What’s the show? Domestic Girlfriend.
And what’s it about? It rapidly becomes a very convoluted series so I’ll try and surmise the essential points. Natsuo is at a mixer, when a quietly spoken but assertive girl named Rui offers herself to him sexually. He agrees (because he’s a guy and she’s cute) but his heart lies with his teacher Hina whom he has an unrequited love for. Natsuo’s widowed father announces that he has met someone and they’re getting married. Turns out he’s marrying a woman who is mother to both Rui and Hina. They’re sisters, they’re about to become his step-sisters and they’re all going to live under the same roof!
Well that’s certainly a lot of coincidences for sake of dramatic potential, isn’t it? And that’s only the first episode! The number of plot convolutions that this show throws at its audience is tantamount to long-running soap opera! But it never (at least for me) wades into the cheesy, trashy depths of pure soap opera because of the level of restraint this show has with regards to its overall execution. Yes it has a few comedic moments that elicit an eye roll or two, but these feel like real human characters going through an unreal situation.
And about the characters? They’re mostly very good, despite the questionable things they do to one another and get caught up in you can never hate them for it and in some instances they’re even more relatable for their flaws and poor relationship decisions. Rui is best girl though—there’s no denying that!
And what’s something that you didn’t like about the show? As I mentioned both in my first and second episode reviews there’s a noticeable difference in emotional maturity between the episodes that could initially turn some viewers off as I almost was with episode one. Also, as with any show where the protagonist is making relationship choices that most people would view as counter-intuitive it can get a bit frustrating sometimes but never enough to make it unpleasant to watch.
Anything else to add? Yes, actually. This series actually has a lot of fan-service–it’s just none of it really made it into the series–sure there’s the requisite cleavage shots, beach bikini shots and bath shots that make it into almost every anime. But the manga has nudity, likewise there’s ‘deleted scenes’ that have found their way onto the internet which are ~extremely~ steamy and show in detail Rui and Natsuo’s first time together.
I don’t really know why you felt the need to mention that– So I can show pictures of course!
Nope! Not gonna happen! There’s no way you can justify putting images that aren’t even from the actual season. If you want to post pictures of that put it in a separate post on the subject! Fine, maybe I’ll do just that!
Ugh, you’re the worst, you know that? Anyway, final recommendation and score for ‘Domestic Girlfriend’ please… Know what you’re getting into before watching this, having a certain frame of mind can help overcome what i’ll label as ~problematic~ elements of the show. Also don’t expect Shakespeare from what is clearly just soap-inspired frivolity with an emphasis on character drama. Just watch it and enjoy it for what it is, I know I did! 86 out of 100.
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Anime QandA 
I’m gonna be blunt- I loved the manga. It was one of the first Japanese manga series I read which dared to show that much steamy scenes topped with some good ol’ drama. When I found out that it’s going to get an anime adaptation, I was really excited for it. Considering the amount of nonsensical drama and H stuff are present in the first few chapters of the manga, I’ll have to say that the anime did quite a decent job. Still, I would not recommend someone to watch the anime instead of the manga as without the “goodness”….. it’s a pain in the butt.
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Have you seen the “deleted” scene? It’s pretty racy!
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Well I haven’t…… yet
Guess what’s going to be my next Google search?
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