Furare Girl

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I never really write reviews, but I am compelled to on this series as this is just too under appreciated.

If you like fluff, you CAN NOT miss on this series

The main genre for this manga is romance ofc, and it executes it very well and in a realistic way. Too many times, a romance series will end after the confession or the first kiss, but not this. Those happen fairly fast and the series focuses on how their relationship as couples goes, instead of how they became a couple. What a refreshing breath of new air! Romantic series will often depict couples as struggling ... to kiss everytime, but this series' characters kiss on every chance they get, which is very realistic for a highschooler.

Art is pretty okay. Backgrounds are not the most impressive, where it's a bit unique is character expressions. Characters show many unique expressions and their character design is pretty nice too.

It is a very enjoyable series, highly recommend.

This manga has no love rivals!!! SO YAY! IT focuses more on the two leads who are dating each other. Each chapter, the leads make more progress in their relationship and each chapter is entertaining.

Also, its sexy girl x cute puppy guy so ITS EVEN MORE CUTE CAUSE THEY BOTH ARE SO SHY!!! But of course, there is very good progress between them ¬‿¬

THERE IS SO MUCH CUTENESS, FLUFF, AND ROMANCE!!!

Little to none drama and if there is, it is resolved quickly.
There is definitely some ecchi in this manga but it just makes the manga even better. So look forward to ... that!

Everything about this story feels out-of-place, and it suffers from poor pacing, uninspired takes on common cliches, mediocre art, and egregious fan service. This is a middling at best shounen, ecchi manga written in a shoujo magazine, and if I had known that going in, I never would have started this series. I dislike fan service in general, and only considered the series because it was highly recommended, so I'm warning others to not make my same mistake. But even ignoring the creepy fan service, the plot, characters, and overall dynamic between the leads is uninspired and trite at best.

The plot is quite simple: a ... high school girl Akasaka is dumped by her older boyfriend, and has difficulty moving on. She dislikes all the attention from men she gets, which heavily objectifies her based on her physical appearance, rather than on anything else. She meets a fellow classmate, Aoyama, who has a crush on her, confesses to her, and she agrees to go on a trial dating period after he saves her from a humiliating situation. The end up getting together, and it's a story of their romance, a familiar high school romance.

There's a few ways to execute familiar plots well, and unfortunately, Furare Girl fails at it. You can either have novel takes that break the cliches (Mars), have well-developed characters, execute common tropes to excellence (Kimi Ni Todoke), focus on small interactions in the day-to-day (Love So Life), put the story in a novel world (Vampire Knight, Fruits Basket), or do them in comedic excess (Ouran Host Club, Maid Sama) so the story is a novel, affectionate parody of itself. Furare Girl tries for the comedic excess and falls flat almost all the time. The story is common, the characters are dull, the jokes miss, and it feels painfully contrived at every step.

That's not to say this series does everything poorly: the trial period and "will they, won't they" is very short, and they get together almost immediately. Their trial dates are cute, from taking her to a "cat cafe" (just an outdoor park where cats gather) to a picnic. They lie down looking at the stars and the beautiful lights from the nearby factory. She meets her ex-boyfriend right at the end of the trial period, finally comes to terms that she's moved on, and the two leads get together. The characters actually act their age, which is a rarity in a lot of high-school romances, which are often sanitized and more platonic than real portrayals of kids that age. Akasaka's jealousy of Aoyama and her brother's relationship is actually justified: it's clear Aoyama has some interest in him. But, that's about it.

The plot mostly delves around short arcs that last 1-3 chapters before moving on. But almost inevitably, each arc requires extreme levels of male gaze, and even makes jokes that break the fourth wall for this. Women's bodies are the object of the camera's attention. The cover pages and extras make this even worse. It's painfully obvious this story was written for horny men. The only redeeming part here is that the objectified characters are supposed to look older than they are, and the art is so poor it's hard to tell if they're 15 or 30. You can have characters act their age without egregious objectification. In Horimiya, both Hori and Miyamura have active sex lives but neither is the object of the camera. Nana and Paradise Kiss both have adult characters with intimate relationships, but none of the characters exist as a fantasy for the audience. Furare Girl doesn't suffer from more "adult" relationships. It's just creepy.

The pacing is just terrible. For the Valentine's day arc, we learn that after Aoyama has moved in with Akasaka (his home collapsed), he's gained what seems to be ~100 pounds. He's worried that Akasaka may no longer love him if he stays overweight, so he decides to join a military-style bootcamp. Of course, it turns out it's practically just a concentration camp and he won't be able to leave after shedding all the weight. The others at the camp sacrifice themselves so he can escape in a passage dug under the grounds. We learn Akasaka is working a part time job now. Somehow, she's been only mildly concerned that she hasn't seen him in a week even though they live together. Finally, they reunite on Valentine's day, and we learn she's saved up her money to buy plus size clothing for him, still loving him even after he gained the weight (awwe).

All of this happens in a single chapter of 30 pages, rather than a natural arc over 8 or so chapters. We don't learn anything interesting of Aoyama's bootcamp. There's no comedy, no humor, nothing of interest. It just passes by so quick it's almost like it never happened. We are told Akasaka is working a part-time job, but we never get to see anything significant of her at it. They reunite, she gives him the present, realizes he can't use it anymore, but they're glad to see each other in only a few panels. And then, of course, the story moves onto something completely different.

The plot contrivances to drive conflict in the story are haphazardly made on the spot, feel cheap, and mostly exist to maximize the objectification of Akasaka as possible. Aoyama suffers from severe nosebleeds at first when having any contact with Akasaka. Of course, this randomly switches to him literally melting into a puddle of water when it's convenient. And once that's over, spirits randomly are haunting her house, so she accidentally comforts him in the most sexual manner possible, with of course, the camera leering at her in the worst way. He's freaking out and having nightmares and... the entire family apparently already knows the house is haunted by spirits? It's silly, but it's not clever or funny.

It uses most tropes, but in an entirely uninspired fashion. Akasaka's shirt gets wet and see-through, so the love interest saves the day. They sneak out at night to spend time together on the school trip. There's a cross-dressing cosplay cafe for the cultural festival. The female lead is the idol of the school, with everyone wanting to date her, and the guy is relatively unknown. Aoyama tries to defend Akasaka from being hit on or leered at by fellow classmates, only to get beat up. That's especially ironic given the story seems to be a pretense to objectify her as much as possible. Also, two muscle men are standing right there to protect the girls, so he's getting beat up just for fun? Aoyama manages to recognize a disguised Akasaka when the rest of the school can't, but it's because... he searched "How to give hickey" with her and then just randomly gave her one sitting outside of the school. She's wearing a dolphin mask while half the school is searching for her, and she's the only one in a mask. There's promise, but it's always executed poorly.

This story is just bad. It's creepy, leering, and the plot devices are uninspired and mediocre at best. The only seeming difference from your stock high school romcom is to make it as horny as possible. It doesn't even have a clever take on a perverted lead, like Lovesick Ellie, where Eriko basically exists in a world of hilariously inaccurate fanfiction. It's not worth your time and there's nothing more to it.