Otakus meet fashionistas in the latest romantic comedy from Square Enix – Otaku x Gal. Teased for his nerdy hobbies in middle school, Koichi Otakura has entered high school with every intention of blending into the background. But when Yua Narumi, the popular girl who sits behind him in class, discovers his hidden talents, she begs him to help her keep up with the latest fashion trends! After all, aren’t the skills required to draw fan art and paint plastic models totally applicable to designing nails and styling hair?
With the bestselling romantic comedy My Dress-Up Darling wrapping up its English release this year, it has left some big shoes lift to fill. Luckily, Otaku x Gal looks to be the perfect series to fill that void if this opening volume is anything to go by. The creative team of 138neco and Souchu have put together a series packed with charm that will chisel away at the most cynical of people.
The mismatched couple trope has been well explored and often to great success, as seen in My Dress-Up Darling. This series bucks the trend somewhat with by keeping drama at a bare minimum. It is often easy to frame fandom stories in a negative light or at minimum used as a plot device for past bullying. But author 138neco avoids going down this road. The rather unfortunately named Otakura was given a hard time in his past about his hobbies, but the story doesn’t spend a lot of time dwelling on it. Rather, it focuses on how his interactions with Narumi begin his journey of accepting who he is. Moreover, he learns that his hobbies can have some crossover, with his experience at painting model kits being utilised to paint nails in the opening chapters.
Souchu meanwhile provides some great art that is perfect for the style of storytelling on hand. Their characters are lively and fit well with the series’ cutesy vibe whilst helping to bridge the gap that Otakura has perceived between him and Narumi. They also excel at delving into the fashion elements of the series which is key for showing how their can be crossover between obsessive hobbies.
This is a fun opening volume to a series that romantic comedy manga fans will naturally gravitate towards. An easy recommendation for readers of My Dress-Up Darling!
Otaku x Gal 01 is out now from Square Enix Manga (9781646094790, p/b, £11.99)
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