Comic Girls – 06

「丸刈りにしてきます」 (Marugari ni Shite Kimasu)
“I`ll Go Shave All My Hair Off”

With our latest episode of Comic Girls comes the introduction of a new character, former roommate Fuura-senpai. Her background as a horror mangaka makes for some of the episode’s most hilarious moments as she puts effort into her penchant for scaring her friends. Because she writes many horror stories though, her efforts go beyond the norm and she goes all-out to get a rise out of Kaos and Rukki such as the classic surprise attack, offering gory-looking desserts, and giving a skeleton prop a grand tour of Kaos’ figure collection. She has the cuteness factor with bangs that cover her eyes, but Kaos learns over time that she looks far more elegant than she comes off, and shares their general awkwardness in common. I’m looking forward to seeing more of Fuura, especially since her background in horror offers a unique and fun addition to the show’s material and the ED included Fuura to hint at her presence being prominent as time goes on.

Part of that plays into how fun Kaos has become. Although she’s still as neurotic as ever, she’s able to go against the grain by trying to level with Fuura as she opens up about her fear of thunder and loneliness. She’s empathetic to a fault as it only opened up the door for Fuura to continue scaring her, but her compassion towards seeing herself through her insecurities is admirable, and shows a sense of maturity with her character. Kaos’ pervy side is also far more endearing than you’d think as her fear of Fuura is subsided with her desire to be close with her body. The second half amplifies this further when her excitement about getting yelled at by a domineering teacher creates multiple funny results. It surprisingly doesn’t get old to see a Kaos get blissfully giddy over whatever strange kinks come to mind.

The second half of the episode was also a nice way to elaborate on both Nijino-sensei’s otaku side-hobbies and Tsubasa’s concerns about her identity. Both characters are trying to cover up their personal lives as Nijino is frantically trying to make sure no one knows that she loves manga and cosplaying, and Tsubasa doesn’t want people to find out that Wing V was a high school girl. I was worried at first that Tsubasa was going to flip on her friends for letting Nijino know her identity, but it turned out much better as they were able to mutually find common ground as Nijino was thrilled to hear about being Wing V’s teacher as well as the homeroom teacher for other mangaka, yet respect Tsubasa’s wishes to not be outed.

Similarly, it was nice to see Tsubasa finally be able to talk with a fan of hers, teacher or not, with Nijino being the first person who knows her output and adores the work she does. With the amount of stress that’s on Tsubasa to avoid the judgement she would get for being a female shounen author as well as her own negative image for not looking like the same hot-blooded shounen protagonists she creates, it’s a relief to see her lower her guard to value a fan’s appreciation for the effort she does even if she’s a young high school girl. There might’ve been more investment to the other girls’ main struggles with Tsubasa’s development being shared in an episode’s second half alongside Nijino, but it definitely won’t be the last we see of Tsubasa’s story so I’m hopeful that we’ll see her grow further as she continues her upward stride as a successful shounen author.

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