Girl Friend (Japanese: ガールフレンド, Hepburn: Gaarufurendo) is a Japanese manga written by Masaya Hokazono and illustrated by Court Betten. The manga is serialised in Shueisha's Weekly Young Jump. The manga is licensed for a French-language in France by Delcourt. The series contains a collection of short stories about romantic relationships of high school girls.
Manga
Shueisha published the manga's 5 bound volumes between June 18, 2004 and June 19, 2007.Delcourt published the manga's 5 bound volumes between March 13, 2008 and February 11, 2009.
Volume list
Reception
BD Gest' claims that the series can be summarized in three words: "School, sex, and socks". They comment that the relationships portrayed are flawed relationships because of their adolescent bases and their alternations between fantasy and reality, as well as an excessive focus on having love based purely on sex. They also felt that the series has potential, but also has great room for disappointment. MangaNews commends manga artist Court Betten saying that his work is "indeed sumptuous". The review also commends Masaya Hokazono's ability "to tell in a few pages, the randomness/hazard of the first love relationships". Animeland commends the manga for "every possible relationship combinations between young adults" without pudeur. Later reviews from Manganews criticises the stories as clichéd but commends the stories for "keep their funny side without overdoing it".
A girlfriend is a female friend or acquaintance, often specifying a regular female companion with whom one is platonic, romantically and/or sexually involved. This could be a long-term committed relationship. This is normally a short-term committed relationship, where other titles (e.g. wife, partner) are more commonly used for long-term committed relationships. A girlfriend can also be called an admirer, beau, suitor and sweetheart.
Scope
Partners in committed relationships are also sometimes described as a "significant other" or simply "partner", especially if the individuals are cohabiting.
"Girlfriend" and "partner" mean different things to different people; the distinctions between the terms are subjective. How the term is used will ultimately be determined by personal preference.
In 2005, a study was conducted of 115 people ages 21 to 35 who were either living with or had lived with a romantic partner. It notes that the lack of proper terms often leads to awkward situations, such as someone becoming upset over not being introduced in social situations to avoid the question.
Girl Friend Beta (ガールフレンド（仮）, Gāru Furendo Kakko Kari, literally "Girlfriend (provisional)") is a 2012 Japanese smartphone game developed by CyberAgent for iOS and Android devices. As of June 2014, it has over 5.3 million users. An anime television series produced by Silver Link aired in Japan between October and December 2014. There are also five manga adaptations based on the game, and a PlayStation Vita spin-off game was released in November 2015.
Gameplay
The game is a dating simulator which features over 100 different virtual girls, each with a unique voice actress. The player progresses their relationship with the virtual girlfriend by taking her on dates. The game is free-to-play, however the player pays real-world money to gain premium services. The game features various events that occur, including battle events when bad guys appear. The player can engage in club activities and school class events to solicit romance and increase intimacy with female students. There is a card-based system within the game, where the player collects different cards of varying rarity; each card has different attributes, such as attack and defense costs. Cards can be enhanced by engaging in a part-time job.