Tomo-chan Is a Girl! First Impressions

“Right after I started high school, I made a confession. It was, without question, a confession of love!”

Well, Tomo-chan Is a Girl! sure proved to be a delightful surprise! I wasn’t expecting it to be bad or anything, but I was certainly open to the possibility of a less than stellar romcom mired in anime tropes. Instead, Tomo-chan plays with those tropes mercilessly, subverting expectations and getting plenty of laughs along the way. Honestly, the central pairing is one of the most delightful ones I’ve seen in years, and I’m positive this is going on my “to watch” list. By the time I was in the second half, I found myself pausing the show every few seconds to laugh, chuckle or simply contemplate how sharp the writing is. Sometimes you’re caught off guard by how happy you are that you didn’t skip over a new show, and this is definitely one of those times. In a season this packed with new shows, it would be a real shame to overlook a gem like this. Tomo-chan Is a Girl! has what it takes to be a modern classic of the romcom genre, and I cannot stress how happy I am to be along for the ride.

The show follows the titular Tomo Aizawa, a high school student who has started to realize that her tomboyish nature is getting in the way of her romantic aspirations. She is both attractive and charming, but her childhood friend, Junichiro Kubota, remains seemingly oblivious to those qualities, instead treating her like one of the boys. This normally wouldn’t be a problem for Tomo, but given that she has a crush on him, it instead serves as a significant hurdle. The episode opens with him blatantly misunderstanding her attempts to confess to him, and it doesn’t get any better from there. Which is to say, it gets a lot better and a lot more hilarious. Tomboys are often portrayed as being a bit dense in anime, so having Tomo be the one who is more in tune with their emotions is a brilliant twist on the standard formula. That’s not to say she can’t be an idiot, but that’s true of many of the characters. Due to her upbringing in a dojo, she also tends to lash out physically, but those moments are earned through the build-up. Junichiro or “Jun,” on the other hand, is presented as an airhead, though the prodding of their mutual friend, Misuzu, suggests the feelings aren’t as one-sided as Tomo thinks, even if Jun remains pretty oblivious. Speaking of which, the secondary cast does a great job of backing up the comedic chops of our leads. Still, the MVP is probably Misuzu, as she’s been Tomo’s friend since childhood, and is a manipulative bastard, conspiring to get as much amusement out of the circumstances as possible.

Lay-duce is a studio I’ve encountered a few times in the past few years with varying degrees of positivity. I really enjoyed last year’s Heroines Run the Show, but I was less favorable when it came to Fanfare of Adolescence or O Maidens in Your Savage Season. I’d say the visual production quality is roughly on par with that of Heroines, which is fairly decent. I’ve certainly seen better, but it does the job, and it isn’t where the priorities lie. The comedic timing and execution of the jokes is where a series such as this lives or dies, and Tomo-chan is a Girl! has brilliant comedic writing. It bounces back and forth between situational comedy and slapstick in such a manner that it appears to be constantly one-upping itself. If there is a downside, it’s that the rapid-fire nature of the jokes does limit the narrative a bit. It won’t take fans of anime long to recognize this as a 4-koma adaptation, with the pros and cons that come with it. Namely, the story has a habit of taking a backseat to the jokes. Frankly, I’d like the story to have a little more space to breathe, but if it was at the cost of the humor, then I’d rather things as they are. I probably haven’t laughed this much during an episode since My Next Life as a Villainess, and that is high praise indeed.

Before I wrap up, a few Notes and Nitpicks:

• We don’t get an OP or ED this episode, so I didn’t have much to say on that front.
• I don’t know what I’d highlight as my favorite joke of the episode, but the umbrella shenanigans had me laughing quite regularly.
• I think the last anime romcom I watched was Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie… and is it just me or does that title sound like a counterpart to Tomo-chan Is a Girl!? Who knows what level of quality Tomo-chan will maintain, but as far as first impressions go, it beats out Shikimori easily.