Member Reviews
A manga about a guy with a "super wonderful girlfriend" who then has another girl confess to him. Instead of turning her down, he comes to the conclusion that the best situation is to go ask his girlfriend if he can have her as a girlfriend as well.
...
Okay, yeah, that's the sum up. "Comedy" ensues.
This... was not... handled well. This is nothing more than a male fantasy comedy where his perfect girlfriend accepts his other perfect girlfriend and thus his happy harem begins (it's only volume one, I'm sure more will joining because... well... manga). She agreed because he pleaded for several pages in a scene that I think was supposed to be comedic. He argues that she will be happy in a polygamous relationship, and indeed maybe they all will, but it is clear from the start that his current girlfriend is not only uncomfortable with this but just kind of gives in. It's uncomfortable as hell.
This is a weird little book. I supposed some of the events in it could have possibly been funny if handled differently but it's just so awkward and uncomfortable and the relationships are so forced (I mean that quite literally as again, the plot seems to be to convince Girlfriend A that this is a wonderful idea). Adding to the discomfort level, they're all highschool students (and not like about to graduate sort of highschool students) and one of the brilliant ideas is that they all just move in together. I'll not even be going into the extremely awkward threesome conversation.
This is just... yeah. Art is nice enough, but that's not enough to raise this rating: 1/5 stars because this is some major cringe comedy, and sadly I don't even think that's the intention.
My thanks to Netgalley and Kodansha Comics for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.
2/5 stars
Thanks to Netgalley and Kodansha for providing this e-arc.
Let's get it out of the way. This manga portrays polyamory in a bad comedic light and doesn't handle the intricacies of such a phenomenon. It'as also hyper-sexualized for it being a bunch of 15 year olds, just making me more disgusted by the country itself and the people affected with the nationalistic propaganda of Japan. The author also doesn't develop and give us a reason that this bland male specimen manages two be in a relationship with 2 women who are clearly out of his league.
Thank you so much to Netgalley and Kodansha Comics for the opportunity to read and review this manga.
So you know those stories that are trainwrecks that you just can't stop reading/watching? Well this is one of them. I think I was hoping it was going to be a bit fluffier than it ended up being. I wasn't a fan of any of the characters, some of the jokes didn't really land for me, and how they figured things out was frankly very stupid. Mind you, I am also an adult reviewing this manga and some teens could like it (although the fan service was stupid too frankly), but I did enjoy the relationship concept although execution was garbage. However, I will give it a point for keeping my attention through the entire volume. Because of these points, I have to give this a 2.5 out of 5 stars
Due to my own fault of not reading the summary before starting the manga, I realized too little too late just how 16+ this manga was. I will not be purchasing this for my library...my personal collection is a different story. Past my 'Woah' moment, this manga is definitely a comedy, and doesn't take itself too seriously.
Naoya and Saki are finally dating after years of Naoya asking her out. Naoya wants to stay on the straight and narrow, so no cheating. However, Nagisa finds herself alone with Naoya and professes her love to him, throwing a major wrench into Naoya and Saki's relationship. But, it's not cheating if both parties say yes...right?
This would have been good if it didn't awfully represent poly relationships. The art and story weren't too bad but... the representation was not it
The comedic romance expectation did not fail me in this cute story. Naoya and Saki have started dating and they both really love one another. It’s all sweet and innocent until Naoya gets another confession from the terribly cute Nagisa. Naoya is utterly charmed and so incredibly stupid that he thinks that the three of them dating is a good idea. Well, not to shock anybody, but it’s not. The banter between the three that entails is quite hilarious and kept me turning the page to see if IT was really going to happen. I got so invested.
So this book was another gamble and turned out to be an interesting one. I went in blindly again and I never expected a book with polygamy. I was just thinking to myself a couple of days ago how that's a relationship type that I've never really seen much or seen in a good light. This book was pretty interesting seeing how things were handled. The characters were so cute and I will have to say this book is more geared towards mature readers and found myself surprised when I forgot they were teens so its a bit iffy in my book. But ages aside I thought it was interesting seeing how they were handling things when it came to this new found relationship type. It was a pretty entertaining read.
Girlfriend l, Girlfriend is a manga centered around a young man by the name of Naoya, whose dating the stunning Saki! They’re both head over heels in love with ones other, nothing can stand between them right?
Well, Naoya gets a confession from a kind, sweet girl and he feels it’s be a waste to reject her, so he asks his girlfriend for permission to date both! Just after reading the first few pages I can tell this manga will be hilarious. Saki clearly isn’t for it, but magically changes her mind after they beg her for a few pages.
Naoya suggests they all live together as his parents are barely home, which leads to some funny scenes. I did fine that fact that they keep calling it “two timing” annoying, because at one point they defined the relationship as polyamorous. I don’t think it’s two timing if all parties agree, and are aware. If you like a comedic, love triangle, slice of life spiel, then this might be the manga for you. I personally could not get into it, I love a harem, a love triangle, all that but just this wasn’t it for me. It was a fun read though!
Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for allowing me to review this manga.
Girlfriend, Girlfriend moves really fast, when the story starts Naoya confesses his love to his new girlfriend, however the same day another girl confesses her love and then Naoya has the brilliant idea, why not date them both?? Because this is just the first volume there is a lot of buildup and suggestion for how the story will go in future volumes.
Thank you Netgalley for letting me read this book in return for an honest review.
Well, this was bad. This had a really rushed feeling about it regarding how the relationship started. They immediately started living together and the relationship was so toxic! The original girlfriend, in my opinion, was very pressured to being in this relationship. The main guy was constantly yelling and apologising too. It also very like the intended audience was the male gaze. I hated this.
Rating: 1⭐
Would I Read It Again? No
Would I Recommend it? Nope
Absolutely hilarious, Girlfriend, Girlfriend is the story of about three high-schoolers trying out a polygamous relationship, without really knowing how to go about it.
It's definitely something that I don't think would realistically work well in real life (especially the way they went about it, I'm aware that a lot of people are in fact in happy consensual polygamous relationships and that's cool). However just like other mangas in the genre, e.g. KissXsis, the situation is very funny and manages to address a complex situation in a very light-hearted way. I'm definitely excited for the upcoming volumes.
*Thanks to NetGalley and Kodansha Comics for providing me with an ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review.*
ARC Copy...I actually don't know how to review this...there is signs of zany energy but one guy dating two girls at the same time and the girls seem to ok/accepting of it?
Rating: 3.5 stars
Poor Saki... She's so normal (or normal-ish, anyway, compared to Naoya and Minase... which is a very low bar...) I would have liked this more if they'd leaned more into the poly/triad relationship aspect the way the premise sets it up. And the story sets it up that way too, with Saki taking an immediate liking to the other woman and finding her just as cute and irresistible as Naoya does. But then the repeated references to "two-timing" (which it is not when all parties have agreed to being in the relationship...) really became bothersome. Some of Saki's struggled are normal high school romance manga with a poly spin, and some are sort of questionable consent issues, and that brought the star rating down for me. I wish we'd gotten more of an enthusiastic (if maybe still confused and/or reluctant on the surface but a stronger message of her internal interest in a poly relationship) and that would have made this overall better for me.
Funny slice of life rom-com manga with a twist. I'm hoping some of its issues are resolved in vol 2 and am willing to give it time to grow into something better, but if vol 2 has the same problematic notes I won't be continuing beyond that.
My immediate reaction:
"I have a girlfriend already, but what am I supposed to do when another girl confesses to me?!"
Dude I'm all for Polyamory, but this entire line tells me you haven't discussed this with your current girlfriend, so the answer is simple. Tell them 'sorry but I'm in a relationship.'
- or break up with your current girlfriend, you don't seem like a healthy match tbh.
At no point after this do they actually have a discussion about boundaries and expectations in this relationship that they are undertaking. Also just moving in together, like even negating that they are teens. That's insane.
Also there is an absolute disregard to Saki's non-consent, but also the general manipulation that exists to allow for Naoya's ability to have his way. Along with the fact he never actually listened to her, she rejected him FOR YEARS. Like on top of this unhealthy relationship it promotes the idea that you can just wear someone down until they will date you.
The humor of this manga is placed in the fact that Saki is having feelings towards Nagisa. Making this the butt of a joke. Which is gross.
TLDR;
This is Toxic.
It's Queerbaiting and will cause whiplash!
The first page literally gave me bad vibes and I don't like how this insinuates cheating. I hated myself for still continuing, thinking it will get better. Why have men always acted like what they want should always be given to them? I don't like this one. I don't like the emotional cheating and them forcing the original girlfriend to agree for him to date them both. I fucking hate this. The gaslighting and disrespecting of the original girlfriend's boundaries when she said no is so infuriating to me. I would definitely NOT recommend this one.
I am not really sure how I feel about this manga. I want to say I enjoyed it, but what really made this difficult is the way the characters are always screaming. Indeed, the text is either written in bold or the speech bubbles are screamy. I did not like that. This is proof of how important the speech bubbles are and how they can affect your reading.
If I think past that, I liked the story. It is quite funny but I am expecting more for the next volumes. I like the idea of the guy who is too honest to cheat on his girlfriend and instead dates both. However, I would have preferred older characters for this type of story. Moreover, this polyamorous relationship is not well-structured for the moment because in real life, everybody involve needs to be okey with it and here, Saki doesn’t seem like she is loving it. So yeah, in order to feel comfortable when reading this story, I need the characters to be more at ease too. That’s why I want to read the second volume, in order to have a good idea of the series.
I recommend this manga for fans of humour manga mostly for the moment.
2.5/5
I had so many issues with this book. I felt so bad fo Saki. She’s already insecure and her boyfriend is so selfish to add another girl to their relationship just because she’s so willing to do whatever he wants despite the fact there’s another girl involved. Worse, when Saki tells him no and that she’s not okay with the polyamorous relationship, he manipulates her into agreeing to it. Not cool. I rather see Saki and Nagisa (the other girl) build something without that jerk,
It’s basically about a dimwit of school guy going out with the most popular cute girl at school, amongst a few girls who are after him too (likewise with him too). Yeah a pretty much your typical harem unfortunately ...
Thanks anyways Netgalley and Kodansha comics!
There is a full length review forthcoming on my site, MangaLibrarian.com and on my YouTube Channel! I go in depth on my analysis there.
DNF. So, yeah no. This just fails, if it was supposed to be a comedy romance about a polyamorous relationship it’s not. Saki is pushed into it and it just goes downhill from there. By the time we hit the awkward threesome discussion I could not read it.