Love Stage!! - Reviews

Cuteee !

omg I loved this story much, Ryouma was really cute!

Izumi is way cuter than me as a girl and I have been a girl all my life ahhaha

Shougo was really funny and so Rei but they were also very caring towards Izumi I loved their relationships.

overall: cute

Love love love love love this anime! So KAWIAA ! I was first reading the manga but then turned to the anime because I couldn't wait for updates, but both are great! LOVE this anime !

Well I'm not going to lie but I wish that they showed more BL in this anime. But overall it was actually pretty good I love the stroyline.

SPOILER WARNING!
[THIS REVIEW ALSO HAS REFERENCES & COMPARISONS TO OTHER ANIME]

This is a Yaoi / Boy x Boy anime so if you're not cool with that then don't watch, although if you're willing to step into the lovely and addictive world of Yaoi then woop this is the anime for you ~

Only 10 episodes & an OVA but it gets the job done. I'm honestly not one for Yaoi anime (although with fanfiction and manga sign me up~) because of the overuse of sex for character development and lack of relationship development, as most anime seem to just get straight into the "I love you" "I love you too" phase and go from there. I love to see some more character development and relationship hardships before they get together or else it's kind of like, "eh, already?".
Although Love Stage!! isn't perfect in this aspect, it does have a lot more relationship woes and takes it a little slower compared to other anime, thus allowing you to actually care if the characters end up together or not.

STORY:
The story in itself is actually somewhat believable. 
"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." - Taken from Crunchyroll.

Ok yeah alright it's a little far-fetched but compared to some other anime, I can actually kind of imagine it happening. The story isn't totally ridiculous and it actually has some developement and considering the relationship between the two protagonists from meeting again after 10 years to confessing their mutual feelings was squashed into 10 20 minute episodes (which is about 3 hours and 20 minutes all together, including opening, closing, previews and recaps), the anime did a pretty damn good job. It was a little rushed however and I think this is because the manga itself is a little rushed, it's not slow paced at all. Even though I think it was still slightly rushed, I really hoped that they would spend a little more time on the secondary character's relationship (Rei x Shougo). They could've made it possibly a 12 or 14 episode anime bt sadly that wasn't the case.
Despite this, I do appreciate the anime finishing after they confirm their mutual feelings and not before, like lots of other anime do, which leaves the viewer feeling a little empty on the inside.

ANIMATION:
The animation itself is quite good, nothing bad about it and no awkward moments. There was nothing super amazing like what you'd find in a movie but for a 10 episode yaoi anime (which tends to have pretty bad animation, honestly) made in 2014 it's great.
I've realised that more recent anime I've watched have animation that seems a little off or awkward, almost too polished to the fact that it seems a little unnatural (eg. Sailor Moon Crystal & Soul Eater NOT!) and doesn't have too much or any CGI parts which don't blend well with the animation itself (eg. Blassreiter). Nothing absolutely stunning but it's probably one of the best animated anime for the genre. Nothing bad about it at all.

SOUND:
The soundtrack (opening & closing songs) weren't anything that got stuck in my head or were memorable, nor did I have the urge to sing along, however it was fitting and I have nothing against the songs. They fit the feel of the anime and worked well with the opening and ending sequences. I did like the songs but like I said before, nothing spectacular.
For the voice acting, there was one that really got on my nerves and that was whoever voiced Shougo. Usually I'm not one to pick on voice acting (especially Japanese VA's) but when your VA can't laugh naturally or it sounds forced (like Kazehaya's VA in Kimi ni Todoke) then that's a mark down in my book. His voice wasn't too terrible overall and I believe it fit the character, ableit being a little awkward but his laughing left me cringing and imagining up an English dub cast (since I'm more familiar with English dub casts and am completely lost when it comes to Japanese VA's), which I can confidently say I only do if theres a bad dub. The rest of the cast was great honestly, they all did their characters justice to my ears.
If this anime was to have an English dub (although I highly doubt they'd dub it considering it's Yaoi) however my main cast would probably be this:
Izumi: Greg Ayres (eg. Kaoru from Ouran)
Ryouma: Jason Leibricht (eg. Hei from Darker Than Black)
Rei: J. Micheal Tatum (eg. Sebastion from Black Butler)
Shougo: Vic Mignogna (eg. Ed from FMA)
Lala-Lulu: Luci Christian (eg. Leenalee from D.Gray-Man)
Kuroi: Todd Haberkorn (eg. Death The Kid from Soul Eater)

This is just my opinion though but I think Vic would do Shougo more justice than his original VA.

CHARACTERS:
WILL COMPLETE LATER

I read the manga and I have to say that the manga was as good as the anime. I recommend you to read the manga because the original story continues. Anime was also good, I watched it two times and I don't regret it.