Like many people who watch any shows, my current anime shows have been postponed thanks to COVID. (Side note: luckily the one manga I still read has not been affected, but that’s different) So I’ve been recently finding myself going back through Crunchyroll’s catalog of all the anime it has to offer. In the middle of watching FullMetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, I came across an anime that I haven’t watched in a very long time and that is Lovely Complex. I read the manga, watched the anime, and own the live action movie. In the crazy round about way my mind goes, I am reminded of how amazingly supportive my mother is.
Let me back up.
My mother has two daughters. One was the sports girl in the popular crowd. The other was very overweight, band geek who spent her nights watching anime/reading manga and whatever else. By the title of this blog, you can probably guess I am the band geek daughter. After one horribly dubbed anime (the original Cardcaptors), I switched over to the Japanese versions of anime and really never looked back. My mother would take me down to the comic shop in our town (before I had a license) and would help me find manga.
In college, I came across the show/manga Lovely Complex. At that point in time, my mother and I would randomly watch movies together. I’d draw and she’d paint. One of the movies we watched was the live action Lovely Complex. This series is kind of crazy. Even re-watching it today, I forgot how expressive it was. The fact that she watched the live action with me is still amazing. Granted the anime is waaaaaaay more crazy just because of the “ugly” faces both main characters do. It’s just a crazy random live action to watch but she watched it with me! And in Japanese!
Fast forward past college, I wanted to attend my first Japanese convention, the Sakura con in Seattle. I didn’t really have any friends locally who were into anime and I really wanted to go. Despite not being into anything anime or manga, she volunteered to go with me. My sister at a last second decision (boy troubles) decided to go along but stay with a friend in Seattle while my mom and I went to the convention. Let’s just say I’m glad my sister stayed away. She found cosplay weird. My mother, however, thought it was cool. One of the nights when we were walking back from the convention, someone saw my mother’s rice picker hat (I don’t know the name of it) that she bought at the convention and cheered screaming “GO SAKURA CON!!!”. I do believe she may still have the hat. Maybe. I’m not sure.
These days, I’m less into the crazy random things and more into the “let’s kill my legs” by running half marathon or full marathons in different cities. My mother was a trooper and got up before the butt crack of dawn and caught a flight with me to Denver. Granted she’s used to being up at 3:30am. I, however, would not be awake then.
She’s been quite a few places with me (dad and Tink randomly go with too). San Diego, San Francisco (that race didn’t happen since my bike accident), and Portland twice. Good thing Dad was there the second time since I passed out.
In the random ways my head works, Lovely Complex reminded me of how my mother is awesome and supports the crazy hobbies of her daughter. Annnnd even helped her get into Advanced Band in high school all 4 years. And lastly, has a sing along to Elton John songs over FaceTime. Gotta love the random things.
Annnnnnnd I should get back to work.
Update
Just a tiny update. My mother still has that $1 hat from Sakura con all those years ago.