Picture this: the most perfectly romantic setting for a declaration of love. The cherry blossoms fall about you as you stand in front of the object of your affection, heart in your hand, and confess your feelings…and it ends in a fist bump?Tomo-Chan Is A Girlis the story of Tomo, who really, really likes Jun, but he just doesn’t seem to see her as a girl. She’s tired of being treated like a “bro”! How can she get his attention?
Created as a webcomic by Fumita Yanagidam, it was eventually collected into 8 manga volumes from 2015 to 2019 before being picked up for anime by Lay Duce and released worldwide under Crunchyroll in a 13 episode, widely anticipated season. Directed by Hitoshi Nanba (Lupin IIIandFate/Grand Order) and written by Megumi Shimizu (My Next Life As A Villaness) each episode seems to be divided into two mini-episodes of the related themes. In a bit offeminine solidarity, the closing theme “yurukuru*love” is sung by the actresses playing the main character and two female supporting characters.
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She’s A Girl, and He Knows It
Tomo Aizawa has the misfortune of falling in love with her childhood best friend and next-door neighbor Jun Kubota. They spend all their time together, sparring at her family karate dojo, walking to and from school together and basically acting like buddies, bros if you will, complete with fistbumps.
The problem is that Jun doesn’t seem to realize that Tomo is a girl. He seemed shocked to discover she wore a skirt as part of her middle school uniform, and now that they’re inhigh schooldoesn’t seem to get that the rough-house handsy stuff really isn’t tolerable anymore. Tomo appeals to her best friend, the mildly gothic and coldly analytical Misuzu Gondou for help. How can she get him to notice her?
Fitting somewhere on the tsundere/yandere/kuudere wheel or maybe just very manipulative, Misuzu is still holding a grudge from when Tomo wouldn’t play dolls with her in kindergarten. Although she seems to view Tomo and Jun as her personal playthings, she does often help the clueless tomboy Tomo figure out what’s actually going on with the men and women around her. She’s certainly not above dropping hurtful information to put Tomo wise, as when Jun accidentally leads his friend Tatsume into thinking that he has a physical relationship with Tomo, a fact that earns him a beating from Tomo herself. Misuzu even clears things up with Tatsume who also sees the possibilities of toying with the couple, something Misuzu is quick to put the kibosh on. But she can’t seem to help herself fromwinding up her frenemyJun with the thought that Tomo might find herself a real boyfriend, the amorous type. This and other petty pokes at his ego earns her a push into the rain and the loss of her hairclip.
Innocent Or…
Because the thing is, Jun does know that Tomo is a girl. He’s very aware of it. He’s just completely unwilling to change the dynamics of their relationship. And THAT makesTomo-Chan Is A Girlinteresting. It would be a much more common something is Jun was just spectacularly clueless and Tomo was chasing after him haplessly until he actually recognized her attraction. Here, they are both pretending something that neither of them is sure they want, that Tomo and Jun are just a couple of guys, palling around.
The thing is, Tomo is an innocent creampuff in this dynamic, whereas Jun has much moreambiguous motivations, particularly as he seems to use the cover of “just bros” to pretty much sexually harass her. Yeah, the sight of her wet t-shirt sends him fleeing in the opposite direction as he tries to get control of himself, but he slaps her on the ass pretty much whenever he wants and grabs her waist to tickle her in a way that’s pretty distasteful when you know that he KNOWS she’s a girl who’s interested in him, but that he just doesn’t want to move things along.
On the one hand, the fact that the story actually hinges on his reluctance to pursue a romantic relationship with someone he really cares about because it might cause him to lose a dear friend is refreshing when coming from a male protagonist. Society usually places men in the position of relentless pursuer and that’s tiresome. But the fact that he not infrequently uses this pretend ignorance to be handsy is really distasteful. Once that dime drops, it makes it a much harder view. Combined with the fact thather closest female friendMisuzu twists Tomo’s life around for her own amusement and you kind of wish that Tomo would just go find herself some better friends.
Cinnamon Roll With A Fang
Because Tomo is a total cinnamon roll. Yes she’s a tall, strong fighter with…personal assets that everyone (even Jun) seems very sure of, but she’s also very sweet and kind and just desperate to be seen as feminine and womanly. Sure she’s willing to throw down and fight at the drop of a hat, which almost gets her in trouble with a couple of girls who are jealous of her relationship with Kousuke Misaki, the effeminate captain of their school’s male karate team. Kousuke is enamored of Tomo’s strength and tomboy ways, but Tomo only cares about the fact that she got kicked off the girl’s team forbeing toostrongenthusiastic. She’s thrilled when she mistakes the girl’s jealousy for interest in her opinion as a woman and friend of Kousuke. Surely her femininity must be obvious if girls are coming to her for advice in love! And it’s this pure cinnamon roll approach to life that makes Tomo-Chan Is A Girl kind of delightful.
One of the other saving graces of the series lies in its vocal design. Tomo’s voice and phrasing are pitched in a delightful alto tone and are, in a more traditional world, masculine. Likewise, Kousuke’s voice and phrasing are light and high, more traditionally feminine. The vocal playfulness in all the characters is very strong and cleanly done. If you choose to watch the dubbed version,the voice actorsthere keep a similar approach, which keeps the joke running. There’s a lot of fun detail to the backgrounds and playful use of color. If you are fond of the use of fang, a tooth appearing in the corner of the mouth to denote a certain wildness and freedom of character, Tomo displays a very cute little fang. It’s something she apparently inherited, like her flaming red hair, from her mother. It will be interesting to see in which direction the story will develop, and whether a cute smile and a strong right hook can carryTomo-Chan Is A Girlthrough.
