Comic Girls Episode 1 Review – “The Crybaby Manga-ka Moves In!”

This series is about four female high school students living together in a dorm where they attend school while drawing and writing manga for a living, more or less.

In regards to what happens in this first episode, two relatively inexperienced manga-ka (or manga artist), Kaos and Koyume, move into a dorm intended for female manga-ka where they come across two other experienced manga-ka, Tsubasa and Ruki. They then all come together to help Tsubasa meet a deadline and the episode ends with Kaos being happy that she made friends.

The four girls are rather differing in temperament compared to one another and they all receive a relatively balanced amount of screentime so the audience can begin to become acquainted with the main moeblobs.

Now, to introduce the girls!

I would consider Ruki to fall under the long–and-purple-haired-maiden-who-initially-appears-to-be-prim-and-proper-but-is-either-unfortunate-or-quirky archetype which is commonly seen in Kirara Time series (and Comic Girls happens to be published in Manga Time Kirara Max). I-It’s not like Big Boobies ♥ Himeko always wanted to draw perverted manga, okay?

The girls will likely receive additional characterization however minute as the series progresses, but for now Comic Girls is quite content to repeatedly emphasize that Kaos looks young for her age and could be considered to be a grade schooler, which is also a common “trait” to be seen in leading girls for Kirara Time titles. I wouldn’t say that the series is advocating for the acceptance of lolicon preferences, but there were a bit too many shots of crying Kaos for my tastes.

I did like how there were several paneled / framed shots throughout the episode. Considering that the girls are actually manga-ka, this particular visual effect was quite fitting.

I had three minor nitpicks in mind after watching this episode twice:

1. Not a fan of how Koyume essentially groped Ruki without her consent. But that’s more or less an industry-standard case of fanservice so my minor dissenting voice will just get lost in the wind.
2. They were having a candid talk about how Ruki managed to be a successful manga-ka despite being insecure about her breasts, which is great in terms of positive body image and self-esteem but sort of takes away from Ruki’s great effort when it comes to getting inside a tough industry. There’s also the implication that pervertedness is correlated with breast size which is simply unfair and untrue. But I digress.
3. The girls really wouldn’t stop talking about how Tsubasa’s behaviour resembled that of a boy’s. Was that really necessary? Can’t a girl be stoic or cool without being described as a guy? And can’t Koyume crush on Tsubasa without making it seem or implied like it’s because Tsubasa acts like a guy and is thus a substitute for a dude?

I’ll end this on a positive note and say that all of these girls are absolutely gay and it’s great. Kaos may have been wrong about Ruki’s chest, but she still thinks Ruki’s legs are lovely and that she has a great figure whereas Ruki thinks Kaos is small and cute. Meanwhile Tsubasa has nothing but praise for Koyume who is definitely crushing on Tsubasa. I just hope it isn’t because she sees Tsubasa as a replacement for a guy as I mentioned earlier.

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I’ve heard some describe Comic Girls as being like New Game! but about manga. However, I’m more inclined to say the series is more like Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka? but about manga due to the character models. Maybe the girls will get a bit more technical about manga as the series progresses (which would make it resemble New Game!) but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.