*Tired of waiting a week, a month or in case of Miura, a few ages for new material?
*Are you suffering even slightly from a short attention span as real life worries are more important than your entertainment?
*Do you want to be able to read more chapters a day, but have no time?
Well look no further, as we have Yanagida Fumita's first full blown manga, 'Tomo-chan Is a Girl!'.
As those of you who are familiar with this manga, you probably decided to read it on a whim, because it has cute art, cute girls, and romance in the tag.
But then... you were surprised.
"WHAT?! One page per chapter? What is this madness? A daily manga?
How in the world would that work?"
I've came to tell you it works better than a lot of current Japanese entertainment features.
Welcome to the probable 'successor' of other great 4-koma that were made into full anime such as the likes of Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki Girls, Watamote and Mikakunin de Shinkoukei.
Story: 9
Tomo-chan Is a Girl! synopsis is misleading, as the story is a lot more clever and well planned than you think it is if you judge it by its cover.
Just like Monthly Nozaki girls, this manga features the antics of a few oddball characters in a high school setting, something we've seen a lot, but it wasn't executed properly most of the time.
The initial premise is, that Tomo, the main female character is in love Jun, the male lead. She is tomboyish and Jun doesn't notice her womanly features. He socializes all buddy-buddy with her as guy-guy thing. But as each daily chapter unfolds carefully, it manages to surprise and uses, breaks and fleshes out cliches in clever ways.
As I don't want to spoil, just know, in the universe of Tomo is a girl, things are not always as they may first seem. The story develops in many ways other manga and anime series sometimes fail. We are not always in the same 'Namek', stuck in the non-creativeness of the writer to write a proper development. As I read 236 short chapters that are currently out in 2 hours, the amount of story development is respectable.
Art: 9
The art is in great quality. Usually we don't see well polished art in 4-koma, but in other cases, those with art that manages to catch your eye are those who will be picked up by enthusiastic manga readers, and that Tomo chan is a Girl! succeeded in.
The character designs are fitting to what the mangaka wanted to visualize on each panel. It has good consistency as each daily page is not made in purpose of just being a filler, but always has something to show the readers.
Character: 10
One of the biggest strengths of the series, are the ability of the characters to carry on the story without getting you bored. Each character fulfills its colorful role, in both whimsical personality and variety.
Tomo sometimes may be or may not be your typical tomboy character who blushes a lot. Jun also may be dense, or is he? Misuzu is one hell of a well written character, and pretty smart too to boot. Carol is quite the British prima donna with the same reaction face that trolls the readers.
In a successful 4-koma, the characters mean a lot, and that Tomo chan is a Girl especially delivers.
Enjoyment: 10
You will probably read all of the current available chapters in one sitting and never be bored. Enjoyment is high on this one.
Overall: 9
TL;DR: 'This manga is freaking good. Everyone go read it!!' Eks Dee
