Okay, I'm really confused. As far as graphic novels/manga goes this is pretty standard. Its drawn in the typical style, reads in the typical style and is pretty quick to read. However the actual theme of the story is a little weird for 3 15 year old kids. Please read trigger warnings before going into this as I was a little shocked at the adult content (and I read dark romance novels). I didn't agree with 3 15 year olds sharing a house with no adults too. That being said I did enjoy the manga and read it really quickly in an afternoon. One I would pick up again if I saw it in a shop.

two out of five stars. I got a copy because it sounded interesting but they read some of the reviews when I went to read this (there weren't any previously) and I decided this wouldn't be for me and I ended up not picking it up in the download time frame anyways,

It is a really dumb premise and the characters are kid of stupid and not very likeable, so it's hard to find a lot to like. It's just goofy situations and boob jokes.

This was a cute and serviceable manga, but it is one of those situations where I'm keenly aware of not being the target audience. I would have loved this when I was the same age as the characters in the book (15) but nowadays it comes across as narrow minded and juvenile at times. I dug the art more than the writing, but this is still something I'll keep an eye on for my library collections.

Overall, while the manga’s core premise is amusing, its slapstick comedy doesn’t hold up for long, and its lack of an actual story prevents it from being engaging. Here’s hoping the manga’s upcoming anime adaption is a lot more entertaining.

When I requested this, I thought the plot sounded like it might be fun and humorous. It was a ditzy headache. Just like every bit of characters and their dialog.

The chance to discuss relationships or any sort,
monogamous or not, totally flushed down the toilet after taking 10 pages of convincing another character they should want to, because its what one character really wants. No regard for anyone else's feelings or input, ummm no. Then let's casually only refer to it as "two-timing" from then on.

Cheap jokes, panty shots, and overall suggestive situations meant to be humorous, that weren't.

My head hurts after trying to find any reasonable logic within this story or with the characters. This is a no go from me.

**Kodansha and NetGallery provided an ARC in exchange for an honest review. **

Girlfriend, Girlfriend, what can I say? I wasn't a fan of the premise, but I decided to try this, since with topics like this you're always in the danger zone. Gladly Hiroyuki doesn't bomb it. Naoya is dating Saki, his former childhood friend and they're quite in love. It just happens that a cute girl named Nagisa also confesses to Naoya and the guy cannot turn her down. Instead he comes to a conclusion that he must date both so that both girls know about it too, so polyamory. Somehow they end up living together and hiding this odd relationship that's the base for comedy. So, danger zone as expected. I didn't really like how the characters used "two-timing", since this isn't about that. You can have a relationship of three if everyone is OK with it. Also, Naoya's stupidly forward and blunt character saves a lot. It's Saki who sees perverted stuff everywhere and Nagisa is naive, but understands where Saki is coming from.

The characters save a lot, but I just wish this setting had been between a girl and two boys for once. The topic is hard to do well, although as I said, Hiroyuki manages quite well actually. It's just that for modern age this isn't the best, since of course the girls want to serve the guy and well, it's so old fashioned and Japan is that of course. Thus having this translated can be a weird choice, even though this isn't as bad as I thought it could be. It's even clever at times.

Ohhhh boy.

I picked this manga up because I wanted to expand my manga horizon! I like picking up books I wouldn't typically read or genres I haven't been able to jump into a lot lately (it's hard finding manga series in my town at the local used book stores, which is where I frequent lately. They get all the random, cool stuff you wouldn't think to read). So, this book sounded goofy, cute and amusing. Well... Maybe not for me?

We have our lead male who already has a loving girlfriend and there's NO way he would cheat. Right? He definitely says he wouldn't... But you know... When eyes linger... He has another woman confess love to him and obviously he needed to go out with her to! A man can never have enough women. So, how do we solve not cheating? Dating both of them! It's like a bad soap opera trope all wrapped up into one manga.

This book wasn't really as funny and cute as I'd hope it would be. It felt super awkward in a cute, chibi fashion. I loved the illustrations and wanted so much more of this art style, but I just couldn't deal with the plots. It made me feel so icky.

So, this romantic comedy is not made for me. I'm sure other readers will be into it and love it.

One out of five stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kodansha Comics for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange of an honest review.

The artwork was great, but the story left a lot to be desired. Maybe something got ‘lost in translation’ I’m not sure but it simply was overdone. The drama was excessive and so far outside the realm of reality it was borderline unenjoyable. Some original artwork was included at the end and I think if that original artwork style and writing had remained it would have been far better.

I thought the concept of this story sounded really funny but in reality it was kind of pervy and weird. The main character had two love confessions and decided to try a poly relationship. For some reason he also thought they should all live together to get to know each other better. Weird but okay....then there was a bath scene between the two girls...even weirder. I am glad I previewed this as an eARC than get surprised by these scenes for my YA library collection. Personally, as an adult, I found it kind of amusing but in general I wouldn't recommend this title.

So this manga has many adult situations and nudity so I wouldn't recommend it for younger readers, but if you like saucy humor "Girlfriend, Girlfriend" is hilarious. But also cringy in some parts as the main boy tries to convince his girlfriend to let another girl also be his girlfriend. You won't find anything to deep but it is good for a laugh if you enjoy bawdy humor.

If Saki didn't keep telling us that Naoya was as straight as an arrow, I'm not sure I'd believe it, unless she was making a comment about his sexual orientation. That's because guys who decide that they "can't bear" to hurt a girl who confesses to him by turning her down because he's already GOT a girlfriend don't really fit that definition in my book. Not that I have an issue with poly relationships; it's just that I have this weird feeling that they ought to be, you know, consensual among all members of the relationship, not the result of one guy being a ninny and his girlfriend reluctantly going along with him.

This isn't all bad - there are some genuinely funny moments, and the art's nice. But if ever there was a series I was hoping would get a nice boat ending...

This sounded like a very interesting manga and I was excited to read it. However, I found it to be quite problematic and it portrays poly relationships in a very toxic way. Naoya basically forces Saki to let him date both her and Nagisa and you can see she's uncomfortable with it for practically the entire manga. She also finds Nagisa cute but it feels more like a friendship way and she's definitely not comfortable with Naoya dating both of them. Both girls have moments of insecurity about the relationship and Nagisa even snoops through Saki's phone to find dirt on her. Both girls turn dating Naoya into a competition where they have to be better than the other so that Naoya won't choose one over the other and leave them. They even want to keep their relationship at school a secret and Saki wants to pretend that they don't know Nagisa which is such a mean thing to do. I have to give some credit to Naoya though because he works extra hard to make sure that both girls feel loved in the relationship and he does his best to soothe their insecurities and make them better people (like helping Nagisa study), but if he really was that concerned then he wouldn't force them into the relationship to begin with. It's his fault that they are all in this relationship so he better make sure he's treating them all well. I'm really curious to see if this improves in upcoming volumes. I didn't know this, but the author also created "Aho Girl" which I was a huge fan of so I was a little disappointed with their latest work.
2.5/5

Wanting to expand my reading horizons is the only reason I wanted to pick this one up. It is one I can confidently say is not written for me: I am not the target audience of Girlfriend, Girlfriend by Hiroyuki. That is not to say I didn't enjoy it - I did!

The art is very well done, as is the character designs. The two main female leads are very cutely designed, Saki and Nagisa deserve to find love and happiness. Naoya is the main male lead who now has two young ladies to date. I cannot say he has many distinguishing features, and assume it is for self insert harem purposes.

For a brief moment, I thought this might go the polyamorous route and I was about to jump on board but in the end they go the polygamous route which I admit I was a bit disappointed about. This would have been a truely interesting title if it had chosen the former direction. Possibly even ground-breaking for this teen comedy drama!

I would recommend this title for a male audience, older teen to young adult. I would recommend it is viewed solely as escapist fantasy as no way this is happening in real life!

The mangaka's note at the end was sublimely amusing, Hiroyuki has endeared himself to me.

Umm okay. Haha

I have learned to never be surprised with manga because it can be out there sometimes.

If you look past the fact that this would be an incredibly toxic relationship in real life and that this is in no way how a polygamous relationship works, it is funny if you don't take the story too seriously. It is a very slapstick and satirical comedy.

I would be down to see where 'exactly' this story goes.

While this runs on the generic premise of a Romantic Comedy, it does offer one concept that you never see in manga or on films and television and that is a good thing to be different when you're creating something new and to catch the reader's attention. But that isn't the case with this story so far, I give Hiroyuki credit for introducing a concept that writers and artists don't approach often but it lost footing when going deeper into the book. The gag is funny the first five minutes into it when you think about it "oh goodness, dating two girls at the same time?" It's a good chuckle after two chapters but when the actual humor comes along, it feels forced. That isn't good when you're doing a Romantic Comedy, the jokes usually turn into yelling every other panel, the pacing is too fast where after Naoya meets Nagisa right up to after the negotiation of discussing with Saki the benefit of him getting to date both girls where they immediately move in with him and barely an argument put up by the parents.

The jokes start cutesy, then suddenly move into deep sexual territory, Hiroyuki makes sure it isn't too explicit both in his artwork and in humor. The artwork in this Manga is nice, a good fit and it includes certain comical moments. For my final thoughts, I would like to say that this is a good manga, not the best but still needs to find its purpose, which I hope it does in future volumes for the sake of readers and fans of Romantic Comedies and Slice of Life.

DNF

I couldn’t get through this. The characters were all so over the top and the whole premise of the manga made me extremely uncomfortable.

I’m all for open relationships and polyamory when it is discussed and there is consent and it is wanted by all parties. In this manga, the boyfriend gets a confession from another girl and immediately he wants to date them both and when he can’t, he resorts to saying he didn’t want to date them both in secret hence him asking his current girlfriend if he could date them both. I just had a feeling this wasn’t going to go in a direction that I’d like so unfortunately, I won’t be completing this one.

I received this manga from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

Well... this one didn't click. Not at all. I mean, I loved Doujin Work, I like Aho Girl, but this was just even more than Aho Girl and the weirdness, whereas it fits with Aho Girl, it just doesn't fit with this manga. Plus, hello, Saki clearly said no, but just went with it because she didn't want to lose Naoya. :| That just doesn't sit right with me all right, if she had said yes from the start, then I would have been maybe more comfortable with it, but now it is just a constant battle and constant emotions and constant back and forth and it just frustrates me. Also everything is way too exaggerated. Everything they do is too much. There is not one normal moment. And I definitely could use that. I also definitely cannot believe these three are 15, nor believe that no one came to Nagisa to check why she isn't at school, and also get tired of parents aren't around or parents don't give shit trope. I am not going to continue reading. This just gave me a headache. So sad, because I was really looking forward to a new manga by this artist.

In Girlfriend Girlfriend, mangaka Hiroyuki takes a bit of a different approach to the romantic comedy genre, seeing what would happen if a protagonist decided to take on not one, but two girlfriends. Girlfriend Girlfriend Volume 1 is published in English by Kodansha Comics, with translation by Jacqueline Fun and lettering by Nicole Roderick.

Girlfriend Girlfriend Volume 1 follows Naoya Mukai, a first-year high school student who has just begun dating his childhood friend, Saki Saki. Just when their happy-couple life is about to begin, Nagisa Minase, another first-year, also confesses to Naoya. Instead of simply rejecting Minase, Naoya is instantly infatuated and proposes a polygamous relationship.

This volume presents an interesting twist on an otherwise pretty generic premise. Most people would never be bold enough to actually present the idea of polygamy to a current girlfriend, so seeing Naoya stumble through the situation with Saki and Minase can be pretty funny. While this volume might not feature any large battles or mind-blowingly amazing scenes, but Hiroyuki knows how to draw a cute character. Many jokes are completely made by Hiroyuki’s art, and Saki and Minase are just plain cute.

Unfortunately, the “oh my goodness, two girlfriends? lol” joke is only funny for so long. As Girlfriend, Girlfriend Volume 1 goes on, I found myself laughing less and less, especially as the jokes descend into a more sexual realm. Though Hiroyuki refrains from showing anything explicit, something about hearing sex jokes involving three 15-year-olds just feels uncomfortable and not funny. Plus, it feels as if every joke ends up descending into everyone just yelling, which doesn’t make them funnier.



Other than usual rom-com antics, nothing about this volume is remarkable enough to really draw readers from chapter to chapter. Sure, it can be funny, but the series has yet to find its true footing.

It also feels as if there is no catalyst to push the story along. Sure, there’s the hook of the polygamous relationship, but with all parties consenting, there really isn’t any conflict that demands reading. While one might argue that you would want to find out if the relationship might work, in typical episodic slice-of-life fashion, nothing in Girlfriend, Girlfriend Volume 1 really seems to have consequences. It really feels like there is nothing that Naoya, Saki, or Minase could say that would change the status quo, so I’m really stumped about where the series will go from here.

One of the best things about Girlfriend, Girlfriend Volume 1 is its English translation. While many series might translate jokes in a fairly straightforward way, Fun translates things much more naturally. I honestly can’t say I’ve ever seen the phrase “exacto mundo” in a manga before, so seeing it here made me laugh harder than it probably should.

While Girlfriend, Girlfriend Volume 1 might be an enjoyable read for diehard fans of rom-coms or slice-of-life, most will probably find it lacking purpose. Though good art and translation keep it from being truly bad, I simply don’t have any desire to read any more of Girlfriend, Girlfriend, and I doubt most readers will either.

Thanks to Netgalley and Kodansha for this arc! Here’s my honest review:
At first I thought “oh yeah, I’m gonna hate this ML and wtf? Is he gonna cheat on her and start two-timing?!?! *glances the ML in a disgusting way*. But then again though, this is the author of Aho girl and I don’t think he does this kind of manga...? So i was 🙃 “well, let’s dive in a see what happens”. What I didn’t think was that it was going to SUCK ME IN and make me so interested that I couldn’t left the tablet until I have read it entirely (carrying it to the bathroom too). I think this manga is the mist hilarious and entertaining and lovable of all I read so far. I honestly didn’t expected it bc his prev title didn’t appealed to me THIS MUCH. But he’s improved a lot in this time and I’m really excited and anxious to read the next volumes to come. The way the polyamorous and threesome was handled was the greatest and the characters are each one of them very very likeable. I found myself liking the ML and how he is with the girls. So earnest and caring and honestly truthful. And the girls: I loved them both so much. They were each so great and cute. Honestly they both deserve the world equally I want to hug them so much. And I’m enchanted with them not being actually “jealous” with each other, liking and cherishing each other on their own ways and not settling a “competition” for the guy. Nagisa is just the cutest, you can just hate her bc she is so caring and loving and innocent that you’ll be a fool if you think of her badly. And Saki-chan... she’s just the best girl ever, how can she be so loving and caring and accept all that? I honestly doubt I could. If there is a way where humans can be like that I think it would be loving... but well I’m sorry if I get to carried away. I just wanted the publishers and author to know how much I appreciated this.
If you think that polyamory is not ok or something like that, well, you could regret it by reading this story. So please give it a try. I promise it will be a lot of fun and warmly cute. Bye!