A fun look at a failure

Comic Girls focuses on 4 main characters, 3 of which are successful mangakas, to varying degrees, and 1 hopeless one who's yet to get their work published.

Once again, we're delving deep into the realms of a comedy slice of life anime, to talk about why Comic Girls was, in my opinion, probably the best anime of spring 2018.

There was nothing special, but that's okay

If you remove that they are mangakas, and just focus on the characters and how they are, the story follows a not-so-unique principle. There's a failure, Kaos, a "perfect", Tsubasa, a ditsy, Koyume, and a generic boring waste of space, Ruki.

But why mess with a formula that works? By the end of the first episode we know who each character is, and which character stereotype they're going to fall into... though Kaos' perverted side did seem a little off, but it was a good character mix-up, and helped make her a little more unique.

The fact the characters were mangakas makes the story seem a little more realistic too. Obviously, you don't think stuff like this happens, but the fact that Comic Girls is a manga adaptation means that the original story comes from someone who knows how hard it can be to be a mangaka, and how tough it can be to get your first publication. I feel like all of the characters were meant to represent one aspect of feeling the Comic Girls mangaka, Kaori, must have been feeling whilst either writing Comic Girls, or in work she attempted before getting published;

  • Kaos: "I'm a failure, and I'll never get anything published." From what I've seen and heard, most mangakas are unlikely to get their first, second, or even third attempts published, let alone serialised. So this is something Kaori must have felt at some point.
  • Koyume: "I'm bored, let's eat, and go and do fun stuff!" Koyume is always seen to be eating, and I think everyone has been trying really hard to get some work done, but it's going nowhere, and you start to feel really hungry so you just start snacking, and then decide to go out for a change of pace.
  • Tsubasa: "I'm fucking amazing!" I feel this would have been where Kaori got her first work published. Tsubasa is full of energy, and determination... but then she goes to talk to her parents, and they don't care about manga, they just want her to grow up and be an "ideal" woman.
  • Ruki: "I exist..." Honestly, I don't think much of Ruki, she's just very normal. But, if we're assuming all the main characters are meant to be a part of Kaori, then this must be her when everything is just ticking along. Nothing abnormal about her, she has a few weird tastes, but other than that, just another normal person in this world.

English Name:

Comic Girls

Japanese Name:

こみっくがーるず

Studio:

Nexus

Episodes Watched:

12/12

Posted on:

08/Sep/2018 at 10:55

If Comic Girls is so great, why is it only a 7?

Well, that's because it isn't a standout anime, but it was definitely one of the best new anime of spring 2018.

Apart from the 4 episode ReLIFE special, only just making it into spring, there was nothing which started airing in spring which I enjoyed as much as Comic Girls. As such, Comic Girls was the best new anime, not a sequel/special, of spring 2018.

An anime about manga surely has good art

The artwork in Comic Girls is detailed,  due to the fact that the manga the characters are drawing has the same quality, in some cases better, than the anime. And each character's manga has a unique style, so it's not like they are all drawing the same style manga, just with different themes. 

When Kaos finally gets a manga published, it has a cute chibi style, compared to Tsubasa's action and gruff style. And the artwork of all the characters reflects their characters as a whole very well.

The story on the other hand is neither here nor there

A good manga doesn't need a good story, the same goes for anime. Luckily, Comic Girls didn't need a good story, it just needed to keep the characters and their development interesting, and that's what it did. 

Though they introduced a new character half way through, which wasn't really needed but did show how each character dealt with a scary situation, the character development stayed steady and focused pretty much solely on the main characters, and didn't waste time on characters that had little to no screen time.

Final thoughts

Apart from a good OP there's not much to talk about with the sound. I feel like the only review I've done so far which doesn't say "sound is generic" is the Koe No Katachi review. I feel like I'll need to do a review on Sora No Wo To, Violet Evergarden, or K-On at some point, just because they are amazing anime, and the sound score can actually be expanded upon... Unless I can come across another anime with a great OST.