Real Girl

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When it comes to romance stories, authors often opt for a plot-driven story instead of a character-driven one. What this often leads to is the creation of fairly forgettable and shallow characters with personalities that don't spread out in a more human fashion. This is especially true for high-school romance dramas.

However, people often forget that what works best for a romance drama is a character-driven story. Without going much into the depth of the internal conflicts of a character, it is easy to not find emotions to attach to a character. And this is a very essential device that an author must use ... to capture the reader's attention as much as they can for such a genre.

There are many examples of manga which have the same shallow characters that feel like they were developed off of a checklist that someone prescribed. That's never a bad thing to do, if one has a plot that can make use of those traits memorably.

Then there are proper character driven stories that take the time to show us what's going on in the heads of the main characters. Mangaka like Umino Chika and Oshimi Shuzo excel in telling such stories. But comparing their excellence here won't be all that meaningful, mainly because of the major difference in the core genre.

At the core, Real Girl aka 3D Kanojo, is a high-school romance story. And there's probably a million of them, right? That's true. Even the premise of the story about two people, quite opposite in terms of personalities, is not unheard of.

What makes Real Girl different and memorable is that the author took the time to establish each of the characters as being something that is not quite understandable upon first glance. Every aspect of the manga shows us the internal conflicts of the characters in question. It shows us that, just like most of us would in real life, these characters printed on paper also have to sort through all their feelings to come up with decisions that don't necessarily give a definite answer to a question. It shows that that feelings are more complex than a girl and a guy fawning over each other. It shows that the change that people go through in their lifetime are often because of the influence of others. This extends to all the major characters, and not just the protagonists.

And that is what's so good about this high-school romance story. Even though it appears to be the same as many others, there's obviously something more complex going on underneath that makes it different. That is the idea that the entire story is based around. Sure, like any other story, there are moments that shine bright and there are moments that often turn you away, but all in all, it's a story well done.

Being a character-driven story, the story itself progresses with the characters themselves and as such, often shows quite some variation in tonality as it progresses, depending on the emotional conflict that the characters themselves are going through.

The art isn't exceptionally commendable. There's plenty of faults, especially when it comes to showcasing facial expressions. But it's well enough to easily discern the most important characters in the story.

For a high-school romance story that came from a shoujo magazine, Real Girl is truly a memorable experience that doesn't fail to tell a heartwarming love story about two very different people and how they adapt to the time they have together.

I wonder why there are no reviews for such a good manga as 3d Kanojo. I am actually not really good at writing reviews, but this manga deserves one, even if it is a short one.
The story starts by presenting tsutsui, a gloomy otaku who happens to hate 3d girls (real girls, if you are not familiar with the concept) and he himself is despised by the girls around him and classmates in general. But Tsutsui's life changes when he encounters Iroha, a beauty with a seemingly bad temper.
I am not totally sure about how original the plot is, but I have ... never read another manga with this kind of argument. So, it is pretty original for me, and that is the first thing I liked about this story. However, the thing I love the most about 3D Kanojo is the character development, the two main characters grow amazingly throughout the story, especially Tsutsui.
Tsutsui starts growing as an off-line person (as he said it himself) when he is approached by Iroha and eventually starts dating her. Which makes me think that it is truly amazing how one person can change another person's life. Due to his low self-esteem, Tsutsui doesn't trust Irohara's motives to go out with him. Furthermore, he can't believe that a girl like her would fall for a creep like him. And that is what makes this manga so good, the author managed to convey the character's feeling perfectly. The reader can feel that Tsutsui is scared of being loved. Moreover, he is terrified by the idea. However, when Tsutsui decides that he won't let go of that girl, and that he will do his best to show is feeling towards her is when the real story begins.
Iroha is also an amazing character, but I won't say much about her because she is a real mystery at the beginning of the manga. All you have to know is that despite her appearance and bad temper, she has a good heart.
Another point worth mentioning is that there is a lot of humor in this manga, especially when tsutsui starts comparing real life events to animes, mangas or video games. He even tries to understand girls through otome games; that is hilarious.

In short, 3D Kanojo is a refreshing story that teaches great lessons about friendship, love and more. It also deals with the topic of prejudice, which is a good thing for me. Furthermore, if you are kind of otaku you will definitely enjoy all the remarks tsutsui makes about anime and stuff.

3D kanojo was a series that had me excited from seeing the first few episodes of the anime,with an initial impression of a budding romance between two young high schoolers that would develop into something different from many of the other romance manga. Sadly, that was not meant to be.
Between hashed over cliches that only served to introduce mostly useless characters that the story could've have done without, you have a couple that you actually want to root for. Tsutsui and Iroha were people that were interesting to learn about, albeit sometimes frustrating to watch over. However, finding their sections after ... about the first 20 chapters was an absolute chore. Eventually they get over their obstacles in a sudden end that makes you happy but questioning why the author ever decided to even mention this point in the story and personally makes me wonder if the series got the axe.
The most upsetting part however, would be the development of the side characters. In a story where the characters decide the tempo, many of the characters are just hashed over stereotypes that seem rushed, barely planned out and shoved together to make "cute" couples. The only side pairing that i could actually stomach never ended being together for no clear reason despite having entire arcs dedicated to developing the close relationship between each other. Having spent 46 chapters seeing these two, who I won't name for spoiler reasons, but becomes very obvious once you read the manga, the author decides in the last two chapters to take all that progress and burn it down, providing reason at all as to why they separated.
All in all, its a series that lures you in with the first few volumes, and has some decent characters that are held back by petty side characters and overwashed cliches. However, by the seventh volume of the series, you're left questioning why the author made some decisions. By the eigth volume you're skipping sections about characters you don't care about to find the ones you do, and by ninth volume you're wondering if the series is done and what the hell happened to half the cast, questioning why you ever picked it up in the fist place.
Maybe my opinion is biased from the fact that I had such high hopes for it based on what I saw in the anime, but having read the entire series in one night I can say that I haven't been as disappointed in a series as I am in 3D Kanojo.

I came to read this manga because I had watched the anime and I wanted to know how it was gonna finish. To be honest I had no expectations since I found the anime pretty bad.

The first part of the manga is exactly the same as the anime, so I was pretty disappointed about that (I was hoping that maybe they had only done a bad adaptation but no).
Luckily, this disappointment disappeared after I read the whole manga.

Just to make you know, this manga has clearly not the idea of showing you the life of an otaku. The author probably wanted to make a protagonist ... that is weak and bullied, and the fact that he is an otaku is an « excuse » for justifying him getting bullied.

It’s so incredible how my opinion changed just by reading the other half of the manga.
I was really disappointed in the first half because everything seemed to be “fake” or rushed. Tsutsui’s family and friend were almost all detestable. His family was a shitty family with a mother who doesn’t even trust and help his son when he his called lolicon, he has a brother who trashtalk him 24/24 even though Tsutsui is always here for him. Not to forget two of his friends, Takanashi and Ishino... How can he even call them “friends” when Ishino stopped speaking to him for a rumor and when Takanashi tried to destroy his whole life just because he wanted Iroha for him.
And the author shows us Iroha as a bitch that goes out with everyone just because she’s cute...
I think I’m not gonna talk about Tsutsui’s best friend that wears fucking cat ears at school... At this point it’s really parodic of what an otaku is.

On addition, Tsutsui is way too weak as a protagonist. I know that it’s what the author wanted but I didn’t enjoyed watching Tsutsui getting bullied 24/24 without reacting or trying to justify himself, all that because « I don’t need anyone but my friends and I deserve that because I’m an otaku ». That’s not a good protagonist mentality and it doesn’t make me want to read a manga like that. (Well finally I read it so I have no word)

There’s another thing that I have to talk about. The relation between Tsutsui and Iroha is a huge problem since we don’t really know why they are going out... I mean, the author gives us some shitty reason but it’s way too light to begin a romance between two characters, and it feels really rushed. Because of that, their whole relation is based on something that we don’t really understand and everything seems pretty « fake » between them like I said before.

By the way the manga in the early chapters is not well drawn... it’s better later, but there are still some issues in the drawing, since sometimes, we can’t really recognize the differents characters that appears because their chara-design and drawing style is too similar.

There’s another thing that I didn’t like... it’s the fact that some emotions are less drawn. The characters aren’t blushing a lot and sometimes the relationships seems really bland. When I read a romance manga I like to see the emotions on the drawing and knowing that their heart is going « doki-doki ». Even the faces aren’t really expressives.

So... finally... what is the difference between the first part and the second part ? What made me change my mind ?
Well, I would say, pretty everything.

First of all, everything is less rushed and the relationships are developed, there’s an arc for every couple. It’s really cute to see how they end up together and the relation between Tsutsui, his friends and his family is more developed too, so everything seems less fake. That’s still not perfect but it became enjoyable to read even though Tsutsui is still a victim.

There’s still some problems like Tsutsui’s brother or Takanashi that continues to trashtalk him from behind but it’s way better than in the early part of the manga and we come to like the differents the characters.

At this point the relation between Iroha and Tsutsui is still pretty weird but it’s a bit better.
Then, there’s the ending, and this is were you are happy to have read so far.
The romance between Iroha and Tsutsui is developed and it’s really cute. It doesn’t seem fake anymore and we see Iroha in a different way too. She becomes really lovable.


*Now I will spoil a lot so don’t read if you haven’t read the manga yet, the spoiler end before the end*


When it is told that Iroha has only one month left, there’s a huge jump in the relation of the two protagonist but I found it really well made, and it really moved me when Iroha had to say goodbye.

Then, there’s the time skip of seven years, at this point, it gave me the exact same feeling as the anime « Kimi no nawa ». This feeling of the two lover not being able to see each other. At the beginning I thought that this manga was gonna be like « Your lie in April » but finally it took another way, and that’s really good.

Honestly I found the ending beautiful, seeing how the relationships ended up after seven years, seeing Iroha and Tsutsui meeting each other again. Everything is concluded and there is nothing more that we can ask from the manga. The author has done what he had to do and concluded everything. Now, if we want more, all we have is our imagination :)


*End of the spoil*


To conclude, I loved this manga despite every relationships were bad introduced. The author improved his manga while its publication and he made it so good that at the end we don’t really care if the relations were bad introduced.

If you have only watched the anime, honestly, read the manga because it was really a beautiful story.

So we have 3D Kanojo-Real Girl . What seems to be another typical shoujo manga (which it kinda is) does indeed do some things a lot better than others.
The story is character based and revolves around a third year high schooler boy otaku who is , well your typical otaku he does all night anime watching , reads lots of manga , plays lot's of games and so on.
And his counterpart is a strange and beautiful girl who somehow comes to like him.
Since I don't wanna spoil anything that's all the story you get but keep in mind that the ending seems a ... bit rushed and out of place to some extent and might leave you unsatisfied but the first 20 chapters at the very least are really good.
The best thing about the manga is it's art. To be honest I was really impressed by the quality of it the only thing annoying me is that many side characters esp girls were drawn really alike and you could get confused at times other than that it has a really good pencil based art which is easy to get used to and enjoy.
The characters are really well done as well. Not only the MCs but also the side characters were really put together with though which were amazing at times.
Overall I'd recommend this to shoujo lovers and between this and the anime I prefer the manga myself since it feels more relaxed than the rushed adaptation in the anime.

The usual romance manga premise involving a loser guy and a popular girl. I was (/am/have been) searching for a manga with some variation of this setup. When I first came across Real Girl, a couple years ago, I had put it off because I disliked the art-style. This time, the art style didn't bother me that much so I delved in.

Initially, it seemed like it had something interesting to say. There were moments of unexpected maturity in there, esp WRT how social dynamics and self-worth work. How weakness, low self-esteem etc is internalised. Even how difficult it can be to change social perception, ... which might make a person give up on improving themselves. But these moments and threads became thinner and rarer as the manga went on. As if the manga was not curious about the dynamics of the relationships themselves, only the things happening around it.

It started irking me when it came to matters of sex and intimacy in general: the protagonist treats wanting to be intimate with his partner like a defect within himself, And not in the sense of being scared of it or being nervous about it, but rather in the "I don't understand sex if I want to touch my girlfriend it'll give me cooties" way. I could take that, enjoy it, and even love it IFF it was developed better. If, say, there was some reasoning behind it, some development shown, or even some honest reflection (even comedic reflection!). Sadly, it is not there. Even more unfortunately, this attitude is not limited to the protagonist. And worst of all, this attitude is not limited to just topics of intimacy, that's just one facet.

I dropped the manga at the 2/3rd mark. I really hoped to like it. And of course, one can ask, like, "lol what were you expecting reading a romance manga ha ha". The thing is, I wouldn't have read it, wouldn't have written this review, and wouldn't have been annoyed about it, if it wasn't for the manga not living up the promise it had shown in its initial chapters.

I'm not usual the type of person to reach for a rom-com manga, but I do have to say so far I'm enjoying it. The fact that the relationship between the main characters, is to some extent relatable to real life is quite admirable. I do have to admit that one of the main characters, does in fact have his head a bit to much in the virtual world, but other than that I enjoy his character. As well as that, I like the fact that the main female character, is in fact portrayed strongly, in comparison to a lot of female characters, that ... I came across in other mangas, as well as anime. I am yet to finish the series, but so far so good. I'm hoping that the manga will still have suprises on the way. I'll post an update once I complete the entire series.

Just finished reading this, so I decided to write a review.

Not going to lie, the story is pretty much cliche. A gloomy otaku falling in love with a hot popular girl. It's like horimiya again but not to that enjoyment level.

Characters are pretty normal, dont' expect any dramatic character development. Art isn't bad but it's not the best I've seen either so it's decent.

TLDR: I enjoyed it and managed to finish it in one night. Honestly the story is more interesting near the end. If you got nothing to read and wanna read a love story, read this. You can finish it quickly and ... it's worth your time. It's a the type of story that makes you feel warm and nice after reading it.

TLDR TLDR: Read it it's ok.

I thought this would be just yet another rom-com. I kinda didn't have any expectations from this manga. But just after I started reading, I could feel that something is wrong. It was because the story itself was a bit twisted at the start.

The start feels like the expected start of any other rom-com with our otaku MC with only 1 friend who is an otaku. All the generic traits for an MC of a rom-com anime. The only thing that felt a little different was the main female lead. Something felt a little creepy about her... The way the first few chapters portrayed her ... eyes and figure and the rumors about her, it was as if she was the main villain who would later on fall for the MC.

But oh boy was I wrong. It was just another generic rom-com after the first few chapters, which left a little sour taste in my mind. It gradually faded away as I got attached to the characters and by the end of the series, I am in love with this series. It was just totally beautiful. Nothing felt over pressured and over forced. Everything was carried by a natural flow of things. Basic stuff like random misunderstandings between characters, their emotional status, etc was presented in a very simple yet elegant manner.

Talking about the ending. OUCH. Damn was it painful. Everything that happened throughout the series was a huge build-up to the ending. A glimpse of the ending was however shown in the first volume which I missed. It wasn't even hidden, it was in plain sight. The ending few chapters were already foresighted in the first volume broadly without trying to hide it. When I was re-reading the first volume, it was then that I realized this thing.

The 2 main reasons that I am giving this series not a 10 but a 9 are -> The first one, very easy to predict, is the artwork. The artwork, being beautiful in many instances, was very sloppy in even more areas. It was inconsistent and sometimes was just straight-up bad. Even though it was bad at times, it was wallpaper worthy at some other moments. The next thing was the ending itself. Even though I thoroughly enjoyed the ending, it didn't satisfy me... The ending felt forced into a happy ending. A half-sad ending would have been much more suited to this series thinking about the last few iterations of the chapters in the last volume. In the ending itself, the semi-main character's aka Ito's ending felt better than the MC's ending. I myself don't like sad endings, but I dislike forced happy endings even more. That is why the best ending was of... Yea... Not gonna spoil it for you guys. You will understand the best ending for me when you finish reading the manga.

Conclusion: Just read the manga. Probably one of the best in its genre. If you don't like the artwork, just wait, it gets way better. Not reading this manga just because its artwork is a little lacking; is probably one of the most stupid decisions that you might take up in your life

Shoujo my enemy, made for girls, light poison for boys and lethal poison for men.

Take note: Romance, Drama, Shoujo, School life and far fetched comedy

Story 5/10
Considering demography and genre you have to read it with a grain of salt if your gender(age) doesn't represent shoujo.
This story is to a degree a cliché but has it's appeal. But dialogues and how story evolves is how should I put it....unrealistic in many ways. For example boys are represented like 1/3 girls 1/3 girly fantasy and 1/3 boys maybe.... Their reasoning, their interactions feel so far from reality that it's heart wrenching to read ... for me (i've re-read it actually 1st when a teen-y.adult and now).
The story and romance well there are not a lot of fluffy moments without a drama looming right around the corner it is not easy to read and be happy about how the story evolves. You basically have drama at every step.
Prepare for a lot of Plot armor, plot holes unneeded drama and unresolved questions (Female leads actions before meeting our Male protagonist) in last chapter especially.
The last volume and chapters are completely through me off, 1st time I read and 2nd time I was pissed off. I will not spoil but will ask questions if you ever decide to read it:
1) Why did they return and decided not to interact?
1.1 Isn't it more healthy in order to remember?
1.2 what is this stupid reasoning exchange life?
2) You could have made a diary.....
2.1 You or your brother could at least tried but decided not to
3) Parents suddenly decided to leave? Why? What was the reason? Why did they come back?
3.1 How come study abroad?
3.2 Is it even okay with this condition
3.3 Can you go to uni considering that you conveniently had a problem with memory? Or just somehow specifically some memories were targeted?
LAST....Memories do not conveniently disappear like that they are foggy yes but not like a hard drive where you can clean cut it like you want.

Art 7/10
Nothing too special. Will not delve too deep but considering it's shoujo it was more normal than other shoujo mangas. Speech bubbles and panels up to standard.

Characters 8/10
9 if males were males. But development and growth somehow believable and interesting. You see how people change and learn though in a short span of time but regardless quite a trip for our cast.
Shortly speaking every character you meet was significant to the story to a degree. Main supporting cast not only helped the story of our ML FL but also had their own share of life and drama.

Enjoyment 4/10
Hard to enjoy it, those questions bothered me (above) and some other questions. The constant drama never gave me a pleasant moment to enjoy since you are constantly expecting some drama.

Overall 6/10
A pleasant read with constant bumps but nevertheless a pleasant one, no NTR or violence but a simple case of weak plot with many holes. I advice to read to read but only if you are really interested in romance mangas and ready for a bumby road it is less dreadful than rom-com harem shounen mangas.

ALSO PLease Pm if you have answers to my questions that would help me a lot.