Comic Girls – 01

「アンケート ビリですか!?」 (Enquete Biri Desuka!?)
“I Got the Worst Result on the Survey!?”

Comic Girls is starting out strong with their first episode, highlighting the characters, their motives, the artwork, and the comedy in a way that helps build positive expectations for the series. The premise alone sounded promising with a combination of four authors managing to live in a dorm together and assist each other in spite of their differing specialties and work ethos. However, the first episode outlines that there is much more to these characters than it would seem at first glance, and brings all four of the girls together in sharing a mutual interest in bonding.

Moeta “Kaos” Kaoruko (Akao Hikaru) acts as our introduction to the story, offering her insight on dealing with the grief of being swamped with negative reviews for the 4-koma manga she based on her own experiences. Upon getting recommended to live in a dormitory for mangaka, her reaction is mixed as she couldn’t resist the opportunity to live among her peers, yet is swamped with social anxiety over the situation. We see her continuously play scenarios in her head where she is being berated, mocked, or mistreated, causing her to recoil in fear and sadness. In addition, she also has issues with drawing bodies as her attempts to make more voluptuous characters have been unsuccessful. Luckily for her, her new dorm mates are encouraging enough to help her over the hurdle of her anxiousness and share a common thread by having insecurities of their own.

The closest character to her is fellow youngin’ Koizuka “Koisuru Koyume” Koyume(Hondo Kaede), a shoujo mangaka who is enthusiastic and full of energy, yet has problems with drawing male characters with attractive faces. The two older veterans of the dorm are Irokawa “Bakunyuu♥Himeko” Ruki (Oonishi Saori), a mangaka who fell into drawing erotic manga after her editor honed in on her talent in drawing large breasts despite wanting to draw more innocent stories, and Katsuki “Wing V.” Tsubasa(Takahashi Rie), a shounen mangaka who finds herself overwhelmed enough so that she has to create her own character to help push her to finish her chapters on-time.

Even within the first episode, the characters have great chemistry together with Kaoruko and Koyume finding common ground with their interests and Ruki and Tsubasa understanding how one another works. Along the way, we also have some potential match-ups as the girls are able to find the solution to their insecurities through becoming more closely associated with each other. Already, Koyume’s problem with drawing guys could be remedied through her sudden infatuation for Tsubasa and her tomboyish looks. Similarly, Ruri’s experience with drawing well-endowed women could lead to a mentorship of sorts with Kaoruko as she learns to draw other body types much more easily. In the case of this episode, Tsubasa’s need for assistants with her latest chapter helped Kaoruko adjust to her new dorm mates as well as have her enthusiasm restored after the mistakes she made along the made along the way.

So far, Comic Girls is looking like an amazing, promising slice-of-life that’s able to balance character development with comedy. The cast is enjoyable to see succeed and interact with each other, and the premise of seeing mangaka bounce off of one another creatively is an interesting topic for the show to delve into. Additionally, the artwork and backgrounds are very impressive for a show that takes place predominantly inside of a dorm. They went the extra mile to put detail and sheen into their backgrounds and character designs. I’m highly anticipating what comes from Comic Girls, and see where it goes from here.

Preview