Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata: Girls Side

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tl;dr: A short spin off focused solely on Utaha and Eriri, but that does a really good job of fleshing things out within that scope.

This manga is a Saekano spin off that primary focuses on Utaha and Eriri. It is very much meant to be read as an accompanying work to the main Saekano story. I don’t think it would make sense at all if read standalone so only read it after watching the anime or reading the main manga. The first arc is centered around how Utaha and Eriri first met and developed the hostile relationship they already have at the beginning of the ... main series. This was pretty amusing and also helped flesh out the foundation for their relationship very well.

The second arc is skips forward to after Comiket when Akane was trying to recruit them both. This arc is where the manga really shines and I view the first arc as build up to help this arc hit harder. Eriri and Akane have a pretty complicated frenemies relationship and I think this conveys the nuances of it really well. Furthermore, I think it also does a great job of making clear why they chose to join Akane.

Some of the biggest issues in the main manga was how it handled Eriri’s and Utaha’s relationship and the last arc in general. This manga I think not just fixes these issues, but I think goes above and beyond in doing so and overall does a better job than the anime. While I didn’t feel the manga for the main series really had anything much of value compared to the anime, I think this spin-off definitely does and I think it’s well worth reading for anime watchers. Reading it after the film should still be fine, though I would recommend reading it after the second season but before the film.

Art wise, it’s solid enough. It’s the same artist as the main manga series but I feel the art is a bit better here. I would still say that the anime and light novel have much better art though. Translation wise, unfortunately the fan translation isn’t all that good. So expect it to be pretty stiff in general along with a lot of mistakes to the points it can be hard to comprehend at times. Despite that I still think its worth trying to push through.