Girlfriend, Girlfriend (2022)

[カノジョも彼女]

Volume 13

Author/Artist: Hiroyuki
Publisher: Kodansha Comics Magazine

Synopsis:
Naoya and the girls celebrate him ranking first in the midterms.

Story/Characters:
We open on a nice little party at the house, but then things take a bit of the downward turn when Naoya's thanking the girls for their contributions to his success, particularly Nagisa's contribution being the kiss she gave him to encourage him, but Saki actually puts things back on track, wanting to focus on celebrating Naoya's accomplishment. Things seem to be going well until Shino asks Saki what she's going to do now that Naoya has fulfilled his part of the deal to prove that he can make the two-timing work. Saki says that she wants to have sex, but that's because she got into the alcoholic chocolates again. Cut to the next day, where Saki decides to let her classmates know that Naoya's two-timing on her. No, she's not still drunk. Her idea is that if she's going to accept this poly situation, she needs to know how she takes the opinion of the people around her. At first, the assumption is just that Naoya is garbage, but as Saki reveals more and more of the situation, the objections just sort of dry up in a way that may not quite be believable, but it is a bit funny. However, with no real external pressure from their peers to change the current arrangement, Milika starts to panic, realizing that her goal is getting further out of reach. She presses Naoya to make good on his promise to give her a full-day date and Saki's promise for an extra ten hours to make the date an overnight deal. Other than the base condition of no sexy time, everything is on the table.

When it comes to the date deal, every girl was promised a date, so they rock-paper-scissors to sort out the order and Nagisa wins the first round. What Nagisa really wants to do is visit a collabo cafe event for her favorite manga (Kareshi, Okarishimasu, a parody of fellow Shounen Magazine series KanoKari), but she doesn't want to be looked down on for her otaku hobbies, so she plots out a very standard sort of date plan that Naoya immediately shoots down because he can tell that her heart isn't in it. She then tells him the truth, but there's a long wait for event, so Naoya suggests they find a place to wait while he reads the manga to properly enjoy the event with Nagisa. However, every place they go has fans discussing spoilers, so they have to find someplace private, which leads them to... a love hotel. Of course we can't just have them peaceably sitting there reading manga, so Nagisa has to spill a drink on herself and wash up. Nothing really happens beyond Nagisa being a little embarrassed and Naoya accidentally seeing her when he catches her reflection in the screen of the tablet. (We do have Naoya encouraging Nagisa to let him spoil her, leading to something of a recreation of that PDA contest during the summer festival back in Volume 6.) They then go to the event and come back with matching T-shirts, which Saki calls lame.

Next up is Shino. Given her track record, Milika in particular is highly suspicious of her and with the knowledge that Naoya and Nagisa ended up in a love hotel, the expectation is that Shino's going to one-up that. She of course insists that's not going to happen, but the pattern is too well-established at this point. Things start out simple and rather sweet. Shino doesn't have any big plans. After pining for Naoya so long, just going around shopping with him is enough for her. Naturally, it doesn't end with that. Of course it has to start raining, of course they end up getting soaked, of course they end up at the same daggone love hotel, of course they end up in the shower together, of course Saki ends up slipping on some soap, etc., etc. The only really surprising thing is that in the aftermath, as Shino is trying not to completely die of embarrassment, she admits to wanting to have sex with Naoya (possibly triggered by Saki's drunken confession a few days earlier). Naoya expresses how happy he is to hear that but reminds her that they have to hold out until Saki gives them permission. (Poor Shino's flustered response makes it all worth it.) Shino begs the others not to ask about how the date went, but of course Milika isn't going to let things slide (and her reaction to the account echoes what happened during the desert island incident).

This leads us to Milika's date. She's on short time to win her bet with the others, so she really has to make this one count. Surprisingly, other than flashing her drawers at him on the escalator, she opts out of her usual attempts to win him over with sex appeal. Instead she takes him on an extreme sports adventure. Bungee jumping, whitewater canoeing, traversing rickety bridges, etc. I was actually surprised and started to wonder if this was the point where Hiroyuki might actually start to get me warmed up to Milika. (If things continue like this and there's another abusive sexual harassment incident from Saki, she might manage to take the #3 spot.) Our cliffhanger (pun not intended), is an exhausted Milika stumbling and falling off a cliff while going out to fetch water, leaving her alone and with a busted ankle. Will Naoya be able to find her? Will a turn to a hurt/comfort story turn the tables? Find out next February (unless you're following the chapters as they're serialized).

Art:
Nagisa's date outfit is cute and I love how she shyly tells Naoya about what she actually wants to do. (The pair look is also adorable.) Poor Shino, though. Hiroyuki clearly loves putting that girl in the most outrageous situations. And even though I still haven't turned the corner on Milika yet, it's nice to see her having so much fun on her date.

Other:
We get an afterword comic from Hiroyuki reflecting on the year and his activities (or lack thereof).

Conclusion:
We're moving into the next stage of the characters' relationship and these dates serve as a bit of an interlude. It's an opportunity to get some nice one-on-one time between Naoya and each of the girls. Nagisa's date was the closest to a straightforward cute episode. Shino's was nice until it went off the rails, but that's par for the course. As noted above, the Milika date is the big surprise and might just get me onboard for the intended ending of scoring the whole set. We haven't quite worked our way back up to must-have territory, but fans of the series won't regret giving this one a read at the very least.

Rating:
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