Girlfriend, Girlfriend (2021)

[カノジョも彼女]

Volume 5

Author/Artist: Hiroyuki
Publisher: Kodansha Comics Magazine

Synopsis:
Saki's mother comes up with a plan to help her seduce Naoya.

Story/Characters:
We open with Mrs. Saki being similarly invested in her daughter's love life as Aho-Girl's Mrs. Hanabatake, only the former doesn't appear to have the selfish ulterior motives of the latter. Anyway, Saki's subsequent bunny girl routine is quite representative of her character and how she fumbles through her relationship with Naoya. Nagisa's subsequent maid act demonstrates the difference between the two of them. And then there's frickin' Milika being Milika. It's funny given how much I don't like her but I warmed up to kid sister Risa fairly quickly, mostly because she's one of the few sensible characters in the series. I do like how Naoya deconstructs Milika's plot. He may be an idiot, which just makes him breaking down greater idiocy funny to me. We move on to a sweet domestic moment between Naoya and Nagisa (and how that gets spoiled by Milika) and after that, our trio is gearing up for summer break when they realize Nagisa's poor academic skills could spoil their plans. Enter a reluctant Shino to help.

At the end of the previous volume, we established that Shino has a crush on Naoya but has been trying to suppress her feelings for the Saki's sake and wants the relationship between Saki and Naoya to succeed so she can give up on him. Then the whole threesome situation messed all that up. Now she's stuck tutoring Nagisa, who she hates, and her frustration with Naoya and Saki only make her all the more prickly. (I love how Naoya, Saki and Nagisa heaping praises on her only makes her angrier.) For what follows, I can't help but feel her desires are pushing her to take actions that get rationalized before she even realizes what she's doing. Why else would she think that moving in was a good idea? You can just argue that the Aho Field is affecting her. It was what brought down Oppai Iinchou in Aho-Girl, after all. Anyway, once Shino has made her decision, Milika finds out and she takes it as well as you'd expect. It's a nice contrast between how readily the group accepts Shino versus how they refuse Milika. Once Shino moves in, we get flashbacks to how Saki befriended her in the first place and how she fell for Naoya. This segues into quite the cliffhanger.

Art:
I don't feel I even need to comment on the obvious fanservice bait of Bunny!Saki and Maid!Nagisa. Risa's nekomimi hoodie is really cute, which is obviously the plan. Shoot, even Milika manages to get me with the pathetic face she makes as she's about throw away the last shreds of her dignity. Shino's reaction shots are particularly good. The pervy camera angles during the shopping trip are rather gratuitous. You can't even make the excuse that they're representing Naoya's POV, but this is the author of Manashi we're talking about and maybe Aito was more of a self-insert than I would've imagined. Anyway, that two-page spread setting up the cliffhanger, though... I know Naoya's garbage, but I'm still rooting for Shino all the same.

Other:
We get a bonus comic of Hiroyuki announcing the then-upcoming anime.

Conclusion:
I know I'm probably overselling this because I like Shino so much, but this volume nicely builds on what was set up in the previous volume. There's some nice stuff going on with Nagisa as well and Risa being introduced as both complement and counter-balance to Milika helps make her screentime more bearable. Anyway, almost entirely on the merits of Shino, I'm saying this volume is worth a purchase. If her character has clicked with you as much as it has with me, you're sure to agree.

Rating:
Own It