What They Say:
Natsuo’s life takes a turn for the complicated when his crush (and the girl he recently slept with) becomes his new stepsisters.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Based on the manga by Kei Sasuga that Kodansha Comics is currently released, Domestic Girlfriend comes from Diomedea studio with Shota Ihata directing based on the composition by Tatsuya Takahashi. The original work has been growing in popularity for a while as it began in 2014 and has twenty volumes so far. The show was appealing to me just from the premise as it covers an area few shows do by admitting that teenage characters actually have sex. So many shows just spend so much of it so perverted but hoping for that first true chaste kiss as the only actual act that happens. So when a show gives us characters that engage in the deed, even with an awkward scenario like this, I’m interested.
Opening the series on a post-coital moment, with Rui getting herself dressed and showing more skin than you usually get, we understand that is the moment that Natsuo lost his virginity and there’s a melancholic aspect about it. The show backtracks us nicely as we see Natsuo and his friends heading out to a mixer together with a trio of girls, but it comes after seeing the way that the girl he really likes – a young teacher named Hina – deals with the “boys” of the school that she doesn’t want much to do with. The mixer is tough for him and Rui since they never felt like they were part of this scene during middle school but he’s also a bit drawn to her because she reminds him of Hina. Rui has her own plan, however, in that she wants to have sex with Natsuo. It’s confusing as hell for him until she’s blunt about it and he does seem to handle it well overall, since she’s saying she just wants to know what it’s like and Natsuo does come across as the safe type.
It’s an experience that, in the end, simply “was” according to Rui and leaving by saying they’ll be strangers again the next time they meet is cryptic. While many talk about their first experience as life-changing, there are a lot that just have difficulty really connecting with it – especially in this kind of “just to try it” form. You can see from this and from his interactions with Hina at school that Natsuo is just not having the best of experiences in dealing with women. It’s interesting to see him how he deals with her on the rooftop, trying to be more mature than he is and to be there for her as she’s struggling with something that she won’t tell him, saying that grown-up issues are for grown-ups. He shows himself to still be a child in a way here with this, though, and undercuts himself easily enough.
Of course, the big change moment comes at the halfway mark that will define how the series really moves forward. With his father coming into his room, he reveals that things have moved rapidly behind the scenes and since it’s been ten years since Natsuo’s mother died, he’s ready to move on – and hey, they’re here now to say hello! Natsuo handles this well initially but when it’s revealed that the woman has two kids her own, Hina and Rui, that does make for a great situational comedy-drama to play in. The girls are just as unaware of what was happening as Natsuo was, which does help in a way, and their mother Tsukiko is one that I could see being a fun character to watch with Natsuo’s father if given the opportunity. The things she talks about says much about his father and why she fell for him and there’s a cuteness in their pairing that makes me want to see more of them.
In Summary:
Domestic Girlfriend gets underway with some strong production values that has me enjoying the visual quality of it and the pacing in general as well. It wants to go for a quiet approach that’s appealing and it delves into the why that the daughters are behind their mother’s happiness and why Rui won’t make a mess of things because of the truth between her and Natsuo. And Natsuo’s certainly not going to say anything about either Rui or Hina – though he can chastise his father a bit about the sudden reveal. The show has a really good look about it and I’m really curious to see how things adjust in the future with them all moving into a house together. I can imagine the shenanigans but I’m also keeping a restrained view because of the way this plays it so carefully and without a lot in the way of overacting. It’s definitely got the potential of a show that can tug at the heartstrings right while giving us some fully realized characters.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: HIDIVE
