The 2019 Winter anime season brings a new slice of life romance called Domestic Girlfriend (ドメスティックな彼女) also known as Dome x Kano. The anime is based on the manga of the same name by Kei Sasuga. Sasuga's previous work was the slice of life romance series GE: Good Ending. For me GE: Good Ending is the best romance I have read that is geared towards the male audience. It is however not the best romance out these but is pretty good in general. I discovered Domestic Girlfriend early 2018 and jumped right in. When I heard it was getting an anime adaption I was excited...but mostly for the remote possibility that GE may get its own anime down the road.
So what is Domestic Girlfriend about? Warning...minimal spoilers ahead if you have not watched the first episode or read the first issue of the manga.
In short it's the story of a high school student named Natsuo Fuji who lives with his widowed father and his socially touchy relationship desires. His trouble started with one of the newer teachers at his school, a young buxom woman named Hina with whom Natsuo develops feelings for. Hina is a bit of a flirt and when they have a series of conversations on the school rooftop Natsuo begins to fall for her. He realizes its more of a fantasy than anything given his age and her status as a teacher. Unfortunately her unconscious flirting muddies the waters.
In his second year of school he agrees to go with some classmates to a mixer. While not interested in being there he meets a girl that is more uncomfortable than he is. The girl, Rui, is cold and serious and suggests they should leave together as a way to escape the event. While the intention was to get away without hurting the people who organized it, things take an unexpected turn. Rui abruptly invites Natsuo to her home with intentions of losing her virginity to him. Natsuo, stunned, does what any healthy boy would do and agrees. Rui explains to him that she has no feelings for him and it was more her attempt at trying to understand the world. She confesses about her dislike for peers that have already had sex and their apparent air of superiority.
Confused and excited, Natsuo rushes to his best friends house to unpack the days strange events. His friend, Fumiya, is both jealous and concerned for the events his friend has experienced. Both of them were outcast's in middle school and Fumiya convinced Natsuo to change his appearance once high school started...which seems to be paying off for him. Natsuo, still entranced by Hina, continues his life course which seems to be unchanged until his father announces he will be remarrying. The woman, Tsukiko, has two daughters who will become Natsuo's step-sisters. Before he can even digest the information they arrive at his apartment for dinner. Little surprise, his soon to be step-mothers daughters are Rui and Hina.
At this point the primary plot points can be guessed at; the severe awkwardness of living with the girl you lost your virginity to and the woman you are madly in love with, compounded by becoming family. An additional thing that may help understand the tension is how Japanese society views step-siblings to almost be genetic siblings. So in the eyes of society Natsuo would be committing 'incest-lite' by pursuing romantic relations with either Rui or Hina. It's obvious that Rui intends to hide their previous encounter from everyone and demands that Natsuo forgets all about it. The only other person that knows what happened between them is Fumiya. Hina is an adult, Natsuo's teacher and currently dating someone, so she's out of the picture as well.
I am a sucker for realistically portrayed romances and Domestic Girlfriend does a pretty decent job at building realistic personalities into it's primary and secondary characters. The series could be stuffed full of absurd scenarios and situations to crank up the tension. But in many ways those are avoided. Hina is an alcoholic who could probably be a bit more modest, which causes some issues in the beginning but it's not really used as a plot device. Rui remains the closed off antithesis to her joyous sister but not like a tsundere. The familial relationship is mostly hidden from people at school but again it's not a major plot device either. The tension and drama early on revolves mainly on Natsuo's inability to put things behind him.
At the point of this post's creation 215 issues of the manga have been released in English. I don't really want to get into deeper plot lines but the series has thus far spanned a number of years and Natsuo is at this point a college student. So they don't always remain in the high school with about half of the story so far taking place in that time frame. There is a fair amount of unnecessary fan-service in the manga but it's not a crutch as the writing and characters are good. There are moments where is suffers from falling into the normal tropes of the genre but they are easily gotten through.
I don't expect the anime to run for more than 26 episodes and I doubt it will move out of the high school portion. I have a few idea's of where it may cut off but it's sad that it won't be a prolonged series because the story becomes more interesting outside of high school. All we can do is enjoy what we get and continue with the manga which will probably go for a time still...as there is really no defined ending to it. The biggest thing I hope for is that the anime is successful enough to make production companies take a look at adapting GE: Good Ending...which sadly has not even had it's manga distributed in North America. Domestic Girlfriend on the other hand is on Crunchyroll for the anime and manga and you can pick up the tankoubon's where ever manga is sold. The anime so far is meeting expectations; the voice actors fit the characters and the animation seems higher quality than one would expect for a 'throw-away ecchi romance'.
So what is Domestic Girlfriend about? Warning...minimal spoilers ahead if you have not watched the first episode or read the first issue of the manga.
In short it's the story of a high school student named Natsuo Fuji who lives with his widowed father and his socially touchy relationship desires. His trouble started with one of the newer teachers at his school, a young buxom woman named Hina with whom Natsuo develops feelings for. Hina is a bit of a flirt and when they have a series of conversations on the school rooftop Natsuo begins to fall for her. He realizes its more of a fantasy than anything given his age and her status as a teacher. Unfortunately her unconscious flirting muddies the waters.
In his second year of school he agrees to go with some classmates to a mixer. While not interested in being there he meets a girl that is more uncomfortable than he is. The girl, Rui, is cold and serious and suggests they should leave together as a way to escape the event. While the intention was to get away without hurting the people who organized it, things take an unexpected turn. Rui abruptly invites Natsuo to her home with intentions of losing her virginity to him. Natsuo, stunned, does what any healthy boy would do and agrees. Rui explains to him that she has no feelings for him and it was more her attempt at trying to understand the world. She confesses about her dislike for peers that have already had sex and their apparent air of superiority.
Confused and excited, Natsuo rushes to his best friends house to unpack the days strange events. His friend, Fumiya, is both jealous and concerned for the events his friend has experienced. Both of them were outcast's in middle school and Fumiya convinced Natsuo to change his appearance once high school started...which seems to be paying off for him. Natsuo, still entranced by Hina, continues his life course which seems to be unchanged until his father announces he will be remarrying. The woman, Tsukiko, has two daughters who will become Natsuo's step-sisters. Before he can even digest the information they arrive at his apartment for dinner. Little surprise, his soon to be step-mothers daughters are Rui and Hina.
At this point the primary plot points can be guessed at; the severe awkwardness of living with the girl you lost your virginity to and the woman you are madly in love with, compounded by becoming family. An additional thing that may help understand the tension is how Japanese society views step-siblings to almost be genetic siblings. So in the eyes of society Natsuo would be committing 'incest-lite' by pursuing romantic relations with either Rui or Hina. It's obvious that Rui intends to hide their previous encounter from everyone and demands that Natsuo forgets all about it. The only other person that knows what happened between them is Fumiya. Hina is an adult, Natsuo's teacher and currently dating someone, so she's out of the picture as well.
I am a sucker for realistically portrayed romances and Domestic Girlfriend does a pretty decent job at building realistic personalities into it's primary and secondary characters. The series could be stuffed full of absurd scenarios and situations to crank up the tension. But in many ways those are avoided. Hina is an alcoholic who could probably be a bit more modest, which causes some issues in the beginning but it's not really used as a plot device. Rui remains the closed off antithesis to her joyous sister but not like a tsundere. The familial relationship is mostly hidden from people at school but again it's not a major plot device either. The tension and drama early on revolves mainly on Natsuo's inability to put things behind him.
At the point of this post's creation 215 issues of the manga have been released in English. I don't really want to get into deeper plot lines but the series has thus far spanned a number of years and Natsuo is at this point a college student. So they don't always remain in the high school with about half of the story so far taking place in that time frame. There is a fair amount of unnecessary fan-service in the manga but it's not a crutch as the writing and characters are good. There are moments where is suffers from falling into the normal tropes of the genre but they are easily gotten through.
I don't expect the anime to run for more than 26 episodes and I doubt it will move out of the high school portion. I have a few idea's of where it may cut off but it's sad that it won't be a prolonged series because the story becomes more interesting outside of high school. All we can do is enjoy what we get and continue with the manga which will probably go for a time still...as there is really no defined ending to it. The biggest thing I hope for is that the anime is successful enough to make production companies take a look at adapting GE: Good Ending...which sadly has not even had it's manga distributed in North America. Domestic Girlfriend on the other hand is on Crunchyroll for the anime and manga and you can pick up the tankoubon's where ever manga is sold. The anime so far is meeting expectations; the voice actors fit the characters and the animation seems higher quality than one would expect for a 'throw-away ecchi romance'.
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