Ranked #5390

Mangirl!

No. Mangirl has nothing to do with hermaphrodites. I’m assuming the title is the only reason you even checked this anime out, so might as well get that out of the way first.

A part of me feels that the studio who adapted Mangirl wanted to make something good. But they were screwed over by the company, who didn't have very high expectations for it, by only giving them 3 minutes per episode. I can't say I totally blame them though, because even when you don’t put its pitifully short air time into consideration, the concept itself of this anime has a number of flaws that prevent it from being anything memorable.

The premise of Mangirl is very unoriginal. A group of girls attempt to create a manga magazine without any kind of experience beforehand. Think K-On, but with a manga theme instead of a music theme. It’s not supposed to be a plot-driven show, but even then, it’s way too predictable. Any spoilers I give would hardly be shocking.

But even if the plot is somewhat clichéd, if there’s a good cast of characters to support the show, it can still be enjoyable. That doesn’t happen in Mangirl. Most of the characters hardly even have personalities, let alone development. I’m actually shocked by how flat they are. One character just randomly bursts in the middle of an episode for no reason and then is never seen again, yet she still appears in the OP. The only characters that have anything close to a personality are Hana and Aki, but they’re only a generic comedy duo. I wouldn’t be able to describe Tsumugi and Ringo, the other two “main” characters, even if I tried. One likes food, the other carries a stuffed bear, but that hardly counts as a personality. That’s like calling the fact that a character has blue eyes a personality trait. Even if this show was longer, I doubt the characters would be very original.

This brings us to our next issue in Mangirl. As I’ve said, each episode is only 3 minutes long. That is not enough time at ALL to tell anything that remotely resembles a story. The only shows that can still be good while being short are series with hardly any continuity. But Mangirl does, so the show progresses at a lightning fast pace. It tries to cram so much stuff into each episode. There were times I could hardly read the subtitles because they’d disappear before I could finish them.

Despite the (rather major) flaws in this show, I actually found it surprisingly enjoyable. The writing is well done. There were a lot of moments I thought were funny, particularly the episode where they go to Comiket. And when they summoned Sakamoto Ryoma’s spirit to recommend their manga, I almost died! At the same time though, I feel like the same jokes would be a lot funnier if the cast was replaced by characters from some other slice of life show.

The animation is pretty nice. There’s never any time when the characters look off-model. And the art work looks nice too. The fanservice is subtle, which is a good thing. The character designs are interesting, but I don't like how they are supposed to be college graduates, but look like teenage girls. It's probably because they wanted the show to be all moe and whatnot, but that could have still been pulled off even if they looked like adults.

The voice acting is decent. It’s mostly made up of new seiyuus. I think they do a good job with what they’re given. Aki’s voice particularly sticks out in my mind because she has a very unique voice. I wish all of them luck in their career. The music is average, and the OP will get stuck in your head for all the wrong reasons.

I really don’t want to say Mangirl is a horrible anime, because I enjoyed it a lot more than I probably should have, but it’s definitely not anything special. I would have rated it higher if it was the length of an actual show, but even then, both the plot and the characters are incredibly boring. At only 13 episodes, you can finish the show in less than an hour, so if you’re looking to kill time, then I guess this might be worth giving a shot. read more

The first thing that caught my attention about this anime is-- how ridiculously short it is. 3 minutes? That's pretty short.

But that aside, it's a pretty decent slice-of-life/comedy anime.

The set of characters are somewhat cliche, and the plot is pretty straightforward. There is no back-story of some sort. I mean, how did Hana and Aki become friends? What inspired them to create manga?

And some tsundere-type girl just appears out of nowhere in one episode.

The art is pretty good, and the animation is fairly smooth.

I admit, I did enjoy it. But it'd be a much better series if the plot was given more depth and the air time was extended to the usual 22 minutes per episode.

If you're looking for something to watch after a hard day's work, you can give Mangirl! a try.
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