‘Tomo-Chan is a Girl’ was released last year around the same time. It remind me of those old days tomboy plot where female lead tries to learns to be girly to win the heart of male lead only to be realised later that male lead was already into her boyish aura since their childhood. Since the manga came around 2015 so it does have an influence of the popular themes of that time. The plot is also quite predictable but some characters have indeed remarkable presence in the series. The anime is based on manga of sthe ame name, written and illustrated by Fumita Yanagida, and falls under the seinen genre. I haven’t read the manga so won’t talk about that much but as far as anime is concerned, it widens its horizon of genre and fairly covers the rom-com, slice-of-life, and Shojo along with Seinen.
The anime adaptation in 2023, was written by Megumi Shimizu and directed by Hitoshi Nanba under the Lay-Duce studio. It follows the typical bubbly art style that feels very energetic to watch. The quirky comical gags adds a hilarious touch to the character’s overall situation. It’s OST completely does justice to it’s theme.
The Plot
The plot revolves around a tomboy athlete Tomo Aizawa with a chirpy but strong personality, thanks to her parents Goro & Akemi Aizawa. She is naturally strong & trained in Karate, which makes her protective of people around her. Her physical traits & outgoing personality make her stand out in her school and are also the reason why Junichiro Kubota and Misuzu Gundou, her childhood friends, admire her.
In her high school, she realizes that she likes Junichiro Kubota and also makes a failed confession attempt, but she gets annoyed by the fact that Jun doesn’t see her as a girl but just as his childhood buddy. Now, she with her friends Misuzu Gundou and Carol Olston, tries to grab the attention of Junichiro Kubota as being all girly and make him realize that ‘Tomo Chan is a Girl!’ & then follows the 13-episode journey of denial & acceptance & discovery of their new bonds with other people while they unfold their own little love story.
Art Style
Although S1 follows the seinen but explores the shojo art style with it’s main focus on the emotions of characters. The colour and visuals are used to depict the emotions that follows the vibrant youth energy. It remind me a lot of Fairy tail anime(2009) that has a lot of bright & crisp colors including their over-powered characters. The background of ‘Tomo-Chan is a girl’ follows the typical high school vibrant environment. Nevertheless, the animation style was made for teens but the premises made it enjoyable for everyone. The sudden burst of gags fits quite right into the story. The animation is fast and doesn’t feel sloppy even at times when the plot becomes kind of slow.
The characters colour palette is also beautiful that compliments their style & unique personalities. The sharp and vibrant colors compliments a tomboy energy such a bright red hair colour and subtle colour palette shows her emotions as a tomboy tries to show her soft side for the boy she likes. The contrasting characters of Misuzu Gundou and Carol Olston follow the purple & pink-yellow pastel combo respectively which goes very well with both of their personality. The use of sharp lines for Gundo & soft subtle lines for Carol somehow hints at their nature but completely offset dynamics toward the end of anime. Junichiro Kubota follows seinen energy who has a clear goal and would not hesitate even if it cost him a few of his bones. His green colour background depict his protective & caring nature like Tomo. Other male characters like Kousuke Misaki and Tatsumi Tanabe who despite being shown as clueless but aren’t any different from Junichiro when it comes to protecting their loved once. Their character follows subtle yellow-orange colors with shape outlines that says a lot about their nature.
Overall
In terms of animation, ‘Tomo Chan is a Girl’ is vibrant, beautiful, and fun to watch anime. The plot is simple and quite predictable yet it’s a decent watch. Had it released around 2016-17, it would be a hit anime but 2023 is quite late for such a stereotypical plot. Moreover, the happy ending gave me the impression that anime has covered the complete manga but I’m not sure. I don’t think there is much left to explore so, it may not get its S2 but given the premises, it has potential to have a live-action adaptation. Story is not complicated and audience can predict its ends still the other characters make it worth exploring this light-hearted anime especially the character of Carol Olston.
She’s one of my favorite characters after Misuzu. It’s fun to watch her and Misuzu’s character growth that brings out her positive side for the audience & she turned out to be such a good friend of Tomo & Carol.
The main characters are Tomo & Junichiro but they both, or I can say Tomo especially overshadowed by supporting characters. The childhood Tomo & Junichiro episodes stand out more to me than their teen love episodes. The predictable nature of the main leads could be the reason for this but anyway, I enjoyed it & for sure it’s a good watch. It doesn’t offer anything new except the nostalgic anime high school vibes for me but it does have good & goofy characters with comical humor that hold this 13-episode series and delivers a binge-worthy rom-com.
Animexon 