Posted in: Anime, Crunchyroll, TV | Tagged: anime, Crunchyroll, romantic comedy, Tomo-chan Is a Girl!

Tomo-Chan is a Girl! Proves Awkward Bid Anime Teen Romantic Comedy

Tomo-Chan is a Girl! is a sort-of-new, sort-of-old high school romantic comedy, but aren't they all? Super-tomboy Tomo has reached that age where she's starting to have feelings for her best bud Jun, except the moment she declares her love for him, he seems to miss it and bro-zones her immediately. They've been best friends since childhood, and he's always treated her as a boy. She's always been a tomboy, but now her feelings and his bro-behaviour, and lack of personal space and boundaries with her are starting to make everything awkward. Hilarity ensues. For many episodes to come.

The first two episodes of Tomo-Chan is a Girl! waste no time establishing Tomo and Jun and introducing the supporting characters who will be their foils through the series. There's Tomo's best friend Mizuno. There's Misaki, the captain of the school who admires Tomo's invincible fighting ability. Oh yeah, Tomo is a god-tier karate fighter, trained by her father at his dojo since infancy. That's why she's a massive tomboy.

The Tomboy Trope

Tomo is a male fantasy figure: the tough tomboy who knows nothing about being feminine, and the series is about her learning. There's Mifune and Ogawa, two gossipy girls who become terrified of her. There's bubbly British transfer student Carol, who is an airhead. The comedy hinges on Tomo's emerging romantic feelings for Jun and his cluelessness, but even by the end of the second episode; it becomes clear that he's in denial about his own burgeoning feelings for his best friend.

The Machiavellian Bet Friend Trope

If anything, Mizuno is the real star of the show, a deadpan, unsmiling, manipulative observer with a Wednesday Addams vibe; her lot in life is to torture people for kicks, especially her best friend Tomo and his archenemy Jun as she reluctantly plays matchmaker, giving advice to Tomo that almost always goes sideways.

The Exotic Transfer Student Trope

Tomo-Chan is a Girl! also has that bizarre anime high school trope: the exotic transfer student. Carol is a rich blonde, extreme girly girl from England that all the boys crush on and whose air of mystery – just because she's foreign – makes a foil for the main cast. Carol is a weird airhead who does not act like any British person in real life, obviously dreamed up by Japanese creators who have never encountered a real white person in real life. She really acts more like a cross between a robot and a cartoonish Californian airhead stereotype (with a hint of Mean Girl) than anything resembling "British."

Anime Teen Romantic Comedies are Weird

Tomo-Chan is a Girl! is a weird and surreal watch, and there are parts of it that you might find problematic, but it's very revealing of what Japanese men think of romance. To watch teen anime romantic comedies with Western eyes can be a weird experience. For one, boundaries and consent issues keep popping up that the Japanese don't seem bothered about. At least Tomo-Chan is a Gir!! isn't another harem story where the hero is surrounded by a whole band of different girls to pick from and play coy but creepy flirtations with. It's also normal for the heroine in anime teen romances to punch the hero a lot, which is still considered slapstick comedy and an explosion of frustrated feelings. The West stopped using the trope decades ago because, well, it's, at best, assault and, at worst, abuse. We are assured that teenagers in love do not regularly punch each other in the head in Asia in real life.

Tomo-Chan is a Girl! is now streaming in both Japanese and English language dubs on Crunchyroll.

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