Domestic Girlfriend

Domestic Girlfriend
Cover of the first volume of the manga.
ドメスティックな彼女 (Domesutikku na Kanojo)
Genre	Romance[1]
Manga
Written by	Kei Sasuga
Published by	Kodansha
English publisher	Kodansha USA
Demographic	Shōnen
Magazine	Weekly Shōnen Magazine
Original run	July 17, 2014 – present
Volumes	19
Anime television series
Directed by	Shōta Ihata
Written by	Tatsuya Takahashi
Music by	Masato Kōda
Studio	Diomedéa
Original network	MBS, TBS, BS-TBS
Original run	January 2019 – scheduled

Domestic Girlfriend (Japanese: ドメスティックな彼女, Hepburn: Domesutikku na Kanojo) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kei Sasuga. An anime television series adaptation by Diomedéa will premiere in January 2019 on the Animeism block.

Plot

Natsuo is an ordinary high school student living with his dad as his mother died when he was younger. Natsuo wants to be a writer trying to write in his spare time and has a secret crush on his English high school teacher, Hina, but is too afraid to show his feelings. To get over his feelings and try to forget about Hina he goes out with friends and meets Rui, who is totally unsociable and unable to hold a conversation but invites him home with her! She does not want to start a relationship, nor does she care about Natsuo, she just wants to have sex because she is a virgin and doubtful she can find 'love' or a boyfriend.

Without much thought Natsuo agrees but afterwards feels guilty for losing his virginity to a girl he doesn't really particularly like. Just having sex with a girl he just met makes him feel he betrayed his crush to Hina. In a twist of fate his father announces that he is getting remarried and a love triangle full of surprises gradually unfolds as Natsuo, Rui, and Hina all end up becoming part of the same family and living under the same roof. The story point is Natsuo love-triangle style with slice of life element with humorous scenes.

In later chapters, Natsuo confesses his love to Hina but she rejects him saying that continuing their love as step-siblings would be like committing a double suicide. In the heat of the moment, Natsuo remains silent. Afterwards, Hina finds Natsuo and Rui kissing and runs away. Rui explains that she was the one who seduced him. When questioned by Hina, Natsuo confesses again that his feelings for her haven't changed. Hina decides to move out due to the conflict but in the festival, both make up with each-other and accept each-other's feelings. Though Hina moves out, Natsuo visits her in her apartment and they start going out. Rui discovers this when Natsuo goes to Hina's apartment under the guise of going to his friend's house.

When the school goes to a vacation, Natsuo and Hina's intimacy shows up though the glass of one the rooms and they get caught. Hina is confronted by the school in this respect and she leaves suddenly without informing anyone. It seems she made a negotiation with the school to leave by herself in lieu of not getting their relationship exposed.

Natsuo is initially very fluctuating, but finds peace in working towards his dream of being a pro story-wright. He gets one of his literary works successfully published. In the trip with the Literary Club, Natsuo accidentally sees Hina in a car and tries to call out to her, but it goes unnoticed. He searches for her and finds her apartment. Hina, seeing him at her door, shocking slams the door at his fingers. She lets him in and tends to his wounds. When he embraces her and says that he loves her and that even a day with her would make him happy, she initially plays with it and then twists her words around: "I miss you too... Is that what you wanted me to say?" She then attributes her love for him as her giving up to his desperation and the loneliness she felt when Shuu left her. She tells him to keep going and continue with his writing. Natsuo departs heartbroken and seems totally out of it but his friend cheers him up. The day when they are leaving, Natsuo notices phone missing and goes searching for it, but only for Hina to return it. Rui notices Hina has been crying the night before. She tells Hina privately about how she has fallen in love with Natsuo while she was gone and didn't want him to meet Hina for she knew his feelings would return. She tells Hina how she could dump him even after he went through all this. Natsuo had a future in front of him and Hina didn't want to ruin it, so she dumped him in order for him to move on. Before leaving, Natsuo returns the ring she gave him which had their initials carved into during the time they spent together.

Upon returning, Natsuo doesn't seem to be able to write anymore so his teacher advises him to talk to a writer he knows. He gains enough insight and inspiration for it that he commits to writing again. Rui sets her foot into cooking under the guidance of her legally separated biological father. Natsuo supports her wholeheartedly. They become dependent on each-other and start going out after Rui realizes her feelings for Natsuo and that there is no one who can make her feel that. Natsuo was afraid that things would turn out as they did with Hina and he never wanted to go through that pain again, so he kept avoiding Rui. But he also becomes aware of how Rui got past so many hardships and yet kept holding onto her feelings for him. They go to a vacation together and start understanding each-other better.

In New Years Day, Natsuo is taken aback when he sees Hina at the door while Rui is out abroad on training. He tries his best to tell her that he and Rui are going out but the situation never allows for it. He overhears her with her mother sobbing about how she was so afraid about leaving, how she felt so lonely and that she wants to quit teaching. Natsuo feels responsible for this and apologizes to her crying. He tells her he is sorry that she had her career destroyed because of him and how he could atone for his mistakes. Hina hugs him saying that there's nothing to atone for and that it was her decision to leave teaching, but he pushes her away. He's about to apologize for doing so but she says that it's okay and shows him out. As the door closes, tears stream down her face as she perceives how he'd felt when she dumped him. Natsuo finally tells Rui about Hina returning home and also that Rui's the one for him and there's no doubt about it. She says that she trusts him. Meanwhile, Hina misunderstands a porn mag on teacher-student fantasies in Natsuo's room as an indication of Natsuo being still in love with her. The porn mag was actually something his friend had told him to hold on to as guests were coming at their house. She leaves a note before departing that reads, "Wait just a little longer." She leaves before he could ask her about it. Rui returns from training.

Next spring, before Hina finally settles back in, Natsuo moves out to avoid conflict between the sisters. He gets into his preferred college and joins the drama club as a playwright upon hearing that the writer he admires, his teacher, was also a part of the club and spoke highly of it. Hina finally lands a job that uses her skills in English and wonders how Natsuo would have reacted if they were still dating. Coincidentally, he is standing a few meters away and notices her. His apartment is just around the block of her new working place. She wants to see his place and so he takes her, somewhat due to her gag about him not hiding his porn mags being the reason for his reluctance. She also buys him a new smartphone and teaches him how to use it.

It's been half a year since they are dating and for the first time, Rui is staying over at Natsuo's apartment. He tells her of Hina coming the other day and she seems a bit bothered but calms down thinking that he shouldn't have told him lest nothing had actually happened. As she takes a shower, Hina is at his door totally hammered from drinking. Being totally drunk, she confesses that she loves him and kisses him. Natsuo shakes her off realizing that she can't play it as a big sister joke if she does that like the previous time when she hugged him. Rui leaves not wanting to reveal their relationship to Hina. The next day, Hina is shocked when the hairpin Natsuo said his neighbor had dropped at his apartment fell from the cupboard. Rui confronts her determined to tell everything about their relationship. Hina asks if she can choose not to listen, but Rui exerts that she wants her to. She gives her the gist of how they started going out.

Natsuo's life as Rui's boyfriend and as a playwright of the drama club continues. Meanwhile, Hina's mother brings up the subject of her marriage and introduces her client's son as a potential partner. Just when Hina seems to be fumbling with her feelings, she also doesn't like his aggressiveness and finally breaks it off with him. Refusing to give up, the guy stalks her and when reported to the Police, he seeks revenge for destroying his dream of a perfect life. However, things don't go as planned and Natsuo is stabbed and hospitalized. Three days after staying in a coma, he wakes up. Prior to Natsuo coming to his senses in the hospital, Rui overhears her parents speaking if they would have supported Hina and Natsuo's relationship things wouldn't have turned out like that.

After recovery, Natsuo starts with his novel about the criminal mind. He interviews the person who stabbed him but finds out that he doesn't have any regrets and considers it an accident with no fault of his. A motivated Serizawa, the lead actress in Natsuo's drama,tries to seduce Natsuo but ends up knowing that Rui and Hina are Natsuo's step-sisters, thanks to Rui accidentally blurting out that she already has an opponent in love. Things go on but Rui again has an opportunity to learn cooking in America for a year. She initially hesitates but on Natsuo's encouragement, her will to improve as a cook is reinforced and she leaves. The night before her flight, Hina asks for Rui's permission to look after Natsuo as a sister after she's gone. Rui grants her wish but also requests her to not do things that would hurt her sister. While abroad, Natsuo and Rui stay in contact through Skype. Rui's relationship with the new recruit in the restaurant also seems to be improving in America. Meanwhile, the chief of the publishing company wants to publicize Natsuo's novel as the work of the author who was stabbed.

Characters

Natsuo Fujii (藤井 夏生)

Voiced by: Taku Yashiro^[2]

Natsuo is a high school student and an aspiring novelist, full of creative impulses but hiding it from all his friends and classmates. He is deeply in love with his high school teacher Hina but in the process of trying to get over his feelings, he lost his virginity after meeting Rui at a party. Then, as if by some evil chance his father announces that he is getting remarried and introduces Natsuo to his future wife and her two daughters Hina and Rui with whom they will be sharing a new house.

Rui Tachibana (橘 瑠衣)

Voiced by: Maaya Uchida^[1]

Rui met Natsuo at a party and they both decided to run away and lose their virginity together. Her excuse was that she wanted to experience sex and as she was doubtful of finding 'love', she wanted to try with him. She is an excellent cook and has trouble understanding other people's feelings and expressing her own, so when living with Natsuo and Hina she is bewildered with everything happening around her and the development of 'feelings' for Natsuo.

Hina Tachibana (橘 陽菜)

Voiced by: Yōko Hikasa^[1]

She teaches English to High School students, she is very beautiful, sociable and easy going, the exact opposite of her sister Rui. Her private life is a mess as she was involved in an affair with a married man, and then with her step-brother Natsuo.

Momo Kashiwabara (柏原 もも, Kashiwabara Momo)

Voiced by: Haruka Yoshimura^[2]

Miu Ashihara (葦原 美雨, Ashihara Miu)

Voiced by: Konomi Kohara^[2]

Media

Reception

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 fan service was 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 the 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.^[7]

See also

• GE – Good Ending, the previous manga of the author

References

External links

• Official manga website at Weekly Shōnen Magazine (in Japanese)
• Official anime website (in Japanese)
• Domestic Girlfriend (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia