Comic Girls – 09

「かおスパイラル」 (Kaospiral)
“Kaospiral”

This episode of Comic Girls might not have been as heavy as previous ones, but it gave us a nice opportunity to learn more about Tsubasa and how she warms up to her friends. The first section focuses on Tsubasa trying to understand how average girls her age behave as to depict a slice-of-life chapter of her shounen in believably accurate detail. While she’s been out of the loop for so long since she started writing manga, she wasn’t always as amped up about hiding her gravitation towards cute things.

Rukki acts as the one witness the friend group can vouch on for how Tsubasa acted, and tells everyone about how she had longer hair and had an easier time being open about liking cutesy items before she dedicated her being to creating a hot-blooded manly manga. Even though it doesn’t come off like she was trying to get rid of her feminine side and that her decision to channel her energy towards boyish interests wasn’t one out of force, it was clear that it had been a while since she was outward about her personal preferences. Where she had been so used to going with the flow that when she is given the power to create an outfit or find items by going with her gut, she was eager to latch onto a cuter aesthetic with baby birds catching her eye.

The episode continues its focus on Tsubasa with how she handles losing her manuscript. Although she has been able to keep her emotional state under wraps for some time, its a rare instance where she opens herself up with how distraught and thankful she is when the manuscript turns up after going missing. It’s not so much that they’re changing her character or forcing her to act differently, but in the process of getting accustomed to Kaos and Koyume, she’s gotten more comfortable with expressing herself without having to rely so much on herself.

Koyume also has the spotlight on her in this episode since her manga has continued to be successful. However, she reaches her first big slump since then that has her on the ropes with her sudden weight gain. She was riding high earlier on with how she tries to mentor Kaos and gets the chance to spend valuable time with Tsubasa, but the weight she put on hindered her ability to be able to concentrate on anything beyond trying to lose it even if her sweets consumption has had barely any influence on her weight until now. Much of the motivation she needs comes from Tsubasa’s push to have her work harder to hone her craft and stay focused after her lack of concentration caused her to lose her train of thought on drawing the details on her characters.

This episode might’ve given us development to work with for Koyume and Tsubasa, but there were some funnier moments with the other side characters as well. It was a riot to see how Nijino’s enthusiasm to help Tsubasa find her manuscript transformed into sheer horror after her old portfolio was found that had all of her BL manga panels from her time in high school hidden in the book cabinet. Around the end, there was also a hilarious moment where Fuura handed Tsubasa her manuscript as an ordinary student only to shift right into her spooky side as soon as they noticed she looked a little familiar. They were definitely going for a mood less heavy than some of the episodes before it, but it’s not half-bad to get more of Koyume, Tsubasa, and the rest of the cast.

Preview