Bitter sweet story. As people said here, this manga has really hit my soft spot. Just how sad can this story be?! I love the drawing style and I am a big fan of Sahara Miza. If you like drama, then this might be perfect for you.

It's very rare for me to give over a "10" rating without even thinking about it, but this manga deserves such a rating and then some. Sahara Mizu is doing an excellent job so far with "My Girl." This story flows well and the characters have so much depth and are very believable. This is probably the first time that I've ever read anything concerning the ups and downs of single parenting from a father's perspective, too.

Bravo.

... Last updated on December 17th, 2009, 7:19am

The art is perfect for this story, the atmosphere and plot are amazing. The interactions among the characters are really believable, and it's good. I would recommend this for those who don't want to read about sports and love triangles. It's a good breather from typical manga. It's plain good.

... Last updated on December 19th, 2012, 8:57am

Decided to comment on this one today.

Sweet, sad, hopeful... Perfect for me.
Those are the the words that come to mind when I read this.
I love Sahara Mizu's art and melancholic story telling style, and I enjoy this child/parent relationship a lot.
Not many manga can, or deal with family type manga.
But Sahara Mizu does an excellent job portraying this bittersweet manga relationship with her words and drawings.

... Last updated on March 21st, 2009, 12:21pm

Sad, endearing, bittersweet and touching.... blah blah, it's just REALLY good, I recommend it to anyone looking for something different to read. This is a manga that will make your heart ache (in a good way) and maybe make you tear up a little. Even though it says seinen, I'd say it's suitable for shoujo fans and josei fans. And of course the art just completely blows you away, as expected from Sahara Mizu/Yumeka Sumomo.

Now, I have a soft spot for any manga about parents, biological or not and no matter how many parents, but this one was such a well done, realistic exploration on the emotional side of raising a kid, especially a (basically) adopted one. I would recommend this manga to anyone and everyone. There is no huge external struggle because the ones that count in this manga are internal; the manga also glosses a little bit over the financial burdens, etc. that a new kid creates, but that's not the point of this series.

One thing I disagree with some other reviewers on here is about how "mature" the artist made Koharu (the little girl). I saw a few talking about how unrealistically logical she was, and have to sincerely disagree. Koharu is the epitome of a child raised under various stressors. Though she tries to follow a "logical" line of reasoning, it's the simple and childish conclusions that she comes to that really draws out how young she is and doesn't yet understand the world. She doesn't feel exceptional, but rather as 'good' as any child who wants to be aware of their situation as a single kid, moved around, and trying to understand how she fits in the world. At least this is my opinion, because many kids are astute for different reasons and different upbringings. My inner child could really relate to Koharu as a person, not just a character.

I liked the parenting part - both the father-daughter one and the one with the father's relationship with his parents. The concept that parents are still learning how to raise or support their children better even when they have already grown up is quite plausible. There were many aspects of the story that wasn't realistic, however.
For a five-year-old child, the daughter's thinking and some of her actions were way too mature for her age, no matter how many exceptional cases there may be. It's not just her, but some other children as well. The way they analyze their situation almost like an adult even though they're only five is too unrealistic. That really kills the story. And what kind of father let's his 5-year old walk around in the town all by herself at night?!! Though the author was aiming for a realistic story, it just couldn't truly come through to a solid, real life situation that may really happen. The possible future mother was done well, nonetheless. Contains some really good character development, though sometimes beyond reality.

... Last updated on April 10th, 2017, 11:54pm

What a phenomenal manga. I've had a lump in my throat for the past three hours as I've been reading My Girl; The manga hits you with the feels very early on and never stops. Merciless. However, you never really feel overly disheartened, let alone depressed, while reading because the feels are very well divided between joy and sadness.

Honestly, when I started reading this manga, I didn't know what to expect. But after sitting down with it and being captivated by it so thoroughly, it's undoubtedly one of the best pieces of work I've read in my entire 14 years of reading manga.

CHOO-CHOO; THE FEELS TRAIN COMETH.

I think I cried in every single chapter. It was so incredibly beautiful and heart warming and heart breaking ... I have a real soft spot for dad/daughter stories ... and a real terrible fear about them post Usagi Drop (and I don't believe I'm the only one...). This, however, is worlds and away better than that horrible horrible HORRIBLE manga.

I love the art (though the ears are weird at times...like elf ears, they're pointy sometimes; it's weird), and the mangaka puts in these little comic strips at the end of each volume that are just fabulously amusing. Helps to break the super amount of feels that burst through all the regular chapters.

The ending is good. Sweet. It's all freaking sweet. If you don't like sweet, don't read it. But holy crud, I read this whole thing in one sitting. An all-nighter since I didn't start reading until midnight. It was SO worth the lost sleep.

the story is really simple..about ordinary life.... ordinary people.... but it is really heartwarming.. I don't know how many times my eyes well-up.. especially chap 25.. really make me appreciate those around me!!!