Comic Girls – 05

「編沢さんコスプレするんですか?」 (Amisawa-san Cosplay Surun Desuka?)
“Amisawa-san, Do You Cosplay?”

Recent episodes of Comic Girls have gone deeper into exploring the deepest insecurities of our cast, and Episode 05 is no different as we see how Koyume is affected lack of experience in love and the feelings she keeps to herself about Tsubasa. Rukki and Ririko are absolute champs in this episode as they catch onto the fluttering in Koyume’s thoughts over her infatuation with Tsubasa, and help the two share a date together.

It shows a level of maturity for the series to take Koyume’s blushiness around Tsubasa, and double-down by having her outright confront the crush she has on her, and look introspectively into her feelings. Where instead of it being some vague teasing that is merely peppered throughout the series to court a yuri crowd, Koyume is actually considering what it means to be in love with another woman, and how falling in love with Tsubasa could be far more than a lingering thought. Koyume’s main insecurity is with the idea that she hasn’t quite experienced love up until now, so having her conceptualize that the first time she’s felt like her shoujo manga protagonists has been when she’s thought of Tsubasa is an interesting development that I’m glad that Comic Girls is pursuing so far.

It’s hard not to be on the Koyume/Tsubasa train too because their date at the amusement park was very cute and meaningful. Despite being more of a homebody, Tsubasa finds herself having an easy time acting naturally around Koyume with her hyperactive personality channeling itself into being hospitable for her. And yet, there is also a nurturing side to Tsubasa as she does her best to comfort Koyume when she’s being hard on herself for not being on-par with experienced mangaka and when she’s adamant about making her first love special. The amusement park date helped to emphasize that despite her more comical side as someone who is dedicated to her ultramacho shounen comics, she is the perfect mentor for the rookie mangaka, and does a lot to encourage them not to be discouraged when they’re still at the first stages of writing. At the same time, it was nail-biting to see how much she catches on to Koyume’s emotions because she has a hard time reading affection, and in her encouragement, she makes a large step by just patting the top of Koyume’s head. It was easy to see how the other girls were anticipating the build-up to either of them making the next move.

Other than the date itself, it was a fun episode where we got to see the group dynamics of specific pairs. Tsubasa playing video games with Kaos was funny because of the happiness they got from getting away with eating junk food in the dark while playing fighting games all day. It was also hilarious to see Kaos become a sassmaster as soon as a cat attacking Tsubasa gave her the opening to win her first match against her. Rukki and Koyume are also great in the episode as Rukki is able to find some common ground with Koyume in their shared interest in shopping for trendy clothes and eating fancier food. It also gave them some time to become adjusted to one another with Rukki eagerly trying to get Koyume set up with Tsubasa after noticing that she has a soft spot for her like other girls who have confessed to her. I always enjoy the times where shows like this pair up different characters to see how their personalities mesh or clash with one another, so luckily, Comic Girls has had an easy time creating some funny and interesting moments by going beyond dedicating the most material to friends in similar places like Koyume/Kaos and Rukki/Tsubasa.

This was also the show’s beach episode so it was a nice break in the beginning for the girls to be able to hang out while there’s some mild fanservice in between jokes. It was funny to see the beach hangout as Kaos’ chance to let out her inner pervy old guy side of herself as she admires the sights. And it was nice to see Rukki, Tsubasa, and Kaos eventually join Koyume having fun instead of mostly hanging out on the sand to sketch. For fans of Wakaba*Girl, you’ll also be excited to see a cameo from them as they’re the group that Koyume becomes quick friends with at the beach. The remainder of the episode was more special, but the beach section was still very humorous and had some nice moments where the girls had a chance to bond and relax.

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