Comic Girls

Adapted from a manga series,Comic Girls surely tries to bring the pain and struggle of the manga Industry into an anime,together with its own style.Although keeping its own style is important,they should also consider whether it'd be a great idea from a general anime perspective.By now,it somehow shows its uniqueness,but doesn't feature Comic Girls really well.

+good opening and ending song
+diversified characters' personalities
+Hilarious and crazy characters' actions
+nice character reactions
+Ending summed up the story

-it feels episodic
-Bad story premise
... -story feels shattered because characters work on their own
-repetitive or overused ideas
-undeveloped characters
-poor transitions

At my first glance,I was really excited about Comic Girls,I saw cute girls,beautiful visuals with characters with different personalities,I also received servals laughters too.With such a great start,Comic Girls could be potential.However,it starts to get lame and boring later on,which I couldn't grow on the characters or the story anymore.

The main problem of Comic Girls is its presentation.At first,I was supposed that the characters in Comic Girls are working together,but in fact,they're just working on their own.Although sometimes they managed to help each other,at the end the main focus would be just onto one or two characters.Therefore,there're not much remarkable character interactions.Moreover,The story feels extremely inconsistent.It feels episodic,each episode doesn't have any sort of relationship towards others,many weird transitions all over the place.Sometimes,it has comedy moments,but then it suddenly jumps to emotional moments.In other time,it seems to be concentrated on one character,but then it talks about another character,which seems the story is going to nowhere and I don't know what exactly Comic Girls wants to express through each episode.

In addition,the character development doesn't seem to be good.Although each girl has their own personality,they feel pretty unrealistic and undeveloped.The setting that a bunch of highschool girls that are manga authors as well is a poor story premise for a slice of life anime,as this would be very unlikely happened in reality from a general perspective.In addition,there are also several unrealistic moments in Comic Girls as well.For example,teacher suddenly drags a student out of the classroom and said to him,I like your drawing.It feels very weird and abnormal.Apart from the characters just working on their own,the main storyline is just Kaos improving on her work.Other time,other main characters are just supporting cast,while only a few moments focusing on them.At the end,I just grew on a little on Kaos,but not for the others.

I find that the comedy delivered to me is kinda funny and boring at the same time.At first,I get a lot of laughters because of the hilarious and crazy characters' reactions.Unfortunately,by the more episodes you have watched,it will become lame and flat,as ideas are becoming repetitive and overused.Characters feel jealous about other characters' boob size,scared of things and being sleepy during classes,it feels cliche,repetitive and boring,so overall the comedy offered in this show is unsatisfactory.If the comedy and ideas used in the show are refreshing and new,it'll be more interesting.Sadly,it doesn't happen in Comic Girls.

After a long and rough ride,I finally come to the ending.The good news is that Comic Girls somehow manages to summarise the story events and the story ending is quite fine for a slice of life anime.

Finally,let's talk about the animation and the sound in this show.I'm kind of impressed with the animation in this show. Colourful visuals are used and cute moments in a comic style,looks original and nice,together with different cute character reactions.It is kinda nice,but if more visuals are used on the background would be better.Voice actors are trying to play their roles well,opening and ending are nice and interesting with its own style.I noticed some background music and soundtracks in this show,but if there're more of them used in the show,it'll be greater.

Unless you're in a similar position as the character,you probably won't able to get much enjoyment from this show.Although Comic Girls tries to attempt a great story with hilarious moments,it feels like a total mess and a failed work at the end,except for the ending.Therefore,many improvements and efforts are needed in order to develop a better and an amusing slice of life,comedy anime.

I used to love slice of life and comedy anime,but not this one apparently.

Story:5/10 (D) (35%)
Animation:8/10 (A) (10%)
Sound:7/10 (B) (10%)
Characters:4/10 (E) (25%)
Enjoyment:5/10 (D) (20%)
Overall:5/10 (D) (Fair)

Cute Girls 4-Panel shows are a dime a dozen, and while each has their own flavor, they are somewhat derivative of each other, usually featuring the same couple scenarios like going to the beach, fighting over a misunderstanding, summer festival and fireworks, one of them secretly being the rich heir to a big corporation or royal family - give or take a few. And at first, Comic Girls seems to follow in the same vein.

The four main girls are moved into a dormitory together with the expressed goal of it being helping them develop their skills as Mangaka. Two of them - Ruki and ... Tsubasa - are already very much busy with the industry, keeping up with weekly chapters or developing new ideas, whereas the other two - Kaos and Koyume - may have debuted, but still have to get their work off the ground. And while I was watching, I kept wanting to see more of the manga-making process in the way a Bakuman for example did it. Instead we get the usual jokes of characters being worked to the bone with deadlines, the characters who volunteer to assist accidentally ruining the artists work... and most episodes honestly aren't about Manga at all. Instead they more heavily focus the girls going through small SoL-adventures together, going clothes shopping, hanging at the beach, crushing on each other... the usual. And I want to take the opportunity to praise the show on this front in particular - while the girls are high schoolers, maybe two or three of the episodes feature them in their school uniforms. More often than not, they are dressed in normal outfits - and damn, what a wealth of cute, fun and character-revealing outfits these girls sport! It was an honest-to-god joy to see, and really added to every moment feeling filled with life and color. Even on the basis of just looking at it, this show managed to be very entertaining and eye-pleasing - all without leery fanservice.

Granted, the main character, Kaos, stand out right away by being a screaming, crying, weeb elementary-school-sized mess who loves watching girls being close with each other and whose storyboards are often rejected for being too unrealistic, not capturing the essence of what teenage girls are and do. Comic Girls is an ensemble show, yet Kaos is undeniably the focus and, for the most part, the POV character. She may have a lot of expressions edging close to cutesy, and the jokes about her putting herself and her art down start getting run into the ground almost immediately, but even so... she is the heart of the show and ends up what makes the whole experience very much worthwhile and unique to other 4-Girls-gag shows like this.

However... as fun as life with her new friends is, Kaos is being told time and time again how bad her storyboards are, and it starts to get to her. She is really happy for her friends, but still wrestles with the feeling of being the one left behing, who is slower and not as good as everyone else. She beats herself up in a way that while usually portrayed as comedic, really shows her frustration in a relatable and endearing fashion. She just fails and fails again, and instead of getting annoyed, her editor takes pity on her to some degree, and advises her the following: "Don't try too hard and instead make sure to enjoy life as a high school girl with your friends". And I actually don't want to give this one away since it was such a wonderful moment - all of this actually contributes to the story and one hell of a conclusion.

Comic Girls may not do a whole lot of things too terribly unique, but the things that stand out with this one REALLY stand out. From character development to the care put into small details to an ultimately satisfying character are, and all pleasing on the eyes and ears - Comic Girls is a wonderful show for everyone who likes cute girls, yonkoma and stories about art creation. I was positively surprised at what this show could do even for a more jaded viewer like me, and would love for it to do the same thing for other people!