Domestic Girlfriend is a Japanese shōnenmanga series written and illustrated by Kei Sasuga. It has been serialized weekly in Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine from April 2014 to June 2020 and twenty-seven tankōbon volumes of the manga have been released so far. The series has been published digitally in English by Kodansha USA under the Kodansha Comics imprint. An animetelevision series adaptation by Diomedéa aired from January 12, 2019 to March 30, 2019 on the Animeism block. Sentai Filmworks has licensed the series in North America and other countries.
Synopsis
Premise
Natsuo Fujii is hopelessly in love with his teacher, Hina. Trying to move on, he agrees to a mixer. There he meets an odd girl, Rui Tachibana, who invites him to sneak out. She takes him to her house and asks him to have sex with her. Natsuo, frustrated that his love will not bear fruit anyway, says goodbye to his virginity. The next day, Natsuo's dad tells him that he wants to remarry and his prospective partner is coming to their house that evening. When the door opens, it turns out that Rui is Hina's younger sister and both are daughters of the woman his father wants to marry, Tsukiko Tachibana.
Setting
Domestic Girlfriend tells the story of the conflicted feelings of Natsuo towards his first love and the girl he lost his virginity to; the controversial and conflicting nature of romantic relationships between step-siblings and also between a teacher and a student while highlighting the themes of youth, family, friendships, learning, growing up, and career.
Written and illustrated by Kei Sasuga, the manga began in Kodansha's combined #21-22 issue of Weekly Shōnen Magazine on April 23, 2014. The chapters are being collected and released in the tankōbon format by Kodansha from July 17, 2014. As of February 17, 2020, twenty-six volumes have been released. In April 2020, it was announced that the manga will be finished with 28 tankōbon volumes on August 17, 2020. In May 2020, it was announced that the manga would be finished in the 28th issue of Weekly Shōnen Magazine, published on June 10. Kodansha USA publishes the English-language translation of the manga via digital download.
Web video
A web video was released in May 2016 on YouTube, coinciding with the publication of the manga's ninth volume. Meant to be a "demo type love simulation drama", the video allows the viewer to interactively influence the story by choosing between clicking two annotations that lead to separate videos. The video stars Anna Konno as Hina and Hanami Natsume as Rui.
Anime
An anime television series adaptation was announced on July 12, 2018. The series is directed by Shōta Ihata and written by Tatsuya Takahashi, with animation by studio Diomedéa. Naomi Ide provides the series' character designs. The anime aired from January 12 to March 30, 2019, and was broadcast on the Animeism programming block on MBS, TBS, and BS-TBS. The opening theme is "Kawaki wo Ameku" by Minami, and the ending theme is "Wagamama" by Alisa Takigawa. The series simulcast in Australia and New Zealand on AnimeLab. Sentai Filmworks acquired the distribution rights for the series in North America, the British Isles, Australasia, South Africa, and other territories, and simulcast the series on select platforms. HIDIVE announced that they will produce an English dub of the anime series. MVM Entertainment have acquired the distribution rights via Sentai Filmworks for the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Reception
As of April 2020, the manga had over 3 million copies in circulation. The first volume was reviewed in Anime News Network by three reviewers. Nik Freeman felt that the manga's step-sibling love triangle was a contrivance and that the sexual elements were a waste of Sasuga's talents, but complimented the drama and comedy, along with the characterization. Rebecca Silverman called the manga's setup a more mature Marmalade Boy, but said that the manga is less melodramatic due to Natsuo being more grounded and sensitive. Amy McNulty noted the manga's extra layers of reality and melodrama, finding Rui to be the most memorable character while Natsuo is still realistic, concluding that the manga has a more honest setup of its tropes.
