English Dub Season Review: Tomo-chan Is a Girl! Season One

Overview:

Tomo Aizawa confesses her love to her long-time best friend Junichirou Kubota. Jun completely misinterprets her confession because he sees her as more of her bro than a girl. Tomo gets help from her friends to get Jun to see her as a girl and maybe even form a romantic relationship.

Our Take:

I’m always excited to check out new romcom anime. It’s become one of, if not, my favorite genre over the years and I was intrigued with this show from when I first watched its trailer. I like the premise of the tomboyish girl and her love interest who is not unaware that she’s a girl, but overlooks that fact.

This premise leads to a lot of hilarity between these two and the other characters. There are plenty of great comedic scenes and there’s a lot of variety between them. Some of the jokes end up getting old, but that doesn’t happen as often as I was worried it might. Even when it does, the show manages to throw in something fresh. It helps that this show has some fun and likeable characters.

Tomo is a great lead in this show. She has a great attitude and she’s not afraid to throw hands when she needs to. She also gets flustered whenever someone acknowledges her more feminine side, which is an amusing contrast from her usual demeanor. Jun is also very enjoyable. He’s oblivious, but he’s not exactly stupid. Besides, he’s kind and hilarious. These two have dumb competitions with one another all the time and they just have a believable bond. I love the chemistry between these two and I always look forward to seeing them on screen together.

There are a lot of fun supporting characters in this show as well. Tomo’s other best friend, Misuzu Gundou, has a cold personality but she is also very helpful. She doesn’t have a lot of emotional range for most of the series, but that just makes her even better honestly. Whenever she does show emotion, it always leaves an impact. Carol Olston is similar in that regard, but she doesn’t have the same usual personality as Misuzu. Instead, Carol is always smiling and happy. She’s an airhead, but she also shows that she’s smarter than she leads on. Carol is my favorite character hands down. It’s impossible not to laugh or at least smile when she’s on screen. The girls’ mothers and Tomo’s father are also fun characters. We don’t see them a whole lot, but it’s always a treat when we do.

The voice actors portray their respective characters well in the English dub. The standouts for me are Lexi Nieto as Tomo and Sally Amaki as Carol. Carol actually has the same voice actor in both the English and Japanese dubs, which is very interesting. Needless to say, Sally Amaki certainly does this character justice.

I really like this show’s visuals. There are plenty of vivid colors and several memorable character designs. Once again, Tomo and Carol are the standouts for me here. The animation is also solid and given that this show involves plenty of sight gags, I’d say that’s especially important for the comedic delivery.

There are some lulls in the storytelling and points where I wish the show would pick up the pace. The whole “Will they, won’t they” trope is pretty much a staple in romcoms, but it can get irritating. That being said, the show never completely loses me. Whenever there’s a slightly disappointing episode, there’s usually a great one immediately afterwards. The story may be a slow burn at times, but it does pay off more often than not.

Overall, Tomo-chan Is a Girl! is a very enjoyable romcom. It has plenty of humor, some sweet moments, and memorable characters to boost the scenes’ impact even higher. The pacing is my biggest issue with the show, but there’s also some jokes that are a bit repetitive. Even with these issues, I think this show is great and I’m sure it will be one that I’ll want to come back to.