Love Stage!! is the story of Izumi, an aspiring manga artist otaku who couldn’t be more different from his family. His mother is a world-famous actress, his father a singer, and his brother a boy-band teenage heartthrob. While he has been able to stay out of the celebrity spotlight for years, Izumi is drawn back in to do a follow-up commercial to one he starred in with the rest of his family when he was a child.
There are two problems, however. One is that in the original commercial he was dressed as a girl—and will thus be expected to dress as a woman again in the follow-up. The other is that Ryoma, the boy who acted opposite him in the original (who has since become TV’s most popular actor), is head over heels in love with the “girl” he met back then.
With this set-up, it’s pretty easy to see where a romantic comedy like this is going to go, but that rarely makes it any less hilarious. What starts as a mistaken gender comedy soon leads to Ryoma questioning his heterosexuality and later attempting to pursue a relationship with Izumi regardless.
Of course, much of the comedy comes from the fact that, beyond the gender and sexuality issues, the two are very different people. Ryoma is an outgoing, professional actor and a responsible individual, while Izumi is a hardcore otaku and a near shut-in. Watching them interact, especially with Ryoma having no idea how to win an otaku heart, always makes for a good-natured laugh.