Comic Girls – Anime Series Review

Episodes: 12

Genre(s): Slice-of-Life, Yuri

Aired: Apr 2018 – June 2018

Also known as: こみっくがーるず

Summary: Crybaby Moeta Kaoruko, or Kaos, moves into a dormitory along with three other high school manga-ka. While the other three are already professionals whereas Kaos is still struggling to remain become actually serialized, all four girls have their own personal struggles and problems which they attempt to overcome through self-improvement and friendship.

Review: Behold a series about dedication and hard work paying off given enough time and stubbornness.

Whether or not that statement rings true for you is very dependent on your perception on Kaos, who is more or less the protagonist. For most of the series the girl is, to put it bluntly, a little pathetic. But as the series progresses, Kaos’ growth is gradual yet evident. That in itself is enough to justify watching Comic Girls, I feel, since her journey was something beautiful to behold.

Be that as it may, it’s very very easy to wonder what does her editor and friends see in Kaos and question whether or not she should have been given a chance. Was their faith in the petite pink-haired girl a mistake? Guess you’ll have to watch and see~

I bear mixed feelings when it comes to the humour in the series, to be honest. On one hand, some of the quips and retorts and running gags are actually hilarious (in my opinion – humour is so subjective, after all). On the other hand, the fact that Kaos’ lack of height and development is highlighted and pointed out several times in the series feels a bit excessive. Nothing REMOTELY sexual occurs aside from Rukki and Koyume getting an eyeful of Kaos’ preferred panties on a particular evening.

However, that in itself is so mild that I feel a bit sheepish even mentioning this. Still, there were some complaints about that scene so I feel obligated to bring that up.

There’s also the typical nonconsensual female-on-female groping, but that’s basically been grandfathered into CGDCT series at this point so there’s no sense in complaining about what is to be expected. The way the characters get over their hang-ups regarding personal self-image is par for the course – genuine worry that is relatable to people real life but is treated relatively lightly and quickly resolved. But that’s fiction for you – don’t overthink things, hm?

Something that wasn’t taken lightly, however, was the yuri ships in Comic Girls. That was a very pleasant surprise! I think it’s rather clear that the ships are Tsubasa x Koyume and Rukki x Kaos, but the girls are all so affectionate towards each other that rare pairs are certainly possible to imagine and think about.

Lastly, this series is quite the visual treat. The backgrounds are beautiful, the characters’ expressions are vivid…there are even several instances of manga paneling that pop up here and again, which is rather fitting considering how these girls draw and write manga for their jobs.

tl;dr – basically a CGDCT classic. If you’re a fan of the genre then please consider giving it a shot! Hopefully you like crying, borderline useless protagonists, though, or you might get grow disinterested after the first few episode and miss out. Your faith and patience will be rewarded, I promise.