much of a review, really. ********TW: I will be talking about sexual assault and rape(ish)******** You are disgusting if you think that this anime is good mlm representation. You are disgusting if you think this anime's romance is cute and wholesome, because it isn't. Do ya'll not pay attention to the things that ya'll watch? Did your brain skip past the sexual assault and rapey ass scenes in this show? It sure seems that way. I don't remember their names, and don't care to look them up, so I'm going to call them MC (main character) and LI (love interest) for the remainder of this rant. I don't personally even think that I need to go through the characters, plot, etc, because once you read that there's literal sexual assault in this show, you should've been turned off from it completely, but I'll say a few things. The characters are all one-note. The MC could've been interested, especially with his plot line about him creating his own manga, but the fact that he ends up with his assaulter completely demolishes the little character that he has. THE LI should be convicted. That's all I'm saying about him. All of the other characters are either average or below average, there's nothing of importance to say about any of them. The premise of this story was actually very interesting to me, but it's RUINED by the lack of well-written characters and the sexual assault.  Now, the sexual assault. The LI literally undresses the MC in episode 3, to try and see if he has a dick or not because he says he didn't want to be attracted to a boy, that there's no way he could be attracted to a guy. The MC cries during that scene and THE LI starts....kissing him? Okay.....and then in episode 5, I believe, the MC is sleeping (they are not dating at this time, by the way, but even if they were it's still weird) and the LI kisses him multiple times while he's passed out and can't consent to it. And then there's a rapey sex scene with them too later on in the story.  If you geninuely thought their relationship was cute, seek help.

CrossedOver
9.5

Ahh, my first adventure into BL, and what a lovely little journey it was. I was, admittedly a shoujo buff who intially wrote off shounen-ai as 'male-centric shoujo with sex', and I was very, very wrong. Love Stage!! is an enjoyable ride through the romantic struggles of our leads, lovingly ripped straight out of the first arc of the manga, minus the, uh, slightly more naughty parts. Let's dissect the story, and uh, since I have not read through any other BL, I don't have much of a point of comparison, but it reminds me in a way of  'Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun', at least concerning our main characters dynamic for the first couple episodes. In summary, 10 years prior to the beginning of the series, the young male Sena Izumi is unwillingly recruited by his celebrity mother Nagisa to fill in for a young girl during a commercial shoot. It is here he meets a young Ichijou Ryouma, who helps him out with the aid of a good luck charm after he screws up a take out of nervousness. It turns out that these screw-ups drew Izumi away from the spotlight and towards the path of the mangaka (which he isn't all that great at). Ryouma, never knowing that Izumi was a male, fell in love with him, and used that love to claw his way to fame and sucess. Having the influence, Ryouma manages to get the whole original cast back of previously mentioned commercial (Izumi included), just to confess his love to the 'girl' he had been dreaming of all this time. Chaos ensues, and eventually Izumi's true gender is revealed because of Izumi's rock star brother, Shougo; cue gay panic on the part of Ryouma. More chaos ensues, lots of elephant euphamisms later, and we have a great little romantic comedy. In terms of differences between the anime and manga, the anime really just cuts out the more graphic interactions between the characters, and I think it works better that way. The anime also does a few more things with the Lalalulu character which I simply loved, which made her more than just the obsession of our protagonist. Animation wise, it looks JUST like the manga. Hell, it managed to really bring a lot more life to Izumi, especially in his eyes. Very colorful, not so much realistic, but it doesn't have to be. I admittedely don't pay much attention to sound, but it never went against the tone or mood, which is all I really care about. My only gripe is Shougo's voice actor: to call him annoying is an understatement. WISH! I love all the characters dearly, at least the principal four of Izumi, Ryouma, Rei, and Shougo. I kind of wished the parents broke the 'celebrity parent' mold we see even in western works, but they aren't awful. Izumi and Ryouma have some lovely chemistry, and I found the whole gay panic thing too hilarious. I admit that Izumi kind of takes the female-boy trope to new heights, considering he turns THREE OBSTENSIBLY STRAIGHT THUGS TO ATTEMPTED RAPE, but when he's not troping it up and even going at odds with it, that's when I love him the most. Ryouma does have 'perfect boyfriend' syndrome, but the way he relentlessly chases Izumi makes him endearing, at least to me. Rei and Shougo essentially act as Izumi's real parents, and they have that bickering old couple thing about them I find so adorable. Overall, I loved it. The chemistry works, the plot is gloriously contrived, and it really just forms a stellar viewing experience. The manga does have a ongoing second arc (albeit with the mature content level of the manga, so be warned, kiddies!) that I really enjoyed, so go read that if you liked this anime. TL;DR This BL was awesome, everything works, highly recommended. WISH!

See all reviews

Related anime

Related manga

Characters

See all characters

Staff

See all staff

Discussions

Custom lists

See all custom lists