How To Raise A Boring Girlfriend Volume 3 Review

Tomoya finally hunts down Utaha and spends the night with her. He successfully wraps up the plot of his game without interruption and must now consider character design. Just as his crew tackles this new quest, a person from Tomoya’s past abruptly shows up for him at school. Izumi’s appearance shakes up the ladies in the social circle while a new showdown potentially puts the dating sim on the backburner. Will they ever finish this game?

Story:

With Eriri drawing the art and Katou continuing to serve as the model for the girlfriend, the sim really seems like it is coming along. Tomoya finished the plot with Utaha and now needs to worry about designing the characters. It seems like a delicate balance has been established within the group. They aren’t fighting with each other like in the previous volumes. The tranquility doesn’t last long – when a new character from Tomoya’s past is introduced, the rhythm they worked so hard to establish is broken. Izumi’s appearance is unexpected and shakes up the girl group Tomoya finally developed a productive relationship with.

Characters:

Izumi is a welcome introduction to a series that has been difficult to discern from other similar comedies revolving around otaku culture. She serves as a reality-check for Tomoya and in a sense, for Eriri. Tomoya is talented and her brother works as a headhunter looking for new mangka. Eriri finds her confidence shaken up from Izumi’s appearance even though it could mean good fortune for the dating sim team. Unfortunately, Izumi is such a distraction to Tomoya that the dating sim gets forgotten. I suspect Izumi will remain important for at least another volume or two. I look forward to learning more about her past with our main character.

Final Word:

I really enjoy this series – despite having one male lead who is always surrounded by the same female characters, the story remains tasteful and completely focused on the happenings of the dating sim. My only concern is that the publication timing of this series is too close to another similar series, Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-Kun. It can be a little difficult to separate the two if you’re reading them at the same time. I often find that the characters and side-stories are interchangeable.  Even though How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend is presented very differently, I often find my brain fusing the two into one big and weird story. Regardless, I think Fumiaki Maruto’s work is worthwhile and fun to read. Just try not to read too many from this genre at once or you’ll have the same problem I’m having.

 

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