Domestic na Kanojo
Domestic Girlfriend

Edit

What would you like to edit?

SynopsisBackgroundAlternative TitlesPictureChapters/VolumesPublishing DatesRelationsTypeExternal Links  

Domestic Girlfriend (DG for short) is a series that I picked up one day on a whim after seeing a trailer for it on YouTube. I went into it without looking up a synopsis, and had no idea what I was getting myself into. And boy, was it one hell of a ride.
I've had my ups and downs with this series, mostly relating to shitty waifu wars that, with time, I grew out of, and came to love this for it's story and presentation instead of just a batch of characters. This series is controversial, both for it's initial premisce and ending (we'll get onto ... that later). We have alot to talk about, so let's get going!

(WARNING: Spoilers for the ending in it's own section at the end of the review, review ends at "Enjoyment" section)

// Story : 9/10
From the get-go, DG has a very interesting story that got me (and alot of others) instantly hooked. Natsuo finds himself with 2 new sisters, his teacher Hina, whom he has a crush on, and Rui, the girl he lost his virginity to. This may seem very unrealistic, and it is, i'll give you that, but the situations they end up in tend to teeter on the edge of realistic and unrealistic most of the time. The drama feels real though, and you start to feel for the characters. They are faced with important and life changing decisions that lead to pretty great character development.
I do have to adress the fact that there are stronger arcs than others. Some arcs can feel forced and "too unrealistic", especially towards the last few stages of the story, more on that in the "spoiler" part of the review.
I would've given the story a 10/10 if not for these dips in quality, there are alot of side-character arcs that, in my opinion, are just not all that captivating. I came to see the main trio and how they develop, not to see side-characters that I can't get attached to.
That doesn't mean that all the side character arcs are bad, don't get me wrong, some are genuinely brilliant, some just feel unnecessary or forced.

// Art : 9/10
If there is one aspect where Kei Sasuga stands out in compared to any other mangaka in the romance/drama section today, it has to be in the art department.
DG starts off with average looking art. It isn't anything spectacular, but still pretty decent. However, with time, Sasuga's art gets more refined, and by the end of the story, it is absolutely amazing to look at. If I had to compare it to another series with great art, I think it's on par with the art in the currently releasing Bakemonogatari manga adaptation, it's genuinely amazing, and some scenes from the newer chapters left me stunned.
I didn't give this section a 10/10 either, as the art isn't always this amazing.
As I said, it takes a bit to get amazing, which is why I genuinely hope that Sasuga has another project after DG, seeing something start off with that art style would be insane.
Overall, a very clean and polished art style that gets better as the years went on.

// Characters : 10/10
This section is where the community for DG is split. There is an insane amount of characters in this series, so i'll stick to the ones I think are relevant, meaning the main trio of Hina, Natsuo and Rui.
I would've done a part for side-characters, but that would spoil certain arcs and take too much time, as I don't necessarily remember all of them and their progression throughout the story.
Let's talk about our main trio of Hina, Natsuo and Rui. It's hard for me to do this section without spoilers, as if I want to detail their growth, there's gonna be spoilers, which is why i'll say things, but without mentionning who i'm talking about, to try to keep this as spoiler-free as I can.
This first character goes from a shy, anti-social person to someone who is able to do whatever they can to realise their dream. Not my favorite character by far, but their progression is very respectable. They go from wanting what another has out of pure selfishness, to being able to give up this feeling of jealousy.
This second character is harder to develop on, in my opinion. They go from a typical character for this archetype, who doesn't want to give in to their real feelings to a character who is willing to accept sacrifice and gives in, a beautiful progression, in my opinion.
This third and last character for the trio goes from your average, run of the mill person, to someone who can live from their dream, who didn't give up despite what they could've been through. Be warned that this character can be considered a "wimp", my least favorite of this trio.

// Enjoyment : 10/10
This section is going to be entirely about what I think of the series, meaning it's going to feature my opinion, so please take what i'll say with a pinch of salt.

I've had my ups and downs with this series. When I first started reading it around mid-late March 2019, I was fully into the "waifu wars", i'd go onto discords and rage-debate who was better while defending my favorite waifu from this series, and I eventually ended up "hating" this series due to the "poor treatment" of my waifu.
In retrospect, that was so stupid, not because of the ending, but just because I think that I took this way too seriously, and alot of people still do.
At the end of the day, this is a manga meant for entertainment, to distract us from the real world and to get us immersed in a different one, and this one managed to do that for me.
I sort of "dropped" this series around mid-July, reading some spoilers and sometimes some of the chapters, but in January 2020, I did some thinking and thought that there had to be a reason behind why I got into it this much, so I went back and re-watched the anime, and purchased all of the available physical copies of the manga in my country, and fell in love with it all over again, this time not for the waifu wars or just the characters, but for the narrative and presentation.
This manga really has changed my life, it's the first time i've followed a series for this long, and it ending left a void in me, but a warm, fuzzy void, a feeling that it wasn't necessarily over, that i'd still be tied to this story and that I wouldn't forget about it anytime soon.

For that, I want to thank Kei Sasuga for writing such an amazing story.

// SPOILER SECTION //

So, a few words about the ending.

Yes, as some of you may have guessed by now, i'm a Hina fan. I'm going to be completely honest in what I say here: I'm fine with this ending, and no, it's not because my waifu "won". I can't even call this a "victory", I don't like Natsuo, but clearly she does, so i'll ship them, plus they look nice together.
However, I do wish that it had happened some other way instead of having her put into a coma and Marie telling Natsuo about her feelings. If she had confessed herself before the Okunugi arc and Natsuo made up his mind during the coma, it would've been much better that way already.

I won't dwell on this too much as this is more of something for debate in a discussion, but oh well, Thanks for reading if you made it here!

[MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS]

Let's start with an explanation first..
Of course, some of you would think that I rated the manga high enough while looking at others' reviews, you would see their rating is as low as 1.

To be honest, the manga wasn't that bad. Looking at the whole manga, it was enjoyable. Some of the reviews you will see in this manga are exaggerated, or they are overreacting about it. If you will read some of the reviews, they will state that they enjoyed it until chapters 258 or 272, or they would that it was one of the best manga they read until this ... specific chapter. Which is kinda funny lol.

Let's be professional so others can see how the manga really turned out.
Personally, looking at the whole manga, some scenes are pretty unreasonable. This manga is a slice of life, but some scenes are too unreasonable to happen. This made me question myself, "Are the characters are just immature or the manga seems to be unreasonable?"

If you're wondering what scenes are unreasonable, maybe for me the most unreasonable part is when Rui and Natsuo cancelled their marriage because Hina got in a car accident. Like dude, I thought Rui and Hina already talked to each other?! In the last chapters of the manga, we can see how Natsuo was broken after he heard that Hina was holding back. Well same goes for Rui, because she was eavesdropping from Mari's and Natsuo's conversation. Well for me, stopping the marriage because you heard that Hina was holding back seems so unreasonable. Since, first, why is Hina holding back? Because she wanted to support Natsuo in every choices he makes. Including the part where he chose Rui instead of Hina. It may sound selfish however, it's Hina's choice.

Secondly, the next part that seems so unreasonable was where Rui and Natsuo broke up. Well, I guess in this part Rui admitted that she was immature. So I guess I just need to flow with the story. But, let me tell why its unreasonable for me. Looking again, since this manga is slice of life, why immediately decide for a break up with your boyfriend for one mistake? Like man, Natsuo's reason is good enough.

What is Natsuo's reason? Because he did not want Rui to worry.
Some may say: "Well they are in a relationship, they are supposed to tell everything to each other, right?"
My answer to that: Since Rui is working overseas and it is really difficult to go back to Japan immediately. Well I also think that Natsuo didn't know that Rui can go back in Japan when she wanted to.

I think another reason why Rui was forced to decide a break up is why did Serizawa knew that Natsuo cannot write any longer. It is because as we can see in a chapter that Serizawa saw Natsuo at the Drama Club. Natsuo was cleaning up his things, but Serizawa asked him. That's why Natsuo told everything to Serizawa. But Natsuo didn't really told it to many people that he cannot right anymore. He told it to few people. In conclusion, it is unreasonable for me but, I think the author highlighted that Rui admitted she did the wrong thing.

Overall, the manga was good. It is worth reading, there's many life lesson you could actually learn in this manga. However, you would just get really disappointed if you're a fan of Rui or someone who seeks a reasonable, just, faithful, and happy ending.

If you'll ask me, I enjoyed the anime. But I guess I didn't like how Natsuo ended up with Hina instead of Rui. Take note, Rui and Natsuo has a daughter which just makes everything more disappointing.

But I hope you give it a try. Please do

Domestic na Kanojo is finally over, after it's been dragged for so long and beaten to death it finally can rest in peace.

Art

While the backgrounds weren't masterpieces, the characters's design made up for it, in most cases at least.They were expressive, sometimes making for some good comedic moments. There was also a nice variety in clothes which made it feel more realistic. What really matters, at least in my opinion, is that Sasuga really shines when it comes to drawing the naked body. Even after everything that happened i can still appreciate the way she draws tits. If you only want to experience that, read ... the ".1" chapters, the numbers may differ just look for the ".".
The whole story could be separated in two parts high school and college.

High school

While it was trashy, it was at it's peak, it was entertaining to follow Natsuo, Rui and Hina trough their predicaments, something dramatic happened every few chapters, most of the time topping it off it a twist of a twist, you didn't really had the option to catch a break. While it sounds bad, it didn't feel forced, at least to some degree; you just went along with the ride, sometimes complaining about the decisions they did. On the other hand, most of the time, the drama was cheesy, the plot always moved in the worst way possible to create stupid situations of the cast.
The themes were somewhat interesting, nothing groundbreaking but they served their purpose of making the cast grow, most of the time being connected to love, some examples being unrequited love, breakup.
In this part, the main cast gets the most development. Rui going from someone lost in life, not knowing what to do with it or what true love was, finds her calling while discovering feelings she didn't realise she had. Hina struggled with her love life, her being in her twenties without a relationship, but she finally found someone that she loves. And in the end, Natsuo, the main character, he shares the struggles the two sisters have, he overcomes them while pursuing his dream.

College

From this point the series just went downhill. Story wise, it started feeling dragged on. The drama, the quirk that i once enjoyed became a chore. More and more characters whose only role was to create drama appeared, best example is the drama troupe. The literature club in high school had a role beyond being just there to create drama, after the arcs of each character were done they didn't just disappear, they still had a role after their respective arcs ended. Compared to that, the drama troupe was the opposite, characters after characters from it were introduced, took part in the events that unfolded, then just disappeared only to appear once or twice, depending on how relevant they were. On the other hand we got the "villains". Once we moved to adulthood, the manga started focusing more on mature topics like sex work, drugs, abusive relationships, suicide, racism, just to name a few. With them the need for the bad guy arisen, did they have anything interesting about them?, were they more than plot devices to either "develop" the main cast or move the plot?; sadly no, after they got what was coming to them they either disappeared completely or had another appearance for their last dramatic moment.
Arcs that had no real purpose started appearing, they seemed that were helping the characters learn and grow, but in the long run the changes didn't stuck, they were back to where they were in the beginning.
The ending, was the definition of a bad ending. It ignored character development, struggles that the characters had. The reasoning behind just made it more laughable. Everything that happened, all 276 chapters, just thrown out the window. It feels like it all had regressed back to the beginning.

SPOILERS
I realised that I could never "beat" you.
I'll remember this line for a long time, as one of the most stupid reason for giving up. Hello old Rui, i guess.
I had low expectations for it ever since Tanabe's arc. Story became uninteresting and the characters just competed to see who had the most brain cells missing. But the ending destroyed my expectations.

Conclusion

Don't waste your time, the story and characters just get worse as time goes on, sometimes it feels like the author wants to send a message rather than having a good story. If I had to suggest reading it, stop after high school ended. I still consider that, this series should've ended at that point.