Love Com
Summary
Love★Com (ラブ★コン), short for Lovely★Complex is a romance shōjo manga by Aya Nakahara. It was published by Shūeisha and appeared in Bessatsu Margaret from 2001 until 2006. It received the 49th Shōgakukan Manga Award (小学館漫画賞) in 2004 and was adapted as a live-action movie(2006) and an anime television series (2007), which was broadcasted on TBS. From 2009 to 2012, the manga sequel Lovely★Complex Two appeared in Delux Margaret.
Lovely Complex revolves around a tall girl, Koizumi Risa, and a short boy, Ōtani Atsushi, who live in Osaka. They are both struggling with a height complex. They decide to help each other with their love interests which results in them becoming close friends. Eventually they fall in love with each other.
Kansai Ben
Kansai-ben is a dialect used by the inhabitants of the Kansai region; it is officially known as Kinkihougen (近畿方言)of the region of Kinki. The dialect originated from the Nara Basin, the Osaka Plain and the Kyoto basin. During the Heian-period (794-1192) and further on, the capital of Kyoto was at the center of Kansai-ben’s development. From the 19th century Osaka occupied a more important role as an economic capital, the development of Kansai-ben took then a turn and we can still distinguish differences within the Kinki region.
Now, how does the Kansai-ben distinguish itself from the rest of Japan? Firstly, the intonation fluctuations. A sentence in Kansai-ben displays a wave pattern, regardless of the mood and intention of the speaker. These soft rises and falls of sound can also be found in the Chugoku dialect, although distinctively different from the Kansai-ben. Compared to standard Japanese, short vowels as in the words ki (木), me (目) or ka (蚊) are often lengthened becoming kii, mee, kaa. On the contrary compounds that are normally long are shortened; ikouka (行こうか) thus becomes ikoka (いこか) Secondly, grammar wise negation is modified by changing the mizenkei (未然形); the typical -nai (~ない) form is either abbreviated to just a n (ん) or -hen (~へん). Within the Kansai region irregular verbs like suru and kuru get different inflections; kuru (来る) in Kyoto would become kiihin (きいひん), the south of Osaka keehen/kiyahen (けえへん・きやへん), the west of Kobe kouhen/kon (こうへん・こん).
In conclusion Kansai-ben is a rich dialect with even more characteristics than the few ones mentioned above. As shown previously even within the Kinki region inflections may vary strongly becoming hard to summarize in a small article.