Girlfriend, Girlfriend (2021)

[カノジョも彼女]

Volume 6

Author/Artist: Hiroyuki
Publisher: Kodansha Comics Magazine

Synopsis:
Saki catches Shino in a compromising position with Naoya.

Story/Characters:
Poor Shino. She's trying to hold back and it's just not working out for her. Lucky for her, Saki is pretty dumb. Now, if you thought her going in for a kiss with a sleeping Naoya warrants some sort of karmic retribution, she gets it and I swear that because she's the only one trying to restrain herself, she finds herself in the most outrageous situations. Fortunately, she gets through it because, as I mentioned before, Saki is pretty dumb. We then have Shino's welcome party, which of course annoys her because she thinks the gang is crazy to be welcoming the person who wants to break them up, and we get some nice focus on her conflict with Nagisa. (And it's pretty clear that one of the big reasons Shino hates Nagisa is because Nagisa is doing what Shino refuses to do, not unlike the conflict between Rika and Yukimura in the latter part of Haganai.)

The summer festival is up next and Shino is trying to push Saki to move things along with Naoya. I like how the summer festival has chapters dedicated to each of the four the girls. I almost feel bad for Milika in her chapter (it doesn't last long, though, because Milika is Milika). The Nagisa one was pretty funny with her and Naoya trying to one-up each other with PDA. Saki actually gets two chapters and it's got its moments, but it also encapsulates the dysfunctional nature of her relationship with Naoya. We then close on a tease for the next arc.

Art:
The main highlight this volume, with the focus on the summer festival, is the sight of the girls in yukata. There's a great two-page spread of the four of them in Chapter 49. There are a number of other nice shots to emphasize the major beats, which has consistently been one of the big charms of the series' art.

Other:
We have another afterword comic with Hiroyuki's wobbly work ethic.

Conclusion:
There's a lot of good stuff in this volume. Naturally, my pro-Shino bias strongly influences my high regard, but I think anyone who's been enjoying this series will enjoy how things are going. Saki fans may feel a bit frustrated, but maybe they're used to it by now. Anyway, I think this is worth having in the collection, but I'll admit I might be overselling it a bit.

Rating:
Own It