Love & Pop

Four Tokyo high school girls take part in compensated dating, meeting older men who pay for their time and company. For Hiromi and her friends this is a casual arrangement, though one of them is unsure what she wants from her life. When the girls decide to pool their money to buy Hiromi an expensive ring, she turns the gift down and sets out to earn the money herself, which draws her further into the encounters the practice involves.

Love & Pop is a Japanese drama directed by Hideaki Anno, his fifth film in a directing career that began with animation work, including the Evangelion series, before he moved into live action. Akio Satsukawa and Anno wrote the screenplay. Asumi Miwa plays Hiromi, with Kirari, Hirono Kudo, Yukie Nakama, Mitsuru Hirata and Mitsuru Fukikoshi among the credited cast of twenty-one. The film runs 112 minutes and was produced by Toei Company and Cine Bazar.

Released in January 1998, the film holds a 7.4 rating on IMDb from around 2,500 votes, and a 7.7 rating on TMDB from a much smaller base of about 97 votes. The gap in vote counts reflects its standing as a title better known to followers of Anno's work than to a broad international audience.