Love Stage!!: Complete Collection + OVA Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		2.0

Love Stage!!: Complete Collection + OVA Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 20, 2020

The annals of both big screen and small screen entertainments have been littered with comedic tales of cross dressing (not necessarily done for “psychological” reasons, a la Ed Wood), almost always involving men dressed up as women rather than vice versa for some reason, who then attract the eye of the supposed “opposite” sex in their disguise. These outings include everything from classics like Some Like It Hot and Tootsie to cult items that are probably generally remembered very little if at all, like a sitcom that barely made it through half a season in 1968 called The Ugliest Girl in Town. Love Stage!! traffics in at least some of the same territory, and it’s interesting to note that this anime (culled from a manga by Eiki-Eiki) is about to be a big screen effort itself, transformed into a live action feature film that is due to premiere in Japan in just a couple of weeks as this review is being written, though in a perhaps salient orthographical change, the live action feature is evidently going to feature only one exclamation point in its title, as opposed to the twofer the anime offers.

Longtime fans of anime know that various properties can certainly push certain “envelopes” in different ways, and in that regard Love Stage!! may end up raising a few hackles for those who find some of its subtext on the troubling side. The thing about entries like Some Like It Hot and/or Tootsie is that the “disguises” aren’t discovered until toward the end of the story, meaning that any “same sex” content is unintentional and played strictly for laughs. In that regard, it’s kind of amusing to remember the great closing joke in the Billy Wilder classic, one which is about to be spoiled here, and which, for those who remember it, may be especially salient when coming to terms with some of what Love Stage!! depicts.

The joke is, of course, that once an elderly man discovers the "woman" he has fallen for is a man in drag, he kind of shrugs his shoulders and says, "Well, nobody's perfect," and in that regard, if somewhat less comically, Love Stage!! offers a male character named Ryoma who had fallen for what he thought was a little girl years earlier at a shoot for a commercial when Ryoma himself was rather young. In fact, the "little girl" had been a male kid named Izumi whose parents were also on the shoot, and the whole experience had in fact traumatized Izumi to some degree. Izumi is now a teen living in a house full of "showbiz" success stories, including but not limited to his parents, and they're urging him to follow in their footsteps, but what he really wants to do is be a manga creator. A "reunion" of the commercial from years ago is offered, and Ryoma, now a huge star, has made only one demand: the "little girl" from the first shoot has to return to shoot the new one.

That might seem like it's setting up a plot where Izumi has to impersonate a woman to make a go of a show business career, a la Tootsie, but instead something perhaps more subversive and undeniably more provocative is at hand (literally, given some of the actions of Ryoma). Izumi's "alter ego" is discarded with fairly early, but the anime continues to explore the "relationship" between Izumi and Ryoma, since they both feel some spark of attraction. That said, the aggressor in this instance is most definitely Ryoma, and it's here where some viewers, especially adherents of the #metoo movement, might be upset by some of the depictions, even if in this case the behavior is between two males. This aspect seems especially odd in that this is probably what some would categorize as a so-called Yaoi, one of those pretty distinctive nooks and crannies in manga and anime which feature guy on guy action but which are typically marketed toward women.

That said, Love Stage!! seems to ultimately want to be a kind of sweet hearted ode to finding your real self and true love (maybe), but I'm frankly not sure some of the depictions here and definitely some of the subtext help that thesis in the long run. Some of the anime's more pointed commentary about otaku culture (courtesy of Izumi's obsession with manga) may actually strike some as more inherently interesting and effective than any of the supposed star-crossed romance aspect.

Love Stage!!: Complete Collection + OVA Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Love Stage!! Complete Collection + OVA is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Sentai Filmworks with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. It looks like Sentai Filmworks released this title in 2016, but as of the writing of this review there's no official review of that version yet, so I can't offer any comparisons. That said, the main selling point to this re-release seems to be the new English dub, as evidenced by the front cover of this release itself, so I'm assuming the video presentations between the two releases are at least similar if not identical. Love Stage!! has some frankly kind of curious stylistic proclivities which I assume are supposed to subliminally suggest Izumi's desires to work in the manga field, with sequences that often offer elements that kind of resemble half finished drawings (see screenshots 1, 4 and 15 for some examples). That, coupled with an often pretty minimalist overall aesthetic, means that this anime very rarely pops with any real force. That said, line detail is quite strong here, and while the palette isn't exactly luminous, it can on occasion offer some nice variation (see screenshot 3). An emphasis on the supposedly strangely colored eyes of Izumi also provides a recurring visual motif, as can be seen in several screenshots accompanying this review.

Love Stage!!: Complete Collection + OVA Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

As mentioned above, one of the chief selling points of this re-release of Love Stage!! is that it offers an English dub in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 to augment the original Japanese audio in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0, which was the previous release's only audio option. I didn't notice a whale of a lot of difference in terms of general amplitude and mix between the two, with the voice work obviously being the main variation. The Japanese track has forced English subtitles, while the English language track does not offer any subtitle options. Fidelity on both tracks is fine, supporting all dialogue, effects and score without any problems whatsoever.

Love Stage!!: Complete Collection + OVA Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Disc One

• Commentaries

  Episode 1 Commentary with David Wald (Director, Co-Writer, Rei) and Hannah Trum (Love Stage!! Brand Manager)

  
  

  Episode 3 Commentary with Greg Ayres (Izumi) and Adam Gibbs (Ryouma)

  
  

  Episode 4 Commentary with Greg Ayres (izumi) and Adam Gibbs (Ryouma)

  
  

  Episode 8 Commentary with John Swasey (Seiya), Monica Rial (Nagisa / Lala-Lulu), and Greg Cote (Shougo)

Disc Two

• OVA Commentary with David Wald (Director, Co-Writer), Marissa Lenti (Co-Writer), and Hannah Trum (Love Stage!! Brand Manager)


• Promo Spots (1080p; 3:02)


• Japanese Disc Promos (1080p; 00:51)


• Character Bumpers (1080p; 00:57)


• Clean Opening Animation (1080p; 1:32)


• Clean Closing Animation (1080p; 1:32)

Additionally, Disc Two offers Trailers for other Sentai Filmworks releases and Disc Credits.

Love Stage!!: Complete Collection + OVA Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

While I'm assuming that some of the perhaps questionable elements in Love Stage!! stem from the original manga, I felt that this story could have been told quite easily without any questionable elements at all, given the understanding that this is a story about two guys developing a relationship, which I guess may not be everyone's cup of tea, anime or otherwise. That said, a story about self discovery, acceptance and coming to terms with a perhaps unexpected romance might seem to be at odds with some of the behaviors on display here. Technical merits are generally solid and this release includes some new commentaries in addition to previously released supplements, for those considering a purchase.