(Average) Lovely Complex

Series in one sentence:
Japan thinks 172 cm is tall for a woman, wtf.

Series in more sentences:
A taller than average girl and shorter than average boy seem to be each other's natural enemy, and yet, no one is more on par with their personality and interests as they are with each other's.
It doesn't take long for Risa to realize she has feelings for her frenemy, but teenage awkwardness and ill-timed drama makes winning him over a struggle.

I've never seen a show that started off so well lose itself so hard.

Episode 1 was a good introduction, and it's strange that the creator didn't make this introduction the whole season. You know, have the show be about these two wanting a partner, meeting those partners, discovering they're a bad match every time, repeat, until they realize they are each other's ideal partner.
But the two main characters are quick to "befriend" each other and I did not expect the series to be about Risa and her absolutely psychotic obsession with Otani.

Generally speaking, I liked these two. When there wasn't repetitive drama going on. When at their best, they're feisty, fun-loving, and play well off of each other. The energy of this anime can be so wild, it's fun to watch.

But the show takes a quick nose dive in more ways than one. The dialogue and conflicts kept getting recycled, Risa and Otani are constantly compared to this real-life Japanese comedy duo to an obnoxious degree, and Risa expresses often that being a "comedian" hinders her ability to be a woman or something weird in that vein. When she figures out her feelings for Otani, she gives him no break and cries all the time, I found it pretty out-of-character for this otherwise hard-headed, shouty girl.
It was warranted at certain moments and surely emotional, but it just kept happening. She keeps getting a moment of hope, but then the same episode or the very next, she gets depressed again. Like, chill.

She puts alot of pressure on Otani with her questions, crying, and yelling, which is a disrespectful thing to do to someone who's expressed not to be interested. And no one in the show is on Otani's side. They make him feel guilty for not enthusiastically returning her feelings the moment they're expressed. That's unfair. Some people need time to think about what it is they're feeling.
Risa has only been his frenemy until that moment; this strange companion he couldn't see eye to eye with, despite being identical. Their relationship is a contradiction, they're cut from the same cloth, which ironically causes them to clash.
And really, do you want to enter a love relationship with someone who hits or scolds you all the time? Sharing the same hobbies and interests becomes a trivial positive at that point.

The show doesn't make use of the things it has. Risa's childhood friend, for example, is in love with her and hostile to Otani, he could've been a real rival if they toned down his hatred for short people and was less of a pathetic worm. But, he ended up being a completely pointless addition to the series, he rarely made an appearance, even though he so confidently expressed to make Risa love him. Alright, where is you then, idiot? Even as his shitty self, he could've given some balance to the show, because Risa is always the loser chasing the guy and sobbing about every little thing. I recall the both of them being desperate for a partner at the start of the series, but Otani isn't putting in the work even a little. His only role is to be chased. More lovestruck girls show up, even though the series first tried to argue that short boys struggle getting girls the same way tall girls do boys.

When Risa and Otani start dating, nothing of note changes and the show clearly has nothing to tell anymore. It inserts some more rushed drama, because that's the only language Lovely Complex understands, and only helps making it more evident that these two should not be dating. Is Otani's insinuation he's not entirely in love with her and "his heart still needs to be stolen" not saying enough? And how insulting is it to date someone like that. Why did you take her as your girlfriend, then? Talking about putting the cart in front of the horse.

And I can't even blame him, because Risa is such a violent crybaby, her falling in love with him literally made her a worse person.